EEL

>Ed. > > By they way, >it is not a beginner's trip. > Where are they going? Since they leave and return to Bar Harbor, the three days sounds like two half days, two nights and one full day out and about. Might not have sounded like it, but I believe going on a guided trip does have its advantages. Regardless, hoping it is all good paddling for you. Ed Lawson

>Going to Acadia in a couple of weeks. > > >anyone have suggestions for inexpensive/moderately priced >lodging for a night or two. Does not have to be in Bar >Harbor. Contact Mel Rice for suggestions? There are some nice places in Bar Harbor and along road from Ellsworth on down in terms or reasonable motels. Availability is another issue. > > I will >be alone and they have a well-priced 3 day trip from >Stonington. > Its not like you are being guided in a wilderness or on a difficult section of coast like the Great Waas. I suspect you would end up in a group that has seldom if ever kayaked. No doubt this is a totally irresponsible thing to suggest, but if you have experience camping, can navigate, and feel comfortable doing a little paddling alone; then you might want to just do it by yourself or hook up with some folks going out from Old Quarry. The area inside Merchant Row is pretty well protected and there is alot to explore. Only tricky part would be the weather, specifically fog. After all, people camp on the islands, come into town for dinner and paddle out at dusk. Its a rather benign environment most of the time. Not to say it cannot kick up. If you haven't, join MITA and get the book as that will make things nicer all the way around. On second thought, contact jonsprag1 who posts on this list as he has offered free guiding out of Stonington and would no doubt get you pointed right for a good camping trip there. Oh yes. The lobster boats. They like to call kayaks "crayons" or "speed bumps" and kayakers "sea lice", but its only their rough humor mostly. I have found if you stay out of their way, they will stay out of yours and be courteous in a seamanship manner of speaking. Ask at Old Quarry about the routes the boats tend to use coming and going and avoid them. Ed Lawson

> >>Forth, will doing any political lobbying affect our >>501©(3) status? As sometimes political lobbying will >>revoke your IRS designation. > Need to distinguish between political activity and lobbying as those are different activities with regard to the tax code. 501©(3) organizations are free to engage in "insubstantial" lobbying. Insubstantial referring to the extent of the lobbying activity compared to all other activity of the organization. As you might suspect, defining "insubstantial" in any given setting can be a quagmire, but I rather doubt the activities here would be considered anything other than insubstantial. If the commercial kayak folks are not doing much about this legislation, then not sure why NSPN should carry their water so to speak. However, if it would seriously impact the ability of the club to sponsor classes by professionals, especially those who are not based in MA; then it would directly concern the club by negatively impacting its ability to carry out its agenda. Ed Lawson

> >Is there good paddling for Level 2 people from there? > I must confess to not fully understanding what a Level X paddler is or is not. I think I have an imprefect understanding of what constitutes a NSPN Level 2 or 3 trip. That said, I believe you need to think of paddling at MDI and Stonington a bit differently. This past Sat Gail and I spend around five hours paddling at Stonington. Basically all around and about the northeast half of the islands out to Merchant's Thoroughfare. The wind was very light and the water was almost like glass. A very neat/mystical day. More like paddling on a pond. Trivial water to paddle in? Not quite. At times the visability was around 100 feet if not less. So without knowing how to navigate, trusting your compass, ability to hold a course, and the ability to estimate where the lobster boats were and going, you could get lost or worse in that cotton ball very fast. Also, Gail and I did not see another kayak that day until we got back to the ramp so we had only ourselves to rely upon to get back. While there was some fog when we launched, visability very good at about a mile. Why mention this? Simply to point out that the skill set when you are up there paddling is much more than the ability to deal with waves and wind. So anything may be easy or anything may be a challenge and sometimes its both in one afternoon. I don't mean to suggest the ocean is a hostile place where one should be afraid or not go upon until you have achieved this or that level. By all means enjoy its many wonders. Just be aware and ready. Ed Lawson

> I am now >anti-caribiner . . . > >(kidding of course) Seriously, don't accept anything you read or are told as "gospel". Apply your own experience and judgement to the matter giving due deference of course, but make sure it works for you and it makes sense to to you in the context of how you do things and what feels "right". Ed Lawson

