NPSheehan

Hi Ern and others.. If you want to travel a little further North we have a great paddle planned for Halloween. NE Seacoast Paddlers Halloween Paddle on the Squamscott Neil

Here is a cool one we did on Sunday while in Bar Harbor for the weekend. 19 of us paddled to the Ovens from Hadley Point. I'm sure you and your son would love this place and the Acadia Earth Cache Series. Check out my log with pictures. The Ovens 2 if by land, 5 if by Sea GCZ5Ja Neil

COOL!!! I'll add this one to my to find list. Is there a name or GC code for it. I've placed a multi stage cache on islands on Pawtuckaway lake if you are looking for a fun lake GeoCaching adventure. Pawtuckaway Island Hop GC1Z9V4 Neil

Hey NSPNers want to scare the local Exeter residents as we invade the town from the water? If so get your best scary face or costume and join us for our first Haunted River Halloween Paddle from Chapman's Landing in Newfields to Downtown Exeter. See the link below for more info. You can RSVP there or just show up at the designated place and time. NE Seacoast Paddlers Haunted Halloween Paddle to Downtown Exeter NH Hope you'll join us Neil

I watched this video many times to see if there were any flaws in this technique. I guess the first thing that could cause a proble is having any gear on your front deck such as paddles. Also I noticed the capsized kayak had no visible decklines for the boy doing the rescue to hold on to. This technique would appear to be very difficult in rough conditions given the lack of a good hold. However on the positive side the swimmer is out of the water quickly which could be a big benefit in cold water. I'm definitely going to have to try this manuever too. Neil

AWESOME!!! Great photo shots and video! Looks like you had a blast. Neil

Yes I agree Theresa is a wonderful person to work with and she has great instructors working with her as well. I'm happy to send business their way. Neil

You may want to contact Coastal Maine Kayak. Maybe there are others who might like to join in on a small rolling class as well. http://coastalmainekayak.com/information.p...o_id=12#rolling Neil

Too bad I missed capturing your endo at Brave Boat Had a small 16mb card in my camera and ran out of space on the chip. Good show though! for more pics of the kayak surfer dudes at Brave boat go to the link below. Kayak Surfer Dudes at Brave Boat Harbor 8/22/09 Neil

Perfect day on Cape Ann! Thanks for organizing this trip Doug. Great photos from Doug & Bob. Neil

The lens actually has a glass protector in front of it and that may have something on it like salt or oil film. Below is a recommendation from Pentax's Web Site on caring for your waterproof camera. Penatx Support caring for your waterproof camera You may need to really clean the glass and insure it is absolutely dirt and oil free. Not sure if Rain X is the best way to go as it leaves a wax like coating and will cause water to bead instead of run off the glass. Also I'm not sure Rain X would work well with salt water. Try a good quality lens cleaner to get the glass back to it's clean state. Rinse it with fresh water when you get the protective glass wet while out kayaking. A little squirt bottle with distilled water or a squirt from your hydration pack at the very least might be all you need to keep salt from drying on the glass. Neil

For those who need directions there are directions on the Event & Planning Put-Ins & Directions link on this site. http://nspn.org/put_ins.htm For those who like Maps Here you go Google Maps to Lanes Cove Gloucester MA Neil

I'll be there! Looks like it will be a perfect day for a paddle in the Ipswich Bay & Rockport coastal area. ANZ251-150315- MASSACHUSETTS BAY AND IPSWICH BAY- 1118 AM EDT FRI AUG 14 2009 .SAT...S WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS AROUND 2 FT. Neil

I bought some Collinites No. 920 Fiberglass Boat Cleaner to take the saddle marks off of my hull caused by my weathered Yakima Hully Rollers. The Collinites cleaner worked great for all types of grime and marks. Then I thought Hmm I wonder if it will work on the saddles/rollers. Low and behold with verry little effort they were like brand spanking new. So now I use it on the kayak as well as the saddles/rollers. A good coat of wax on the boat will also make the marks easier to come off. http://www.collinitemarine.com/products.htm Available at West Marine and other marine stores Collinites 920 at West Marine Neil

Hey Doug how about a Plum Island Circumnav? We could start early and do it counter clockwise starting at the launch in the Plum Island Wildlife Reserve catching the slack at the river mouth on the way around. Or Paddle up the coast from North Beach Hampton to Odiorne and back. Either trip is very close to 20 miles. Or!!! Do Great Bay to Piscataqua from downtown Exeter to Little Harbor. High tide at Squamscott River Bridge is 8:45 which is about 9:15 in Exeter. We could spot cars at Odiorne beforehand. Approx 25 miles but all down hill Neil

