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The Kayak for Commuting and Paddling in the Gail E. Ferris http://www.nkhorizons.com/KayakCommuting.htm
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Commuting the concept and its requirements Gail Ferris (commuting, work, excuses, weather, report, NOAA, winds, sleep) I
like to go paddling on the open water, but it is a little different for me to
paddle to a destination, such as an island, which cannot be reached by any
means other than by a boat, spend the evening and consistently return to be
at work on land on time. The challenge
becomes much more demanding when you decide that you want to routinely do
this, not only to just do this one or two times every so often but to
actually commute from an island. That
is what I did. I commuted by kayak. The
most difficult part of commuting isn't the commute over the water but is
planning and the foresight I had to develop so that I was sure that I would
get to my land job consistently on time.
How
well I will always remember a most embarrassing situation when weather
conditions were too demanding for me.
There I was very ill at ease, trapped on an island. When I did finally get to work my
explanation was to no avail. It would
have been more relevant if I had told them that I had just come down from an
evening visit to Mars and had accidentally miscalculated the time zone
because I went for another orbit just for the fun of it, but that I was so
pleased with myself because I hadn't gotten lost in a time warp and had made
the mistake of having arrived in the wrong era. There at my job they would have had an even
more difficult situation, suppose I had accidentally happened to return to
earth a few thousand years earlier or later.
I think they would have been more receptive of this explanation than
of this actual one I, in the best of faith, provided them with. The
situation progressed after I arrived at work feeling most contrite even
though I had just risked my life as I successfully escaped the waves that
tried to inhale my kayak and very glad to be on terra firma so glad in fact
that I had to restrain myself from the intense temptation to kiss the ground
when I landed. But now as I elaborated
on my commuting crisis, the reaction by the individual in charge of time and
attendance appeared to be entirely bereft of even the slightest twinge of
comprehension. When I mentioned waves,
the person could only think of waves in the context of those lovely little
things that lap softly on the beach in the summertime. When I suggested strong winds, the person
imagined that wind only blows on land but never on the water and even if the
wind does blow on the water the water is always flat. The water is always flat and the land can
be hilly the person seemed to imagine.
The whole idea of commuting by kayak is likely to be dismissed as crazy,
why would you ever want to do that?
Thus the non-kayaking person thought that demands of commuting solely
by kayak from an island were incompatible with what is conceived as
responsible employee behavior where I was employed. Now
I knew that I really had quite a challenge ahead of me because I preferred
this wonderful world of independence that my kayak gave me to making my
compromise to the world of the motorboat.
Then again, there are those severe storm conditions where even a
motorboat is not especially safe to use, but I did not think about that. I just thought about commuting by kayak. To
a certain extent I resolved some of this problem by listening to the NOAA
marine forecast before I made my evening crossings. I found that I was comfortable in winds up
to 20 knots. After 20 knots paddling
becomes hard work and conditions are chaotic especially during the return
with a following sea in the dark predawn hours. The
other side of the coin is - how well are you going to sleep if you have to
listen to crashing waves all night? I
found that the potentiality of this sort of threatening situation adversely
affected my sleep. Among the many
aspects to boating experiences there are some, which may be considered to be
helpful for other unrelated problems.
It is well known that many people suffer from disturbed sleep patterns
and there are even those who can't sleep at all. I guess that those who sleep especially
soundly, the same way that I used to notice my dogs used to sleep absolutely
dead to the world, while the waves are crashing all night are all right. |
Commuting the concept
and its requirements Work Applications of
the Kayak Night Paddling in
Summer Winter Daytime Ice
Paddling Technique Muddy
Launching Conditions Especially in the Winter Winter Commuting and Sleep Patterns Ice at Night Night Winter Paddling with Swells Changes During the Winter Night Next Morning Snowy Morning Crossing Winter; Cold Weather and Evening Clothing |
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Work Applications of the Kayak Gail E. Ferris (work, transportation, load, straps, balance, deck, barge,
towing/pushing, back bag, tie down, trailer, boulder beach, plastic, rollers) Well
I don’t know about you but I like a little challenge it is nice to be a sport
paddler, but suppose you want to use your kayak for some commuting. Well commuting can be oh just that routine
stuff, you know, just going back and forth.
Then again how about really using your kayak for commuting. Not just the ordinary back and forth,
anybody can do that in the summer during the day in calm weather but how
about transporting things. I began to
think about it and I found myself imaging a surprising number of ways I could
use my kayak. I really wasn’t sure and
at this point I had not been to the arctic and talked with friends I know
now, Rasmus Grimm, for example. After
talking with Rasmus Grim I learned the kayak has amazing capabilities and
this is only in I
decided to figure out ways to utilize my kayak as a means for transporting
all sorts of items I would need for everyday living on There
was a movie Wedding of Palo www.qajaqusa.org/References/culture&history.htm
made by
Knud Rasmussen showing a bridegroom, Mahnessa Mathiesson with his bride
sitting up against him paddling through rough seas illustrating this although
Mahnessa was Greenland’s grand national champion kayak paddler for many
years. Then
I looked at some misplaced boats at our docks and decided to move them with
my kayak. It worked. Small motor boats tied in the wrong places
could be moved without all that much trouble.
That was fun. For
some reason I hate running motors on motorboats they just never start all
that easily and who knows at low tide you get to dig clams at the island
maybe ruining the bottom bracket or propeller so to me it is much easier to
just use my reliable kayak. Then
in the winter I decided that some dog food had to be brought across so I
lashed onto the stern deck 50 pound bags of dog food. I knew that just as long a nothing slipped
while I was paddling I would be okay.
I lashed them with good strong nylon straps. Delrin clips I found to be the most
reliable fool proof clips on any deck straps.
I could tighten them up nice an tight and they would not work free or
break loose. Delrin, a solid form of
Nylon, is a wonderful invention. I
used flat nylon strapping rather than round line although it is easy to
obtain has a marked effect of slowing a kayak down. I would only recommend you use round line
if you want to improve your paddling muscles.
The best lashing material is flat nylon strap with a suitable
adjustable buckle, which can easily be tightened up. In addition, for the initial positioning
and balancing of the load while the kayak is floating, which is the most
likely time you will lose your cargo overboard, it is handy to have
adjustable elastic rear deck straps mounted securely on the hull. Beneath these straps you can temporarily
secure the cargo with until you can position all the cargo and finally lash
it securely with the flat Nylon strap.
Now remember, you have to allow yourself weight distribution, which
permits the kayak to stay upright when you are paddling, so don't load heavy
items too high above the deck. Paddle
paddle, brace brace is nice challenge, its good practice but not when you are
trying to transport things you want to arrive safely somewhere. On
Because
of the ice conditions created by the cold water of the West Greenland current
in Davis Strait, Baffin Islanders rarely have open water, but instead they
have to paddle between moving ice pans or have follow whatever open leads
there are through the shelf ice. The Greenlanders
tow seals and Rasmus Grim told me that he and three other hunters once towed
back thirty six seals together at one time.
