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BIRDS | BOATS | BEACH | BIKE | AROUND THE BAY | HOME |
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| Orchid Outriggers |
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Orchid Outriggers, owned and operated by Marc Schulman of Los Osos, offers custom birding and photography tours of Morro Bay in handcrafted outrigger canoes. We met Marc at an Audubon meeting and he offered to take us out on the bay. An offer we just couldn't pass up . . . . |
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| The 17' 4" outrigger, Kohula, hand-built by Marc, is a modern composite version of a small Hawaiian canoe, a design perfected hundreds of years ago. Marc prepares to launch, but first lashes the wooden spars, iakos, to the float, ama. | |
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| Lashing technique of the iakos to the hull, ka'ale | Geno and Harvey Cohon paddle out into the bay |
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| It was a picture-perfect day and the water was smooth as glass as we headed over to the sand spit | |
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| The person in the rear steers the outriggers by using the paddle blade as a rudder | |
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| We spent the morning cruising the bay before heading back to Baywood Park | |
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| The stability of the outriggers make it perfect for birding and photography. Marc is also a good steward of the bay and picks up trash wherever he finds it. He retrieved a plastic garbage can floating in the marsh. | |
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| Magnificient eucalyptus trees and beautiful homes line the bay | |
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| On the way back we saw the strangest thing -- Super Dog swimming from the spit to Baywood Park, a distance of a mile or so. When he got to the shore, he just shook himself off and then ambled toward the town. | |
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| We helped Marc dismantle the outriggers and load them onto his trailer | |
| › next: Boats, continued | |
| BIRDS | BOATS | BEACH | BIKE | AROUND THE BAY | HOME | |