pikabike

Funny, I was thinking of cork in the sense of a very lightweight object bobbing wildly. Your meaning involves the plugging function instead! Thank you.

Sounds like it was a lot of fun! I don't know what the "cork" method refers to. Would one of you please explain? Thanks in advance.

If you do decide to carry charts, you can print and laminate the 8.5" x 11" sheets from NOAA's Booklet Chart version of a standard-coverage chart. No folding required. However, if you want to do this of an entire chart, the cost to durably laminate ALL the booklet's pages is higher than simply buying a waterproof standard chart in the first place. That doesn't include printing costs, either. I used the Fed Ex/Kinko's laminator and heavy-duty sheets for this purpose one time. In addition to costing as much as one waterproof regular chart, this experiment had me trimming the pages for more than an hour before laminating. My goal was to trim them in such a way that I could assemble the laminated pages with only clear margins overlapping the adjoining pages (to get the "big picture" when planning). While this worked out well, it was tedious. I would not do it again for an entire set of booklet pages. However, it would be a good option if you only need one or a few pages from the booklet. Also, the shop I went to had mixed in some cheap, thin laminate sheets with the heavy-duty stuff. They told me somebody had ordered it to save money. Unfortunately, that meant I had to double-laminate those pages, which didn't look as clear as the good stuff. Check before you start laminating: the good sheets are noticeably stiffer and thicker. When you are done the page should feel like a restaurant placemat.

As already stated, there is no standard for roof rails, but our experience with a '97 Chevy Tahoe's factory rails plus Yakima feet and crossbars has been good. Caveat is that we usually trailer the kayaks. Counter-caveat (if there is such a thing) is that we have done at least three long road trips on 75-mph Interstate highways through CO, WY, MT, ID, WA, BC, and UT with two sea kayaks on the roof. No problems with this set-up, other than it's a PITA to install the feet-crossbar assembly on the rails.

I love turtlenecks and (so far) haven't had problems with them being too high, interfering with the gasket fit. I just make sure that the fabric is wholly inside the gasket, not layered at the gasket top. But if the extra height of a turtleneck does cause trouble, mock turtlenecks will work fine. The Mysterioso dense fleece-inner shirt has a mock T neck, and I like this dense-plush fleece better than the standard kinds. (That's Mysterioso, NOT NRS Mystery shirt which is a rubberized fleece.) SmartWool midweight wool longjohn top and bottom also are comfortable and warm. In addition to being less stinky than synthetics, wool has a huge temperature range (comfort) for a given weight. Plus even though it takes longer to dry than synthetics, it still holds warmth even if damp. Those resilient wool fibers seem to have a lot of spring in them and they don't get as smashed down when wet (which lowers insulation value). The garment I found to have the fastest wicking ability of all is Craft's ribbed underwear. They now make all kinds of knits; the one I'm talking about is the original lightweight ribknit that came in form-fitting, stretchy shirts and long undies. Might be polypropylene. It is hydrophobic; you can tell this when hand-washing it. I've used a poncho thrown over all at breaks to cut wind chill. Just bought a storm cag to gain better protection with sleeves, plus huge multiple pockets. Plus it can actually be worn while paddling, attached to the coaming. Bike shorts or similar underneath the longjohns add a surprising amount of warmth. Would be nice to have a bike-short-design made of polypro but with a horizontal fly opening so that using the lowered front relief zip would be easy with it. As it stands now, I have to pull down the waistbands of shorts and longjohns. Another woman who likes the lowered men's relief zip told me she uses men's longjohns for this reason. (I do love the lowered front relief zip!)

What do you think of McNett's ZipTech? I have used that in the past, with good results. Never had a balky zipper on that drysuit (a Stohlquist, which has been retired for other reasons). Instructions say to OPEN the zipper but only apply to the outer teeth. Thanks for the reminder about 303ing the gaskets. Looks and feels like it's going to snow today. First drysuit day of the post-summer season will probably be this week.

I use a long-billed visor, sunglasses, plus one of the following sun-goos: * Neutrogena Pure & Free Baby sunblock, SPF 60+. Active ingredients are titanium dioxide and zinc ozide. White opaque paste. or * Coppertone Sport sunscreen, various SPFs available. Active ingredients are avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate, and octocrylene. White cream goes on clear when rubbed into skin. Both the above are waterproof and hard to wash off. They do lose effectiveness after lots and lots of rolling, though. Neither goes on my eyelids or forehead (yup, runoff stings)--the sunglasses and visor take care of those areas. Normally I goop up at home and wash several times with bar soap to remove the residue from my hands. If I have to put it on elsewhere, I use the backs of my hands to apply it, or I put it on a doubled layer of facial tissue (hate to use the genericized brand name for these) and smear with that.