Some story, but Inuit people are not afraid to rig inventions for transporting
the hunt. They commonly would hunt
ducks or catch fish and return home with their kayak decks covered with them. For
large quantities of cargo, that is just too difficult to carry on your decks,
the simplest solution is to tow another small craft loaded as much as you
dare. The fate of having to rescue
your things out of salt water is just not quite what you really want to have
to deal with. The length of the tow line
is better longer at least 20 feet with a segment of shock cord spliced into
it somewhere to absorb the tugging from your miniature barge will exert on
you while you try to make way. The
coast guard tows ships with as much as a mile of line so that the line acts
as a shock absorber, however you might find for your kayak this is just a
little bit excessive. I
have not experimented with pushing another craft such as is done on rivers in
front tugs and barges. On flat water
such as early morning just at sunrise pushing may be another possibility. I
used my Alden Ocean Shell single hull as a very convenient barge. The large cockpit was perfect for bulky
loads. The Alden only weighs 35 pounds
empty and the rowing unit lifts completely out of the hull leaving plenty of
room for loads. Having
to unload my kayak and carry the contents up the beach I have devised a neat
system for carrying my cargo. I keep a
simple large nylon pack bag that can wear on my shoulders. The
nylon pack made of nylon pack cloth with a sturdy plastic zipper across the
top to be closed. This pack will fold
up into a surprisingly small size for stowage. What
is fun about this loaded bag is slung onto your back, the weight of the load
acts as a counterbalance. The heavier
the load you put into it, the more leverage it provides you when you pick up
your empty kayak up off the ground onto your shoulder to carry it up the
beach. With just the right weight
combination your kayak will feel as though it is floating off the ground. You
really don't want to put scratches on your kayak hull because those scratches
will just slow the hull speed and make the kayak noisier. To
avoid getting those scratches on the hull what I do is rinse the sand off my
feet and then position my toes of my feet up against the middle of the kayak cockpit
just where I plan to roll my kayak up onto its side. I
bend down hook my forearm and stabilize the outside with my other hand under
the inside of the far side of the cockpit lip. With my arm hooked under the cockpit lip I
very neatly roll my kayak over on its side onto directly onto my feet. Now
my kayak is resting on my soft clean toes.
On my forearm I pick my kayak up at its balance point by the
cockpit. Next
I lift my kayak up to my waist height.
Then
I boost and rest my elbow on the top of my pelvis. Now with a quick hip thrust I can pop your
kayak up onto my shoulder using only those larger muscles of your legs and
lower back for doing this heavy lifting. I
find that the easiest way to carry my kayak once it is completely empty is to
balance it by its cockpit lip on my shoulder.
For me this is the quickest and the easiest way, especially when I am
alone, to move my kayak up the beach. Trying
to just use your arms and upper back to pick up a kayak, especially if it is
a heavy kayak, is much to great a strain for your body. Don't even bother unless you want to see
how old you can feel, instantly. Just remember that your field of vision is somewhat
limited while you are carrying your kayak high on you shoulder. Your upper arm is in your line of vision
and you may not see a stick in your way and be able to judge uneven
ground. Nothing can be worse than
going falling head over heals with your kayak helping propel you into the
ground. To
boost my kayak up onto my car I once again boost my kayak up off my shoulder
by using my thigh muscles to spring the kayak off my shoulders and up over my
head. I take into
account wind should there be any making sure that I do not lift the kayak
over my head into the wind. When it is
windy I put my back to the wind and take advantage of the push the wind will
give me while I am positioning my kayak on top of my roof racks. What
I do with kayaks and small boats, such as an Alden Ocean Shell complete with
rowing mechanism, that are too heavy or awkward to be moved by being carried,
I just float and strap them onto a simple two-wheel trailer and wheel them up
the beach. For
boulder strewn beaches or where it is not possible to lift from the center or
roll the kayak I have resorted to getting the kayak up the beach by lifting
it up and carrying it end over end.
In Upernavik I was forced to land on a shelf of granite flanked by
steep rock. I lifted one end up and
carried it up the rock face then tied it off with line. Then I lifted the opposite end up and did
the same until I got the kayak up to safety.
Carrying
end over end is a good emergency strategy when you have no other options but
be very careful not to wedge the tip of either end between some rocks causing
damage to your kayak. When
on an expedition everything depends on that kayak. On
an expedition your kayak to try to minimize the possible damage and abrasion
to the bow, stern and other contact points by placing fabric or plastic under
these areas. Sharp rocks, especially
granite, can rip or slice holes in a fabric hull. Recently
I have found that two or three foam “pool noodles” carried just inside my
cockpit are the best rollers. I thread
rope down the hole in the center and knot each end off with a loop tied with
a Bolin. The Bolin is a nice knot for
this application because it provides enough bulk to prevent the line from
sliding back down inside the tube opening and can also be easily retied as
need be. I
have saved myself more hard work and wear and tare on my kayak hull by
rolling my boat up rocks and over beaches with these pool noodles. Once
I have my kayak situated on the rocks for the evening I put the pool noodles
around the hull and tie them into U shapes to protect the hull from wearing
on the rocks if the wind blows while I am in camp. I had a situation in These
pool noodles with rope loops sticking out each end can be adapted to function
as emergency outriggers or external floatation should the need arise. One
of those what I would call a "religious moment" was when I found
that my boat had been blown around and rolled by the wind during the night
"when you are the only show in town" and "kayaks don't grow on
trees" or they do "it takes longer than you want to wait" so
to speak, the last thing you want to have happen is your boat to leave
without you in it. You could compare this to, having the emergency brake on
your car let go and having it take off down a hill, only this situation is
worse. In
the flat areas of the I
was really hard pressed in Barrow. In
Barrow With
sufficient wind I have found my kayak has enough surface area to join the
self-propelled jet set all on its own.
Just think, with a high wind conditions, you can enjoy your kayak as a
kite. Just another life for your
kayak, after all lots of people start second careers, so why shouldn't your
kayak, although I prefer my kayak well secured on the ground or myself in the
kayak on the water with me at the helm. |
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Night Paddling in Summer Gail Ferris (night paddling, summer, stars, vision, wave intervals, feeling,
hearing, counting, hull design, balance upright, meteors, binoculars,
moonlight, rip, shallows, reefs,
paddle feelers) The Often
the question is raised "Why does a person practice such a risky sport
under such difficult conditions?" But
when you find yourself just getting off the water at I
think paddling at night is just the best way to watch the stars especially to
watch for shooting stars. You can lie
back on your stern deck your kayak will be just as perfectly stable and
actually even more stable than when you are sitting upright in the
cockpit. The only problem is that you
may over stretch your back if you remain lying bent backward over your seat
back for too long. You will notice
that the next day. The
depth of darkness is variable and is not necessarily going to hinder your
paddling because this is partially due to the capability, which you may find
that you have, to actually be able to see and relate sufficiently well enough
to what the waves were doing in conditions such as starlight. Although
few people venture out on the water during the summer evenings, there are
many special moments which I find such unforgettable moments when I laying
back on rear deck of my kayak under the stars in that chance expectation of
just happening to witness a flurry of brilliant shooting stars. Although every once in a while there are
those moments when you'd swear that one just came too close making you feel
compelled to duck. You wonder how we
are so lucky not to have more things struck by meteors, I guess that this
might be where the statement "Thank your lucky stars" may
originate. The
moonlight turns the tiniest waves into a voyage through scintillating silvery
movement that just goes on and on forever.
