JohnHuth

Hi, Gene - Yeah, I agree that ocean temps isn't the only thing. I was mainly pointing out the temperature gradient as you move south to north. Also, a lot of people differ on their tolerance to the cold. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse, but I'm pretty resistant to the cold. It drives my wife nuts - she was all bundled up last night when we were outside and I was comfortable in a tee shirt and shorts. I also did an experiment in cold water immersion. I'd pulled a muscle deep inside my core, and took ice baths to help it out. I put in a thermometer into the ice bath and would sit in the water for half an hour. It was amusing - I'd pour myself a glass of wine and read about arctic exploration - seemed appropriate somehow. I started out the ice bath temps around 55 degrees F and then slowly lowered them. I found that I began to get core hypothermia when I was immersed around 48-49 degrees F for 30 minutes. There seems to be a sharp 'shelf' for my body around maybe 52 degrees, where it can do a pretty good job pumping out heat, but then can't keep up at that point. I'll bet everyone's body is different. But, yes, the main thing is to dress for conditions on and off the water, think about wind, weather, precipitation, what you're doing, how much you might sweat, how cold you'll get when that sweaty underclothing gets exposed to wind during a rest break. Best, John

Since I/we have to make choices on what we wear (drysuit, wetsuit, farmer john etc), it's interesting to track the seasonal changes. In Nantucket Sound, where I do a lot of paddling, on March 1st, it was 38 deg. F. A little over a week ago, it was around 51, now it's past 55 deg F. 55 is my personal drysuit->wetsuit transition. Using the National Buoy Data Center, and doing a quick check up the coast: Eastern Long Island Sound 52.2 Nantucket Sound 55.5 Boston 54.1 Mass Bay/Stellwagen (off Gloucester) 53.1 Jeffery's Ledge NH 51.4 Western Maine 50.5 Central Maine 47.8 Jonesport, Maine 45.5 Nantucket Sound is shielded more from the open ocean, so I expect it gets warmer faster. A bunch of buoys have gone adrift, and aren't getting fixed - here's a note from NOAA: "The NOAA National Data Buoy Center has deferred annual maintenance for buoys and C-MAN stations in your region until further notice. We hope to resume maintenance of the coastal and offshore weather buoys and C-MAN network next year, pending full funding of the President's FY14 budget."

I'd be honored to sign it, Jason (or anyone for that matter). It's a bit humbling to be honest. And, sure I can do another weather class. In my course at Harvard, I give out an assignment where the students are asked to predict tomorrow's weather by looking at signs in the sky - e.g. wind directions, cloud formations, etc. They test this against 'persistence', which is the idea that tomorrow's weather will be like today's. After about three or four days, they get quite good at it. It's actually rather impressive to me how quickly people can pick this up once they start to make observations and force themselves into the prediction-making business.

Sorry, I'm still waiting on the publisher to get the kindle thing going. They promised, however. Jason - not sure if that's tongue in cheek....I'm still getting the hang of this book publishing thing. I was asked to write a blog piece about a "journey" I had - somewhat related to the book. Here's the result - true story, a bit bizarre even as it was unfolding: http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2013/05/10/how-we-lose-ourselves/ideas/nexus/

Ugh....that place was the center of their operations. I know a lot of people who work there. I launch many times just across the river from that spot. This is going to be tough - they have a huge inventory of kayaks, canoes, etc. Recently they're branched out into paddle boards. Whether or not this is in the 'best interest' of the taxpayer remains to be seen. Very sad news, indeed.

It may be that any 'wisdom' against the extended paddle roll may have seeped in from white water kayaking. There, I could imagine there's a real value to having a roll that works where you don't shift hand position. I'm not a white water kayaker (well, I shoot rapids in a canoe, but nothing like the washing machine stuff some guys do in the white water kayaks), but it seems like there might be some value in that situation to not using extended paddle. Having said that, I automatically go to extended paddle in situation where it's a real need. But, I still practice other rolls. Hate practicing the offside 'standard' roll - hardly ever works for me in the early season.

The early season rust always shows up for me. When I actually have to roll as a result of some accident like that, I tend to automatically do extended paddle rolls because a) better leverage, and I get the paddle angle set from near side blade. When not doing extended paddle, the blade angle becomes more problematic for me, yup. I guess the wisdom against extended paddle rolls is that you should be ready to brace immediately when you come up, but I regain my hand position so quickly when I finish it, it doesn't seem to be much of an issue. The other thing that I always have problems with early in the season is the tendency to lift my torso too soon. It's counterintuitive to throw your torso deeper into the water at a certain moment, and I have to work on talking myself into doing that.

I got word from my editor. He said that they're working on electronic editions. I think it just takes some time. The "official" release date is some time in May. I guess that Amazon and Barnes and Noble got some advance print editions, so technically it's not yet 'released' even though a bunch of people have copies in their hands. So, stay tuned if you want an electronic version - shouldn't be too long.