How well did any other paddler know this person? The reason I ask is that such knowledge might allow you to tell very early on if something is amiss. The only time I had to deal with a hypothermic paddler was in a relatively safe situation: re-entry practice but on a cold November day. The guy in question is normally alert, listens well, and practices diligently. On this day he chose to wear not his drysuit but a Farmer John over a Hydroskin shirt "to see how badly the cold would affect me without the drysuit." Turns out, very badly very quickly. It only took less than 30 seconds in the water before he began holding himself tightly as if to fight off shivering. He failed to re-enter the boat and reverted to bad techniques such as trying to pull himself straight up onto the deck, resulting in flipping over the boat again. He repeatedly seemed to be functioning at the "in one ear and out the other" level and was staring off into the distance. Next, the shivering became obvious. At that point, we did an assisted re-entry instead just to get him out of the water ASAP. He warmed up quickly but there was no more practice that day... The problem is, when practicing re-entries with someone else of almost opposite, errr, diligence, on a beautiful summer day in warm calm water, that person made the same mistakes and also functioned at the "in one ear and out the other" level--because that's how he ALWAYS is. But in his case, I don't know if I'd be able to tell if he got hypothermic until things turned really bad. I doubt he'd admit needing help of any kind until it's pretty dire. Funny how egos still work a long time when cold.

If you can stomach studying printed materials, Nigel Calder's HOW TO READ A NAUTICAL CHART (large-format paperback) is a good resource. This winter I kept a chart of an area I was staying at (and paddling) on a table and began reading/digesting this book. I went back and forth between reading, highlighting, making notes on the margins, examining the chart, and some field exercises. For example, after perusing the chapters on lights, beacons, and buoys, I looked at every such symbol shown on the chart and made myself say out loud what they meant, checking with the book's tables only if I got stuck/forgot something. I walked along the beach with compass in hand and tried to find every designated navigation-related feature shown on the chart in a given stretch. You get the idea. I didn't memorize the book whole but worked about a chapter at a time. In this way, I ended up reading the entire book, which at first glance had looked VERY dry and uninteresting. Correlating what was in the book with real life (both paddling and beach-walking) made it come alive. And now I have all those notes and highlights in it for when I need a refresher. We don't have workshops here of the kind you described, but I obtained some water-trail maps (not MITA) for an area I will be visiting again and (hopefully soon) moving to. Also got the Captain Jack's Almanac of Tides and Currents for that area, have bookmarked various webpages from NOAA for both weather and tidal info, and will order a chart or two as well. Then I'll come up with some sample day-trip routes in the area, for which an instructor has graciously offered to "check my work" when I get out there. I know at least one other "interior U.S. paddler" has done this, with good results. There is still, of course, the actual butt-in-boat-in-currents nav practice that doesn't exist here, but at least this way we can get some of the mental practice down before actually going. Also seems like a decent way to start getting to know what to expect in a particular area. The above methods are not online, but they have helped me learn. I totally agree with you that "the more I learn about paddling, the more I discover that I want to learn!"

Thanks for the above description. Don't think I've ever read a definition of a boil, though I got a hint of it from the generic term, as in "boiling water." Whatever it is, just don't be sitting there and staring in fascination at one like I did, despite knowing that was likely to end up with me up-ended. The surprising part was how *quickly* it flipped me over. That was my first combat roll on the so-called off side in a river. And yeah, it was good training.

I just try to stay dry. If the water is so cold that I can't tolerate any water intrusion at all, I use the drysuit. Otherwise, a little bit of water getting in from the neck only chills for a few moments and then gets warmed up while trapped inside. But I don't bother with pouring hot water in to preheat the suit; it's not necessary for the temps that I use a wetsuit. Also, in diving you're in the water the whole time, unlike with paddling. Now, I have done the opposite: deliberately opened up the zipper to let cool water in on an extremely hot day. Even on hot days I usually wear a shorty wetsuit, so I can do a lot of rolls. When it's really, really hot the cooling effect of rolling wears off pretty quickly, so I resort to other tactics to avoid overheating. Back to the original question...I wouldn't advise using a drytop and drypant combo, based on my experience. You should've seen the ballooned-out pant legs! I could barely walk in those giant bags of water. When I pulled open the ankle gaskets, the water gushed out in a torrent. It was NOT only a few spoonfuls!

