brambor

... only to be superseded by the amount of flotsam and jetsam ...

There are those who think the greatest individual risk would be admitting participation in the practice in the first place ;-) For the most part there is little harm to the practice and if people are getting out and interacting it has definite benefits (for them). As far as "leave no trace" it violates the letter of the rule regardless of the quality of the package. However, as part of the practice is to remove a reasonable amount of trash from each location visited then I see an opportunity for a net gain. I believe its safe to assume the supply of trash will continue to outstrip the supply of geo-caches.

I would love to join. Time and place is ideal for me.

Rene

Sunday 12/13/09 the usual paddle. Meander along coastline and do some rock gardenin' maybe some surf if there is any (sometimes some small breakers on the beach). Meet at 10:00. Put in on beach at Ocean St. as it off season parking. Level 3 paddle, bring a helmet.

Please RSVP if interested, thanks Ross

I have to be in South Hamilton, MA by 3PM on Sunday 12/13.

Asuming that the conditions allow it, I wonder if there'll be interest in paddling anywhere around Gloucester, MA?

I guess BIB around 10AM and off the water around 2PM would be ideal for me but I am flexible (provided I make it to my 3PM committment)

This is a good question. I'll do my best to answer. For more detailed information please go to www.geocaching.com

Geocaching.com is a strong supporter of Cache in Thrash Out

A geocache is a hidden treasure and therefore is not and eyesoar. The odds are that on your way to work you will pass hundreds of close by cache locations but you will never see them.

A quick peek at your profile location, I entered Gloucester, MA into geocaching.com and found

roughly 70 geocaches in your vicinity.

In general a geocache is registered by the governing body of geocaching.com. Its owner is responsible for placing the cache within the posted guidelines. So I am responsible in making sure the cache does not litter, does not create an eyesore etc etc...

There are trinkets in every cache. On the island caches I tried to include items that would be useful for nearby kayaker or camper. I left such things as light sticks, mini flashlights ... My cache's are in a waterproof containter so potential contents can not leak out.

Every geocache has it's own web page profile. If a geocacher finds an issue with a placed cache they will log it in and suggest a maintenance. The cache owner gets immediately notified by an e-mail and is able to resolve the issue asap.

rb

Being totally ignorant of such diversions as "geo-cache-ing", will someone please explain the practice to me? What is the point of it? Are "leave no trace" ideals are disregarded here?

I've been to her blog a couple of times interested to see the whole map with the progress but I failed to locate it.

I wish I could have made it to the party. I drove with the kayaks all the way to MA to watch my older son's hockey game and by the time it finished and he got out of the rink I had to feed him too ... well it was too late to contemplate additional fun snowstorm driving. We got home at 10PM.

575/4162164461_7c1c1b710e_b.jpg"]Red Greenlander

Tyson In Wave

TiW is a brilliant set! Bravo to you folks to get out there for a pre-Party!

Tyson Balance Brace

Tyson Roll

Tyson in the rocks

Rocks

Dagen Walking the Plank

Tyson and Emilie at Goat Island

Adjustments

Red Greenlander

Tyson In Wave

It was pretty much as advertised. Not much distance with some island hopping (gotta get the 11 year old kid into this gradually) but I hope you had fun playing in the waves and rocks. On the paddle back it started snowing...ain't drysuits fun?

photos will follow.

Well it's time to go home, get the boats ready for tomorrow morning. Life is good.

Rene

my sentiments exactly. I did so many conference calls today the battery in my wireless handset went dead.

Barry.

wow. I hope he dealt with programmers before. If they are giving him an estimate of a few weeks ... I would say it could go to a few months.

He better put up something like a blog with a clear title that the web site is under construction and with links to contacts at various Valley departments (customer service, marketing...) and where they'll occasionally post some news that are happening at Valley. A blog that does not look like an actual web site is better for visitors to understand visually that the REAL web site is under construction.

I received a nice reply from Peter at Valley. His current interpretation of "just a few more days" is "just a few more weeks". ...or more specifically, he said that he thinks that it will be up before Christmas. I tried to suggest that putting that information on the web site would be better than leaving it looking like the abandoned site of a defunct company.

I conversed with the owner via e-mail. He was helpful and directed me to a distributor in the USA. Unfortunately they did not return my e-mail. I ended up just doing my repair all by my self and felt good about it. I'm a big fan of Valley, that's why I'm bewildered with their web presence.

I'd be happy for some direct contact avenues at this point. I need to replace a rusting screw but have no way to contact the source. I can pull it out and try to match it but it would be far easier if I just knew the specs. Plus I'm afraid to remove it without having the replacement in case it gets destroyed on the way out. It is beginning to make me mental since it should be the simplest need to fill. I don't want to talk to the importers. I want to talk to the factory. I don't suppose that information is encrypted in the Latin anywhere on the page is it?!!! I wonder if Pungo owners have these problems.

It really shows how clueless the owners are about the importance of web presence in these days. Running adds in kayaking magazines and posting their web site in them is a disappointing negligence.

If this happened to me as an owner i would redirect the site to a blog where i could answer questions and post news about my company. This would give the webmaster enough time to finish reading '.NET for Dummies'.

So, just what is Valley's definition of "Just a few more days"?! They've been down for so long, it seems that they could have put up something in the mean time. ...even if it is an honest clue of how long it might be instead of the deceptive "few more days".

10:30 is perfect because at 11 it will be 2 hours before high tide. The put in is generally good 2 hours before high tide until 2 hours after high tide.

See you there.

