mhabich

If you have an Astral Sea Wolf PFD, stick your hand up behind where BACK is printed, and you'll find a loop of nylon webbing. Turns out that it's intended to hang a Camelbak Antidote 50 oz (1.5L) reservoir (regular, not the lumbar one) between the back foam and the mesh back. I tried it at LL Bean and everything seems to fit just right, with no pressure on your back from the cap or tubing connector. Would be much neater than the usual piggyback setups.

On the MDI trip, a couple of us ended up with tendinitis an inch or two above the wrist over the high part of the radius. It struck me that this must have been caused partly by the pressure of the wrist gaskets on our drysuits. Any other experience or thoughts?

When you're getting your boat from the beach to your car, push it back in the water, waggle it to get the sand and weeds off, and pick it up and carry from the water.

Jeff C's trick: have a garden sprayer with water In your car to rinse your gear. A plastic water bottle sorta works too.

Whatever you do, for goodness sakes rinse those booties.

Andy, I haven't used it on the water, but you could. Yes, it shows your location on the chart and will track your route and speed like any GPS. It's good on iPad as well. Have a look at the online chart viewer on your computer ( from EarthNC site) and you'll have a sense of what the app does. If you prefer vector charts, you could consider Navionics (subscription required).

Mount Desert Island

Tide Graph Pro

Buoy Explorer

Windfinder

EarthNC Charts

I appreciate all your efforts. Waiting breathlessly for the next installment.

Kittery Trading Post has the Coast Guard ID stickers at the kayak counter for free.

Thunder in my Pungo. Now there's a trashy read.

There's always space at Chebacco on Thursdays, and it would be great to see some new faces.

None genuine without this seal. Accept no imitations!

Way to go, Jeff!

I'm planning to be there.

First, thanks to Pru for inveigling me to join this trip, and to Peter for originating it. Thanks to all for the good company.

A few more photos: a sea urchin floating on calm water, two little hermit crabs noshing on one hapless fish, and quite a lot of cormorants nesting on Southern Mark Island.

I could do this. Who else is in?

In between practicing bow rudders and hanging draws and tuning up rolls, we sought out other challenges...

Should be good weather tomorrow...5 PM at Chebacco Lake in Hamilton all summer.

Forecast as of Thursday night:

Saturday

S wind around 10 kt. A chance of showers between 8am and 1pm. Seas around 2 ft.

I'll be back with that plastic boat again.

Life is always fun if you can laugh at yourself.

I'll be there, with the plastic boat. Looks like a warm day with light conditions, so we may have to make our own amusements.

Sounds like fun. I'll be there.

What's this, another ladies' paddle? I'll be there.

Come join us at Chebacco Lake Thursdays at 5pm. Practice strokes, rolls, rescues, falling out of your boat, or watching kingfishers. Rick Crangle and I will be there tonight to get the season started. Bring boat, paddle, skirt, PFD, and any new gear you want to test. Dress for immersion; dry suit or wet suit for now.

We meet at the boat ramp at the south end of the lake, and hang out in the cove to the left of the ramp. You can either get off 128 at Pine st (exit 16) and head north on the dirt road, or find Chebacco road off Rt 22 in Essex and avoid the dirt. No entrance fees. No rangers to kick us out at the end of the evening, but the mosquitoes do the job just fine.

Forecast was 7-9 feet, then 4-6, now 2-3. At this rate we won't have swells big enough to play in the rocks again.

Hope to make it. Can't find Four Tree Island on the chart.

They use Tsunamis for their rental fleet so that people with no experience can go out and have a nice 3 hour paddle. Their guides paddle Zephyrs (except for one who paddles his own Tempest and a couple of others). There's a Zephyr 160 posted for sale here that could be a really nice choice for you.