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Sue: I have been there a couple of times and suggest three days would be a rushed trip unless you use the ferry. Once I paddled down from the north and camped on one of islands along the chain to North Haven. Very nice patch of water/island and definitely recommend it. If you time the tides right you will get a strong push going to and from Vinalhaven. I have also gotten there by paddling from Stonington which is not bad at all if you pay attention to weather, etc., but it is not a short crossing and once out there you then need to get back and are somewhat at the mercy of the weather. That said, there are worse places to spend an extra day or so. The Thoroughfare should be traversed as long as you are there. If you look at the chart of the southern and eastern sides of Vinalhaven you will see a multitude of islands which make it a scenic and pleasant area to wander about in. Ram is a great place as a base to use for exploring the Basin and surrounding islands. Some of the other MCHT and MITA islands provide nice camping as well. For example, Little Hens is a neat place for one or two people. Overall, the area it is just a great place to visit. If I had to choose between wandering off Stonington inside Merchant Row or wandering around the southern end of Vinalhaven, I would take Vinalhaven. Not the easiest place to paddle to, but I suppose you could say the price of admission is worth it. Like Gary, have not explored North Haven Ed Lawson

Some random thoughts: VHF is technically not limited to line of sight communication, but I suppose it is a decent rule of thumb. For example, I once clearly heard a securite call from a vessel at the north end of Deer Isle when I was near Little Cranberry south of MDI. On the other hand, as others have indicated, range can be surprising, if not distressingly, limited at times. With a repeater on a high antenna, for example the tower on Swans or on top of Mt. Washington, a little handheld unit can communicate over a long distance as in excess of 50 miles. Don't expect a lobster boat to hear a call on 16 even if it is within easy "earshot". Automated radio check stations are handy, but they also hindered by coverage limitations. I have used the one in Portsmouth, but it was sketchy. The Rescue 21 system had, I believe, a design objective of being able to copy a signal from a one watt signal one foot above sea level 20 miles off shore. Don't count on it, and topography creates many dead zones off the coat of Maine as the coverage map shows. Communication via digital systems can work well when the signal strength is so low as to be totally useless via FM voice. Which is why DSC is a very good thing. Although it is illegal to use a radio contrary to FCC regulations and the penalties can be severe, there is almost no restriction on buying radios and enforcement varies widely While someone using a VHF marine radio on land might not be bothered by a visit from law enforcement, illegally operating a VHF handheld on the VHF aviation channels may well. Ed Lawson

Finding portages can be no easy matter when traveling in the BWCA. When crossing a lake the shoreline features are very hard to distinguish. My group had to navigate carefully by compass and map to hit them on a multi-day X-C ski trip in Feb. Great place in winter as in nobody there. It is so quiet that on a windless night you can hear the snow flakes falling except when the wolves sing. Cold though as in sub-zero was typical at night. Getting lost there means you can really get lost because there are no visible landmarks as a rule. Akin to wandering off route on a mountain, you get into trouble fast. Ed Lawson

Dan: You might find the Tidelog publication (available at many chandleries) helpful as it contains similar charts for tide levels and currents allowing you to get a sense of how those items vary from certain stations. That said, the Portsmouth area can be a puzzle palace and time on the water there is very beneficial along with published data. Ed Lawson

Leon: Congratulations on another successful troll. It took awhile, but eventually you succeeded. Ed Lawson

Jim: Two non-responsive comments: 1. Never stop paddling solo: 2. It is tempting fate if not the wrath of the gods to use your spouse's new car to haul your kayak. Ed Lawson

As Dan says, MCHT is very much worth our support. If you check out their website and the preserves which are often available for camping, I believe you will agree. Some outstanding islands for touring the Maine Coast are MCHT islands. Ed Lawson

Kegzy: Never sat in one, but Brian designed it to surf and tour on the Oregon open coast where conditions are routinely much bigger than on the East Coast. It is a SOF version of old Mariner Coaster and is a very capable big water boat from everything I have heard about it. I paddled one of Brian's 1935 Sisimuit boats as my go to boat for several years and admire his work/designs. Ed Lawson

Apparently routinely paddled and tied up to town dock for summer of action. Some might say, cosmetics poor, but hull sound with many miles left.

OTOH, here is someone happily paddling by the Lubec breakwater at the start of the ebb without any apparent appreciation how hard it would soon get to paddle back to the town dock . Yes, no spray deck, no PFD, shorts and T-shirt.

Joseph: Not sure what is most impressive about the report and trips, but the fact you got several days in a row of great weather and no fog is right up there. It is easy to look at the picture of the usual suspects looking at the narrows bridge and wonder what is the big deal which shows how deceptive pictures can be. FWIW I have been told the water on the ebb side of the bridge pilings can be as much as a foot higher than on the downstream end, but rips at the breakwater look more dramatic for sure. Very nice and kudos to all involved for planning, posting, and carrying out an enjoyable club trip in a less than benign place to say the least. Ed Lawson

Sal: No personal experience with it, but know someone in Maine who has used one for some significant solo tours in "consequential" waters and thinks very highly of the boat. I believe he bought a newish one to replace the old one which says alot.. Rare on East Coast and believe it has a cult following on West Coast as a very fast extended touring boat suited to rough, big water like the outside passage to Alsaka. That said, like all cult boats, I assume it has its share of quirks. Boze brothers were know for making high performance boats for use on the open coasts of the NW that loved rough water. Years before the short rough water play boats became fashionable, they were making the legendary Coaster. Ed Lawson

