Adam Bolonsky

Launch from the ramp at the Greasy Pole on Gloucester's inner harbor and paddle five or six miles west to Kettle Island off Magnolia, a good place to snorkel and swim. No bailouts enroute, so a level 2+ trip. Landing at Kettle is tricky: rocky and slippery. But the rocks are nice to have lunch on. Saturday, 6/23. Meet at 10:30 for an 11:00 shove off. Free parking on the boulevard.

6/16. Sorry about the oversight.

Bay View/Lanesville to Rockport's innermost harbor by way of Halibut Point and Folly Cove. We'll pull in at Moore's Lobster Shack in Rockport Harbor (Bearskin Neck) for lobster in the rough (about $10; pull up an empty crate on the back deck to sit on), then maybe on over to Straitsmouth or perhaps Flat Rocks to swim and lounge. Level 3 trip for distance and lack of bailouts enroute. Meet at 10:00 for a 10:30 shoveoff. Room for ten paddlers/five cars. Email me for particulars about the put in.

Looks like we have critical mass: David, me, Dee, Bob, possibly a couple of Wild Turkeys. I might be able to bring along a zodiac with a 15-horse to get down to business faster on the fish on Sunday. Anyone checked Nickerson yet for availability?

Staying at Nickerston State Park the night before is a possibility, to cut down on the driving and butt-busting. Of course, if someone from NSPN has access to a Cape house, that would make things more interesting. Launch from the Morris Island Causeway and paddle the west side of the Monomoys to the extreme south tip of South Monomoy Island. Or launch from Hardings Beach, to cut down on the distance by a mile or two, if the summertime regs haven't yet kicked in. On the way, stop to hike in to the abandonned lighthouse. Although a lot of elephant seals feed in the rip, this isn't a east side up-the-Southway seals trip. The tip of South Monomoy has fastwater and gets rough, but there's almost always an eddy to duck into. Trip's best suited for fit paddlers who have long boats. A long day on the water, but a lot of poking around on the flats and hanging around on the south tip of the island. Last weekend the tip waters were loaded with bluefish. Predicted winds over 15 knots the night before cancel. The trip is a literal pain in the ass if the wind is up and from the southwest on the leg out. Post your interest here.

>Hey, Adam: > >Sounds like fun. Did you decide on a launch site? > >--David. The trip is a definite -- we'll launch by preference from the beach, as it's cheaper. If no spaces then over to Granite Pier. Otherwise paddlers can reconnoitre with us via vhf 72 at 10:30 a.m. I'll be on callsign "Adam." By the way, give me a call if you want to carpool. Only issue is I need to leave Cape Ann by 6:30, but on the other hand not much earlier either...because after all, once you're on Cape Ann why rush to leave?

Launch from Rockport's Granite Pier or Back Beach to paddle to the offshore Sandy Bay Breakwater, wet and dry Salvages and Thachers Island. Meet at 10:00, launch at 10:30. Bring a $1 or two if you want to climb the lighthouse at Thachers. Long day, but as much hanging around as paddling. Be comfortable in rough water and breaking waves. If you launch from Granite Pier, best to car pool, as the town charges to launch from the ramp. Back Beach has all day metered parking. But best to carpool, as the spaces sometimes get taken by early morning scuba divers. Winds over 18 knots cancel.

Humbling in lots of ways, not the least of which the way the video is compiled and edited: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7...=this+is+warren

Video of the two guys plucked out of Bellingham Bay by a Coast Guard rescue swimmer and flight mechanic last December. I added subtitles: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7...414857061&hl=en The letterbox size squeezes the dimensions, but so far google video is the only vid service that plays embedded caption streams. Flight mechanic was Joel Pomerinke, AST (swimmer) was Brooks Brannan. Got a story on the rescue forthcoming for WaveLength's summer issue. BTW, the latest issue of WaveLength is now online.