It is great fun to bring some binoculars along to look at the moon,
the planets and some of the star groups with.
Finding very calm water is necessary to do this with because you can't
look very easily at anything distant through binoculars when the water is
making you bob up, down and around while you try to remain focused. I have a pair of Zeiss binoculars have
lenses 8 x 20 made the best type of glass for low light situations and they
withstand corrosion by seawater well.
I enjoy looking at the moon through them. Now
how do you paddle when it is dark?
Well where I live it is not completely dark, but on the other hand it
is too dark to be able to judge distance between objects whether they be
islands of which we happen to have many or waves. It is perfectly easy to paddle into something
and disconcerting to find a passage that is perfectly obvious in broad
daylight. Nothing like paddling into
black not quite sure if it is or is not what it looks like. With
this level of darkness since I cannot judge distances between waves I have no
idea when I hear a wave how close it is to me. So I found another trick. I switch over to utilizing my other senses. What
I do is concentrate on the time intervals between waves and swells,
especially waves coming up behind me in following seas. What I do is compare the time intervals and
when the time interval is longer I know to expect a larger wave and maybe to
be ready to brace for it when I feel it coming up to my boat. From the time interval I can judge what the
sea will feel like. Now
the next thing to do is to transfer my knowledge of time interval into
comparing how the boat is feeling as a wave is hitting my hull. When I am out there paddling broadside to
the waves especially on a very overcast stormy evening, I switch from this
very confusing visual experience to listening and feeling the waves through
my body in my kayak. Luckily I have
paddled a shallow elliptical shaped hull for years and I am used to the
physical cues from this hull. I
substitute my physical sense of feeling with my body in place of what my eyes
tell me in daylight. In the inky
blackness of the night you can't see the waves and at most they will appear
to you only as black shadows looming at you and breaking unpredictably. This is very disconcerting. Trying
to figure out with these limited visual cues when and where these waves will
break is very interesting but now turn your concentration to how the water
feels as it passes beneath your kayak because the height and steepness of the
waves are reflecting the bottom, the currents relative to the wind that is or
was driving these waves. I
have found because I have insufficient visual references that I cannot be
completely sure by using my eyes as to if I am paddling your kayak with its
hull level when it should be level. Well
I figured out how to solve this question at night by feeling if the boat is
horizontal through my paddle. While I am paddling with my boat level I test
by leaning to feel for the position in which my boat paddles with least
lateral resistance, just the same way you would go about leaning a bicycle
around a curve and leaning a bicycle on a straight of way. A
kayak with an elliptical and or a shallow "V" cross section hull
mid-ship will register to you this change in resistance. A round bottomed or especially narrow kayak
would be more challenging to do this with, but once you know that it is of
even length on each side, checking for how much of your paddle is in the
water on each side is also a good indicator.
Another means for a single paddle is are you reaching the same
distance to hit the water with your paddle on each side. I
can say that on chalky gray day with perfectly flat water and with no horizon
line that I found myself feeling dizzy because of the conflict between my
eyes and my body. In Listening
is a key sense for determining wave action as to where it is and its relative
height and activity. I
consider relying on listening as my insurance policy. Coupling my timing with counting the
cadence cycle of waves gives me an approximate idea as to when I need to
brace or to avoid a large wave, when rounding a headland or point. As I am sitting in my so small a boat I
imagine these greedy waves as being boat inhalers or vacuum cleaners because
they give me that feeling as they sort of roll up to me they always seem to
suck in water as if they are about to take a gigantic yawn. The yawn is when the wave out of nowhere
decides to break. If it is just a big swell
I think of that as that the water has decided that it needs to take in a deep
breath for the moment, but it’s the yawns watch out for, especially if I am
right in the middle of one. When
it comes to dealing with a rip I estimate the relative magnitude of a rip can
be determined by listening. The sound
of the rip gives me some idea of what I may be getting into before I commit
myself to the chaotics of a rip. A rip
resembles to me a boxing match between water from one place meeting water
from another place the large rips I call a row and huge ones a genuine
war. That makes me really sit up and
pay attention when I find that I am paddling in a big rip I tell myself that
I just want to get through but not wind up in the middle of it getting
punched out, even if it is only water. I
have seen situations in large weather systems where nothing worked other than
look at the clouds and apply some local knowledge. In With
light wave action it is easy to determine by listening to guess how close you
probably are to partially submerged reefs, but when you are trying to guess
where submerged rocks are and more difficult to determine submerged sandbars
on an absolutely calm evening this is very difficult. You have to have some familiarity with the
area from a chart and estimate where these obstructions are. You have to use your paddles as feelers,
testing when you have that little feeling.
Paddling with a more vertical slalom type of stroke is the only means
you have for finding depth hopefully, but unfortunately not necessarily,
before you crash. Water
rushing over sand shallows without wave action is very difficult to estimate
depth because it all looks and sounds the same. All you can do is resort to paddle dunking
and a vertical stroke to try and avoid a frustrating grounding. Just be glad that you aren't the Queen
Mary. I once found myself in broad
daylight being picked up by some waves and about to be dropped on bare sand in
I
had a big surprise one evening when I was out rowing or sculling. Rowing at night has its element of
similarity to paddling but rowing is slightly more difficult because you are
going backward. I thought that at
night if I happen to be rowing the same old route all would be safe. Well it just so happened on that particular
evening there was especially low tide.
There I was rowing along when out of habit I just happened to turn
around to check direction. Oh no, in a
split second I realized that I was just about to ram a set of granite rocks,
which I had never seen exposed before.
I suddenly realized that I was very lucky so far because I was
actually rowing through a random mine field of granite, not a pleasant
thought. They don’t call Stony Creek
for nothing even for us shallow draft boaters it is real. What
is worse about rowing and especially sculling than kayaking is when you ram
something while sculling its very likely to be a solid impact that can do
appreciable damage to the boat and send air born you off your seat. This is just what you need in the darkness
of night, when you have the whole bay to yourself. These
are those moments when I find that the water is never the same twice. |
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Winter Daytime Ice Paddling Technique Gail Ferris (safety items, paddle, painter, hoe, paddle angle, ice, shovel,
backing up, frazzle, skim, paddle blades, sweep, launching, landing, booties,
ice cakes, cockpits, maneuvers, whitewater kayak, wing paddle) Have
an assortment of safety items, such as an extra paddle, a long bow line or
painter and a garden hoe because although you may be able to launch from a
relatively ice free launch site, things change. Making your way through the ice, you have to keep in mind
that the paddle must hit the water and ice at a precise stroke, because at a
more oblique angle the paddle either does not bite the surface of the ice or
acts as a shovel to scoop beneath the ice.
