spider

Perfect timing as I am knee deep in figuring some of these things out however I am going to miss this one... Murphy's law, I am at the pool session...

Thanks... at 1st it looks like Chinese to me but bit by bit I'll sort it out. I know I can get my numbers by running the NOAA numbers through Google Earth or work out the numbers each and every time I want to see where something is on the map... but I would think they would just give you both sets of numbers as they do elsewhere on some of their sites. ...oh well... there are no problems, only solutions...

I need more time with the math but I see clearly here http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=iosn3 from one of the links that they list both sets of numbers... with the ones I'm used to reading on the charts in parenthesis. So I have to spend some more time getting it straight in my head.

It gets more interesting... I went to Google Earth typed in N42.97 W70.62 and got the location off White Island BUT I notice at the bottom of the page the coordinates for the exact same location read N42.58.1127 W70.37.1183. So there seems to be 2 different sets of lat and long numbers for the same location so I do find it to be a bit confusing....

That would be my guess The numbers on my link are below the interactive map section.. for some reason it always gives the lat and long for Isle of Shoals. Glad I never entered those numbers for a trip out there some day... I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't doing my "homework" Nice links EEL they should keep me busy for awhile. thanks

it's interesting that the lon and lat between our two different links don't match up. Yours is right on location the numbers from my link http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=42.805476827860275&lon=-70.79864501953125&site=box&smap=1&unit=0&lg=en&FcstType=marine don't match up to yours so it has me wondering why they differ.

Thanks I'll check it out. (I'm thinking the lat has to be 70 something...thinking the 78 is just a typo)

Thanks I'll check it out. (I'm thinking the lat has to be 70 something...thinking the 78 is just a typo)

I know you folk are knee deep into dynamics but thought I would ask something more along the navigation end of the deal. Taking John's recommendations I'm drawing the magnetic lines on my charts mostly just the north south, but one I set up more as a UTM grid with each square marked off in mile grids just to try it out etc. Any way I'm practicing plotting coordinates whenever I see a reference to them...practice, practice, practice. on this NOAA link http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=42.805476827860275&lon=-70.79864501953125&site=box&smap=1&unit=0&lg=en&FcstType=marine I see the Isles of shoals as lat 42.97 N and long 70.62 W When I plot them out I'm off about 22 miles from Isle Of Shoals grabbing a coordinates right from the Map Tech... Cape Ann to Cape Elizabeth I get approx the same lat but the longitude is way off (W70.37.22) So my questions are... Am I doing something basically wrong? or are the coordinates from the link the location of some weather station out at sea and not the coordinates for Isles of Shoals though it seems to state it as such ? (in which case never use the listed coordinates thinking they are the numbers for the actual place you're looking up) thanks

I wonder how it all played out because Fri there was surf as far as the eye could see off Salisbury State Park looking south. ....Same from Sandy Pt State park looking at Cranes and beyound. I might take a drive over to Hampton today to see how the conditions match up with the forecast.

?? guess I'm not up on what all the acronyms stand for...

It comes up ok for me. It took a long time bringing it up for Safari, but shorter with Google Chrome. (mine might be a bit slow now that I did away with the high speed connection to regular speed connection) ton's of good info...thanks John ..much appreciated.

Pretty big gross out factor none the less. Millions of pieces of plastic has to have an impact. After the talk I went down to the public launch and gathered up a few for future reference. Still I'm not looking forward to explaining to my Canadian paddling fiend when he visits... "oh there nothing...just stuff from one of our sewage facilities... they are actually quite attractive...

this link has some of the kind of overview I was thinking of but not the substations. http://www.gomoos.org/data/all_measurements.html?platform=B01 you can click on individual buoys and the info comes up in this format or links into other graphics there is about a life time of info at the website it should keep me busy quite awhile...

Glad you guys got to go paddling. What a beautiful day ! It found my wife and I paddling around in Great Bay NH and of course some advanced picnicing...

the... Closed Beaches... thread has more info Unfortunately 4 to 8 million of these discs are now estimated to have been washed downriver. They are expected to wash up on beaches for the next year....it's not what our shores should be all about... littered with bacteria disks from a sewage plant..... eck...yuck

I love paddling this time of year, it is awesome to have the waters most all to ourselves, very stress free as far as boat traffic. Here is a link to our route from a SPOT rescue/tracking device http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0iA94SqDMrIiHkSSfhrfJWPYjFk4mNRq0 I think the link will be active for about a week or so . ...thanks for the nice responses... much appreciated...Blaine was the catalyst for this trip....and a fine idea it was !