Your taking the time to respond to follow up questions is very impressive and your refusal to grap any one element and claim it was "the" cause is highly commendable. They have been quite valuable. > >It was battery drain. The radio showed full charge when I >launched, but drained over the time of use. I had not had >it in the charger for some time. This highlights three issues: 1. When these radios have a little graph or icon for the state of the battery's charge, they are really reading the battery's voltage as opposed to the remaining charge/capacity of the battery. A trait, which has good and bad aspects, of NiCads is they maintain their rated voltage for a long time as the battery discharges and then they suddenly fall off at the end. So the voltage can still be good, but the capacity can be rather low which in turn means the radio's battery indicator is very imperfect measure of the status of the battery's charge status. 2. NiCads have a relatively high self discharge rate while "on the shelf" which means unless you keep track of when they were last charged and how much use they have had, it is impossible to judge charge/capacity status and likely result in a false sense of the battery's state. 3. Due to their characteristics, NiCads do not have a "memory" problem per se, but they do suffer from a variety of problems usually caused by improper charging which cause the symptoms that people erroneously refer to as a "memory" problem. So in a technical sense they do not have a "memory" problem, but they can have problems that are, as a practical matter, functionally the same to the user. Unfortunately, they inherently need regular charging and the odds are the more they are charged the more likely they will develop these problems due to the quality of the charging circuits used in consumer grade stuff. So these three issues can result in a radio not lasting as long as expected and point to the need to pay attention to how and when it is used and the battery charged. Ed Lawson

>Radio - access and use: > >The radios we had have two transmit power levels. Both >radios were normally set on low to conserve battery. There are valid reasons for using the lower power setting for normal hailing use, but in my opinion that general rule does not apply to emergencies for the reasons highlighted in this report. >Given >the length of the rescue, this was probably a good thing The current requirements for 5W output tends to be around 1.5A in a handheld VHF radio. 1W output is around .7A and 2 W is often around 1A. while receiving takes about .3A. Typically a battery in great shape and fully charged is around 1.8A/hrs. Note that running low power gives you a fair amount of additional transmit time, but not as much as you might assume. More importantly, if your signals are not easily understandable ("solid copy"), then numerous repeats are likely and any benefit of using lower power is quickly lost. In fact, you might use up more of the battery on low power for that reason. Good communication is likely to be difficult in bad conditions and for that reason I believe it is best to use high power to establish and then go down if copy can be maintained. The opposite of the standard rule. Poor copy leads to the receiving party making inferences from what they hear which can lead to problems. As in search box bigger than necessary, search box in wrong location, errors on status and situation. All of which may delay or hinder rescue. One can argue it is better to use available battery power early on to get critical info accurately conveyed than saving the battery for a longer duration. Margins. Unless people are getting "roger" in response to their transmission they should ask if they were copied. I know that is very hard thing to focus on when it hits the fan, but it is important. Without some effort to verify messages are heard, lots of time and effort and battery life can be expended for no good reason and a bad situation made worse, but this may well be impractical in some circumstances. The level of frustration and the errors that arise when reception is garbled is difficult to appreciate until you have tried to communicate under weak signal conditions. The fact the battery went down in two hours could be the result of many factors, but it does highlight the fact that NiCad bateries have many characteristics which make them less desireable than Li-Ion batteries for this application. I would attempt to find an Li-Ion replacement battery for any marine handheld unit equipped with a NiCad battery. As important as a radio can be in these cases, it is important to keep in mind that coverage is rather limited with a handheld unit just a foot or so out of the water. It might be informative to run some tests to develop objective data on this in real world conditions. Very sobering that calls were being made on 16 and apparently no other vessels responded or relayed messages even though it was hardly a remote location. Ed Lawson