The moment the paddle blade passes beneath the surface of the ice it
gains enough leverage to immediately invert or roll the paddler during the
recovery of your paddle stroke. Slush
ice is like paddling in applesauce.
Skim or frazzle ice is much more formidable to paddle through not only
because it is abrasive, but because it is highly resistant to penetration,
impossible to judge the thickness of, until you find that you can no longer
punch you paddle blade through the ice to propel your kayak forward. Then there is always the possibility that the
harder you try to break the ice with your paddle the more likely you may
happen to either break your paddle or to find yourself upside down. At
that point, back out the way you came in, slowly and carefully, although
backing a kayak may seem awkward to do.
Backing up best done by looking at the paddle blade with each stroke
because you will not only see what the blade is doing but your body is in its
position for the most stable balance.
In whitewater paddling being able to paddle backward is very convenient
for many maneuvers. In
sea kayaking, when a forward sweep is not going to work or is not available
perhaps because of the design of the paddle, paddling backward is very handy
for avoiding being swept, at the last minute, on top of some unexpected rock
in the waves. Sea
kayaking in the winter is much more complex than in the summer, like a great
game of chess, with your good judgment and skill with a touch of daring once
you can recognize and anticipate conditions to safely sea kayak in the winter
and from there with some additional learning extend your paddling in the The
bright sun on a day when the air temperature is below freezing may keep the
surface of the water from freezing, but with the declining angle of the sun
during the approach of a quiet evening these same areas are likely to turn
into slush or become glazed with skim ice, which is sharp and difficult to
pass through. Because
frazzle or skim ice is very abrasive and pan ice can puncture the hull the
hull has to be designed and made of materials, which will not be abraded by
frazzle ice or punctured by pan ice.
Ice is quite destructive and if you know you are going to be paddling
several miles in a fabric skinned boat you might consider tying on some
protection. For fabric skinned kayaks
a small sheet of highly abrasion resistant slightly rigid polyethylene
wrapped and tied around the bow will be enough to protect the very first foot
of the bow where the ice is most likely to slash the fabric. At speeds faster than paddling an ordinary
fiberglass or wooden motorboat will sustain damage from frazzle ice and I
don't think getting out and walking is quite the best option. The
paddle blades I have found to be most suitable for those barbaric encounters
with ice are wide square ended scooped blades made of fiberglass, which is
both strong and resilient enough to tolerate the sometimes necessary repeated
impact of having to break through and hard pushing through the ice. Paddling has to be done in a shallow manner
without submerging the entire blade because if you scoop under the ice you
will capsize the kayak when you recover your paddle stroke. The wide blades
provide more push and are less apt to scoop below the ice. The
traditional You
will find that there are times when you either get to sit there and wait for
the ice to melt, which will probably be for too long or you find that are
using all the power you have to get yourself through a patch of skim
ice. You will probably find as I do in
my area that the closer you come to shore the tougher the going becomes and
sometimes you just cannot make that last few feet. This is because nearer to the shore the ice
often becomes thicker as you are approaching source of the ice and you are
coming into a more sheltered area near the shore where the ice can form more
readily. Because
of this excessive stress you have to subject your paddles to during this type
of paddling, be sure to include among the safety items on your deck a spare
pair of the best quality paddles within easy reach on your deck. Remember you have to be your own rescuer. I
have found, that when the shore is closed off by pan ice or frazzle ice too
thick to paddle through, that the way I have worked out to cross these areas
is very carefully with an ordinary garden hoe and good balance. This is similar to the poling technique
used in Strange
as it may seem, the greatest progress is made by pushing and pulling the
kayak backward over the ice. The
leverage of the garden hoe and propelling the kayak backward, not only
requires using your arms, but your entire torso as the only means of
developing sufficient power and angle of attack to cross the ice. I chose the garden hoe not only because of
handle length, but also because of the type of bite it grabs the ice pan
with, which allows for not only pushing but also pulling. I experimented with a potato rake but I
found that you can only pull with a potato rake and the thin tines do not
give as good a purchase on the ice as the 90 degree angle sharp blade of the
garden hoe. The hoe is more suitable
than an ice axe because the hoe is less apt to stab through and hook itself
beneath the ice or to puncture the your kayak. When
the coast is entirely glazed with remember that when you launch you must not
only carry the hoe and a spare paddle on your deck but also you must have a
long painter or bow line, which is at least 20 feet long, readily available
from your cockpit. Returning and
landing on a glazed rocky is going to be very challenging. You are going to first have to get yourself
up as far as your painter allows then pull your kayak up to you, then you
have to continue the rest of the length of the painter upward until you get
to an area where you can stand up without slipping on the ice. Then you drag the kayak up to you where you
can pick your kayak up and carry it to a safe area. Beaches
are much more feasible you will find that the hoe will get you up a frozen
beach otherwise you find yourself in a slapstick comedy routine helplessly
trying to claw your way up what is an impossibly slick glazed beach with
nothing except your fingernails. I
still remember the time I tried to ascend a completely iced beach with a less
suitable tool, that I was sure was going to work, only to find myself sliding
back down either five or six times.
Recently there has been developed some booties for windsurfing, which
have abrasive bottoms if these booties work they will certainly lessen some
of the risk of launching from ice surfaces as I describe to you in the next
paragraphs. My
experience when finally our harbor at Stony Creek opened up. I found large cakes foot thick of ice,
which I could stand on floating in thinly iced water. As I negotiated launching from a block of
ice with my kayak afloat I found that a kayak can, just quick as a wink,
slide over the ice like greased lightning.
I found that this is quite a good test of paddler's launching skills
and I could immediately appreciate why In
that last fraction of a second I found myself engaged in lowering myself into
my cockpit just moments before the boat slide out from under me into the
water on its merry way to elsewhere.
Nothing seemed to quite give me any purchase on the ice my garden hoe
just didn't quite have the angle for maintaining its bite. The paddle just slide off so that even
though I had it behind me at a 90 degree angle the paddle was of no
assistance. The peak on the bow deck
does not allow me to lay the paddle across the deck of the kayak. In traditional There
I was committed without my paddle handy to getting in or falling into the
water. Only my hoe was available for a
means of getting me purchase to recover myself back up on the ice cakes. I couldn’t quite visualize using my garden
hoe for rolling and bracing as I would with my paddle. The
kayaking booties are not designed to offer even the slightest grip on ice so
my only option was my balance and timing.
