Pintail

Greetings, Casey-san! Some of us old-timers are still here, you old land-lubber (but not Burnett: he's more at home touring on a Harley-something-or-other...) Do yourself a favour and google Namaqualand for wild flowers: happens every year in the spring and covers hundreds of square miles in the semi-desert. Isn't it high-time you two came back east? 😊

It sounds as though you'd like an ocean cockpit, Barbara; but they are becoming harder to find, these days. The sprayskirt loop is so close to your stomach! <The wiffle ball trick is worth a try> When North Shore Kayaks on Route 1 was still in business, Joel always sold new sprayskirts with these attached.

@Sue and Glad: you need to develop this post-paddle safe habit -- leaning your paddle against the front of the car or against the driver's door (the mirror will prevent its falling), where it is obviously going to catch your eye as you try to drive away without it! 😁 @Sue: sorry for your loss, as they say... and @Barbara: what about hanging your sprayskirt on the end of a crossbar (again, on the driver's side) while you load the boat?

Black diolen-glassfibre; two circular hatches; ocean cockpit, of course; weighs all of c.44lb and is a very small boat in terms of fit. Length: 17'11" and 20" in the beam. One of the most beautiful designs around in my opinion; but very tight for my size 8 men's feet! Wonderful, easy boat for improving your rolling. Asking $1400: the boat is in my basement for the winter in Gloucester. https://seabirddesigns.com/product/black-pearl-lv/

Yes, this may be a very tragic and sad story; but... <The presence of his personal effects in the kayak, along with the charts of the local area, suggest that he had prepared carefully for his journey but met with an unfortunate accident> Evidently he was not well-enough prepared, was he? Self-rescue capability?

Likewise: ditto! And didn't Chris do all the secretarial duties? (Now, where are some of the others from that period?)

Gary-san, I should be very happy to initiate evening paddles again; but I am limited inasmuch as I work most nights. I am generally free on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The water is warming up quite nicely now (it was very fresh and nice yesterday at Lanes Cove), although this next week's rain is going to suppress the intiail warming trend; but I shall post some trips very soon. I realize that those evenings may very well be difficult for many; but I hope there will be takers. Does anyone know if geenheads are given to nocturnal activity? Mind you, I hardly saw but one or two last year.

...and you can bet your bottom dollar that children were not dressed for cold water! (What is ocean temperature, locally, at present? Around 50F?)

Frederick, Lexel is excellent for use in plastic boats (bulkhead sealing, etc); but I'd have thought one of the above recommendations would have suited you better? Anyhow, good luck with it. Lexel will probably clean off easily enough if it does <not> prove watertight over time...

...and if you intend to replace the existing strip, Bill, why don't you make small V-shaped incisions in the new tape where the curvature is at its greatest, so that you obviate the likelihood of that "lifting" effect, where the strip cannot make good contact with your hull (your <boat's> hull -- not yours!)? I guess you can visualize exactly what I mean?

Dan, I think it is high time I made the effort to get out on a weekend (restaurant work means I'm always tied up). Hence...very interested. The club <has> had a weekend (or two?) up there; but it was long ago. Lovely place to stay and, as said elsewhere, there are plenty of interesting options. Seguin is a fun trip; but isn't that quite a drive from the Knubble Bay place? The other trip I have never managed to join is the now-annual MDI sojourn...let's see...

Sings: "For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good...", etc!

Great trip report(s), Prudence: thank you! Now: birds again -- first avian photo showed a tern, yes; but you cannot say for certain "common tern", for the common and the Arctic are too similar to differentiate unless in the hand! Hence "comic". <I> cannot tell the difference: I learned this from a professor of "bird-ology" (or whatever -- oh, ornithology, I mean). Your juvenile kittiwake was certainly a black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), as opposed to the similar red-legged (R. brevirostris), who lives on the other ocean and, finally, your gannets are, of course, the northern (Movus bassanus), as opposed to M. capensis, with whom I am much more familiar -- the cape gannet. To see gannets feeding on a shoal is really astounding and wonderful! It always reminded me of the Bayeux tapestry, depicting the rain of arrows coming down on the Saxons from the Norman archers -- yes, the birds diving look just like that! Dreadful shame about the avian 'flu victims you encountered...and that is the reason that Massachusetts poultrymen are not allowed to sell eggs that are totally free-range. The authorities are scared that birds unfenced-in and uncovered might be infected by wild birds...other states must be less concerned, for you can find free-range eggs from NJ, PA, etc. quite easily. You certainly had some fun along the way: I'm green with envy!

Joe, I must congratulate you -- you appear to have paddled (bored?) right <through> the seawall out there, near the Salvages! Your kayak must be mega-tough! Nice piccies! I look forward to paddling with you one of these days; but I work odd hours...

Joe and Nancy are quite right, of course: you don't need any compass rose on your charts -- and, in any case, variation changes all the time (well, every year or two). Cleaner (on your charts) to make the correction in your head. (Cadbury's Dairy Milk Very Tasty tells you which way to go to make the addition or subtraction, where Cadbury's = compass; Dairy = deviation (irrelevant here, since no electrical circuits or ferrous objects in your kayak); Milk = magnetic; Very = variation and Tasty = true). As Nancy says, deviation is something quite different; but <was> relevant for me in a former life. It can be quite alarming to see your magnetic compass change its apparent reading as you turn on some electrical circuit or other!