>The carabiner was attached to its own belt and not the >person. But the belt was attached to the person, right? > Again, it did not click closed on the site, rather >it pierced the webstrap and became lodged. But the end result is the same or worse actually? I have seen carbiners get stuck on and opened from an amazing number of odd events. I confess to being slightly paranoid about them as a result. > The only way >this fluke could have been prevented would be if it remained >in its bag (this is the Northwater Sea-tec tow belt), which >would mean easy and quick deployment would be compromised. These are the margins one works with. How important is speed of deployment/need for deployment v. the odds of stuff going wrong? Pay your penny and take your choice. >Even the way Suz described carrying it could in theory have >led to the same result that Gillian experienced. No free lunch. You just play the odds as you see them. Hopefully with good judgement. Ed Lawson

>This may have been a fluke, but it's a fluke I >would really like to avoid in the future. Any thoughts? About such stuff I doubt there are right and wrong answers, as opposed to judgments/margins to set. However, this is my $.02. Its the flukes that will get you. Don't consider them flukes, that view will get you too. As said recently take it as a given if a line is long enough to wrap around your neck, it will. Carabiners and lines will do amazing things and the rougher and more chaotic the situation (which is really the only time it is critical for things to work well) the more likely they will do so. I would be very reluctant to ever have a carbiner attached to me in any location where it might get located, dislodged, whatever to where I could not unload and handle it readily with either hand. Otherwise you are one odd click from from tied in a way you do not know and no way to unclip. Yes, you could then pull out your trusty whatever and cut away, but.... Ed Lawson

> What I see >clearly from your report is that basically simple things can >go wrong at the wrong time and then the cycle starts to >unfold and can escalate pretty quickly. > When actively climbing I read accident reports religiously. The point often made was that accidents are usually the result of a series of minor, sometimes trivial, errors or failures which, often due to a set of circumstances, culminate into a major/catstrophic problem. Very sobering since all of us can remember trips where little things went wrong, but they remained just annoynaces. Ed Lawson

> >If you could post to this message or email me directly at >gilliankirstel2003@yahoo.com, any updates you have on >directions, parking, parking fees etc. it would be greatly >appreciated so I can get the site updated . . . Here are directions for the Sandy Point launch site on Cousins Island in Yarmouth Maine. These directions are for a more direct route than is what is inaccurately listed currently. Take I-295 through Portland, get off on Exit 15 and take route 1 north, turn right onto Portland Street, then take a right onto route 115/88, follow 88 until you can take a left onto Princess Point Road which will shortly merge with Gilman Road. Follow Gilman Road till you cross the bridge onto cousins Island. There is a parking lot on the left immediately after crossing the bridge. Take the paths down to the beach area on the right of the bridge as viewed from the parking lot. Ed Lawson

>Would this work for a knot on a short tow with a quick >release from a biner? > Yes, if you are referring to the highwayman's hitch. Very good knot to know and easy to tie. It could be tied directly to the deckline with a single hard tied biner on the other end, but depending on how you have decklines outfitted that might limit you to one side to tow from. You could also tie it to both biners of a short tow so you would have a quick release at both ends meaning you could use either biner to clip into the towed boat. Of course that also means you have two chances for a gremlin to untie the knot when you don't want that to happen. Ed Lawson

> > Now, I really don't know the name of the knot I use. But, >it's two half-hitches with an extra half hitch tied inside >the bight. Sounds like a tautline or rolling hitch. Boy Scout

> > That's owned by Martha Stewart- >it's right at the western entrance to the Harbor. Which leads to a great story about checking local bake sales to get recipes, but I digress. Ed Lawson

> I'm going up next weekend and not knowing >the water up there instead of paddling by myself I thought >I'd join a tour. I have not used their services, but I would second the suggestion to contact Aquaterra and specifically Melinda Rice or Mark. They are nice folks. Another option is to see if the MDIPaddlers are having a trip over the weekend. This is not a big club with leaders who will essentially guide you, but they are solid folks and I found them friendly and welcoming. And they are likely to be paddling in one of the more interesting areas of MDI as well. Their website is: http://www.mdipaddlers.com I don't know your level of experience/skills or whatever, but there are some nice paddles out of Seal Harbor and Seal Cove which are away from the crowds. That said, the classic Porcupine loop is very nice. Just keep in mind the water in Bar Harbor is around 50 now while offshore it is around 45 and you need to be rather self reliant up there to say the least if doing stuff solo. Unless your plans are fixed, you might want to think about Stonington. Ed Lawson