I was most glad that this kayak of mine has a large cockpit and a
shallow V wide elliptical cross section mid-ship bottom. I was very lucky and did launch
successfully. I
have thought about wearing cleats on the bottom of my kayak booties in Arctic
situations where climbing on top of ice could have been an option. However cleats would ruin the interior of
my kayak and I do not have that great a sense of balance. In Once
I actually was safely afloat, the next trick was to force the kayak backward
through the ice into open water. First
I tried my "Wing" paddle but its round edges are of no use for
grabbing onto ice and using the paddle at that high an angle provides the
paddler with no brace support. Then I
tried my garden hoe but the ice was too thin for the hoe to provide any
purchase for pulling power. Next I
yanked off my deck half of my spoon blade whitewater paddle and stowed the
other "Wing" paddle and hoe.
The square sharp ends of the spoon blade was the most suitable and
with it I was able to back paddle the kayak though the ice to open water. Once
I reached open water I switched back to the "Wing" paddle, dropped
the rudder because this was a convenient combination for enjoying touring the
coast despite the 15 to 20 knot wind. I prefer to paddle with the
"Wing" paddle because I use my muscles in my lower back. Doug Bushnell,
Westside Boat Shop, 7661 Tonawanda Creek Rd, Lockport, NY 14094
phone1-716-434-5755 advised me that the wind paddle kayak racing technique
uses using the muscles in your body torso not your arms. Doug Bushnell told me to pull using
rotation of my pelvis pull with one foot and push with the opposite foot. At the beginning, the power portion of the
stroke use the wing paddle on a very steep angle to get full thrust with the
paddle being as vertical as possible.
The paddle stroke comes from your torso in first two feet of the
stroke and then complete stroke with your arm. In racing the edge of the paddle actually
is scrapped along the edge of the kayak.
This wear area of the kayak is protected with Teflon tape. In
heavier conditions I would have used the larger surfaced spoon blade. I make the choice on the amount of control
I have over the kayak. When these are
the conditions I am always happy that I keep two types of paddles with me and
a garden hoe for this type of paddling. And
here is my suggestions for playing "Beat the Berg" however I have
seen bergs cross in front of me in Upernavik moving on the surface much
faster than I can paddle. Launch in a
polyethylene whitewater kayak either in the open water on a day when there is
enough wind to move the ice cakes nicely along or with some current. I
set some of the ice cakes free so that they are moving along in open water
then I race around them, between them, forward, backward, in figure eights,
just any configuration I can think of to keep it interesting. Ice is so convenient because it breaks in
all sorts of shapes so you have to practice all sorts of turning angles. The
trick is to anticipate how to pass between the ice cakes or sheets before
they close together and not to touch them with the paddle or the boat. Practicing
negotiating backwards paddling without loosing it is just the greatest
fun. You have to watch that paddle on
each side otherwise you very quickly find that the stern of the kayak will be
ramming a piece of ice that you did not notice. It
takes some good guessing how to use the paddle without scooping under them
just another aspect to the whole game.
I think on video that this would be great fun to watch. This I think is the neatest way to have
lots of fun. . What I am doing is
practice slalom in a moveable slalom, a fun idea. Then
playing tugboat with ice chunks is fun as well as jumping the kayak up on top
of the ice pans. This is ice that is only three in thick ice. The
polyethylene kayaks can take this nasty abuse I used my "Dagger
Response" kayak for this type of paddling. For
long distance dragging over the ice and for fabric-skinned kayaks I have
devised a fitted sheet of highly abrasion resistant plastic similar to
polyethylene to protect the hull of the kayak. I was unable to test this
because at the last moment the ice went out before I was able to try it. I
had thought of several other solutions to this problem but the protective
sheet of plastic seemed to be the simplest and the lightest. |
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Muddy Launching Conditions
Especially in the Winter Gail Ferris (mud, tricks for dealing with, when to avoid mud) Mud
although it just lies there and seems so innocent that is what makes it so
deceiving. Mud is really tricky stuff
and you have to keep in mind that the most dangerous quality mud has is its
impersonal viscosity. Tidal and storm
conditions in the winter are more likely to produce extreme ranges in water
levels. The tidal situation can be
from a combination of the moon in perihelion and or a product of the
combination of tides or solely due to of change in water level due to the wind
having blown strongly in the outgoing tidal direction this happens in Long
Island Sound. Don't
be daunted by this type of unexpected change, although you may find that the
floating dock where it was so convenient to put your kayak on top just a few
hours before may not be floating, now that same dock may be just sitting on
the mud. Depending on how far you have
to go to get to water it may be still possible to launch. You
must be the judge of conditions trying to force your way through long
stretches of mud is very likely not really worth all the effort and
unnecessary risk. Human powered hover
craft and the like haven't been invented yet.
The tide will return sooner or later. Places
like Although
the beach may be iced in, don't bother trying to carry your kayak over the
ice and mud to launch because you won't get very far. Sooner or later you will find, even as you
drag your kayak across the frozen seabed that your feet are breaking through
the surface of the ice into soft mud. Oh
boy, guess what! the mud becomes softer, less dense the farther you slog from
shore so make sure I found out from trying this that you have to always keep
one of your feet in the kayak. I
had one of those moments when I wondered will I be able to float myself in my
kayak out of this mud or will I get to sit for too long a time in the mud
waiting for the tide to float me off. I
did experience some minor scratching on my hull but that was better than
finding myself helplessly entrapped by the ensuing bottomless mire. I did find that I had a risky contest
between being able to launch on this emulsion of watery, black ooze before I
became helplessly mired. I was
lucky. Usually you can launch just in
time without further trouble, however this depends on the shape of bottom and
the ideal is a gradual drop off into the depths, but then again it is a risky
deal. One
time I tried stepping out into some mud from my kayak. I discovered to my
horror that I was not able to lift my foot out of the mud. Luckily I had only one foot stuck in the
mud. I was very glad my kayak was
right there. So what I did was to sit
back onto my kayak and pull my foot out of my boot. Getting
my boot back required super human strength for me to pull out of the
mud. I decided not to try that again
and paddled my kayak back into the water. From
a biological perspective this particular mud I was in was a very loose
agglomeration on non-organic material not agglutinated by the usual anoxic
bacterial. Various types of anoxic
bacteria play an active role in solidifying organic sediments however there
are situations where even those organic sediments cannot solidify because of
wind circulation patterns. Off
The
most threatening mud situations I have encountered were at the bottom of the James
and A
major reason why I choose to paddle in Upernavik Greenland was because of the
granite coastline and two meters of tide.
