*what if* gear

[jeffcasey]

We've seen bits & pieces of this before. Does anybody feel like compiling a list of "what if" gear?

Here are a few things that I ***ALWAYS*** have within reach (knee tube, under-deck bag, under bungees, or on PFD):

(of course)

pump & paddle float

flares

vhs

mirror

whistle

flashlight

chart/map

compass (spare, not the deck mount one)

water

(plus, the ones I see folks sometimes omitting...)

conditions/tides/local emergency #s jotted onto the chart

backup comm (usually cell phone in under-deck bag)

emergency sugar

gloves (in addition to whatever I'm wearing)

neoprene cap (in addition to whatever I'm wearing)

flashlight (actually usually two - small one in pfd pocket, and good headlamp in under-deck bag)

plastic trash bags & bungees for emergency hatch cover replacement

I'm always refining the list, and trying to add things without sacrificing comfort or dexterity. And, of course, we're always trying to keep our decks clear while keeping everything but the kitchen sink within reach. (A truly hopeless goal)

We had a thread on this last year, and Liz and other folks did a demo (at REI I think?) on how to stash gear within reach. (This is a real burden on those of us who don't have day hatches.) Does somebody want to rehash what they've learned? Any new tricks or advice? A lot of new folks to the club this year - there have to be some fresh ideas on this problem? How can we help Mark keep writing (safely) about great adventures at MV while keeping his headlamp and trashbags within grasp at all times?

[markstephens]

Well, Jeff, the trash bags and spare bungees are a great idea, but two things I'll be doing with the new hatch cover are:

1. Glue 1/4"-1/2" minicell to the underside for flotation

2. Drill a small hole in the edge and attach a tether

I don't have a day hatch or any secure storage in my cockpit, so I have to be very sparing in what I choose to have within reach. And on camping trips, unfortunately, gear gets shuffled around a bit and isn't configured as handily as it is on daytrips. I probably need to invest in a waterproof headlamp so that I can carry it in the PFD.

Other "always at hand" gear:

>Towbelt or throwbag

>Spare Paddle

>Rescue sling

>Rescue knife

Other "always on board" gear:

>Light sticks

>First Aid Kit

>Boat repair kit (includes a roll of tape that can cover a hatch)

>Emergency shelter/space blanket

>Multi-tool or Swiss Army-style knife

>Emergency food

>Hot liquids (for cold weather paddling)

>Spare water

>Dry change of warm clothes

I'm sure I'm forgetting something

Good idea for a useful thread to review this stuff.

Mark

[JohnHuth]

Any opinions on GPS?

In times when you might expect a sea-fog, I have waypoints programmed, and have a dead-reckoning set of legs with both compass headings (already taking out declination) and paddle times for each leg (in case the GPS dies - redundancy also gives confidence). I put the dead-reckoning bearings on a piece of paper inside my chart-folder. If you're doing a crossing and get socked in by the fog, having the GPS slowly tick off the distance to a way point can be a great morale booster.

GPS can also give your absolute speed and bearing. If you're worried about the effect of tide or wind, it can tell you your true headway.

John

[markstephens]

Hi John: I'm not sure if your question was addressed specifically to me or not, but I personally don't own a GPS, and have mixed feelings about them. It seems that all too often they tend to conk out on people just about when you really want them. And I think people use them in lieu of learning and practicing navigation skills. On the other hand, there are some crossings that I wouldn't personally try without somebody in the group having one. For example, I want to paddle to Nantucket next year, but the 7.5 mile crossing from MV to Muskeget Island, across the Muskeget Channel, where currents run up to four knots, is not something I would try using dead reckoning. Muskeget Island is only fourteen feet high at its highest point, and not very big - pretty easy to miss I would think.

Just my opinion, of course.

Mark

[djlewis]

>If you're doing a

>crossing and get socked in by the fog, having the GPS slowly

>tick off the distance to a way point can be a great morale

>booster.

Doesn't GPS fail in thick fog... the receiver can't "see" the satellites. I think that Alex and Andrew found that little flaw on their MITA trip last year. Their report certainly opened my eyes wide -- GPS doesn't work when you need it most.

Nevertheless, I just acquired one! But it's for the car and hiking as well as paddling. In fact, connected to my computer yesterday on vacation in New Orleans, it quickly got me un-lost and pointed the way to where I was going. Among other paddling uses, I can also see it helping you to find and then retrace a route through a complicated marsh.

