Pintail

<As many of you may know...> I had absolutely no idea, Les: thanks for the news, dear friend. I shall be writing...

Glad, read Nick's post just three above yours, my dear... <Still available items: <AMP Dry Suit - $500 <Bomber Gear Touring skirt $40 <Immersion Research skirt $40> Understand now?

...and I'm guessing that they charged you forty dollars for the privilege? (No need to ask how I know -- and I've been <on> their tow trucks several times, too! Which latter is far more expensive) Joe: it sounds as though you had a nice day (I haven't been on the water for about two weeks, due no roof-rack on the car that is new to me: rectifying that shortly)

<...the instructor who showed up didn't look the part...> I particularly like this comment!

Pru: wonderful trip report! Thank you! (Green with envy, I might add...) <My back to the wind, I was able to enjoy watching little birds (a tern? what?) on the rocks> This was most likely Ringed Plover, Semipalmated or even, perhaps, Little Ringed (difficult to tell with head facing wrong way); but...tern: no. You caught a tern in flight in photo #15, by the way, and much later you posted a photo of "Arctic terns"; but the problem with <them> is that they are impossible to differentiate from Common terns except in the hand. Truly! Hence the "Comic" often used to describe them. There are some very impressive photographs among this huge record of the trip.

Unable to join you, Bob: my schedule changed (yet again) and now enjoy Mondays and Tuesdays off. Would have liked to paddle with you again...

PS: A propos the breaching incident: "Boat 246: come in, please! Boat 246, your time is up!"

There were two monkeys in that short video and perhaps the paddlers interrupted courtship or something similar...who knows?...but I doubt the monkey's ill manners were pure aggression. They are curious creatures and often quite brave; but that wasn't much of an "attack", now, was it? Had it been a baboon, however, that would have been a different matter altogether!

<...you can see the channel in the sand running directly north there> All very well; but the entire mouth of Essex Bay changes all the time as sand drifts in the current and the high spots build and decay...from one year to the next it can look quite different! I am guessing that I have encountered currents at the mouth at peak ebb of around 2 to 2,5kt? I find Rob's reasoning not sound: Essex Bay is a large sheet of water that empties (and fills) across a shallow, sandy (ever-changing) outlet/inlet. I think there is every reason to justify a decent current there at max flood or ebb...and I think it quite a nice play-spot when the waves are up.

Mondays or Wednesdays I can manage, comrade! If those days are not likely to be among your options...that's okay, I guess; but I'd like to join you, for sure. Last paddled there two summers ago. (Careful what you say about Pintails! Mine did that trip at least twice, as far as I can remember...) ;^)

Oh, the joys of having to work at weekends! (Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!!) What about a second episode or installment, then, Matt? (Pretty please?) Oh, dear...

Rob, this is the email notification that I received, telling me that my membership had expired. However, a half-hour later, I got another, after I had been "fiddling" with trying to renew online: this second notification told me that I had been renewed automatically! "Hi Pintail,This email is to notify you that your NSPN Annual Membership has expired, but don't worry, you can easily renew. Just go to the forum, click on the STORE tap, and then select MANAGE PURCHASES. In there, you should be able to find your annual membership and renew. Using PayPal is the fastest way to get your membership renewed (instantly!), while paying by check can take a while since the post office box is checked only once every month...or two. If you need any assistance with this or have questions about your membership, please email membership@nspn.org. Thanks, North Shore Paddlers Network." Thank you, both, Rob and Michael, for your concern/input! (Glory be, the water is warming up nicely: marvellous hour or two I just spent on the water at Lanes Cove, without any tuiliq or drysuit!)

Yes, I am the first one to admit that I am somewhat "thick" when it comes to computers and internet questions; but why (oh, <why>?) do I seem to have this problem every single time I need to renew my membership? Recognize this quote: <click on the STORE tap, and then select MANAGE PURCHASES. In there, you should be able to find your annual membership and renew. Using PayPal is the fastest way to get your membership renewed>? One is left, sort of hanging on, not knowing how to advance from ordering the renewed status to actually being able to pay by Paypal...do I simply send funds to the treasurer at NSPN or what? According to the above quote, then it seems as though it ought to be easy-peasy; but...it isn't so! There are some very savvy technical members of this organisation: why cannot someone devise a direct path for those of us who obviously need help? I do not need any assistance with my bow rudders, thank you; but I do need help with this annual renewal business!

If I want to play in the mouth of Essex Bay (as I sometimes do), then I usually paddle across from Lanes Cove...

If you want to brush up on your surf, rough seas skills, etc., then do see that I have posted a British book (Pesda Press -- associated with BCU, I think), "Rough Water Handling" by Doug Cooper, for sale in the classifieds section...new book, but an accidental duplicate...and it is a <good> book.

@BigBird: If you want to try a Greenland paddle before committing to the whole thing, then I have an old one that you may have. It is quite long and was made years ago by the ever-gracious Keith Attenborough who gave it to me; but I have stopped using it. It has shoulders (I prefer none) and measures approximately 220cm. It is lightweight (red cedar?) and has been oiled. I am in Gloucester and should be happy to see it put to further use. If interested, send me a text message at niner seven8 seven54 five wun71... The most rewarding part, for me, was understanding how <not> to rely on arm strength or pulling or prising on the paddle when rolling; but to allow body flex to do the work and simply letting the darned paddle just float on the water surface. It works!

Yes, <un-staffed> is what I always understood, Nancy...

<If you want more time, then I wonder about camping somewhere beyond anyone else's gaze?> <I would never commando camp out there. Too many eyes in the hotel and harbor> I was thinking more of the feasibility of trying it out on another island, Paul -- like White, for instance...

I would have thought that there was plenty of time for exploring if you set out early enough from Rye -- after all, there isn't <that> much to see out there (unless is be the quiet remoteness that you savour). Yes, the return paddle, especially, can be boring; but there is a sense of achievement about it and it isn't <that> far...I've done it a few times, so has Paul Sylvester. I even did it in the company of only one other paddler, one time (Ken Condon), on a dead-calm, summer's day. If you want more time, then I wonder about camping somewhere beyond anyone else's gaze?

<That's> Mar-a-Lago? God, it's ugly! I guess it just confirms the taste of a person who likes to live in a gilded palace when in New York...why should I be surprised? ?

To those of you who <rely> on their GPS devices, there is a most interesting article in last Sunday's NYT (page 4, Review section) concerning the vulnerability and susceptibility of the system to outside forces (ie, tampering). This will be of no surprise or concern, even, to Professor Huth, I think (right, John?); but the entire system is quite open to sabotage by foreign interference, if you care... The article is a call for a back-up system and it appears to be very necessary!

Curious minds want to know, Sir Leon: exactly which rescue technique did you employ on this occasion? (Or...which line did you use?) ;^)

<...the white cloth screens seen on the decks in other photos are for? I thought they might be camouflage to blend with surrounding ice...> Exactly what I think, too -- a portable shooting hide.

Oddly enough, DS, I have had the Scott Polar Research Institute book-marked for a long time on my computer; but mainly for the book section in the "shop". (Back in days when I lived far away, I even sent a dear friend there to look at the paintings of Edward Wilson) I had never gone into this section of fascinating photos: thanks a ton!

Since manufacturers of drysuits offer Goretex socks for the feet, one wonders why they cannot design and offer a (sized for the customer) Goretex mitt as another option? Imagine the luxury of having totally <dry> hands, in woollen gloves inside your drysuit!