josko

Thanks guys. I have a 50' towline (daisy chained to 15' with a spinnaker shackle quick-release) and was thinking of lopping off maybe 10' or so. I'll leave it as is.

So what's the ideal tow rope length for sea kayaking in New England conditions?

Goose Cove Lodge on Goose Cove is a great place to stay (and launch) in Stonington: http://goosecovelodgemaine.com/ It's on the west side of Deer Isle. A bit of a stretch from Eastern Ear into a 15 kt northerly. Yeah, we had somebody who probably shouldn't have been between the Ears in that swell, and were only too glad to tuck in behid Eastern Ear.

What klind of treats would you bring for polar bears in case you see them on a trip?

Yeah, that was us, going counter-clockwise. Wish I'd known it was you - would have loved to stop and chat for a while.. We left from Duck Harbor and had a bit of an issue making it all the way up to Goose Cove into that NW.

See how friendly they are!

I had a little seal, 'bout the size of a cat, try to climb on my back deck this weekend. We think my helmet, strapped down just behind the dayhatch, looked like mommy's head. I didn't see them until about 100' out, when mom went down and the little guy swam over. I was soo tempted to touch it, but ended up just slowly gliding past as he tried to get his flippers on deck. Hopefully no harm was done. This got me thinking about policies wrt seals. I think it's illegal to aproach a marine mammal within 500' or harrass them in any way, but does anybody know the specific regs and/or guidelines for kayakers? What's the right thing to do if a seal suddenly pops up 100' away?

We're planning to be friends with bears.

Are you taking along an electric fence, such as: http://www.udap.com?

Crossings to the Vineyard have a way of turning into adventures.

You definitely need to beware of currents and be up on your ferry angles in variable current. Vineyard Sound ebbs until Boston low tide, and floods until (I'll let you guess). Currents get to ~3 knots and need to be respected. Eldridge's has a nice set of tidal current maps vor Vineyard sound. The main issue (in the next few months) is the afternoon SW seabreeze. It'll frequently kick up to 20+ knots, and you'll be in the trough while crossing. Do not take the afternoon seabreeze lightly. Boat traffic can be heavy but is managable with a few simple rules. If you're crossing from Woods Hole, paddle SW along Nonamesset for 1/2 mile and then turn towards Tashmoo. That will place you to the west of the Woods-Hole- Vineyard Haven traffic lane. Another option is to cross from Falmouth (Trunk river), which puts you between the Woods Hole and Falmouth shipping channels, but thn you need to cross over at the east end of Middle Ground. Both these routes are current-dependent. As to prep, I am leading two AMC sea kayak trips out of Woods Hole on 6/21 and 6/22. (You can find them on outdoors.org.) That's a good way to get a sense of the area if you haven't paddled locally, and I'd be glad to chat with you about crossing details, both on the water and here.

Cathy, I'm a huge fan of Hennesey hammocks, although not in Maine. I find them indispensable in the Carribiean, where tent spots are tough to find between mangroves and limestone reef crags. I've done a nuber of 2-8 day trips in and around Andros, where a tent is a non-starter, and hammocks rule . However, they don't work for me in Maine. On many MITA islands, a hammock spot involves trampling tall ground vegetationand/or cutting down branches. Also, many tree root holds on maine islands appear quitre tenuous, and I worry about uprooting trees with a tightly-stretched, loaded hammock. I carried it (along with a tent) for a few years, and never ended up using it. If you do get a hammock, make sure it's one where you can lie absolutely flat. Hennesey hammocks do this beautifully, but I'm not saure all hammocks do. FWIW, I've found the fly adequate even in rather extreme driving rain, although, of course, gear under the hammock gets wet.

Y'know, once I couldn't get a fire to light, so I reached over for my gas bottle... Once.

We think alike.... However, I've been 'burned' by dryer lint. Some of these new fabrics have fearsome fire-retardants built in, and you can't (or at least I couldn't) light the lint no matter what I did. Even after the petroleum jelly burned off, the stuff still had the original color.

Thanks folks; I'm puzzling over what firestarters to pack for an upcoming month-long trip. Some of these EMS 'waterproof' matches and doo-dads really leave me scratching my head. I think the answer is a few lighters distributed in the gear, matches and some firestarting aids.