I'm planning to spend a day at the Beach with kayak and playing in the protected cove. All are welcome to join in. We'll be meeting at 11:30 but you can come whenever and stay as long as you'd like. We'll be hanging out at the Beach in front of the Bicentenial Park at the North End of the Seawall across from Cinnamon Rainbows Surf Shop North Beach Hampton NH. Bring your kayak and your beach chair as we'll play in the water and practice some kayak safety skill as well as go for a leisurely paddle or you can just bask in the sun after playtime. The tide will be going out most of the day and seas are predicted to be calm with light winds. This is an all levels event and novices as well as experienced kayakers are welcome to attend. Saturday... Sunny. Humid with highs in the upper 70s. Light and variable winds...Becoming southeast around 10 mph in the afternoon. There is a bathhouse/restrooms at North Beach as well as sandwich shop and Ice Cream. Skills to practice are wet exits, towing, self and assisted rescues, rolling etc... After the day at the beach we'll have a post paddling pot-luck BBQ at my home on North Beach. See the link below for more info & directions and feel free to RSVP on this site or reply as a post to this message. NE Seacoast Paddlers - Beach & Kayaking & Skills day Hope to see some of you fellow NSPNers join us. Neil

Having a VHF Radio and asking the for a routine radio check at say 1/2 - 1hr intervals on 16 or better channel 9 would certainly be something that would be helpful to both as long as there isn't any emergency communication going on at the time. Monitoring channels 16 & 9 will also let you know if your radio is in range of CG or other vessel communication. All vessels should be monitoring channel 16 and most also monitor 9 so if there is a vessel nearby you should recieve a response to your radio check imediately. http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/radio.htm#checks Neil

Good point Sal I'll stick with the non stretchable tether. Neil

I have a CRKT Bear Claw that I keep attached to my PFD. The Bear Claw doesn't have a point and thus is less likely to do any personal damage. It's held secure in it's sheath and has never come out during self or assisted rescues when climbing back into my kayak. It is however easy to deploy if needed. I have used it a few times to cut rope and it does a great job. The Bear Claw is tethered with a thin nylon cord that I wrap around the knife sheath between the sheath and lash tab and thus is pretty much free from snagging. Thin bungee cord would work just as well. I also use a small strip of double sided velcro through the lash tab then through the sheath to attach it to my PFD so the knife sheath can be removed easily if need be just by pulling the velcro end. Ya gotta love velcro! CRKT Bear Claw Knife Neil

While reading this thread I see many use the VHF Channel 72 (intership only) channel for communication. I'm not exactly clear the difference on the Non-Comercial "PleasureBoat" channels which are 68,69 & 71 and the (intership only) channel 72. I personally use 69 by default but know that many NSPNers use 72 is there a specific reason for this or is it just a common channel. U.S. VHF Channels USCG Navigation Center Neil

Although I have a ComNav 70P deck mounted I also carry the Suunto Orca as a spare. The Orca has a luminous card that will stay illuminated for up to 20 minutes after shining a flashlight on it for a short time. I've heard of people puting as glow stick or small led light near or under their compass as well for illumination but have not tried this myself. Suunto Orca Kayak Compass I think Seatle Sports has a great idea with the NightQuest but it is pretty big compared to others which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing. Here is a link to what some others think of both types http://www.ckf.org/forum/forums/thread-vie...d=45&mid=70 Neil

Below is a Float Plan I printed and gave to the people kayaking on our recent trip to Boothbay Harbor. We had as many as 8 groups heading in different directions at different times. There were as many as 40 people on the water during the day and I felt a float plan would be very helpful to know where people were headed and help insure that everyone returned safely. Fortunately everyone did return safely but had there been an incident we would've known where they were paddling as I also provided them with route maps labeled so that they could use the map name to indicate the area they would be paddling when filling out the Float Plan. Most people were very receptive to filling out this "optional" Float Plan and the ones who did not did let someone know where they planned to paddle. We also had a designated VHF Channel although unfortunately only a few people actually had VHF Radios. http://www.seakayakermag.com/PDFs/float_plan.pdf

Ahh I see the start of an NSPN Kayak Camping Cookbook

Great work to all those who presented and brought all of their gear as well as those who worked to make this event happen. I felt it was very informative and it was great to see what others bring for gear and how they pack it. Neil

The Bridge at Odiorne Rt. 1A was closed for rebuilding but is now open. Unfortunately the launch area is not as big now on the West side of the Bridge. There was still quite a bit of construction equiptment in the Odiorne parking lot near the boat ramp last weekend but I think it is open for launching as well.