bob budd

I googled "sanding drum" and these are generally used with electric drills. The Dremel doesn't generate nearly as much torque and has much smaller sanding surface, thus the time. You might find the Dremel lets you get where you cannot with the drill and sanding drum. "Mr Fixit" (Nystrom) is the expert on tools and can confirm or advise otherwise. Ditto on the respirator, working outdoors is a good idea as well - especially with this weather we're having, eh?

UPS generally eschews left hand turns as less safe and (fuel) efficient. Perhaps this is the strategy in your GPS tool.

A Dremel and a grinding wheel would be one way to get rid of excess material. You should be able to get any wheels you need at Home Depot. I have only one boat (Force IV) with its factory seat, the rest have the seats removed in favour of a few layers of foam and a spot for a gel seat. It all started when sciatica had me dragging my numb legs out of the boat at the beach or put-in.

As regards the weasel-otter debate the weasel is more like a squirrel in size while a river otter is much larger, topping out above 3 ft. The sea otter I saw at the north end of the big sur ran with its long body either in a vertical hump or a horizontal arc, then moving not unlike a snake on the beach. In either case land travel appeared a bit uncomfortable. Not sure if river otters are quite as long having only seen one in the Ipswich river reservation but the rolling on the back thing is definitely otter. A delightful story you've told here, thanks.

Makes sense not to try "direct deposit" in the tube, I've never used one. Note that the lock-n-lock container plus litter (and toilet paper) can be emptied directly into the toilet and uses no plastic. Either way LNT is the goal, with no plastic being an added benefit. Because Beverly trash is burned (to generate electricity) I do carry a "trail kit" in my day pack using freezer bags.

I have no idea about the welding tube. We use something entirely different and it works great. A large lock-n-lock container and another container of cat litter. While getting "stuff" out of the container is no walk in the lillies when you get home you can fill it most of the way with water and bleach and invert it after a day or two, then empty the water and flush a couple days later. The containter fits right below the hatch cover and is first thing out in an emergency. Also has a wide flat bottom and provides a slightly larger target than then the tubes discussed above.

GPS is subject to many failure mechanism from visibility to a minimum number of satellites to slow acquisition and so on. Whenever I rent Hertz I refuse their (N)everlost tool. On one occassion it could not find Reading, Pa but did know of Reading, Ma. On another it suggested restaurants in Wyoming and Colorado which was a long way from Florida, where I was driving at the time. During the worst event it could not recover between exits to correct directions and "recalculated" continuously without providing a single suggestion. As for GPS, I haven't used one on the water except when I paddled to the Graves with a school bus tracking node. The mapping software drew a wonderful map of the trip with the school bus icon we used. There was initially a bit of bewilderment why one of the many nodes we had in service had somehow gone digitally astray reporting such a trip.

I remember when you dove to the bottom to retrieve a chart near Bailey Island. I also remember that small RV you cavorted about in. Best of luck.

Al, there is a trip report for this paddle that happened last week. Have a great day.

I repaired my old radio that had a small leak at a screw that allowed enough sea water in to corrode a terminal on an output transistor that drove the speaker. I'm not suggesting you get a schematic like I did and buy the parts from DigiKey. My point is that all radios leak with sufficient time/effort and that you may have a similar fault inside your radio. For the former I would echo some of the other messages regarding making it is easy and inexpensive as possible to replace the radio that will inevitably fail. For the latter you can try to open it up and take a look, sometimes you actually see traces of salt or corrosion that also tell you what hole to plug when you put the radio back together. Consider also that your battery pack or interconnect between battery pack and radio may be at fault. You can inspect and clean contacts, etc. to that end. Best of luck.

http://www.sharkmitigation.com/

As regards lightning you are about as safe out from under the kayak but at the surface of the water as you are under the kayak, given that sea water is a good conductor, while remaining upright in the kayak would be most risky. The risk in the ocean would be more about being unlucky to be above (or near) a bit of rock where the charge might concentrate and invite the lightning That's more or less what we reasoned when we swam, that it was safer than staying on the (rocky) island. We did see the storm coming and got the paddlers off before it hit but also I wanted to bring up that (especially) this time of year the conditions are almost always "good" for t-storms so the weather reports can being to sound the same and one can otherwise become less vigilant.