I initially made that choice, and the reason was price, which seems to be the reason why others make the same choice. In my case, I chose a Gore-tex drytop and a coated nylon drypant. This combo had two serious problems: 1. As suz mentions, the two let in water around the waist. When I first tested it out by immersing myself, there was very little leakage. But as soon as I began swimming or otherwise moving around a lot, the water flooded in. And I do mean *flooded.* Baggy garments will let water in wherever the openings do not have latex gaskets--and as far as I know there is no product made with a latex waist gasket. 2. The drytop stayed comfortably dry because it breathed--until the flooding began. The coated nylon drypants, however, left my lower half soaked whether in or out of the water. This surprised me, as I didn't think I sweated much there. I quickly ditched the two-piece combo and went to a one-piece Gore-tex drysuit, thereby ridding myself of both the above problems. The drysuit is reserved for very cold water, or for extended in-water practice in cool water. I later supplemented the drysuit by wearing wetsuits of various types for the rest of the season. So for the last 4 years, I've happily used a shorty 2mm suit (short sleeves and shorts in a one-piece suit) for warm weather and a 3mm fullsuit for cool weather. All of them have been surfer garments rather than paddler-specific because the surfer neoprenes include some much stretchier grades than the usual stuff you see in NRS neoprene clothes. I like them because they are NOT baggy, but the downside is that I have to be sure that I've chosen the right suit for the right temperature. With a drysuit, it is easy to add air inside the suit when on land, to increase its warmth (or I could add another shirt inside). Because previously I had found that Farmer Janes let tremendous amounts of water in through the neck and armholes, I stayed away from them. However, I got to thinking that if I could find a very stretchy sleeved top to wear under a very stretchy Farmer Jane, the combination might solve the flooding problem while being easier to peel off (to pee) than the one-piece suits. Also, having the shirt on underneath would mean less chilling than the usual near-strip routine on pee stops. A few days ago I found what looks like the right pairing: a long-leg Farmer Jane that uses a super-stretchy 1.5mm neoprene (O'Neill's Bahia Jane), plus a long-sleeve shirt (Ripcurl G-Bomb 1mm neoprene "jacket") that is THE stretchiest neoprene I've yet checked out. This shirt will be worn under the Bahia Jane, and due to the combo's super stretchiness it probably will let very little water in. I'll wait another 6 to 8 weeks before testing it in the water because right now 2.5mm of neoprene is inadequate.

I've been looking for a stowable cart to replace my folding PaddleBoy stern cart that has hard wheels and does not fit inside my kayak. The most promising candidates I've found were the following: 1. C-Tug cart, now sold under the NRS (Northwest River Supplies) name. I've looked at one of these in person; the owner was happy with its ease of disassembly and said it stows in many hatch compartments, but that it might not fit in my boat (Pilgrim Expedition). It appears to be both rustproof and very robust. Adjustable for different hull shapes. Presently my top pick IF it fits inside my hatch compartments. 2. Wheel-Eez cart (forget the model name) with the smaller, gray balloon tires. Can be disassembled and stowed. Again, I don't know the volume limits of its stowability. I understand that deflating the tires will allow stowage in pretty much any boat, but who wants to deal with carrying a pump to reinflate them? 3. Newer version of the above profiled in a blurb in a recent Sea Kayaker Magazine, also made by Wheel-Eez. This version has fairly stout, black tires that are puncture-proof. I read somewhere that Kari-Tek is coming out with a stowable paddle dolly, available from P&H dealers. If anybody here has actually seen this thing, I would love to hear your opinion of it. A UK sea kayaking mag contained an article about several stowable kayak carts whose names I did not recognize as they are UK-only. If you can find a back issue of that, check it out, too. Another item you might want to buy: George Gronseth's Kayak Academy sells a huge mesh rucksack designed to haul the typical miscellaneous assortment of various-sized, slippery drybags. I bought 2 (one for husband, one for me). These things are big enough that it appears I can carry all gear from boat to campsite in 2 trips. It has shoulder straps and an interior pocket designed to accept a CrazyCreek chair, sleeping pad, etc. to protect your back from hard lumpy items.

Hmmm, if there's a strong tailwind... There shall be no complaints uttered about smells, because the other paddler (my husband) and I will each tote our own poop pipes. Takes care of THAT issue!

The Poo Powder not only absorbs moisture but renders the poop acceptable for disposal as regular trash. That's why I would like to add it to the newspaper-wrap method. The hard poop pipe is only to prevent puncturing or popping the full plastic bags; it should also reduce odor since the pipe is leakproof. Since I got a new boat fairly recently, I'll need to modify my packing scheme and see where there's room to take the poop pipe. I doubt it will be a problem. The pipe might fit crossways next to the front bulkhead, in front of my feet (I'm back to using footpegs). I'd duct-tape it to the floor to keep it from rolling around. So far, nobody has stated that they use Poo Powder with the "burrito." But it shouldn't pose a problem, and if it does I'l be sure to warn others! Meanwhile, I have maybe 10 Wagg Bags that I'd better use first. The Poo Powder website says it has a shelf life of 3 to 5 years, and I bought the Waggs in 2007, thinking they would be good for much longer than that. Can always add new Poo Powder if necessary.