Sunday, May 20, 10:30 am from Cohasset Harbor to Minots Ledge and waters north. Level 3, RSVP if you plan on coming: adambolonsky at yahoo dot com. Check wtpaddlers.org for details. You have to be registered on their message board to read the trip listings. Or just read the trip description on right hand side of the home page.

Monomoy! Oh Monomoy! Only a year ago! http://www.town.chatham.ma.us/Public_Docum...or/southwaypics

thanks for the addition links, Jason.

Hey Bob, for what it's worth, and since you're a guide, consider a VHF with DSC and MMSI. It's the coming way the CG plans to implement ch. 70 for DSC automated broadcasts of distress calls. The MMSI would include your boat name and description; the DSC could then also be programmed to automatically transmit your lat. and long. in conjunction with the distress call. Weird thing is however, the FCC hasn't yet added to the MMSI descriptors anything that would identify your boat as a kayak. Makes me wonder why Andrew McCauley wasn't equipped with a DSC radio on his trip.

Here's the link to the Monomoy kmz file I wrote. It contains most all of the landmarks and channels I've become familiar with over the years. What's missing are marks for the two water towers in Chatham, marked for pilots, that are among the most reliable ways to keep yourself oriented. http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Ca...vc=1#Post856996

As was reported last fall, the South Beach gap and channel which used to make it possible to circumnavigate South Monomoy has sanded over. Launching from Morris Island and traveling the Southway no longer leads to open ocean, at least not without a 60-yard or so portage. Karen Gladstone and Leslie Beale and I hiked the entire length of South Beach to the new closure, then hiked west to set foot on and take a break on South Monomoy on the bluff that overlooks Hospital Pond. The sand bridge is very wide, substantial, thick and bulky, but still raw sand. There's no vegetation yet. It's a huge dry berm. A 14- or so foot pilot whale was washed up dead on the berm, truculent and heavy, thick-skinned, black and solid with that distinctive dolphin-like dorsal fin and whale's fluke. Moreover, the old marked channel that lead to the gap is growing ever shallower and filled in. An odd sensation, to step foot on South Monomoy and see in the distance the cap and crown of the abandonned lighthouse four or five miles down beach, a destination that had once seemed so remote and mysterious. The roundtrip hike from Morris Island down the east side of South Beach, then west to the island and back, took about six hours, including a long nap in the sun and some desultory birdwatching. I'll be curious to see that happens to the reliable and deep channel that runs between the two Monomoys.....Also I'm curious to see what will happen to the details of the Google Earth file I wrote for the area: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Ca...art=&PHPSESSID=

I got a few emails from kayakers asking for more hints. Here's choices for the symbols: 1. Coastal Maine so-called un-landable Bold Coast 2. Block Island's southern shore (clay cliffs) 3. Monomoy Island 4. Any beach along Cape Cod Bay 5. any beach along the east side of the Cape Cod National Seashore 6. The scarpy areas of Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands

, 1993 The longer you watch the worse it gets, especially after it changes from narration to music soundtrack. Aye-yie-yie.....

The CG will issue a securite on 16 if the weather is about to turn to hell (say huge thunderstorms.) They'll tell you where the storms are and where they are headed. (Heard one of these two years ago in Duxbury Bay. Two huge systems collided near Taunton.) However, the securite will tell you to switch to 22a to hear the details. These calls don't happen on 9. So here's a strategy if traveling in a group on a hot day in August when the sky to the west starts to look monstrous: You monitor your group's working channel AND 16 (most radios allow multiple channel scans). One paddler, rather than the entire group, has the job of making the channel switch to listen on 22a for the details. That way the group at large doesn't lose contact with one another. Alternatively, ask one in your group to monitor 16 for a likely weather securite. If they hear one they switch to 22a to hear the details. They then hustle up the group's 72 or 68-watchers to give them the heads up. It's a good strategy that keeps your bases covered. (note: the below is my signature line. If it causes a lot of friction I guess I'll remove it.):