Glad to see you are enjoying the low hanging fruit I left you, Rick. In case someone has gotten the wrong impression the "twig" is not inherently slower. In fact "twiggers" have been competitive in races like the Blackburn. So if you don't want to spend quite so much money on paddles, and be the envy of "spooners" all over the world, consider making your own paddle and joining the "dark side". - Bill Murray's double

Aside from reducing cadence and effort consider practicing more esoteric strokes, paddling backwards, and doing the odd roll. Also a good time to practice with the storm paddle.

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Paddling against the current with the intent of travelling "up river" a significant distance is best done by taking advantage of any eddies that may appear. A ferry angle is going to increase the distance you paddle to go a given distance. Paddling against a current to cross said current and perhaps make some headway is best done with a ferry angle. Perhaps that was the context of your discussion.

Your understanding of proper method/formation crossing a channel is good. Choosing not to confront others is not uncommon in all walks of life. Enjoy your next paddle.

Yes but you are not guaranteed more on a given device, especially a run-of-the-mill PC or USB expander. Beyond that you don't know if the charger will take longer than expected given the reduced capacity or ask for excess capacity resulting in a shutdown. At this point you don't know what you are going to get which is probably worse than the 2.5W limit.

This time of year, especially with the persistent heat, you are always watching for and expecting pop up thunderstorms. Due to vehicle issues two of us paddled from Pebble Beach and two of walked to Whale Cove and swam out. The paddlers beat the walkers/swimmers but the warm water was not a problem once we reached the cove. Late PM the t-storm formed over Rockport and north and the paddlers skedaddled. We walked around the rocks to the small "bay" facing the land some call the stairs to get a final bead on the weather. From there we decided it was better to be in the water than exposed on the land. The line of dark clouds was approximately bisecting Rockport Harbor and the lightning we saw was northerly. While swimming across we noted a bright line or two followed by the requisite boom, usually a mile or so away. While we were in the water the clouds formed into a circle and then a horseshoe wrapping out over the water and then down the cost a bit as we walked back to pebble viewing an occassional cloud-to-cloud flash and boom.

In case you haven't already tried this path the vendours often have FAQ pages, blogs, and e-mail based Q&A that might not be as fun as a message board but may provide the answers you seek.

... redesign of radios to operate on lower voltages... Without regard to a (small) increase in cost the USB voltage (+5V) does not explicitly determine the ability to charge a battery as this can be accomplished either by design of the battery pack (circuitry) or charger (boosting the 5V as needed). The limits instead are the power available from USB (2.5W) and thus the current and resulting charging time required to restore the batteries. Note also that radio reception fundamentally requires a certain amount of power and thus is not generally well served by reducing operating voltage.

Your GPS should be able to place you with an accuracy of 10-15 ft. On the water you should do very well as there are few obstructions to multiple satellites. In urban environments the buildings get in the way and most of today's systems use accelerometers and dead reckon with similar accuracy, though the accuracy will tend to degrade without access to the satellites now and then.

With kayak camping there is always enough room for a marginally larger synthetic bag. I wouldn't take the risk of a failed bag or other unfortunate accident.

If events follow the last couple days and what is typical for these atmospheric conditions you will see things develop later in the evening so I'd recommend you leave (your house or office) early and often. They've also been closing main parking due to high volume of attendance, not sure how that effects the boat launch parking, etc.

LIke Brian, I also have difficulty feeling sorry for the individual who irresponsibility saddles their family with their loss.

If you plan to go in the water when you get there watch the tides as the beach is very dry at low tide, even when away from the current state of things. Years ago there was another launch at Tuck Point which should still be there. It's "around the corner" with enough on-street parking for one to a few paddlers (at least weekdays) that is much better behaved tidally, though straight across from Salem Willows and thus subject to a bit more traffic.