>You guys ROCK!!! Actually, they rock and roll. Seriously, congratulations to all on both sides of the learning experience. Especially to tea bags, but I suspect some enjoyed their role playing. Ed Lawson

> somewhat vague, but >hopefully a bit helpful Speaking of vague info, I find the graphs on the new VCP website to be inscrutable. And still no info on volume. To their credit P&H has provided more info about volume and load ranges than the two other main Brit producers to the US market and nearly all of the US/CAN producers as well. Ed Lawson

>Can anyone tell me what the optimum weight range is for the >P&H Sirius "M"? P&H gives an optimal load range of 143 to 253# for the Sirius. To me that suggests the boat is likely designed for or work well for a paddler/kit as a day boat weighing around 190/200#, but that is a SWAG. My understanding the current boat is the M version. Ed Lawson

>You're kidding, right? I assume you are. I was never a rescue groupie, but I have dragged fellow climbers off mountains. Dow was a climber and he went as any other climber would to help. He was on a trail many of us had used in winter, but still died in a small slide. It would be easy and foolish to say he made as big a mistake as anyone else. Anybody can get the chop through bad luck, a moment's inattention, or a misjudgement. If lucky you just get your pride hurt or an injury that does not disable. I don't know many climbers who have not had an episode and I doubt many kayakers who pursue the sport seriously have not either. Perhaps you were born to walk in the valleys or glide over calm water which means you do not understand. Fine, but do not disparage those who were not. Others do not let the fear of dying prevent them from the joy of living on the edge. Its a valid choice so long as its an informed choice. If your point is one should be willing to live or die by one's choices. Fair enough. For good or ill there is a history of free rescues in the US. In Europe you pay for climbing rescues and most buy insurance. It may have changed, but in Canada they didn't officially mount rescues...you were on your own. Ed Lawson

>however, the whole point of the leaderless (in a formal >sense) SNG is that each participant is responsible for >himself or herself. While this is basically true, the reality is when things go bad someone needs to make quick decisions, direct others, and take prompt action. I'm not big on leading; but I can be decisive. However, the training has given me pause about my skill level to be able to do the right thing at the right time which in turn makes me think twice about posting S&G trips. Mostly because I see them as a "Never been there, but could be fun/good/adventure. Want to join?" events as opposed to taking people on a route I am familiar with. OTOH, perhaps most who go on S&G trips are more experienced and independent so there will likely be skillsets if needed. Hope this explains my comment. Ed Lawson

>For more information on this trip model, go here: >http://www.isu.edu/outdoor/CADefine.htm >It is a very long paper to read, but contains some >interesting and insightful information Many thanks for the link. A very good read indeed and articulates well a view with which I tend to be in snych. Ed Lawson

>Anyone know what's going on with the above referenced trip? Perhaps time for a few S&G postings? I must confess that after taking a few of the Leadership Classes I am more reluctant to post a S&G trip which is perhaps a testament to the the training and the awareness it instilled. Ed Lawson

>if I can make due with our >exhisting "bulky canoe pfd" or if I need something special >to learn rolls with. I don't know what constitues a bulky canoe PFD being ignorant about such things. However, it might be wise to keep in mind there are many ways to fill a closet if not a basement with stuff that is seldom if ever used, but which was thought to be great, essential or necessary at the time of purchase. Not to demean the value of good gear, but "success" in your early forays learning various paddling skills is not dependent upon having the "right" gear as a general proposition. And once you have some experience paddling and playing in the boat and paddle, you will be far more able to discern what constitues the "right" boat/paddle/gear for you. As for learning to roll, the last thing I would concern myself about is the PFD. Speaking as one who has and continues to toil/play toward the goal of having one. Ed Lawson

Check the 8/13/ trip on the SMSKN calendar. The area of the trip is just north of the Saguenay River along the St. Lawrence. Those folks might have some info of use. Ed Lawson

>The quickest way to get to MDI I have a thing for a watering hole in Belfast and that run over from Bangor has got to be one of the more desolate ones around if memory serves. I will try it next time nevertheless. I was just pointing out that using Exit 113 was faster than the older route through Augusta. Ed Lawson