sidcohen

Flying to Aruba, you are hard core, Dude.

Congratulations guys! I feel a small sense of accomplishment as one of your favorite training victims. ?

I was going to give a nervous LOL. But cool and coudy weather is what the doctor orders for racers.

Nice problem to have Phil :-) Sid

Man, I'm jealous and not to far from my neck of the woods. ;-) Sid

Yeah, there are some days I miss just throwing that "whatever" food bag together for a trip, but here is to healthy, tasty, and nutritionally dense. Lets shoot for the stars and that camping food stretch goal, too. Message me if you need company on your next, day trip, or overnight, anywhere on the coast of ME. Or Thursdays and Fridays, anywhere in MA or CT. I paddle year round, most years. So far, so good, the old bod is holding up. Liz, I too am in the market for a vacuum bag system, so thanks for the recommendation. Sid

Hi Warren, I have the The 530 watt L'EQUIP® Filter Pro. I'm pretty happy with it, although the units with the slide out trays are very popular and some are highly recommended; mine is a stacker. I have yet to buy any of the pack packer or the kayak/canoeist cookbooks, for that matter, but it has been my intention to do just what you intend to do this winter with processing your own camping foods. There is a good article on using dehydrators for kayak camping Sea Kayaker Mag, though I don't have it handy to give you a good reference. Maybe it was a year ago or less, I don't remember. So far I've dried, kiwi's and strawberries. I've made lots of vegan, cheezy kale chips, a recipe I've developed based on Brad's Raw Kale chips. I'll share it with you if you want I've also dried some cooked black japonica rice and fresh red and green peppers too. All, with good results. I have a long way to go and need to have a big enough of a stash to camp for 3 or 4 days by mid-spring. One of my issues with wilderness camping in general is that I have a nutritarian diet ala, Dr. Furhman. This is a long story that I won't go into here in to much depth, discussing diet is a little like discussing sex, or religion, in public. But healthy eating has improved my health a lot and enabled me to get off of the typical medications that middle aged men usually take if eating the Standard American Diet . Plus I'm stronger, faster, and I feel better in general with a healthy diet; I get a lot less colds and sniffles too. Typical processed, wilderness camping food, is way to loaded with fat, sodium, and empty calories for me, it's out of the ballpark. ;-) Instant mac and cheese is just not going to cut if for me. You can see how it's much easier for me to go "glamping" in an RV, pulling a trailer full of kayaks, than to paddle out into the "wilderness" and sleep there. I'm hoping to follow though, put a lot of wear on my dehydrator this winter, and do a lot more camping out of a kayak next year!! Maybe I'll see you out there? Good Luck in Your Endeavor, Sid Cohen

Ugg, I'm out guys, it tried to get the days of but I they couldn't swing it. Have a super time and I'm glad you'll be doing a good deed for MITA and the Coast. Sid

Hey Ferret Lady, Wow, I wish I could join you for that one, I'm over due for some rock'n and rolling practice too. Gotta guide gig up in ME however, but my season is over after next weekend, so maybe then? . What boat did you snag? I'm itch'n to get in my Delphin 155 and helmet again and get real wet. Hoping to camp with an NSPN group on Bang or Jewell next weekend if I can get off of work and home duties, are you interested in that? It's a cleanup effort apart from the normal fun, to help MITA. Sid

I'm still working on my schedule with my wife, but so far I'm a very strong maybe. To quote her, why live one life when you can live two

Hi Rob, I live on Casco Bay, I'm a member of MITA, and I recently attended a fundraiser and I got to meet most of the folks on the Board. I'm very interested, and and if I join you, assuming you'll have me ;-). I'll probably paddle there to meet you guys if conditions allow. However, I have a trip in the works being planned for around that time, but it is still pretty tentative. Of course if I post here I can get e-mail so I can keep up with the discussion. Sid Cohen West Point, Phippsburg, ME

Hi Brenda, I'm glad you added a cord to your skeg fin, it can be pretty helpful. Beware though, they wear off quickly even with Spectra cord. One bit of advice that you might find helpful, is that if or when you drag your boat up on a beach or ramp, drag it by the cockpit combing not by the bow handle. This puts less wear on the cord and my keep pebbles and sand out of your skeg box too. Oil canning, in the context in which I used it, is when a rotomolded polymer boats get large shallow depressions in the hull. This usually comes from leaving it out in the hot sun and sometimes that is not even necessary for it to happen with this type of boat construction. Also having it tied tightly on a trailer, or roof rack when its real hot and sunny out can do the trick. Composite boats don't usually oil can. I just accept it as a trade off for the low coast and maintenance of a plastic boat. I have 4 of them in my family fleet, Including a bright yellow WS Tempest 170. Paddle On Brenda!! Sid