Gary; Did not relent in Stonington until Wed. morning. We were in Vinalhaven Monday morning and thought it would lift, but it did not. Fog toyed with us. We waited till near noon and then did crossing to Stonington in about 400 M visibility max. to beat weather. Not exactly fun. OTOH, Wed. afternoon till Sat was great with nice 3' swell on the outside to light up cliffs. Ed Lawson

Enjoyed the report and pictures. I noticed no mention of fog. Did you miss the fog on Monday? Ed Lawson

"conditions could have been a lot worse. " Yes, and they were bad enough that it seemed it was an epic.. Some folks like epics. I am more into grand adventures done uneventfully. People are out there all the time doing things which most of us would shutter at and they get away with it. However, if they keep doing them, the sea will seek them out and find them. "The sea only awaits the innocent, but it stalks the ignorant and unprepared." Ed Lawson

"Despite his (undocumented) partial (obviously not civil) engineering background, never ever trust your boat overnight to this paddler who has actually LOST his boat!" There is something Burmuda Triangle like about Muscongus Bay. Sail boats have been know to get lost while at anchor when they float off their anchor at high spring tides and wander off till the anchor catches again. I was on Black once and there was a huge, I mean huge, tree trunk washed up above the highest tide "ring" on the beach. Next morning, it was gone. Gary, did you recover your kayak or was it an opportunity to get a nice new one? Hope this link will work, but speaking of kayaking in Muscongus Bay last weekend, check this exchange on the SMSKN Meetup site about a trip to Monhegan. https://www.meetup.com/Southern-Maine-Sea-Kayaking-Network/members/52180432/ Ed Lawson

Gary: I believe this link will take you to where you can find what you are looking for and maybe even more. http://www.charts.noaa.gov/InteractiveCatalog/nrnc.shtml Ed Lawson

Paid Member 0 441 posts Gender:Male Report post Posted Thursday at 06:13 PM Why do you need 3, Jason? It is a little complicated, but a kayak when operated between sunset and sunrise is required by USGC when operating on the ocean (roughly speakinhg) to have a night signal and that requirement is satisfied by having 3 pyrotechnic flares. An electric night visual distress signal would suffice in place of the 3 pyrotechnic devices. "Expert advice" says having more than three makes sense and having them day and night makes sense too although to me smoke makes more sense for day use. Ed

Trust me, you do not want to get into the weeds about this. If you want to play with antennas, then make sure you get ones built for the marine band and not 2 meter Ham band operation. If the purpose is to contact other stations within sight, it will not matter. If the purpose is to contact distance stations the distant horizon, then a 1/4 might be better. If the purpose is to contact USGC stations whose receiving antennas I assume are on very tall towers far from the actual stations when you are relatively close to the towers then a 5/8 might be better. Either would be better, but noticeably longer than the normal rubber duckie supplied with the radio. When it hits the fan and you need to use the radio, I seriously doubt messing with an alternative antenna would be a good idea. I'm not saying the system meets design requirements, but the new USCG VHF system should be able to communicate with a 1 watt handheld unit two meters above sea level up to 20 NM offshore. Here is the coverage map for our area: The reality is a kayaker with a radio is very close to sea level and that is perhaps the biggest problem. Ed Lawson

This is beyond sad. As Rick said, a mentor and friend of many. I remember him describing how he responded during his BCU 4* assessment to the request he perform a roll. He threw the paddle away as if it were a disgusting appendage and then did a hand roll. Pure Jed. Ed Lawson

Although circumstances prevented my participation this year, you pictures and commentary certainly take some of the disappointment away. That said, I was really looking forward to Ironbound this year and it hurts to have missed it. It must have been wonderous to watch those swells hit East Bunker Ledge. If anyone wants to know why they are called "boomers", that is the place to find out. As you say, it is a most enjoyable weekend each year. Ed Lawson

To add to Jason's comment, I have used the simple Garmin watch style GPS units such as the 301 and 401. I find them handy for monitoring speed, time and distance which suffices for the dead reckoning I need to do from time to time. They would not suffice, I assume, for the type of detailed application you have in mind. The big point is these units need to be carefully sealed or they will soon fail if routinely used on the deck of a kayak. They were not designed for such use, which violates the warranty I have read, regardless of all the claims of being waterproof and complying with JIS standards. When asked, I believe Garmin will say, "Don't do that, it will ruin the unit." By carefully applying electrical tape I have managed to get several years of service from these units which live on the deck. Without doing so, they survive may survive a week or two at best. Any port, such as a USB port, and battery compartment are points of failure which will need attention. Ed Lawson

I definitely share the opinion that the outer coast of Campobello is a place apart. To travel that far and not experience it is a terrible waste. Not to denigrate the wonders of the Bold Coast, but the Campobello coastline is an amazing place . Wonderful images and report. Ed Lawson

Clifford: It is displaying UTC which is not a bad thing, but if you go to Section 9 of the manual it will tell you how to change the offset to display local time. Whether it will automatically go to a -5 hour offset for EST I do not know. Ed Lawson

Leaving aside any state requirements which may apply, the only requirement under the Navigation Rules for kayaks is that a device be available to display a white light in sufficient time to prevent a collision. Rule 25(d). Note it is not required that the light be displayed except as needed to prevent a collision. As a practical example of what might be deemed adequate to comply, a friend of mine carried one of those million candlepower lamps in the cockpit when paddling in lower Casco Bay near Portland to be sure he could get the attention of another vessel. In upper Casco Bay, a simple headlamp or small flashlight might suffice. Ed Lawson