Suz

10:30 AM Start Time! I noted that on the calendar post but forgot to mention it above.

Quick update on #'s - we are right now at 9 people. Lots of great people have agreed to come and help out which is very much appreciated. While probably cold, it won't be miserable! Don't forget to rsvp on the NSPN calendar! FYI - I will be away Nov 3-11 and so if you e-mail me with questions, please expect a slow response. Suz suz at kayakne dot com

Suz Hutchinson will be conducting the yearly cold water event this year on Sunday, November 15. It will take place at Newbury Kayak and Canoe, 291 High Street (Route 1A), Newbury MA. We will launch from there. Plan to park below the shop and line up the cars against the hill below the shop. When you arrive, you can unload your boats and load up your gear for a trip down the river to Plum Island Sound. We will begin inside the shop and will finish dressing after an indoor discussion. If wearing drysuits, you can wear your “longs” inside. If you choose to wear a wetsuit, best to plan to dress after the inside discussion. Please RSVP on the calendar or to me directly: suz at kayakne dot com This will be done as a "learning on the go" style paddle as was done for the Spring CAM workshop on the water. As we will begin the shop, it is possible to join us for the off water discussion portion only without joining the group for the on water portion. • Review of cold water physiology and clothing; recognizing hypothermia; • Dunk tests • Rescues and tows • Group scenarios; CAM/leadership issues related to cold water; • Warm up practice (on-water and on-shore) • Indoors debrief The paddling will be within level 2 guidelines on NSPN. Please read those: http://www.nspn.org/paddle_levels.htm We would like volunteers (one per 3-4 participants) so that we will not need to limit participants. Please include this in your RSVP if you have attended a cold water workshop in the past and are now looking to help. If you are interested in using a drysuit for the day, Suz will bring Kokatat demo suits and Newbury Kayak will have them available to use also. They will be available on a first come/first serve basis. When rsvp'ing let Suz know if you are hoping to use a drysuit and what size you think you are so she can make note: http://www.kokatat.com/sizing_mens.asp http://www.kokatat.c...zing_womens.asp If planning to use a drysuit, please bring form fitting fleece to wear underneath, wool/fleece socks and closed shoes that can be worn OVER the bulky drysuit sock and your socks. Fleece jackets are too bulky to go underneath a drysuit. Please bring any gloves/hoods/hats/shoes that you have that are extra so that if someone else is missing an article of clothing, they can borrow. Pack a lunch and a hot drink for the day. Note that there is one (super clean) porta potty at the shop. Tide info: Nov 15 – high tide in Plum Island Sound is noted to be 1:09 PM. E-mail or contact me if you have any questions. Thanks, Suz

Karen - DON'T use aquaseal unless you want to void your warranty. Once you aquaseal over an area (or any sealant), Kokatat can no longer review that area for delamination. Of course, you might be at the point with your 16 year old drysuit (purchased 1999) that it is just worn out! If you find after you send it back in that it just needs patching again, then probably it isn't likely to be delaminated and then you could have at it with the aquaseal as needed the next time it needs patching.

Looking forward to doing this. I will have the coast guard/thick gaskets and sizes of gaskets to try on. Suz

It seems that David has tried all the "recommended" solutions. There really is no ideal solution. I do use a pair of old prescription or readers but put them on a croakie/tether. Much less likely to lose them. BUT, the downside is that there usually end up being too many tethers between, hats, sunglasses and the readers. Sometimes it is easier to go with a wide brim helmet, skip the sunglasses and have small glasses that allow you to do distance over the lens and down the nose at the chart. I have used the card reader as Brian suggested but primarily as an addition to the above when the old glasses/readers were just not enough - mainly at night. Usually it just takes too long to pull them out. I suppose you could put a hole through a corner and tether to your map case. that might make it a bit easier. I usually have my protractor also tethered to the map case (but most people don't use it on the water...) so I wouldn't want to tether that too.

Well done! Congratulations

What a wonderful trip you had! Seeing your pictures and reading the day to day travel log brings back memories. Especially of the Ramsey Island circumnav! I remember being the last one making it around the corner and thinking that if I was just a few minutes later, I wouldn't have made it around. When that current turns, it is like a giant door swinging and slamming shut! I just made it by the skin on my teeth! Glad that John didn't abscond with your camera for the whole of the trip!