Hi Brenda, I too am not one of your betters. I agree with Ed's list of kayak characteristics that apply to this discussion, The rotomolded Wilderness Systems Tempest 170 was my first boat but I abandoned it to my guests when I discovered it was a too high volume for me, and I needed a more advanced boat, and an easier car topper as I progressed in the sport. So, it is still dear to my hear with all its quirks and oil canning ;-). I also recommend them to new paddlers as an inexpensive boat that can take them much further in to the sport than a WS Tsunami for instance. On a separate but related topic, IMHO, most kayak skegs are a breakdown waiting to happen by poor design. In addition, rotomolded Tempest WS boats are notorious for dysfunctional,easily broken, skegs and the gnarly the efforts needed to repair them; I own two of them my wife paddles a RM Tempest 165 that has the same issues I like to drill an 1/8 in hole in the trailing tip of the skeg fin and tie some Spectra cord on it so I can to pull it down with help from a friend on the water or pull it down on shore if the cable ends up kinked or or the fin is jammed in its box with a pebble. We have a bunch of the WS Tempests and Perception Essence boats were I work and that's what we do to get around continually breaking skegs. As a guide, I find that being able to deploy a skeg on the boats of novice and early beginner paddlers is a big advantage in having them not lose control of their boats on a 1/2 day tour when the breezes kick up just a notch. Once in a while in breezy conditions I'll pull my skeg up and I practice edging my boat in moderate beam and quartering seas just for practice and safety's sake. Paddle on Brenda!! Sid

Thanks Liz, they didn't cover this in my WFR course. ;-)

Of course a backup compass is ALWAYS a must for open coastal navigation. Some of the older local lobstah guys on my cove navigate in heavy fog, by the sound of the break, and the fact that they've been motoring around the New Meadow River and its head waters since they were 7 years old. But, they don't have a boat compass; just another gadget to rust off of the boat. But.... don't try this at home unless you are John Huth ;-) IMHO any good string plotter will work better than a raft of chart potting tools on a kayak deck at sea but Sutherland's Small Boat Nav-Aid looks like the best of them to me and I use it a lot, http://www.enter.net/~skimmer/coastal.html. Only $8.00...gotta be an old web page;, he probably charges more now? Charles River Canoe and Kayak has them for $10 or $12 bucks and it's the only local source of them that I have and I get mine there. They only hold up to rough use for 2 or 3 years, maybe 5? CRCK orders them directly from Dr. Charles Sutherland, one of the fathers of small boating/paddling safety, and he is still alive and kick'n and ship'n'em from PA says Brice.

I don't know if registration is required but you can do it here. http://www.rei.com/event/49775/session/68291?cm_mmc=email_tran-_-event_reg_conf-_-20130304-_-oc_class&RMID=EventReg_v1_20120515&RRID=34278012

This may go without saying but don't forget to register on the REI Website. I'm looking forward to the workshop!!!

Oh I forgot to say that I did the fitness paddle in my Force boat and surfed my wife's WS RM Tempest 165.

Hi Gene, Wish I was there; it was a good day for you. I would have enjoyed the environment and your company is always good! I took a fitness paddle up the New Meadow River, in Mid Coast Maine yesterday. I beat it up in a beeline to Cundy's Harbor on Sebascodagen I. (aka Great I (sp?} from my place on Carrying Place Cove, near West Point, Phippsuburg and had lunch at Holbrooks Wharf. It was closed for the season but they let me have access to their deck and I eat while enjoying the view looking east across the river toward Phippsuburg and Bear Island. That was about a 2.5 kt paddle. When a tail wind I was averaging about 5 kt. and it was close to low slack tide. I then went up toward the N and explored the waters between Great I and Sheep I paddling almost to the south end of Long I. All this is on the west side of the New Meadow R. I then paddled across the river almost to the strait in to the Basin. I paddled back to my place at an at exercise pace along the east bank of the river against the incoming tide and a 10 to 15 kt breeze. I was only able to average about 4 kts but I enjoyed the challenge. This leg took me about an hour. The water was pretty flat but I like that that for a fitness solo paddle. The paddle was about 9.75 kts overall I left about 1:30 PM and I was back before Diane and I had to head up to East Bath and Topsham for some serious shopping at 5 Pm The day before that, last Tues, I was surfing Popham Beach from the State Park. I was concerned about going solo in the 3ft plus waves that day but to my delight John Camody drove down from his place in Boothbay Harbor and went in at the same time I did in one of his short boats. We didn't say much to each other on the water but I felt more secure with him around of course. I have a feeling that some of the waves were bigger than 3 ft or I was just not on some of them in a good position because a few times my bow buried itself into the water about 1 foot deep and I quickly broached. I had some good rides overall and did some awesome side surfing too. I rolled a few more times than usual but never came out of the boat. I was a good day on the water overrall!! Life is good my friend. Sid

Wish I could of been out there with you guys, nice pic's of a rare and awesome nautical event. Sid

Hi CAM-able Leon, I'm pretty sure I'll be to busy with prepping for summer camp to paddle this week. Have fun!!! Sid

Thanks Ya'll

I'm on. Sid

I'll be there at 11am Sid

I screwed up the date but I'll be padding with you today Thursday, 6\ 22 Sid