JohnHuth

Yes, please bring snacks and lunch, or plan to get lunch in Topsfield. I'll try to bring some coffee boxes as we had for the last meeting.

John

Thanks to Jason for putting these up - here's a version that should be readable by all web browsers

http://nspn.kates.org/2006/Huth-John/Bascom/

If you can't read this, let me know and we can post an alternate version.

See ya on Saturday (I want to have someone tell me why we had so much wind on Sunday and today - a good pop quiz).

John

I own a glass 170, and it's perfect for me. I'm 5'10", 185 or so.

I'd say the the cockpit is the right size for me - it's easy to roll - battle tested in big surf. I think I was only blown out of the cockpit once in heavy surf, and was able to do a reentry and roll that time.

I found the built-in pads and such to work great for me, with little adjustment. But, maybe I have a strange build?

It's pretty bizarre.

The "wavey" pattern seems to indicate that those patches were underwater and exposed to some wind, and that at a certain point, while the tide was going out, the wind suddenly dropped. That's my best guess, that it was windy as the tide went out, and then it suddenly dropped off just as the water was maybe a centimeter deep.

I don't have any other explanation - I have seen some rectangular patterns on flats, but none with wave-lets on it.

John

Do you have any more photos?

Can you describe the location a bit better, and the time the photo was taken relative to the tides?

In very flat beaches one can get strange backwash patterns, but I have to say that this is by far one of the odder ones I've seen.

Are you certain there was no human activity in that area for 24 hours before the photo was taken?

If you could help with a snack, that would be useful. I'll be bringing three boxes of Starbucks Coffee.

There is a projection screen there, so there's no problem.

I will need a flip-chart etc, so if Liz and get this to Rick to get to the Barn, that would help.

We still need a volunteer to collect dues.

Remember to bring a bag-lunch!

I'll be bringing handouts for a weather journal/predictions for the period between the 7th and 22nd.

John Huth

Here's an update for the weather/wave course.

First - thanks for the great turn-out on the 7th. For those of you keeping track of the weather, I hope you may have noticed that we had a warm/tropical maritime pattern that suddenly got hammered by a cold/continental front yesterday. If not....well, no comment.

We'll be doing this again on the 21st at the Gould Barn. I'll be doing weather/waves from 10-12, and Bob Budd will be doing safety from 1-4 PM.

In weather/waves, I'll do a bit more detail on thunderstorms, since there were some questions about this, then briefly on sea mirages (fata morgana etc), then onto waves.

I will need a flip chart, if there's one available.

Any general comments on the course, or things you'd like reviewed, or general questions, please post them. I'm still trying to post my slides from last time- I didn't forget.

John H.

Excellent question.

I was leaving the navigation part to Rick Crangle, as he asked to do that. I got an e-mail from him saying that he was going to defer the navigation part until later in the year (perhaps spring) - so it will be all weather and waves.

I'll be using an LCD projector and a flipboard.

Saturday, 7th at 10 AM - lasting until about 2:15 - with breaks for lunch etc.

Then, again, on the 22nd.

I have the sense that most people were interested in weather in any case. I'll try to post more details in a bit.

John

How much did they cost you?

I've been thinking about getting studded tires, but the cost of the added gear cluster for the rear wheel has been keeping me - but the bruises I got on my knee and hip are making me think seriously about it.

The other worry is about slipping on ice in traffic - I don't even want to think about that one!

John

As long as the conditions are safe, I'll paddle (and do).

I also continue to bicycle commute from Newton into Cambridge, and have a nasty bruise on my knee to prove it (slipped on ice).

My philosphy is that it's necessary to get outside as much as possible, all year round - it keeps a person happy.

Main caveats- avoid conditions where ice forms, either in the water or on the surface of the boat, and I get a lot more cautious about conditions - even with a drysuit and a tight fitting hood, I worry about immersion shock. Someone once suggested plastering silicon grease on your face - now if I could only find silicon grease - I'm thinking about trying Crisco instead.

Sometimes the most modest trips can be the best.

The run up to X-mas was horrendous - broken cars, losing my kitchen to a remodeling, an uptick in chores, grumpy co-workers, the decreasing light level as we approach the winter solstice.

I drove down to the Cape like a maniac to get the house ready for x-mas and found myself with a few free hours to spare.