That said, I'm personally not giving even one little bit up on maintaining and improving my piloting and navigation skills. I will still ~always~ carry a good printed chart, Nav-Aid and standard compass on my deck, in addition to those two sets of spare batteries. (I notice that Steve Meynard at MIKCo carries a chart when piddling around Peak's for a class or assessment, even though he undoubedly knows tht area as well as his own living room.)

So I guess I'm voting for chart and compass as must-haves, and not for GPS. I might add Nav-aid but I guess you can probably improvise there if necessary.

--David

[jason]

I am not sure I would put a GPS as a must have, but it is definitely a nice item to have. Electronics's seem to know just when you need it most as that is when it will fail. A chart and compass fits with the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) unlike a GPS.

I have never had an issue with rain, fog, snow the only time that I have issues getting a position fix is when I am in the city. As long as the GPS can see enough of the horizon it will get a position fix, solid objects such as mountains, buildings, overpasses etc will make it more difficult to impossible to get a location fix.

-Jason

[donperry]

"Doesn't GPS fail in thick fog... the receiver can't "see" the satellites. I think that Alex and Andrew found that little flaw on their MITA trip last year. Their report certainly opened my eyes wide -- GPS doesn't work when you need it most."

I've recorded about two hundred paddle trips with a GPS over the last four years. Some of these have been in dense fog without any data interruption. Fog does not block the GPS signal but water drops pooling over the antenna can. I've had fishing reels, tackle kits, cameras and bridges interrupt or alter the data stream. A waterproof case meant for protecting the GPS unit can collect more water droplets close to the antenna than the exposed receiver would. Water will roll off and away from the antenna when it's mounted at an incline. Keeping the receiver in a PFD pocket is a sure way to interrupt the signal.

I mount the receiver in various positions at the front of the cockpit. It swings either where I can see the LCD or under the foredeck and out of sight. It continues to receive through the spray skirt or under a Kevlar or roto-molded hull. Notably, the carbon-Kevlar hull of a Currituck blocked or wildly altered the signal every time I positioned the receiver under the fore deck.

GPS has worked out very well for me when I needed it most, particularly at night in surf zones and in fog.

http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/gpsintrees.html

[JohnHuth]

I wasn't suggesting that one use GPS as a crutch, but rather it can add some useful redundancy.

I don't recall a time when mine had failed, however - even in thick fogs and bad rains. Certainly, given enough sheilding, the satellite signals can be blocked.

It can also save time if you have to call for help. If you're calling, and give an SAR team your longitude and latitude, they can find you much more rapidly than if have a vague "Oh, about a mile off of Crow Point..." Search and rescue becomes "resuce" with no "search".

Another good use is in calibrating the wind-drift speed of your kayak. In different wind conditions, I've frequently allowed myself to drift and used the true velocity from the GPS to create a "kayak drift as a function of wind speed" chart. Every kayak is different in how the wind can affect it, and having some sense of the lee-way you should allow in a crossing can be very handy.

That said, I carry a hand compass (to get bearings on the chart) and have a deck mount for steering. As I said earlier - I also have some notes on headings and times on paper, so I can use that for dead-reckoning in the fog. My primary navigation is the traditional coastal piloting you might find in Burch's book, but I've even gone to the extreme of going compass-less to develop more intuitive skills.

Example: calibrate the angle subtended by your hand with your arm outstretched (like a kamal) - how many degrees is a full span? a fist? a finger (pick one...) etc.

But, I carry a GPS because it's light, gives some more margin of redundancy, it's always worked, but if it fails, I'm ready, if, for some reason, the compass fails, I'm ready. If both the compass and the GPS fail, I'm ready.

Maybe the bottom line is that I'm a nerd, and gadgets are required equipment for my ilk.

John

[christopherG]

your ideas and debate about navigation are laudable; but do get used to employing the correct terminology, so that navigators will understand you -- not just NSPNers: thus -- such phrases as "true headway" mean nothing to me -- rather use "track" or, sometimes, "track made good" (as in heading and track -- i this is what you mean?) mr. burch uses that terminology, i apologise: that would be a case of a trans-atlantic difference of usage...

what on earth is a "kamal"? never have i heard that word before and neither can i guess?