Thanks for posting about the closures, I was wondering if they were open yet. I wanted to paddle out of Pavilion (Ipswich) Thursday but we are planning to paddle Great Bay NH instead. I am told that the filters are about the size of a half dollar. Aside from the big ewwww/eck factor of them, I wonder how many of them are going to wind up "in the food chain"

Rockport Harbor..... finds us for a low tide lunch. Sid has forayed into town graciously returning with a cup of coffee for us and various asundries for himself. There were a handful of people checking out the shore line and we speculated they were checking for those filters that have washed up. Hazardous waste, fortunately we didn't see any filters though it is not a good sign that we paddle waters where checking for toxic waste is part of anyones day. It is a strong reminder of the vulnerability of our oceans. We took a 1 hr lunch which was pretty restful and head out at dead low tide across the harbor. The water was plenty confused and pushy as we were making our way around the breakwater. I know I had to put down some braces as we went along. I was wondering if the other guys thought the water a bit bouncy...later they confirmed much the same. Confused water with swell or current can keep your hands busy but I think there might be a photo or two to be found. Sandy Bay, Halibut Point State Park, very nice paddling... in through here we were protected from wind and the tide is in our favor the rest of the day. We stopped at Lanes Cove for a mini break and check out any damage to the wall. Near as we could tell there had been some large rockfall but the cove itself is open ok. (though I have never launched from there) The wind whipeth....sure enough the wind was waiting for us as we worked our way past the Annisquam Light and up the Annisquam River If I said the current was with us than assuredly the wind was not. It was a bit of a huff and puff to paddle back to our cars. That stretch helped bring the "endurance" part of the trip into the mix for our day. ....and so the story is told... I may have forgotten to mention Blaine did most all the chart reading, both for his expertise and because he is the only one of us who could actually read it with out having to stop and fetch his glasses. ...Sid for his interpretations of such readings compared to conditions underway.

A fine winters day for going around Cape Ann. Wind and tides were to be our friends if the forecast held true as Blaine had made note of several days earlier. So the telling of the tale henceforth... ...the three amigos... Sid, myself and Blaine rendezvous at what is known as the Gloucester High School Launch,and after speculating a bit about possible conditions we ride on the ebb tide out the mouth of Blynman Canal. Heading south to Gloucester Harbor's breakwater and beyond for a counter clockwise route around Cape Ann. I am the newbie for this trip as both Blaine and Sid had paddled it before. Mostly we expected winds from the south and west though I think I will defer to them for the details of the forecast... I expected choppy... and choppy it was as soon we rounded Eastern Point. I would say we saw a good amount of chop on top of the swells for a good mile or so...to be repeated intermittently throughout the day. Just when I'm starting to wonder if a day of those conditions would actually be enjoyable things started to ease off as we worked our way along. A lone Swan, in it's beauty, was there to observe us in the busy water. Such a calm and siren looking creature, somehow brings a feeling of tranquility as we jitter our way along. Sid has a track of our paddling...22 miles and may well have a better idea of what the conditions were at various locations. Blaine I'm sure has pictures of the day...mango to the right of me mango to the left of me ...the three "mangoteers".....on a winters journey. Passing Milk Island and Thatcher Island along Emerson Point, the cruising is good, wind and waves nice and evenly spaced, you can feel the rhythm of the Ocean pulse along. We 3 have different boats and boat styles, mine in particular, not a purist by any stretch of the imagination I am Greenland paddle in a rudder boat.... (a collective gasp can sometimes heard) Through that stretch boats and waves matched perfectly and we could cruise along with minimal effort. In fairly short order we arrive in Rockport Harbor... breaktime....

I don't know how long this link stays active...but 100,000 plus washed up on our shores certainly deserves mentioning.... http://www.wmur.com/news/27182052/detail.html Though Plum Island Refuge is technically closed to us as paddlers...it still about the last thing you want to see happen. Hampton beach Salisbury Beach, Plum Island all closed....to my understanding

I'm doing a bit of "homework" on tidal predictions.... Here is the NOAA link http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents11/cpred2.html#MN I see they give the lat and long for each station where each reading is taken. On the risk of flaunting my ignorance...I know I can type in the numbers and get the exact locations one by one but is there another way to bring up the locations just for an quick overview so a person can see which stations would be of interest and then target those for further details ? thanks...hopefully it won't be a case of "if you need to ask then you shouldn't...."

Just a quick note. Went paddling yesterday (Tue 8th) and Plum Island Sound was ice free as far as I could see. Usually the ice line is at Parker river. Though we paddled separately I talked at the end of the day with Blaine and with Billy D each finding good conditions. Billy D had paddled Fox Creek over to Hog/Choate Island also finding it free of ice. Beautiful pair of Swans graced the waters.... a very nice sight indeed.

Yes, a very nice paddle and the 1st time paddling out from a "yacht club" for me. Though not quite the warm temps as promised by the forecasters, it sure is nice paddling this time of year. No boat traffic, land wherever you want, no people to chase you away. Nice to meet those curious as to what we were up to. Sometimes it's easy to forget how unusual it seems to some folks. So it brings a nice flavor of personalities when people come over to see what it's all about and say hi...even in their own unique ways. .....Ahhhh the flabbergasted lady, loved Blaine' reassurance he would soon be at the senior center playing bingo...she brought a smile cuz she didn't know what to make of it all and found herself complementing our boats. She added much to the day's adventure, in her own way, though probably quite unaware of it.. Nice paddle and nice company...coldest part always seems when loading up at the end of the day...brrrr.

Sounds good to me. See you there. cell # 770-0496 (Nh 603).