Beautiful weather - the sun was out, 45 degrees, little wind.

On comes the dry-suit and pretty soon I'm out on Nantucket Sound. No boats, no jetskis, all the floating docks were taken up, only a distant buoy bleating away and gentle swells.

I turned up the Herring River and paddled up into the bird sanctuary. I passed a male and two female swans, and all manner of ducks.

At a certain moment, I reached my "halfway" point, and knew that dinner preparations, more present wrapping and general hullaballo waited back at the house. Beyond that, after the holidays, back to the grind. I vowed to take five minutes and just drift and watch and listen.

There was a sun-dog indicating bad weather as dusk approached. As ice falls in the sky, the ice crystals tend to have their flat surface parallel to the ground, and you get two horizontal patches of red-green-blue about 22 degrees on either side of the sun.

I could barely hear an occasional car in the distance - the dominant sounds were birds - ducks taking off from the water, quacking, a modest breeze in the trees - nothing else. Carlos Casteneda once called this kind of moment "the gap between worlds".

My five minutes were up, and I knew that I had to push it on back against the rising tide in order to beat the sunset home. When I pulled up on the beach, the sky was filled with red and angry grey streaks. My breath began condensing, and I knew I'd wake up to fog. It was hard to drag myself inside and start peeling potatoes, but even a quiet two hours on the water can be so restorative.

I think that S. Nauset beach is closing up on S. Monomoy - I don't know if that'll change the tide flow - maybe it's mostly coming from the west anyway?

A new challenge has clearly been issued. In this month's edition of Field and Stream, there is an article about a guy who fly-fished for mako sharks from a kayak.

There's an interesting photo of him on a sit-on-top with a 14 weight fly-rod bent way over as he was being towed off by the shark.

If you care to up the ante, perhaps next season when the great whites are in abundance, you might want to try your hand. Me, I'll stick to blues and stripers, thanks.

Dear All:

I've had some questions about the weather/nav course schedule. Below is a proposal for the 7th, and we'll have something similar to the 21st. There will be no cap on the number of attendees - I'm used to lecturing to large groups. On the 7th, the last session will be outside to help people understand how to make entries into weather diaries for the interim two weeks. Remember it's at the Gounld Barn.

10-10:15 Mill around, waste time etc (I'll get there early and setup)

10:15-11:15 - Session 1

11:15-11:130 - break

11:30-12:30 - Session 2

12:30-1:00 - Lunch break

1:00-2:00 Session 3

2:00-2:15 biology break

2:15-3:00 Session 4

Best,

John Huth

I was able to get a very high quality land-sat photo by using NASA's WorldWind.

I can't seem to post it here, but I can e-mail it to you.

Yes, Hartley's a bit of a...well....but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in crossing from Monomoy to Nantucket. Any takers?

Well, we could give it a try - but my trusty guide says that the oils in coffe are responsible for this effect. You need just a thin layer of oil on top of the coffee - this cames from a strong roasted coffee - no milk or sugar, not espresso, not instant.

I wonder if Starbucks should consider marketing a "weather prophesizing coffee"? Sounds like a good gimick.

As part of my preparations for the upcoming weather/nav course, I decided to be a true selfless citizen of NSPN and travel to Jamaica to investigate the weather there over the Thanksgiving Holiday. The philosophy being that if I could predict the weather in a climate other than New England, I could do it anywhere.

Come Wednesday morning, I was sitting on the veranda, sipping my customary Blue Mountain coffee. I gave it a quick stir. My breakfast companion inquired of the state of the weather from the bubbles in the coffee. They hugged the edge of the cup! Gasp - it looks like a storm for sure. (perhaps this and the dark clouds in the SW were a clue).

The heat and humidity of the tropical waters had had their last hurrah in torturing the mainland with hurricanes. Gamma was the last. Soon the mainland would have its revenge on the ocean.

Wind was out of the SW, and the rain commenced to move in. I had to fetch some duct tape from the local town, and hired the venerable old Monroe to drive me in his taxi to the Negril hardware store.

I assumed old Monroe would know something about local conditions, so I asked him about the weather.

"Fo sure, mon, Ever since I be de likkle boy, whenever we 'ave rain like dis in de mawnin', it clear up by noon for sure. Every year, I tell you true, mon..."