What are people's favorite firestarters to use on kayak camping trips? (matches, lighters, etc.)

Suz, how would I go about getting my drysuit ('12 Meridian) tested? Can that be done locally, should I contact Kokatat, or work with a local dealer?

Thanks Lisa - great article. It confirms what I thought - increasing diehedral is a way to mitigate fluttering at the cost of efficiency of power delivery and ease of handling.

What effect does increasing dihedral angle have on the behavior and 'feel' of a kayak paddle? I see several manufacturers touting dihedral angle on their paddles, but their descriptions of why they're doing that leave me puzzled. I suppose it has to do with flow across the blade: if flow is from top (of the paddle) towards the bottom, one can see how it would stabilize the blade in te water. But isn't flow across the blade?

Yeah, Greg's been great. He loaned me a Celtic, the Lendal 750, and a couple other blades, and worked with me on and off the water as I tried out to sort out what I wanted. I just bought an Ikelos and Cyprus from Carl's shop. They may be fragile, but they're nice paddles.

Well, I tried to order from LendalNA, but cancelled my order today after a number of 'irregularities'. It seems they don't have much stock on hand and more than a usual share of 'birthing problems'.

I've been experimenting with Lendal Xrange 750, 700 and 650 paddles, trying to find something to replace my Ikelos and Cyprus. Here are some findings and surprises to date: The 750 is a bit of a bear for me. it feels wonderful with a light, fast kayak (P&H Bahiya) when covering ground. I can feel the relative lack of slippage anchoring the blade in the water - it just 'feels' efficient', and I seem to get a few tenth's of a knot over the other paddles. My 4.5 kt cruise just works well. However, I have to be very careful not to pull on the paddle too hard, or I start pulling/straining things in my forearms. I had the same issue with the Ikelos in early-season paddling - it would take me about a month before I could stop worrying about hurting my forearm tendons. The 700 is a nice blade - I can feel the additional slippage and feel I'm working marginally harder at the 4.5 kt cruise; this blade reminds me of the Ikelos. The 650 has, for me, a frustrating amount of slippage, and I can feel the difference from the 700. It's noticably harder to maintain 4.5 knots. On the good side, I don't have to wory about hurting my forearms with it, and it might be the ticket when paddling loaded boats long distances, i.e. camping. And now the surprise part, that the post title refers to: I'm MUCH more comfortable in rocks and tideraces with the 700 than with the 750. One would think that the added area would provide that much more force to move the boat tightly in conditions, but the lack of 'yield' i.e. paddle slippage, really impacts my stability in rough water. It's as if i want the paddle to be slipping through the water to get a maximum bracing effect. The 'plant it and it's there' effect of the 750 somehow feels MUCH less stable than the additional yield I get with the 700. Similarly with a draw stroke in rocks - I'm not sure what it is - perhaps as the blade yields, I continue to position it to dynamically give me the directional pull. Whatever it is, the 700 does it a LOT better for me than the 750. Would anybody know what I'm talking about here? Why would a larger blade feel less secure in tight quarters and rough water? Just for completeness, the 650 works for me in rough water, but I prefer the 700. Only time I would opt for the 650 would be early in the season or whenever I'm worried about my forearms, and perhaps with fully loaded boats. FWIW, I've also been messing with shaft lengths, but that a subject for another post.

What's the difference bewtween Lendal Storm and Lendal Xrange in terms of purpose, intended conditions and 'feel'? Their website is a bit vague on this point.

Maybe this is for a separate thread, but what feather angle is most efficient? I seem to work really well, especially in wind or 'conditions', with 60 degrees.

Just for the heck of it, i switched from my usual 60 deg Left feather to 60 Right yesterday, and notice I'm wearing the same hole (in the NRS Maverick glove), but on my other hand now. Kind of interesting - with the left feather I'm wearing a hole in my right glove (on the inside of the thumb), and with the RH feather, on the same place on the left glove. I'm guessing it has to do with switching the controlling hand along with feather. I notice the shaft rotates in my hand (when paddle's in mid-air), and that rotation apparently wears holes. I got a hole in the glove with just 20 miles of paddling on Sunday. What am I doing wrong? I don't think I'm holding the shaft tightly at all.