JohnHuth

I don't know if there's any perfect way of doing it. FWIW - I capsized with my VHF in August, and it bit the dust. I have a new one, supposedly waterproof.

I'm contemplating a Cohasset to Ipswich urban paddle. One point of concern is the jump across President Roads - like Long Island to Deer. Obviously the question is whether boat traffic is just too heavy to safely cross. The alternative, I suppose, is to go way into Boston Harbor, but I don't know if this would really be any safer. Any thoughts or experience would be helpful. Maybe try to do it during a weekday and off-season when there will be less recreational traffic?

When I'm solo, I monitor 16. In a group, I can set to scan to our favorite communications channel and also 16. Sometimes, for fun, I'll just have a scan of the full range of channels. Can find out where the stripers are biting.

Hi, All - One quick update. I'm working on an online course on weather, based loosely around the presentation I made up in Reading. I am putting together a blurb on the different units of pressure and I wanted to make one clarification - based on a question I received - and hopefully will clarify here. The of unit of pressure used most commonly now is the hecto-Pascal, where a Pascal is force per unit area in MKS (meter-kilogram-second) system - which would be Newtons (force) per square meter. The prefix 'hecto' means 100. The average sea level pressure is 1013 hectoPascals (hPa). Why the odd units? It has to do with the use of 'millibar' historically, and that the value of hPa was quite close to one millibar. Presently, however, a millibar is *defined* to be hPa. There was a time, however, when the average sea level pressure was the definition of one bar, and 1000 millibars would be average sea level pressure. Over time, the definition changed to just make hPa and mb identical. This happened roughly in the 1980's, and as far as I can tell is the rationale for adopting hPa, as opposed to some unit involving Pascals (kiloPascals, for example). Old barometers that report pressures in millibars would have to have a correction made of 1013/1000 to get into the currently used definition of millibars. Sorry that I didn't answer this better during the talk.

Totally correct, Cathy - congratulations, you're a weather watcher!

We have a nor'easter forecast for tomorrow (Friday, March 2) - although I don't wish big storms on anyone, but this will give folks who took the class a chance to see a cyclonic storm in action

Jim - You can use the powerpoint slides as a guide to when to see the videos. Pru - I'd be willing to be a collector of weather photos - people also need to describe where, when, where the camera is pointed, where the surface winds are blowing, and winds aloft John

Hi, All - Thanks to all who attended, and thanks for great questions. As I'd mentioned, I'm working this up to an online course, and I'm continually tweaking things, and questions give me great feedback. If you have other useful feedback, I'd be delighted to get it. Here's a link to the talk and all the video files that I used - so it should be complete https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FW5X-sgq2DUsoGeCUZWxW52X52-uytEj If there's a problem accessing this, please let me know. Oh yes, thanks to the organizers! John

I did my own scouting expedition to the new cut. I launched at Morris Island Causeway. It's surprisingly large - there was some current running there, but nothing bad. There are some breakers in places where it's shallow. I suppose the most obvious feature of the new cut is the amount of boat traffic I saw. This is, however, on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend - don't know *what* I was thinking. It was like taking a hike on an Interstate Highway. The cut has buoys in it, and a huge amount of traffic coming out of Stage Harbor went through there. It seems pretty obvious that it's a lot easier to go through the cut than slog all the way around Monomoy. Also, a lot of people were fishing there, including seals - a lot of people were hooking up, so I'm guessing that the cut is good for that as well, mostly blues. On a more quiet day, it's definitely an option to try for a circumnavigation of Monomoy. But on a busy day, the boat traffic is hair-raising.

There's a big Agnes 6 person tent that is on sale at one place for $299. I got this for my daughters, who are driving cross country - has a nice rainfly

Hi, All - It's been some time since I did my last circumnavigation of Monomoy - so long that the previous cut filled in, and now there's a new cut. Has anyone explored the new cut? Any idea on what the current is at different tide stages?

Hey, Pru - Dan told me about that Bold Coast trip. Alas, I can't make it because I have to travel, but it sounds like a great trip. He's done a lot of scouting to add it in to the MITA-sphere - knows a lot of places to take out and camp, has been talking with local folks there, and coordinating with MCHT.