Well, the rain indeed let up by noon and the wind dropped to nothing. I swam in the ocean for about an hour to get some exercise. As I was swimming, I noted a swell from the NW beginning to build. I stopped swimming and bobbed up and down a bit - the swell had a perio of about 4 seconds. Having my handy-dandy wave-swell-velocity guide in front of me, I figured that the waves were traveling at about 18 miles per hour, no doubt in front of a storm that was pushing it along. At 18 miles an hour, that meant that a moderate storm would come from the NW in only a few hours. (real nasty storms in fully developed seas can have swells with periods of 16 seconds).

Sure enough, the storm started to kick in from the NW, and the wind really started to blow.

A number of squall lines came through. The massage ladies on the beach were better at forecasting than old Monroe. "De waves, dey wash up every-ting onto de beach in the mawnin'."

The wind continued out of the NW and was blowing up to about force 7.

By the next morning, the wind was still blowing. My anxious table companion inquired about the state of the coffee. I gave it a swirl - the bubbles congregated into the center. A clear day ahead. Sure enough, blue skies, a cold front remained steady throughout the day.

Here's an update for everyone:

We'll have the weather/navigation course on January 7th and 21st in the Gould Barn in Topsfield. I'll be doing weather (and waves). Rick Crangle will be doing Navigation.

Here's the list (non-alpha, sorry) of people who have expressed interest in the weather course so far:

Mears Walter

Dempsey Deb

Shelburne Karen

Lewis David

Neumeier Liz

Hutchison Suzanne

Shelburne Linda

Kates Jason

Phelan Patty

Bruce Scott

Reynolds Anne

Whipple Judy

Casey Jeff

Coons Al

Gendron Deborah

Konish Paul

Smith Gerry

Crouse Kimberly

Hurd Joan

Here's the syllabus so far for the weather course:

Draft syllabus for kayak weather course

January 7th syllabus

I Basics

a) Hot and cold air densities

Temperature as a function of altitude, latitude, adiabatic cooling

c) Equal pressure assumption

d) Pressure as a function of altitude

e) Coriolis effect

f) Global weather patterns, doldrums, trades, mid-latitudes, polar

II Fronts and barometric pressures

a) Warm fronts

Cold fronts

c) Winds – veering and backing

d) Nor’easters

e) Cyclonic disturbances

III Winds

a) Beaufort scale

Backing and veering

c) Cyclonic

d) Rules for high and low pressure circulation

e) Katabatic winds

f) Chinook winds

IV Special topics

a) Radiative and advective (hot and cold) fog

Tropical onshore and offshore patterns

V Clouds

a) Cirrus (mare’s tails)

Cirrocumulus (mackerel scales)

c) Altocumulus (rollers)

d) Altostratus

e) Stratus

f) Nimbostratus (rain clouds)

g) Cumulus (puffy clouds)

h) Nimbocumulus (thunder clouds)

i) Bizarre clouds – noctilucent, lenticular

Homework assignment

In the two weeks between meetings, keep a weather log, noting cloud formations, weather state, wind direction and velocity (even if in the Beaufort scale). If available, report temperature and barometric pressure. Use handout on weather signs to try to predict weather state and compare with predictions.

January 21st

VI Weather signs

a) Winds and fronts

Halos around sun/moon

c) Red sky at night/morning etc

d) Reading the clouds

e) Dew, humidity

f) Northern/southern hemisphere considerations

g) Barometric pressure and wind directions

h) Mirages – fata morgana, green flash, distant images

VI Waves

a) Circulation pattern in water waves

Velocity, period relations

c) Swells

d) Waves, breaking conditions

e) Cat’s paw

f) Reflections

g) Refraction

h) Clapotis

i) Eckman transport (wind driven currents)

j) Effect of fetch, wind velocity on wave height and period

k) Effect of current, seafloor

l) Freak waves and sets

I read somewhere that (hope I have it correct) - that there are two species of seals - one is gray seals, which are there all year round, and harbor seals migrate up to Maine in the summer and then migrate back.

There's a large herd of gray seals that's around all year. The highest concentration is on the inside part of South Nauset Beach, near the point where it's joining up with South Monomoy Island.

Don't know about the harbor seals or their migration. (not an expert here...)

