Poppa
Neutrino's Baja California adventure
Note: This is the raft described in Alec Wilkinson's book, The Happiest Man in the World, published by Random House in the spring of 2007. Poppa has since moved on to other adventures.
With a pull from a local tractor
operator,
Poppa Neutrino launched his current raft, the
Island Rooster,
on March 21st, 2005,
in San Felipe, Baja California,
amidst a large crowd and
with lots of excitement.
The next day he did a trial run into fifteen mile an hour
winds and choppy seas.
The raft easily did four and a half knots at only half throtle
on its outboard motor.
A top sailor came along in a zodiac and gave him the thumbs
up, concurring that the raft was crashing over the waves
at better then four knots. Two days later Poppa set out
south
in the Sea of Cortez, with a number of people alongside
in a ponga,
a Mexican fishing skiff, to see him off.
He is presently anchored at
Rancho Percebu,
a small bay about 25 miles south,
where he will add more foam to the stern
and prepare further for the next stage of the journey.
Click here for updates
Click
on the small thumbnails below to see a larger view of each
photo.