Our Newfoundland trip in June this year is about the coldest I want to cold water camp and paddle. Daytime temps were usually in the 50's with some reaches to 60. Snow was on the ground in places and the night temp temps were cold enough for frost on the ground in the mornings. My thermarest wasn't up to the job of keeping the cold from coming up from the ground. I needed to add two of the chair mats under the floor of my tent to provide extra insulation. I didn't think of this on the first two nights - just kept adding clothes and it didn't work. My legs were so cold I was getting cramps in the night. I found if you sleep cold at night, you don't stand a chance of staying warm during the day. All cooking was reheating previously dehydrated meals - that made it easier for food preparation. There wasn't a lot of chopping/prepping with cold fingers. One really super thing about camping in June in Newfoundland was that the sun didn't set until after 9:40 or so. Not sure I would be happy with daylight ending before 6... As for mitts - too warm for me but Kokatat makes these: http://kokatat.com/products/gloves-and-mitts/inferno-padling-mitt.html I will bring a pair to the upcoming scheduled gasket demonstration at Newbury Kayak: http://www.nspn.org/forum/topic/10842-gasket-workshop-at-newbury-kayak/

WOW - that is an amazing dress. I can't imagine the work that went into it. Congratulations Rick!

OMG - yet another thing Brian and I agree on!! This is exactly what my physical therapist explained. What I do now is make a ginger/turmeric "tea" and drink it daily. Just grate the ginger and fresh turmeric into the hot water and drink it regularly. Supposedly it is a very potent anti inflammatory without the side effects of ibuprofen.

Cost of a wrist gasket $17.00 Cost of Kokatat replacing your wrist gasket $39 plus shipping Cost to learn how to DIY $0 I will do a gasket changing at Newbury Kayak and Canoe in October (they are working on their calendar), most likely it will be a Thursday night). The plan is to change one gasket on a garment brought in by a customer. If nobody brings in something they want to change out, then I will use one of my demo suits. (If more than one person brings in a garment, then we can draw names from a hat or something to decide who gets there gasket done. The plan will be to have all the gaskets there and so you can try them on and see how they feel PRIOR to being installed on the suits. This is a good opportunity to try the coast guard/thick gaskets on in person. Personally, I wouldn't recommend just living with the pressure on the nerve if it is occurring - it can cause numbness and tingling and severe discomfort on the water. Do something to prevent it whether it is trimming, stretching or replacing.

And this one, I can agree with! I was going to suggest this also. Yakima also makes a load bar for the side - it pulls out from the bar and there is a large (Ish) handle that you use to lock it in position - whether you lock it open or closed. I only mention it as it is super noisy when it is in one position but quiet when it is a quarter turn away from that position. You may try padding out the cross bar in an area - mine round bars are padded with the surf style pads that velcro on and then I zip tie them to be more secure. I think that when I padded my bar, it quieted down. Funny story is that I brought my car in for a "noise" that I heard coming from the back rear of the car. The dealer took it for a spin and came back and said it was the roof rack. So, I took the roof rack off and then he could hear the noise. The thing is that I don't notice the that my roof rack is that noisy. I think he was just willing to blame the noise I heard to the rack until I took it off. Yakima does make the "Whispabar" which has a different profile altogether. It may be that you need that instead of the round bars on your car.

Brian - we are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one.... Your asking me to stop telling people it can't be done or doesn't work would be the same as me saying it to you.... Your belief is that trimming has solved your issues. My belief is that there is a better way to solve the issue. So, every year you can tell people your method and every year I will tell people the other choices.

There are two styles of wrist gaskets - straight or conical. Straight gaskets are shaped like a funnel and have a part that bellows out and then the couple of inches of straight gasket. Trimming this still will provide all the contact in a more narrow band and will usually feel worse, not better. It also usually doesn't provide enough contact to maintain watertight seal. So straight gaskets are not meant to be trimmed. It is usually better to simply stretch these. Make sure they are not dried out (gray/powdery), apply 303 and wipe off per directions, then pull the gasket over a beer bottle and leave on for a week or so and then try the gasket on. It is usually more comfortable. If not, swap out the size small gaskets for large. If the large aren't big enough - go to the conical gaskets. Conical gaskets are shaped like a traffic cone. On the inside of the gasket there are concentric lines. These are trimming lines. Try on the gasket and if too tight, take off, turn inside out, trim between the lines and take off one line at a time. Too much happens too quickly, so really, one line at a time. When ordering the conical shaped gaskets from Kokatat they are referred to as "thick" gaskets or Coast Guard gaskets as they go in all the CG drysuits. On the inside of every gasket from Kokatat is a size and date (month/year). Take a look if you aren't sure what size gaskets you have on your suit.