Also, some folks say that great white sharks are attracted by the seal population. Stands to figure. Hope they know the difference between seals and kayaks.

We're trying for January 7th and 21st as dates for the weather/nav course at the Topsfield Barn. I'm awaiting word on the availability from Suzanne Hutchinson.

There is now a list of people who have expressed interest in this - it's about 15+ people.

No special equipment is required. If you have a barometer, this could add a bit of fun. An assignment will be to create a weather diary between the 7th and 21st to record conditions and we'll discuss what you saw at the second meeting.

Here's a "teaser" for the course (taken from "Weather Forecasting" by Michael Hodgson":

"Coffee

Grizzled outdoorspeople swear by the bubbles-in-the coffee method of forecasting. Perhaps this explains why so many of the them spend hours staring into a steaming mug of java. Remarkably, this method does seem to work, and is attributed to the way pressure affects the meniscus, or surface tension, of the coffee. In high pressure the surface is rounded, like a globe. In low pressure the surface is concave, so naturally bubbles head to the highest point on the coffee's surface, the edges of the cup. For coffee forecasting to work, the brewed coffee must be strong. Instant coffee won't do the job, since there aren't enough oils to create satisfacotry surface tension. Pour the coffee into a mug (vertical sides work best; venerable Sierra cups don't work as well). Give the coffee a good stir or two and watch the bubbles form. If they scatter this way and that and then form near the center, fair weather. If they cling to the sides of the cup, a low-pressure system is setting in, and rain is possible."

Coffee prognostication is fair game for a weather diary.

Says on the website "cancelled/postponed"

http://www.expeditionkayak.com/southgeorgia.php

E-mail me, and I'll get a list going:

huth "at" physics "dot" harvard "dot" edu

John

Yes, I'd be the one teaching weather. I believe Rick Crangle will be doing Navigation.

I'm imagining something pretty "in depth": two sessions. I can call waves part of the syllabus.

To cover that amount reasonably, I think I'd need at least three evening sessions, or two sessions on two days - I guess the 21st and the 28th would work well for me.

As part of the "hands-on" experience, I'll probably be asking people to keep weather diaries between the two sessions - recording temperatures, barometric pressure, wind direction, and most importantly, cloud formations.

John H

Dear All -

We were tentatively proposing the dates of Jan 21 and 28 for a navigation/weather workshop. I *think* I'm tagged for weather. I'd like to see if these dates work. I crafted a draft syllabus for the weather course and wanted to get some first reactions to it.

I'd probably have a combination of a projector show (to show photos of cloud formations, mirages etc), with a flip-board.

Comments most welcome.

John Huth

Draft syllabus for kayak weather course

I Basics

a) Hot and cold air densities

Temperature as a function of altitude, latitude

c) Equal pressure assumption

d) Coriolis effect

e) Global weather patterns, doldrums, trades, mid-latitudes, polar

II Fronts and barometric pressures

a) Warm fronts

Cold fronts

c) Winds – veering and backing

d) Nor’easters

e) Cyclonic disturbances

III Special topics

a) Radiative and advective (hot and cold) fog

Tropical onshore and offshore patterns

IV Clouds

a) Cirrus (mare’s tails)

Cirrocumulus (mackerel scales)

c) Altocumulus (rollers)

d) Altostratus

e) Stratus

f) Nimbostratus (rain clouds)

g) Cumulus (puffy clouds)

h) Nimbocumulus (thunder clouds)

i) Bizarre clouds – noctilucent, lenticular

V Weather signs

a) Winds and fronts

Halos around sun/moon

c) Red sky at night/morning etc

d) Reading the clouds

e) Dew, humidity

f) Northern/southern hemisphere considerations

g) Barometric pressure and wind directions

h) Mirages – fata morgana, green flash, distant images

VI Waves (optional)

a) Circulation pattern in water waves

Velocity, period relations

c) Swells

d) Waves, breaking conditions

e) Cat’s paw

f) Reflections

g) Refraction

h) Clapotis

i) Eckman transport (wind driven currents)

j) Effect of fetch, wind velocity on wave height and period

As the saying goes "discretion is the better part of valor"

I got into a discussion with a long-time fisherman who has plied the waters of Nantucket Sound on Monday. He cursed about the Muskeget Channel and how nasty it can get when the winds are up.

Good call!