I'm going to be picking up my new dry suit in Kennebunkport Saturday, so this sounds like a great way to try it out. The only issue is that the shop opens at 10AM. Any chance the meeting time could be moved to 10:30? Both Tyson and I would be joining you.

Emilie

If the forecast for rain is 10% or so I'm thinking about paddling Cape Porpoise on Saturday.

The forecast for Saturday at Cape Porpoise is:

SAT... N WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 1 TO 2 FT. based on based on this link

and Cloudy in the 30's with 10% chance of precipitation based on based on that link

put and park in here:

43.367750°-70.432419°

Meet at 10AM, and put in when the tide comes close enough to go (about 30+ minutes). There will be about 4 hours of water to paddle. Not much distance but plenty of fun island hopping and possible rock play for those who know how. There is a nice lighthouse to visit, two geocaches on nearby islands that you can look for as well as an indian excavation site that we could check out (and not touch)

Is Saturday forecast for Rain?

I quickly glanced and saw seas 1-2 feet, minimal winds and cloudy.

Weekend looks like a washout. Paddling ideas for Sun through Tues? I'm up for another go at the Harbor Islands; if too windy even to tour the inner area (Logan, the wharves, etc.)...or a typical put-in at Tuck's Pt to wherever.

See ya at the Party.

Ern

I am seriously reconsidering placing any caches on islands. We spend a great day on the water last Sunday and placed a geocache on Basket Island in Casco Bay. This is the third geocache placed by me. All three were placed on an island in an attempt to promote kayaking.

First cache the dude waded through mud to Goat island in middle of October.

Second cache the dude waded even further to Cape Island in early November.

Today, December 1st the cache was first found by two guys who were in a Canoe :-) The guy actually called me and I told him NO it was a bad idea to take a canoe to Casco Bay. They did it anyway to much delight from nearby seals. :-)

Those are great shots, Doug. I especially liked: #8, 54, 58 and 71 but really you rode some great light through the whole trip.

I wish I could have joined but we ended up leaving the kids and home and me and my wife enjoyed a nice 4 hour paddle in Casco Bay. It is incredible to get such weather at the end of November.

When I look at marine maps I am unsure whether it is possible to read which way the current will flow during outgoing or ingoing tide. For example (discounting wind direction) a circumnavigation of an unspecified island as observed on a map ... how will I be able to tell which way to go...clockwise or counterclockwise?

One issue I have with lack of bulkheads is that unless you use a seasock it is a pain in the neck to empty all the water out of the boat in case of a capsize.

Also it is important to not that a question of FIT is not directly related to boat's length but instead to the amount of room for legs and size of the seat and width of the 'fit' at hips.

The amount of the wetted surface also has to be taken into consideration but that is the same for everyone else. You don't want to buy a boat rated 180 - 240 lbs if you weigh 180 and you never plan on loading the boat for overnight trips.

wife and kids are going paddling anf that means.a local lake. Have a great trip everyone!

OK, I'm 90% in. Will check the posts later. Prefer the more in-harbor route. Looks interesting to me plus I never paddled this area. Hope the water is clean.

Doug

Tyson makes some great defining points.

For example we load my son's kayak first so that he sits in the water more to resists the wind.

When I said that 'any LV boat' I did not mean that any LV boat will work for your daughter. You still need to have her sit in the boat and see how it fits and what needs to be adjusted.

My sons butt was too small even for the Mystic. I would have had to do some padding on either of the boats that we tried. Kittery had a Kevlar Mystic with great looking colors as well as a great looking fiberglass Mystic in sunburst and yellow.

I think that SOF is also a great idea.

I think we you take her with adults on a 6+ miles trip then if she were in a shorter boat she would have to work a little harder to keep up with the pack.

That looks like a very good choice. It looks to be genuinely low volume and affordable and should be fast for her.

I'd suggest being careful that any boat not be too large. If she is already doing 6-8 mile paddles, she's going to get caught in a wind. A windy day in a boat that is too large can be very frustrating. An 'LV' label does not make a low volume kayak, it only makes the kayak lower volume than its high volume sibling. I'm 190lbs and I universally prefer the LV kayaks to the standard sized ones. Most of them are (IMHO) too large for an 80lb paddler.

Be careful about too much length resulting in too much wetted surface area. This will result in slow paddling for a smaller paddler when trying to cover any real distance at real paddling effort levels.

I'm not sure if it is really low enough volume but you might also look at the Eliza by Necky. ...though I expect it won't be as good a choice as the Episea or even the Mystic.

Also, depending on your interests, a custom built SOF is a very real option. I know of one being assembled for a child in ME this weekend. Though the Tom Yost Sea Pup may not be considered a "proper" Greenland Qajaq by some people with its aluminum frame, it gives the general idea.

Cheers!

Ty

In addendum I would simplify the answer saying that basically any LV boat from top kayak manufacturers should fit a small person and therefore also a child. It might need a little bit of additional padding that can later be adjusted as they grow.

I went throught a similar process a few months ago. The Impex Mystic is a great suggestions and Kittery Trading post has a very nice one for a very good price.

I did question the length, however, and ended up talking to a few more people who said a longer kayak that 'FITS WELL' is also a good idea because the length will help it to keep up better with the longer kayaks than the 15 foot length of the Mystic.

It just happened to that I ran across a great deal on a used Valley Pintail. It fit my 11 year old son very well. I added a little bit more padding to improve on the fit. The kayak is great. I spent less and I feel this is something he could grow into really well as well as it could grow with his improving skill level.

:D :D

ummm...not certain how your last 6 words were supposed to read..............

so which top did they send you?

thanks Doug.

Some really nice pics. Love the contrast & composition. Well balanced.

Doug