Pilgrimage/Boondocking Boat

Oh:

The 300 pounds meant ALL gear and supplies except bike, trailer, boat. Not just food.

 

The Portabote is a very good general purpose dinghy that folds flat and stands abuse well, but it's not a cruising boat. Things like no compartments, no buoyancy, no optimisation for human power, etc. While one can adapt to anything, it's really not necessary, the are better boats for what he wants to do.

 

Also try "hungry hikers cook book". It doesn't run to supplies list for a year but there's a lot of trip catering planning info in it.

 

@Penitent
Your biggest problem is having to work online. The normal solution would be for you to go to some place with few inhabitans per square mile, find a secluded place you like and go about your religious business. Once a year go for a resupply run with your boat/bike/mule/pickup truck. Such places don't have internet, so if you depend on internet you can not avoid people unless you don't go out of the house. If you think that by beeing on the move you can avoid people you are wrong. If you go that far out of the way to really don't see people for a month there is no internet.
I am sorry to say, the right boat is not your problem, the right lifestyle is.

 

The extent to which you must attend to problems of practical living, is the extent to which you are distracted from the "contemplative" life. Moving around from place to place, via boat or other mode of transport, really isn't what that life is about, it is not geographical tourism, but about "inner travels", and you might as well be holed up in a basement. And I don't know what the OP feels penitent about, but that he does, says he is already making progress.

 

Thank you all. A few points.

Internet: I can make more per hour in person. The purpose of switching to online is it ENABLES location independence. Anyone curious can look up “tech nomad” and get lots of information on working remotely online while living in the boonies.

Moving and religious life: This certainly CAN be a distraction. But it depends how it is done. A pilgrimage is entirely based on travel, and the saints have made them to further their spiritual life.

I thank everyone for all the information. Certain things are cheap enough to just go try, so it would be silly to think too much about the ideal frisbee before just playing frisbee. Boats on the other hand can cost thousands, so I felt in this I have no choice but do a certain amount of analysis BEFORE just trying it. But your replies have given me a fair idea of what at least MIGHT work. What’s at least the right thing to try, and past that it’s just go try.

If it doesn’t work, I’ll at least know exactly what fails and in what way. Then I might be able to give the kind of very specific answers I can’t now.

I will probably trailer a canoe at first simply because if it was even considered one of the reasonable possibilities in this thread, then I think it wins for now simply because I think I can get a used one cheap. If I really knew what I was doing then I would have no problem paying a couple thousand for the right boat, but this might not even work. So for try one, I’ll let cheap win ... subject to at least being a reasonable contender.

If try one gives me a far better sense of exactly what I need, then I’ll look to invest more in the right boat at that time.

My initial guess is that the portabote and sail row cruiser will both work for me. I say this because I’m sort of thinking of this expedition style. I can’t put this in words that well ... pulling a sled across Greenland isn’t practical. But expedition wise it works. Survival wise it DEFINITELY works as the survivalist loves what even the expeditioner hates. I could be totally wrong, but my initial boat newbie sense is that given my expedition survival type standards, they will each work for me, and the parts any normal human would count as not working well, will just seem to me as, “Yep. That’s what this expedition is.” The rough part is the part you take as the endurance event. And then the roughness itself is the fun part, just like running or lifting or another challenge.

This has been extremely helpful. Thank you all for your help and God bless.

 

Two points:

1. Unless cheap, fast satellite internet becomes a reality, mobile based internet is limited to cellphone infrastructure. Where this infrastructure exists you have no chance of not meeting people for a month unless you take active measures of hiding and evading. Even then it's often impossible.

2. Pilgrimage is a journey to a destination, not self purpose or a way of life. I have no ideea to what branch of christianity you adhere, but if you want to understand the concepts of pilgrimage and hermitism you need to study those traditions where they are lived to this day. That would be the Catholic Church with all it's different rites, the various Eastern Orthodox churches, the Oriental Orthodox churches and the Church of the East.

 

I happen to be Orthodox, but hermitting has little appeal to me.

When I read this post, I honestly think about the Dierking designs. The vessels can be torn down and are safe for quite rugged sea conditions.

The SOR is a bit lacking. This is why the post wanders about and goes to internet advice; for example. If you want to use the boat on a big lake or skirting the ocean; the demands are quite different. Perhaps I missed this bit.

My vote is for a Dierking styled outrigger canoe where you can unlash or skip portage wheels altogether.

This, of course, leads one to visions of sailing. But does not need to or can offer.

 

If you can get past all the ads popping; here is a good article and a book recommendation. I also recommend Dierking's book.

Part of the faith experience can be building the craft.

The book title is embedded in the article and called Canoes of Oceania.

Explore the High Seas, Here's How to Build an Outrigger Sailing Canoe. https://vivatropical.com/lifestyle/expat-interviews-how-to-build-yourself-an-outrigger-sailing-canoe/

 

Also, a lot of people have perished in small jon boats. They are simply not good vessels for any rough seas. If you worked at the outrigger canoe design just a bit; flipping it over could become the abode.

 

As it should be. In orthodox churches hermitting is a special form of monastic life, available to only a few after careful preparation. Layman are strongly discouraged to even think about it. There are reasons for this precautions, both religious and human.
I am sorry if my post seemd to imply that it is a common occurence and I hope I did not offend you.

It will be hard to find a proper boat without a proper SOR. We can throw designs at the OP all day long and he would still be none the wiser for it.

 

This post bothers me a little. Be careful about glamourizing [sic] a survival situation in a boat. Despite the hype; they usually end up glamourizing death. A man went into Temagami forest for a spiritual trip and perished quickly. He was not prepared for the conditions. I befriended his mother on the interwebs. And a team of people found his remains to the satisfaction of his family.

You must develop a SOR.

 

I'm beginning to suspect that the OP is currently incapable of formulating a SOR, or perhaps unwilling for some reason. He sort of gives away that much above:

@Penitent: I see this admission of ignorance as a laudable step in the right direction, but you're making a strategic error in your approach to a solution. You say that for now you'll 'go cheap', but it seldom works that way. You need to experiment in order to gain the empirical knowledge needed to find the best boat for your needs, but instead of buying anything at once, you should make every effort to borrow or rent as many different models as possible. This includes going to dealers and asking to test the boats on the water. Travel if you have to. Take along a dummy load: some duffel bags stuffed with the rough size and weight of your gear. Little things matter; for example, if you choose a rowboat, you'll need to select a set of oars that work well for you (and the Porta-bote may have issues in this area). Same with kayak paddles; they're not one-size-fits-all.

You seem to want to get away from people, but maybe the most cost-effective and efficient way to get hands-on experience would be to join some boating organization, such as a paddling club. You'll meet folks who are strongly opinionated about boats, but at least it's unlikely they'll have the agenda of trying to sell you something, and in any such group there will likely be someone who uses a boat in much the same way you want to. Just ask, and they'll tell you everything.

 

You have a conflict, claim to want to go away from the world, but won't let go of the internet umbilical cord. This brings you to a fundamental decision in your life. You either fulfill your religious claims, as defined by yourself, or give up on them and stay in this world. There is a contradiction in someone that claims to believe in a god that will provide, but doesn't trust that god and needs the parachute of modern society. Pick one or the other.

 

Religious "retreats" are about withdrawal from external stimuli, I really don't see how this boat idea fits with that.