Gcosloy

I recently had a conversation with an ACA coach about encountering strong current to paddle against. He advised ferrying. As an example one enters the Piscataqua from Pierces Island and the current is close to max after high tide. You need to paddle south but find the current daunting. So you ferry back and forth perhaps maintaining 45 degrees for each leg and thereby cutting the current force in half. Does this make sense-zig-zagging your way south? Has anyone done this? Aside from the dangers of boat traffic, this seems like a plan.

Did you check to see if there was a nearby beanstalk too?

This article in the Portsmouth Herald conveys the spirit of Ann Colcord and how much of a loss her death will be to her friends and community. http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20130626-NEWS-306260369

I'm with Brian and Bob on this one: First of all empathy and sympathy regardless of fault from the Face Book crowd who neither know the victim or the circumstances seems oh so courrant. She was reported not to be wearing her PFD-nuf said! We are not blaming her just vetting some anger and frustration that this just seems to happen too frequently. Shame has gone out of style and perhaps should be brought back-highway deaths due to alcohol or distracted driving that leads to roadside memorials and sympathy for the victims does nothing to advance the state of safer driving. And we, a serious kayak community committed to safety on the water should take the opportunity to remind the rest of the kayaking public that there are ways to minimize accidents and deaths on the water. Expressions of sadness and empathy aren't enough.

Great pics David & Lisa (wasn't that the name of a movie in the early '70s) Salem Sound is such a special place which your pictures captures so well.

Brenda, I think you waited to long for this disclosure. Had you posted this a week ago I'm sure there would have been loaners offered up. Many NSPN members are happy to share. I'm a medium male and use a large farmer John for comfort and a paddle jacket over after I go in the water. Its the evaporative cooling that usually gets you uncomfortable. If this shoe fits you're welcome to wear it!

Wonderful report Pru-I wish I could have joined you. Shari-Thanks for the pictures, they are great.

Paul-drama is good! Why else do we put to sea in narrow boats and rough water and practice rescues? Yes, its not the civil rights march. While marchers were getting beaten and murdered in the South I was safe in Ohio in my college dorm watching the news and feeling guilty that I did not participate. (I was scared!) Perhaps my enthusiasm for protest is to help expiate that lingering guilt.

Interested in joining this trip.

PORTSMOUTH — Organizers of the annual Sail Portsmouth festival announced Monday that the U.S. Coast Guard Eagle will be the star of the show this summer. The Eagle, known as “America's Tall Ship,” will be the only ship in this year's festival — slated for the weekend of Aug. 2-4. The New London, Conn.-based ship is a training vessel for U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadets and officer candidates. The ship was last in Portsmouth four years ago. Donald Coker, chairman of the Piscataqua Maritime Commission, said this year the 300-foot, three-masted barque will tie up to the main pier at the Port of New Hampshire's Market Street Terminal. There will be a parade of ships accompanying the Eagle starting outside the harbor at 4:00PM Friday August 2nd. Since slack water is predicted around 4:45, the Piscataqua current should be damped down. Plan on leaving Frisbee Wharf at 3:30 and travel down the harbor to meet the flotilla. Paddle up the Piscataqua as far as Pierce Island and enter the back channel (north of Seavey Island) and paddle back to the put-in. Meet at Wharf 3:00PM

If I knowingly or unknowingly break the law I'm judged to be a perp and subject to fines, arrest or both. If on the other hand I'm in a position to make the law, to legislate so to speak a law which favors the few and all but discriminates against the many, I'm called a statesman. Sometimes the law is a bad law and deserves to be overturned. Bad laws do not need our respect. What they need is civil disobedience to raise awareness in getting the state to change the law. Imagine hundreds of sea kayakers descending on private beaches up and down the coast. (Pick your state, Ma or Me.) As an organization that is about education and community outreach what could be more satisfying than NSPN being at the forefront of righting a law originally written during a time when only property owners who were male and white could vote. In fact its not even clear that the members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony did in fact vote when the law was simply imposed on them by King George. Is this a legacy which demands our respect?

Saving them from a potential negative outcome-like drowning certainly trumps their interest in convenience or trying to save some money. Their lack of preparation and equipment for the ocean conveys a harbinger for their priorities. Sorry you had to be part of this, but you absolutely did all that was necessary. Had they launched again to reach their put-in I would have recommended alerting the CG.