I know a bunch of people have done this, but it was on my bucket list. I paddled with my buddy Dan Carr. On Friday (July 14), I drove up to Portland, catching the tail end of the MITA Board of Directors meeting, and hitched a ride out to Jewell Island, where we toured the island and spoke with the care-taker Vinnie. On a busy weekend, they may get 100 people camping there - pretty amazing that it's in such good shape. On Saturday, we drove up and hit Blue Hills Falls for some fast water work. This was the first time I saw it, and was very impressed. Dan got me to work up from eddy turns, but that 'paddle across the rips sideways' thing got me, and I swam. Not for naught, as we got to practice a T rescue. Sunday, we left on the circumnavigation from Seal Cove, which is a great put-in spot - paddled mostly in the fog until Bass Harbor, when the fog lifted a bit. We ran into two other paddlers, Joe, and Calla, who are both guides. It turns out that Joe took a course on weather I gave at a MASKGI event in Portland earlier in the year. They're sectioning the whole trail. When we got to the point of closest approach to Great Cranberry, we peeled off, back into the fog. Our securite' call was answered with someone calling "speed bumps" back. Oh well. Set up camp on Crow, and then paddled over to the Islesford Dock Restaurant for beer and dinner, then paddled back. The sunset was absolutely amazing. Monday morning had more fog, and we have a couple of crossings in the fog to Mt. Desert proper. The paddle along the SE corner was spectacular - seeing the cliffs and the rocks coming and going out of the fog was an amazing sight - saw climbers on Otter Cliffs, checked out Thunder Hole, then Sand Beach, then up toward Bar Harbor. The seas were pretty calm, but could definitely feel the reflected swell - which is neat - it gets broken up into smaller pieces by the uneven shoreline. We pulled out at Bar Harbor, and I splurged on a lobster roll. The fog cleared, and we had a wind at our backs pushing us along. Finally, we found a good campsite on a Maine Coastal Heritage Trust Island. Perhaps the one useful bit of information in this post is the existence of that campsite near the bridge over the Narrows, which can help make the circumnavigation work in terms of timing. The site itself was kind of buggy - but that was also because there was zero wind to shoo away the skeeters. Tuesday - paddled through the Narrows - something of a slog through Western Bay, but then a great paddle through Bartlett Narrows - it seems like a small pod of harbor porpoises were following us quite close. We 'portaged' over a gravel bar connecting Moose Island to Mt. Desert - an odd formation, and then pulled back into Seal Harbor. All-in-all, I would say nearly perfect conditions - not too much wind, no rain, some fog. Good eating, good company, great views - a worthwhile trip.

I did not know you could camp there. This is very helpful! I'm trying to plan a Cohasset to Ipswich paddle, and looking for camping spots. The tricky part is Boston Harbor to Cape Ann - will need to find some place near Marblehead, but don't know of camp grounds around there - may have to AirBnB it.

I haven't had problems landing anything in a kayak. Maybe if I hooked a great white shark, it would make a difference, but I just outweigh the blues and stripers by too much to get any Nantucket sleigh ride going. On the other hand - watch your hands getting the hook out of the mouth of a bluefish - they can take a finger off! Anyway fish with flies? There's a really good pattern called a 'Clouser bendback' that's great for blues and stripers - very versatile, and not susceptible to catching seaweed.

I could see doing this around Monomoy, off the Cape. There are tons of striped bass and some bluefish that end up in pools that are inaccessible to power boats. Curious about how people fish. I tie flies and troll (the fishing kind, not the internet kind) for the most part. If there's a known area, I'll cast. Mostly, I fly fish, though.

A couple of years ago, I posted up a hyperlinked set of blogs called "on the go navigation" based on a navigation workshop I did. This has everything from simple, to vectors, to even Newton's static theory of tides. http://artofwayfinding.blogspot.com/2014/11/on-go-navigation.html

Hi, All - This is less of a trip report, so I'm posting it here. I just returned from a week in Patagonia, and did a modest paddle with an outfitter. If you are interested in some amazing scenery and paddling, I highly recommend the area. There are a huge number of fiords and rivers there. I don't know of anyone other than this particular outfitter, but he can arrange for rentals, gear, and transportation. He has a lot of local knowledge and would make a great guide. A few comments - the water is super-cold, even in their summer time. You can camp pretty much anywhere without a permit. Fresh water is abundant. The tides in the fiords do require some local knowledge, but I'm working with the guide to establish some rudimentary tide tables. If you're curious or interested, PM me. The particular trip I took was only a 3 hour jaunt down a river that drains a glacial lake - but it was magnificent nonetheless.

I'll second this on saving Ram Island. I contributed to MCHT to help them purchase it. Any donation would be welcomed by them.

Nice! Some years back, I did a clockwise circumnavigation. I timed it to reach the southern tip when slack was turning to ebb. I remember also surfing back going north - yup! Did you see a truckload of seals?

I usually bring my tow belt, even on solo paddles. I have three "saves" using it when I was out on my own. I also like having some length of rope handy, like what Jason said. How was Monomoy, Josko? I was up in Downeast Maine and missed the opportunity.

Comments on articles online *are* frustrating to read. I spoke with a journalist who cautioned me on comments on an article about a trek I took in the Marshall Islands, saying "people are just trying to show off...ignore them".

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/06/23/kayakers-who-perished-were-part-of-tour-group/ Report says 52 F degree temps, sudden squall.

Lord have mercy! At least two lived. Too much of this going around.

That's great, Gary! do you know the water and air temperatures? Typically cold water and warm air creates these conditions.