These conditions are very similar to Stony Creek, the same tidal range
and geology. It
pays to ask local people about paddling conditions. |
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Winter
Commuting and Sleep Patterns Gail Ferris (changes,
commuting night winter, ice snow, stars) This is a
Guaranteed Cure for Those Who Suffer from Abnormal Sleep - Gail E. Ferris If you are commuting
on evenings when it is so cold that the snow is crunchy and you have to wear
gloves while you set up your kayak for launching to keep your hands from
becoming numb, possibly you might like to plan your kayak portages to avoid
the eminent possibility of falling on the slick ice patches, which can be
everywhere. You might think that
it is not really necessary but when you return to ramp in the next morning
and you are in a hurry, its worth taking the special precaution of shoveling
the boat ramp with even your paddle before carrying the kayak down to the
water's edge because that same snow will be there when you return the next
morning. Booties don't grip ice very
well and the thought of falling while carrying a kayak on your shoulder is
not pleasant. Now you have to do
some planning if you make a decision to launch from an area, which is at
night fall a quiet nearly windless evening as you disembark on the water
filled with slush ice and the expected evening temperature are to remain in
the range of 15 to 20 degrees F. Remember that you are
taking a chance that the slush ice could solidify into a solid sheet that is
impenetrable for you with just a kayak and paddle without a garden hoe. Trying to force your way by repeated
ramming just doesn't work very well.
Ramming is a lot of work you take the risk of rolling over while you
are backing up to get up speed to ram passageway through the ice each
time. The ice breaks apart beneath
your bow but the ice to the side where you need to dig in with your paddle
may still be too thick for you to break through the ice to gain purchase with
your paddle. Ramming ice is slow hard
work. These are a few of
those chances that are part of your challenge, which may turn out to be not
as expected. But if you find
yourself getting edgy just tell yourself that this takes some calm reserve
and steel nerves. To kayak under these
conditions as the ice and the darkness makes commuting by kayak in the winter
feel very isolating. One factor to
consider is that as the sun sets radiant heat energy is lost. Just as the sun
was setting the water was nearly ice free but on the return an hour later ice
developed on the surface. The ice
formed as a combination of slush,
other ice was splintery skim or frazzle ice and the third type of ice was
periodic pans of slush and skim ice all of this same ice in the darkness I
knew I would encounter unexpectedly. Once on the During one evening as
I paddled across the rippled water to While sleeping out in
the open as the season progresses, I would wake up from my slumber and watch
the constellations as they make their passage through the evening sky. As the season progressed the constellations
would in a slightly more eastward position each evening and bringing with
them a new succession as the seasons progress. Nothing seems more
mystical and fascinating than the early spring constellations in the early
morning hours. These constellations
seem to be a whole new world not only they are dramatic in size but the
harbingers of spring while winter is still upon us. The most bizarre
meteor shower I saw was the Geminids one January. One Christmas eve I
went paddling in full moonlight at three quarter tide. The Granite of all the edges of the islands
were festooned with focus glazed with ice making them look as though they
were garlanded with silver. What a
sight. The
moonlight turns the world into a scintillating silvery paradise especially
ice frozen onto the seaweed on the rocks.
Paddling in the winter evening is something not to be missed. |
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Ice at
Night Gail
Ferris (kayak
design, in ice, at night, There is a
difference to paddling in the ice pans and slush when you cannot see objects
directly in front of you at night.
This situation requires that you must know what your kayak will do
when you suddenly run up on an ice pan.
I found that it is important to have a rockered hull with a shallow
"V" bottom and closed bulkheads that have air bags inside
them. The kayak needs to have
sufficient secondary stability so that the kayak is be able to maintain
stability when the bow is resting on an ice pan and should it fill with water
will float level with the paddler sitting in it. I found that by running the bow slightly up
on the beach similar to what would happen if the kayak were to have rammed up
onto a pan of ice I can estimate how much secondary stability my kayak has
and how comfortable this secondary feels to me. This type of stability I also find rather
important for taking photographs and videos when I am on the water. I have gotten rid of and avoided kayaks
that do not a rockered shallow “V” hull.
All The Greenlandic
kayak hulls from Ilulissat and Ammassalik accommodate the necessity of being
able to get the kayak up on the ice in their kayak designs before the pans of
ice collide crushing the kayak. In the
Ammassalik Greenland area the kayak is designed with ivory runners attached
to the keel and between the chine so that paddler is able to get the kayak up
on the thin ice and pole the kayak across the ice to firm ground. Ammassalik kayak paddlers have hook shaped
ends in bone or ivory on the ends of their paddles for grabbing the ice. |
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Night
Winter Paddling with Swells Gail
Ferris (night,
slush ice, swells, open areas, paddling technique, ice concentrations,
dragon's back, preoccupation) After numerous days
of heavy wind I had to negotiate a This is when sea
kayaking becomes a very serious, dangerous undertaking. The inner areas of estuaries along the
coast first freeze. Because fresh
water is less dense than salt water, fresh water flows out on top of the
seawater. When it is cold enough there is some freeze separation of the
seawater as well. Ice floats because
it is less dense than water. The less
salt in the ice the more brittle and the more salt the more flexible is the
ice. From my kayak cockpit
paddling even under the glaze of moonlight, I find that I cannot see an area
of slush ice. The light and vision angle
is not sufficient. The slush may look
like open water because it is being kept in motion by the incoming
swells. These swells can do the same
to the conglomeration of small pan ice. Only from shore could
I see in the first 1000 yards where the ice pans have left off and where
there could be an impenetrable extensive ice slush area. However although conditions appeared from
the shore to be less questionable I know that I cannot judge the strength and
size of the swells at night even under moonlight. The amount of light is insufficient for
depth perception at long distance. At
night and even in the day it is difficult to accurately judge conditions as
much as you might know you just have to be there I keep in mind that
when I am committed to paddling within the slush ice even where it is was
freer with less volume, turning around the kayak to reverse direction will
require having to perform disconcerting maneuvers. The trick is not to catch your paddle under
the ice while trying to reverse direction.
I am not too concerned about short distances through slush ice but in
this situation the distances were not just in the tens of feet but actually
in the hundreds of feet. I have had to keep in
mind that although it may be dark or I might be preoccupied with other
aspects, I must consciously avoid passing the paddle beneath the ice and
confine all strokes to being specifically very shallow just on the surface of
the icy water or just penetrating part way through the surface of the ice. I have had to train
myself and practice enough to recognize what angle of the paddle shaft I had
to maintain consistently. In the middle of the
night disembarking from Pine Orchard yacht club area as I paddled past the
protection of some outlying rocks I discovered that I feeling something
absolutely shocking. My kayak was rising
up alarmingly beneath me and swaying decidedly, as these strong swells
running through the slush ice were lifting me up and thrusting me downward
the slush ice. Although there were
no waves, the density of slush like riding on a carpet just beneath the
surface. I felt just as though I was
on the back of a sea serpent. And at
night with no visual cues I found this to be an exhilarating experience. Then from out of the
slush back into the outlying narrow band of small ice pans and pass into open
water all the swells felt just routine. But that was a most
memorable experience to be paddling along in my kayak and to feel as though I
was on the back of a dragon. I asked
Ken Fink www.nvo.com/poseidonkayaks
about this and he has had the same experience. It's a very amusing
sensation to paddle through an area of slush ice and suddenly feel your boat
shoot forward when you pass into open water. I have found that in
crossing stretches of open water and migrating conglomerations of ice, one of
the reasons why it is important to have a boat, which will retain its
stability even if you ram an unseen pan of ice. Night vision http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/vision_background.html
does not cover directly if front of the you do not see directly in front of
your field of vision however you do have vision starting at 15 degrees on
either side. What I did was to
turn my head frequently from side to side and use my peripheral vision as
much as possible. When you are looking
directly at a small diameter object directly off your bow, it is not visible
until you have actually passed partly by it.