Jason, David - I won't know about a Kindle edition for a week or so. I'm trying to get in touch with the person from the Press who organizes this, but she's off at a book even in England. I'll know in a week and get back to you. I cover a lot of different material from Gooley's and in different ways, too, mostly informed by the students I've been teaching, FWiW Best, John H.

Jason - Let me ask around. I think there's an overall size limit for kindle edition and the issue is that there's a bucket-load of figures in there that easily will blow the Kindle limit out of the water. I used all black and white and gray for the figures. I'll get back to you. John

Different effect. The dimples help grab the air as the ball spins, giving it lift from the Bernoulli effect. I have no idea about smooth wax on a kayak hull - probably a small effect.

Question - when you say "GPS coordinates" - do you mean UTM or latitude/longitude?

My kayak gear is basically my backpacking gear, and vice versa (modulo trekking poles versus paddles and some other details). I use an MSR pocket rocket. Compact, light, reliable, uses isopro. It's reasonably cheap. I think I've had mine for the better part of 10+ years. I've sometimes flirted with the idea of one of those hobo-style alcohol stoves that thru-hikers on the AT use - just to enhance that part of the image, but I don't mess with something that works.

Parking - you can get multiday parking for a price at the NE Harbor lot. Go into the police dept HQ there and pay for however many days you want. That makes for a nice start/finish point. There are some decisions to be made - going outside the Cranberries, or inside. The outside of the Cranberries have a lot of rock ledges and are more fog prone, but it depends on your taste. There's a lot of boat traffic to NE Harbor, SE Harbor, Bass Harbor and Bar Harbor, so you'll have to be careful about those spots. Seal Harbor around to Bass Harbor is exposed for *part* of it - not all of it. I've heard warnings about currents and conditions near Bass Harbor, but when I've paddled there I haven't really had problems.

I can tell you that the last time I did a clockwise circumnav of Monomoy, I timed it so that I hit the southern tip at slack tide turning to ebb. It worked out perfectly. As far as current in the old cut, there was very little - it was further south than the present one, but as you say, there could be current there.

Sounds like a fun chance for scouting the characteristics of the new break!! I love this kind of mystery.

Maybe you folks already knew this, but one of the recent nor'easters blew a breach in South Beach - the beach south of the Chatham light. The means that it's possible to do a circumnavigation of Monomoy again with out a portage. For those of you who might contemplate it - a circumnav of Monomoy takes a bit of planning - the currents run pretty fast at the southern end, and there's a shoal with a drop off that creates a fairly strong rip.

Yup, exactly...and, one year, I found that the water temperatures really plummeted into early October in Nantucket Sound - it caught me by surprise. While about three weeks before I was just paddling in a top and shorts, I found I got chilled real fast just from wind-splash, so I turned back home and put on a wetsuit. There can be some odd mixings of warm and cold water in the ocean - it's fickle.

Go with water temps, not necessarily dates. There can be a lot of variability from place to place and year to year. My own personal thermometer.....below about 53 degrees F, drysuit, 53-60 full wetsuit, 60-65 maybe farmer john, above that, I have neoprene shorts and top. I have to confess that I sometimes violate this - up in places like Jonesport Maine in the summer, the air temp can be extremely warm with cold water temps, so I cut corners when conditions aren't severe.

Can I hear an AMEN? Yes! Plus, I can draw my own lines of magnetic declination on the charts, a favorite hobby of mine.

Great! Just got a look at it. Many thanks! It has the makings of a nice site. Best, John H.

When I first heard the term "combat roll", I thought it was a specific kind of roll, sort of like the "storm roll". I wanted to find out how to do a combat roll, as opposed to an "extended paddle roll" or some other specific one. It took me awhile to realize that it wasn't a real thing, just the idea of rolling in conditions. OK, so I was naive.

OK, thanks!

Hey, Brian - That part of your site isn't up anymore. I'm halfway between fixing up my dings on my own or taking it over to Osprey - not sure yet. Is your site up somewhere else? John H.

So, I did a quick rust-buster today on Nantucket Sound. Water temp 38, Air temp - same. North wind about 10 kts. I paddled along the shore and turned up the Herring River. OK, nothing terribly interesting about that, right? Well, when I got to the bird sanctuary at the top of the estuary, it was amazing - highest high tide I've ever seen in the marsh - all the channels were flooded out, and except for the occasional tuft of marsh grass sticking up, it was completely flooded. Amazing! And...flocks of crows, the occasional heron ....all of this with gray clouds quickly scudding across the sky. It was great to get out after all that dang snow we had - quite liberating, in fact. The only (minor) downside is that it revealed all the stuff I need to do to my gear - tighten up the deck lines, get my neck gasket fixed, fix the gel-coat dings etc etc. But, even that's good - identify all this stuff early on, and by April, maybe start to hit the groove.