Thanks for saving me the effort, Rick. I can remember using a securite call off Rockport when NSPN was running rescue drills. We put out a securite to let others know we weren't in trouble but were practicing rescues. Much later in the day I headed up to swim in one of the quarries in Dogtown. Parked on the street. Walked past the house where, I'll be damned, the Rockport day duty harbormaster was sitting on the porch talking to his friends. I overheard him say he'd taken our securite call that morning. I went up to talk to him. He said they appreciated the call: once or twice eyeballing Rockport shoreside residents have telephoned in rescue calls when they've seen kayakers floundering around offshore. One time it was truly necessary. The harbormaster Rosemary Lesch showed up off Straitsmouth with a rescue ring and heave line. Anybody else have radio anecdotes? I've got several more, including stuff from the Outer Banks, from Muskeget with Mark Stephens, etc.

For calls below the mayday level the CG usually asks you to switch over to 22a to keep 16 clear for any other emergency that might come up while they're dealing with you. It can be disconcerting when they ask you to do so. Helps to be ready mentally for the request. Often they used to ask, on hearing you're a kayaker, whether you have a radio that allows you to switch over to 22a. But less so these days, seeing that even the cheapest VHF's hold 22a. For securite you really need to give your alternate channel to work on (72, 68, etc.), as you need to leave 16 clear for others. Anyone have ch. 16 radio anecdotes to tell?

Here's one help: Check the color scheme of the pot buoys in the water around you. If a lobster boat is at least visible, you'll know if he's eventually going to head your way: all lobster boats carry roofside a duplicate pot (buoy). If that pot matches the ones near you, he's likely coming your way at some point. Won't work in fog though. But the securite call helps in well-known transit areas. Say the passage off Eastern Point, Gloucester where the coast lifts east towards Thachers. Or say inner Boston Harbor when passing from the sugarbowl at Pleasure Bay over to Thompson. Make a securite call there and you'll likely be heard and if heard probably barked at too by some schmoe. But at least your presence will be known. Even if lobstermen aren't always monitoring 16, most other boats can, are, and will.

An NSPN event a few years back in Newburyport with the Coast Guard pretty much proved it on an informal basis: don't count on it. Three years ago the Maine Sea Grant Extension at the College of the Atlantic proved it on an exhaustive basis: don't count on it regardless of what you're equipped with in terms of metal reflectors. In the two minutes a boat has to distinguish us from clutter and chaff we will have collided. pdf link (you'll need a good half hour to wade through it): http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/extension/coastcom/raref.htm Best defense: securite calls on VHF 16 that reference your working channel. The calls work even if they make listeners impatient.

Try http://www.motionbased.com and http://www.garmin.com/products/forerunner301/ You'll need a garmin gps and a heart rate monitor. Training's a matter of interval 10's and 20's, 20's and 10's, etc. Raises your aneorobic threshhold, but only after you lay down base endurance. Basically, the same training principles runners and cyclists use: LSD (long slow distance) to increase endurance and lactic threshold, then interval sprint training for max V02, speed, and lactic acid flushing. Spin classes work equally as well if the instructor is good: i.e., combines long hard climbs with sprint recoveries. It's hard boring work and requires upwards of 5 to 6 hours a week, more if you want to go nutcase. The benefit is one loses weight and maybe lives longer with a healthier cardiovascular system. But then again Jim Fixx died of heart disease.

Hi Gene, I'd say this one for sure was done up as a joke. But the idea of a c02-inflatable keep-you-above-water level device sure is intriguing, all kidding aside. Nonetheless, the post by Ignacio almost got me to split my pants laughing.

A ladies' version follows soon, let's hope bedecked in a Speedo. Thong version is extra. For my money, I appreciate the use of SOLAS tape for better groping-, err, visibility, at night. http://onkayaks.squarespace.com/journal/20...le-force-i.html