Boat stakes can be a big surprise.
In the dark of
morning I nearly did collide with a boat stake that was directly in front of
me. I resorted to staying out of the
boat stakes in the dark because those skinny little wise guy stakes just
seemed to jump in front of my kayak. When
rowing in the dark I found that I have an even more limited range of vision
because I cannot rotate my head quite far enough to have a range of vision so
I prefer to row facing forward. I use
either the FrontRower http://www.frontrower.com/ or
the E-Z Rower http://www.ez-row.com . |
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Changes
During the Winter Night Next Morning Gail
Ferris (temperature,
wind, time, breakup, pans, currents, movement, just when you thought you knew
everything) There is a certain
undeniable reality to those stories of the far north describing the moment
when during very cold conditions depending on the salinity and
temperature. In my area, here in Stony
Creek, at about 10 degrees F when the wind stops the water freezes over. Even though I might
think that since I would be leaving at dawn, only a few hours away, that
conditions would continue as I have just left them, guess what - things change! For instance, the
next morning, there can appear on the water, a line of ice pans working their
way past the south side of Rogers Island where I may have never seen ice
before. For as much as I might think
that I know this area very thoroughly.
I may just happen to find that I have just been confronted by
something I hadn't thought of. Oops! A change in wind
direction can easily break pans of ice off from shelf ice into two and three
inch thick ice pans. Wind can break large ice pans into small pieces if it is
blowing at twenty to thirty knots.
Even a light ten to fifteen-knot wind will push ice against current
and tides. Oh well! Maybe I had forgotten
that NOAA www.crh.noaa.gov/lot/marine.html
forecast
was for the wind, which had been blowing for days from the west, was going to
switch to blowing from the north. Well, the question I
have to ask myself is what are the possible consequences from this wind
change that will affect the surface of the near freezing water and the ice
that is already on the water? Although I may have
noticed a slight breeze from the north and perhaps earlier I thought nothing
of it. Then I saw ice working its way
past the south side of Ice, air and water
will be moved by what ever is the dominant force at the moment but luckily
ice is easy to see. Now I just discovered
that most of the crossing I made the previous evening is now inundated with
ice because the wind died off while the temperature dropped below 10 creating
a huge inundation of slush ice. I
decided that it was safer and easier for me not to go north to Pine Orchard
but instead to head across to the Flying Point off Stony Creek. So I made the crossing and had to walk over
to Pine Orchard to retrieve my car and get to work several hours later. I just did not want to risk getting stuck
in all that slush ice between |
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Snowy
Morning Crossing Gail
Ferris (weather
forecasts, wind conditions, direction, temperature, snow, fetch, paddle
leash, helm control, swimming, decisions, safety margins, comfort level,
commuting, entrapment ) I listened as I
always do to the forecast one evening, which did not seem too particularly
threatening as I weighed my options.
The weather forecast reported that the weather was to be an overcast
evening with temperatures in the twenties and snow starting in the early
hours of the morning. For me, as a
kayak commuter, the most critical part of the forecast was the winds, which
were expected to be from the northeast at ten to twenty knots but to increase
during the next day to fifteen to twenty knots from the east. This implied that some higher gusts might
be expected with small craft warnings to be issued. From my experience I
considered some of the key factors for wave height is fetch and length of
time and since my destination had less than a mile fetch to the north and
east whereas to the southwest the Long Island Sound fetch was twenty eight
miles, I knew that the waves would not be of threatening height. Also, I knew that I might have had some
protection from such a short fetch by the relative rise in the land when the
wind blew from to the north and east.
Certainly in this short a distance, the height of the waves would not
reflect the true strength of wind from these directions so once again as I
decided to commit myself, I had some of those foreboding apprehensive
feelings, which made me ask myself as I prepared to get underway "do I
really know what I are be getting into?" From past
experience, when the wind on land doesn't seem that powerful, as a last
resort I have found that I can access the strength of the wind as I carry my
kayak to the water's edge. If the wind nearly
carries me and my kayak off, giving me a difficult time handing my kayak on
land put it in position just for the launch, then I know that I must prepare
for the possibility what some strong gusts can do. I make sure that I
have no error or distractions to contend with so that I can devote my entire
focus on staying upright and under control in this wind. I make sure that all my cargo is not only
properly stowed but tied into the kayak that there are no loose lines to
become entangled with. Just as I am
about to get underway I very assiduously check my options for what protection
and what obstructions might affect my launching. Getting tangled up in pilings or forced
into a wall by some good wind so that I can't get moving can make maneuvering
the kayak very difficult. Then I put
on my spray skirt making sure that it is on properly and firmly, assist
myself in maintaining and controlling the helm and headway I put my rudder
down and if I have a skeg put that down and adjust it as necessary. Then finally and most importantly I choose
the paddle with sufficient surface area to handle strong wind and made sure
that my pogies were protecting my hands sufficiently. Because I know what
it feels like to be out there in wind that tries to rip the paddle out of my
hands, I secured my paddle to the kayak by tying it with the polypropylene
painter on the bow. With that if I go
out of the boat the kayak and paddle are together and I am free to rescue
myself without the complication of a feathered paddle that the wind can exert
tremendous pressure on, which is attached to my wrist. Among the possibilities of things that may
go wrong in chaotic conditions, loosing my paddle to the wind is the least
desirable fate I wish to experience. To
make matters worse not only was the wind blowing 20 knots, it was snowing
heavily as I disembarked from the protected shore I very seriously thought
about my attempt in making this crossing that I did not want to go for a swim
in the snowstorm on Long Island Sound.
Was it worth making this crossing just for going to work I wondered,
as I carefully felt and evaluated the strength of the wind once I passed into
the open water from the protection of the pier. I knew how easy it is to trick oneself into
thinking that conditions are not as threatening as they actually are. How close the opposite shore seems until
the moment suddenly arrives when the horrified paddler realizes, all too
late, that things are out of control.