Does the intertidal area in ME/MA which is open to the public, for in our case, navigation purposes include the same for private coastal islands? I must say that over the years that I have been kayaking in both of these states I've been deeply resentful of the stingy public access laws that favor property rights over the public's enjoyment of what should be open to all. The contrast with NH is palpable each time I land on Wallis Sands or other NH beaches. Sometimes, witness the residents of Baker's Island, in Salem Sound, even the intertidal access is ignored and paddlers are routinely asked to leave private land when they sit upon wet rocks in the intertidal zone. Call me an anarchist but I'm with the Russian Mikhail Bakunin when he said: "Property is theft"! Contrasting property rights of a homeowner with no waterfront to those who have vast beachfronts is unfortunately not a match-no one wants to sit on my crab grass infested lawn, but almost everyone wants access to the beach. MA/ME laws on this matter are counter intuitive and elitist.

Jason, The Nav Aid is not a compass, just a compass rose with a string, but its faster and easier to use on deck than a compass and perhaps a rule. The mistake I made was not stating that you still need a deck compass-so the Nav-Aid will not replace a jammed deck compass. The other limitation with the Nav-aid is that you cannot take a bearing or triangulate the way you can with a hiking compass.

Another reason to carry a hiking compass in addition. Better yet Sutherland's NAV Aide for small craft.

Learning to paddle in adverse conditions without a skeg is something we never really practice until we have a skeg that doesn't work and must paddle without. I've had the experience of a skeg fully deployed that could not be raised and then later in the day after tape secured it closed without one. In both situations bow rudders to turn in the first and edging and extended paddle in the second saved the day. While I feel secure to paddle without I will continue to use the skeg to make paddling more efficient-that's what its there for.

Excellent lube for skeg cable is silicone paste. You can get a small amount in hardware stores that sell Culligan water filter systems. The O ring when you replace the filter gets smeared with the silicone to insure a good seal. Eldredges in Kittery and York has it; both are Ace hardware sites. The paste unlike a liquid or spray lasts.

Ocean T is not enough-if you swim in a wet suit in 55 degree water and then emerge to 60 or 65 degree air, you will stay cold. This happened to me in Salem Sound Friday and only by donning a partner's loaned fleece and my cag was I able to stay warm for the rest of the paddle. Had I worn my drysuit I would have been more comfortable all day long.

Josko, I don't know the Bahiya specifically but have owned and paddled so called twitchy boats in the past. Question: when you say "Its pitched me off more than once.", does this mean you capsized? I had an affair with a Nordkapp and while I thought it would pitch me it never did; my recent Ellesmere having very low primary stability can be desribed as twitchy in confused and choppy seas. The point was that I never capsized in either boat but that doesn't mean I was completely comfortable in the conditions you describe either. Throwing braces sometimes is a response to the agita that results and is technically not necessary. If you relax you might eventually like your boat and have no problem, or not! Its not a coincidence that most of us paddle boats, the design of which is very similar-slight V hull with moderate soft chines. This combo gives moderate primary and strong secondary which allows the paddler to concentrate on his paddling and not worry about being pitched into the sea. Good luck

Yes, Pru is correct-I have a free pass to all MA DCR facilities. Unfortunately I moved from being 6 miles South of Walden to Southern Maine. While life in Maine is as it should be, I do miss Walden. Have fun and wear nose plugs and ear plugs. One year in the summer I rolled without and received a wicked sinus infection that lasted for 6 weeks.

This is terrible news for them. I'm sad to hear this!

PC-11 Comes in a two part tube. Epoxy is waterproof and can be applied wet. Can be applied under water!

Leon- Old seakayakers never die, they just lose their roll.

Extending Bob's suggestion, if you just want a chill cheater forget a cag and buy an xl paddle jacket which should fit over your PFD etc. i.e. if you yourself are not XL.

I purchased the Kokatat Tropos version at KTP about 3 seasons ago and have been very happy with it. The Tropos does not breathe as well as the Gore-tex version but for a cag you want to trap the heat and humidity in like a thermos. The idea is your chilled and need some warmth. I've never been chilled with my cag even when I need to paddle back a reasonable distance. Most of the time the cag is used at lunch break to combat the breeze that causes chill via evaporative cooling.