I get this with a drysuit and/or gloves. One way to alleviate is to use a larger gasket or install what is called "thick" or Coast Guard Gaskets which are conical shaped. The larger gasket or conical shaped do have less pressure or less contact area so it is a trade off - sometimes my sleeves get wet if I am sloppy about my undergarments sticking under the gasket. They are also a little more difficult to install as they want to "creep" up during the installation process. These are available from Kokatat and are stocked in two places - Newbury Kayak and Canoe and Osprey. BOTH of these retailers will either sell them to you for DIY or they will swap yours out for a fee. You can also have done by Kokatat when sending in for other repairs. Small wrists don't usually do well in the conical shaped thick gaskets and do better in the larger sized gasket if they aren't too big. You can stop in at either of those shops and just try on the gaskets. Suz

Jason - why do you have a Q boat? That's the real question...

Gary, if you were interested, you could just go and take the exam. Your experience and background would probably suffice. I didn't take the class and just took the exam. I did have to retake the oral portion as I was nervous and made an error in my calculation but was consistently off - basically I forgot to give magnetic. I did the written that same day and just had to retake the oral without my error. I wouldn't recommend that approach to someone who wasn't a true kayaker and couldn't navigate...

Other than preventing the invasive species transfer - no need to wash your boat. If you are on fresh water and you are getting water line staining, that might be a good reason to get a bucket of water and give it a scrub. Your best bet though is to sponge that off right while you are in the water still. Removes it before it has a chance to stain. I think it is from pollens and tannins in fresh water. When I first got into kayaking, I lived in a high rise and the boat was always on the car. I would go to a car wash and wash it off there (and also the roof of the car). Really though - I shouldn't have bothered. It was new and so was I and people told me I should wash it... I only wash my boats now after a long camping trip - inside and out. Mainly because they look better afterwards and cleans out the hatches from any camping debris.

Hey Peter Brady - side note here - I'm showing up as a guest. It appears my membership check from early May didn't get cashed! Do you still have it? Suz

I think Pintail brings up some good points. BUT, I wonder what the boat cost new back in 1994 was. 15 years ago, I paid $2000 for a new fiberglass boat. What would it have been 6 years prior? Cost to refurbish the old boat? New hatch covers, new deck lines, new bungies and fiberglass, Epoxy? And really, you still have a Current Designs Solstice GT. BTW, have you paddled the boat? Is it even water tight enough to paddle it? Is it currently waterproof? Maybe the hatches are shot so you can't even tell... What about the hatches themselves, perhaps they need to be replaced. On a sunny day, put the boat on saw horses and turn it upside down. Stick your head inside the hatches and see how much daylight you can see coming through. It might give you an idea of how much work you will need to do. Truthfully, I heard tell of a 10 year old Brit boat in good condition going for $300 recently at a reputable shop. I really think that your neighbors should just be happy they don't have to haul the boat off to the landfill themselves. BTW, I haven't heard of any Cetus MV's going for $1600 although Pintail thinks they may have. That model in particular is hard to find used. On your pros - I don't think that this boat really has much resale value even if you put $200 or so into it, I don't think you will get $500 for it used.

What a lucky man!

Quick synopsis... One in the group will be writing a trip report. He hasn't yet done so. I'm not a very good writer so I avoid it whenever possible. Best news is that the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland (Quirpon Island is the most northern tip), seems not to have ANY black flies at the beginning of June. All the locals told us that but we were skeptical but really had none. Mosquitoes were barely existent, but perhaps just that it was so COLD that they weren't out yet. I will write a quick report on our trip and post it on the message board shortly. Suffice to say - on the Northern Peninsula there will be more trips by our group of paddlers! We really loved it and especially so because there were NO bugs!

Should have mentioned that this service is offered to anyone who buys their drysuit through a New England retail store. Also rentals are available through Newbury Kayak and Canoe. They have a wide assortment and might just have one with a relief zipper!