GPS does not, indeed, need "to see enough of the horizon" -- it needs no horizon at all. it works adequately enough on the darkest of nights; it works adequately enough at 40 000' and it works adequately enough in cloud -- as someone wrote somewhere above, it requires only satellite contact.

mark, you shouldn't miss muskeget: it's all of roughly 100 acres and the highest point is probably more than 14': there is a house at the western end of it (and a shack at the eastern end).

as for going compass-less: that may be good for practising dead-reckoning; but my compasses are permanently affixed to my boats (with non-ferrous bolts, of course) and that is the way i believe they should be. somehow, compasses strapped on to the foredeck with bungees are not my idea of proper toools for the job (but as everyone knows, i'm opinionated!)

[JohnHuth]

From a dictionary of navigation:

-----------------------------------------------------------------

heading. The horizontal direction in which a vehicle is pointed, expressed as an angle between a reference line and the line (hull) extending in the direction the vehicle is pointed, usually measured clockwise from the reference line.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Typically the "reference line" is true north (but could be local magnetic). At a given point - say- upon starting a crossing, you decide that, given current and wind information that you want to proceed at an angle of 55 degrees with respect to true north. This is your heading. I thought this was standard terminology? I'll have to go back to my copy of Bowditch to see how they define it, but that's what I've been used to and have managed to converse with others without looks of bewilderment...maybe they just thought I was crazy (which wouldn't be unprecedented).

A kamal is a stick that was employed by Arabian sea farers to estimate angles. In a simple incarnation, it could be a ruler tied to the end of a string - you hold a knot tied to the string in your mouth and look at the ruler. By knowing the length of the string and the markings on the ruler, you can use this as a crude way of estimating angles.

While employed by Arabians as a crude astrolabe (measuring the height of stars), you can also use this for coastal piloting.

Example - you know that a given mountain, or feature is a certain height (e.g. a lighthouse). Using the kamal, or equivalent technique, you can figure out the vertical angle that the lighthouse subtends. The angle plus the known height of the object gives you a distance. If you know the horizontal bearing to the object, then you know your precise location.

Rather than create a home-made kamal, you can put markings on your paddle - or get a calibration for the angles that your outstretched hand/fist/finger subtends and use this as a crude kamal.

There are a number of "rules" of thumb (no pun intended...well, maybe...) that you can easily memorize to allow you to use this for coastal piloting.

Best,

John Huth

[JohnHuth]

Here's a link to a glossary of marine terms:

http://www.ican.nf.net/marineglossary_2.htm

The distinction between "track" and "heading" as I understand it - the track is the intended and past path of a ship, while "heading" is a direction that you want to keep your ship headed - typically a compass direction. "Bearing" is the compass direction to a given landmark (or seamark..).

Here are the definitions from the website:

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Track

The intended path and past path of the ship. When used in conjunction with ECDIS, additional terminology related to track can include:

planned route (planned track) intended path

past track past path

cross-track distance distance right or left of intended path.

Heading

The direction in which the longitudinal axis of a craft is pointed, usually expressed in degrees from north (true, magnetic, or compass). Also, the instantaneous direction of a vessel’s bow. It is expressed as the angular direction relative to north, usually 000º at north, clockwise through 359º. Heading should not be confused with course. Heading is a constantly changing value as a vessel yaws back and forth across the course due to the effects of sea, wind, and steering error. Heading is expressed in degrees of either true, magnetic, or compass direction.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[kate]

What if?

I'd suggest an american flag, in case of beaching on previously undiscovered land. Beads and trinkets if land is inhabited by natives.

water wings with official nspn logo. Swim with style.

laser pen for blinding pirates (or victims, depending on which you are). Water noodles for close combat.

fishnet stockings - dual purpose: 1) use as fishing net in case of marooning on uninhabited island, 2) sure way to attract attention of Coast Guard guys for rescue. Caution: do not use for #1 before using for #2!

pork rinds, cheetos or other nonperishable disguises for salty fat.

pipe and waterproof matches (in case of drifting to Jamaica)

lg sheet of paper for folding emergency origami tent

kate

[Dee Hall]

LOL!

[Bill Gwynn]

Thanks for the laugh Kate!

[jeffcasey]

then there is the timeless classic:

a deck of cards: when all else fails, sit on the beach and play solitaire...inevitably, somebody will come along and peer over your shoulder to tell you to play the red ten on the black jack...

[eneumeier]

I do carry a deck of cards.

:-))

Liz N.