In a thick snow storm in the dark of predawn winter morning for the
solitary paddler the most candid judgment is necessary. Paddling into the
driving snow was difficult because the wind drove the snow like very painful
little missiles into my eyes when I looked across the bay at my
destination. My hat and swim hat had
only a small visor offered little protection as the snow plastered itself
onto my face causing increasingly intense pain from its' coldness. Now I wished that I had worn my neoprene
diving hood and a baseball cap as a better defense against the driving snow. I had to frequently
look straight ahead to check my direction because of the offsetting currents
in this area. The wind was not much
more that fifteen knots but the discomfort and visual problems caused by the
driving snow were disconcerting. I began to wonder how much of this
discomfort I could really take and would I get across before this piercingly
cold driving snow became too much for me. And so as usual by
the time I had made my way across the harbor conditions abated. I was most happy that they were no worse
than what I found. |
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Winter;
Cold Weather and Evening Clothing Gail Ferris (night,
insulation, fabrics, drysuit, booties, pogies, foam, paddle shaft) Since I can't stand
the idea of having to stop paddling once the cold of winter sets in, I have
decided to figure out how to feel warm in cold temperatures especially on
winter nights. How to stay warmer
longer is perfectly possible with both traditional and modern. For me there is no fun in being cold. Anyone who has tested
the drysuit and compared it to neoprene will tell you that the dry suit was a
very important piece of paddling equipment, not only for enjoying sea
kayaking but also were you are very concerned with prevention of hypothermia
and safety. The advantage, which
the dry suit has, when compared to neoprene wet suits, is that the dry suit
is easier to put on, less restrictive being much easier to move your arms for
those countless paddling strokes, and will keep the immersed paddler warmer
than a wet suit, provided the integrity of the waterproof seals has been
maintained. For we who paddle
alone, the dry suit and neoprene hood reduces the possibility of hypothermia
but even more threatening the much more commonly fatal danger of cold shock
because cold shock is completely incapacitating. From
prehistoric times dry suits have been used by kayak paddlers in the However
here in this day and age when I talk to most open water scullers they cannot
imagine and do not want to entertain the reality that rowing during the
winter is taking a completely unnecessary risk. “Oh that doesn’t exist” or “it is too
expensive.” For
a mere six or seven hundred dollars a proper fitting dry suit is available
manufactured by Ocean Systems sold by CMC Rescue via Better Products through
Daniel Meloche at Better Products at rescuealive@charter.net
1-800-423-0686. Danial
Meloche teaches ice water rescue in Frank
Penna of Stony Creek who like myself likes to be on the water in challenging
conditions has found this resource.
Frank likes to row sliding seat in 30+ knots of wind anytime
throughout the year. Believe me his
carbon fiber sculls get a full work out. This
suit in bright orange is designed as para-jumper rescue surface diving
swimming in ice water rescue conditions.
The maximum flexibility in this suit by gussets on the arms and
legs. Front entry dry zipper and
relief zipper neoprene over long life latex seals, and with Cordura nylon
reinforcements for slip and wear resistance on wear points. The
important reason for Cordura reinforcement being necessary is because ice
especially frazzle or skim ice is razor sharp. Any ice can have sharp areas on it. I
saw a jagged chunk of ice riddled with sharp cutting edges pop up to the
surface just inches from my kayak when I least expected it. A very threatening moment for me. For
myself this is a huge break though to find that there really is a suit
designed to accommodate the full range of flexibility a sliding seat rower
must have. $600.00
is hardly any money for cold water safety when cold water boating is a
passion. http://www.echorowing.com/contactus.html
http://www.rescuealive.com/services.html
Although the neoprene
wet suit will give the immersed paddler some time before hypothermia sets in,
the dry suit will keep the paddler comfortably warm for a long time. S.C.U.B.A. divers in my area on the coast
of When there is no
sunlight I will quickly feel how adequate my layers of insulation are,
especially if I have built up a sweat, which has begun to condense. For several years I wore a combination of
thin layers of polypropylene and a heavy wool sweater beneath my dry
suit. After I read Will Steiger's North
to the Pole, in which he described the extreme conditions he had to dress
for, which ranged from extreme cold to large amounts of hard work, I switched
to his recommendation of thin layers polyethylene fiber underwear such as
"Thermax" which I find to be excellent especially when worn next to
the skin. I wear as many thin layers
as I feel necessary at the time. The
outer upper layer of a Lands End bulky wool sweater for the torso and arms
works well. I will probably find
as I do that its just that the initial moment of leaving the warm sanctuary
of my house and loading the boat on the car when it is bitter cold that is
going to be the most difficult for me. I found that my feet
become quite numb at temperatures below 20 degrees F. unless I wear booties,
which are specifically designed with tight ankle seals to stay completely dry
in combination with "Thermax" socks or I can wear Teflon lined
socks such as Seaskinz or Gore-Tex oversocks as liners inside my latex
drysuit leg seals. The best solution was
recommended by Ken Fink. www.ihpva.org/pipermail/hpv-boats/2003q3/004122.html
Gore-Tex socks can be added to the bottom of
your drysuit to replace your latex gaskets.
I have found that these socks are just the best and they are amazingly
tough. In Upernavik I was forced to
walk a few steps on sharp granite on my goretex socks. No damage was sustained even though the
socks were wet on the outside and I had to lift my heavy kayak. My feet were dry and
comfortable throughout my kayak paddling all day long for ten to twelve hours
at a stretch in Upernavik. http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/Trips/Gail/MarkIchoice.htm Nothing like trying
to carry a kayak up an icy beach with numb feet. The most critical
part of paddling in the cold is maintaining warm hands. On the water hands become not only cold but
can easily become completely useless and then the next question is how can I
rewarm my hands this can be difficult.
Pogies with fabric
liners do not work for me. Especially
if this type of pogies become wet at night you will not be able to rewarm
your hands. My pogies always become
wet and I cannot imagine paddling without dunking my paddle shaft pogie and
all into the water at some moment while I am on the water. Dry pogies mean sterile paddling to me, not
exactly realistic for my method. This problem can be
resolved by making or buying foam filled gauntlets, which are attached to the
paddle tightly enough to not let to wind penetrate but are of a fabric such
as Nylon pack cloth, which will be slippery enough to not impede paddle
rotation. The best design for these
gauntlets is to have them designed and sewn to always stay open so that I can
easily thrust my hand into them at any time.
I should chose to fill the nylon shell with a sheet of closed cell
foam packing material, because it is usually likely that I might dunk them in
the water at sometime during paddling.
The critically important, safety margin of these gauntlets is that
these foam lined gauntlets will warm my numb hands in six paddle strokes even
when everything is wet and iced. Stoquist now is offering
a similar gauntlet with Velcro closures.
I have added to my gauntlet Velcro closures that open and close along
the paddle shaft with elastic sewn into the edges that encompass the paddle
shaft. These work best because they
can be vented when my hands become too warm on a bright sunny day. I prefer for security
to have my bear hands in direct contact with the paddle shaft however a
hollow fiberglass paddle shaft certainly does conduct cold very well. I have found it
important to I packed the shafts of take-a-part paddles with some form of
Styrofoam. This non absorbent foam not only makes the two piece paddle shaft
feel warmer. Equally important this
additional foam floatation insures that the paddle will always float even if
it is separated into two sections. I wear wool gloves
with rubber nubbins for handing my kayak in snowy conditions. Gail E. Ferris, 1 Bowhay Hill, phone 1 203 481-4539 E-mail: gaileferris@hotmail.com, Northern Kayak
Horizons - the water and the ice are never the same. |
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