Dan Foster

Tide and current data for complex river/harbor/estuary interactions like the Portsmouth, NH area drive me nuts. NOAA gives a webpage for each tide or current station, but there's no "big picture" that shows how high tide at various points up the Piscataqua and into Great Bay lags the high tide at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor. Do you have a resource you use for these kinds of questions?

After hours of reverse googling, I managed to find almost exactly what I was looking for, 300 pages into NOAA's Tide Tables - 2019 East Coast of North and South America Including Greenland

Here's a PDF with just the four relevant pages for our area, showing the lag in high and low tides for subordinate tide stations relative to the reference station. Maine Tidal Differences.pdf

Have any of you found a more accessible source for this information? I'm currently interested in the Portsmouth/Piscataqua region, but I'd really like a general solution that covers the entire coastline.

I'll be there, and I hope others join as well, because it's fun to find out what makes an ocean wave wave.

I just turned on my Standard Horizon HX870 and confirmed that it works as Rob describes:

1. pressing Transmit while in Tri/Dual Watch mode always transmits on the selected primary channel. Leon, did you actually test this behavior with your VHF?

2. listening to weather channel while in Tri-watch causes an audible dropout every two seconds while the receiver momentarily monitors the other channel. Given that they'd have to put an entire second RF receiver into each radio to allow an uninterrupted background scan for traffic on the other channels, this seems like a reasonable design tradeoff.

Receiving: I can monitor ch 72 and 16 and 9 constantly with Tri-watch, or disengage it to only monitor 72.

Transmitting: Always transmits on 72, unless I press 16/S key to switch to 16. Pressing again switches back to 72. If the keylock is engaged, I have to press that first, and then press 16/S.

That doesn't seem like too much to keep track of.

I would welcome a laminated cheat sheet with best practices for radio settings and channel presets, recommended use on group paddles, a template for distress calls, etc.     

Can anyone from last year's Sullivan Falls/MDI trip confirm that this year's training with Nate is going to be on Friday, Sept 6th? Just checking because I thought it had been on Wednesday before MDI in the past?

This year's Squam Lake camping trip will be held over Columbus Day weekend, to allow campers who have regular work schedules to join us. Since this is one of only a few trips we run that doesn't require taking a day off of work, some preference will be given to those with real jobs who normally wouldn't be able to join us without calling in sick. Stay tuned for details.

We have our usual spot reserved on Moon Island in Squam Lake for Saturday and Sunday nights. The group will meet at Squam Lakes Association headquarters in Holderness, NH on Saturday morning in time for a late-morning launch, and will return to the cars after lunch on Monday. There is typically a paddle-and-hike (surf and turf?) option on Sunday as well as an option for a longer paddle without any hiking. While there is not much of a tidal range on Squam Lake, there's a good chance of wind on the water and along our shoreline campsite, and temperatures can dip into the 30s in mid-October. The foliage, food, and friendship are always spectacular.

We are limited to a maximum of 10 tents in our group campsite. The cost to reserve a spot on the trip is $25, and includes two nights of camping on raised wooden tent platforms, firewood, and defrays our annual membership in the Squam Lakes Association.

Registration for this trip is not yet open. More details will be announced in late spring, and registration will be opened at that time.

You can click the Follow button (upper right corner on the desktop version of this website) to express interest in this trip and get notified when registration details are announced.

It's a little unfair to call it "channel lock", when it's actually a described as a keypad lock that locks out the keypad buttons. The Icom M73 manual says: (pasting from PDF, some of the graphics didn't come through)

■This function electronically locks all keys (except for [?] and [?]) to prevent accidental channel changes and function access. [I'm guessing volume up/down are the two [?] keys]
➥  Push [lock key] for 1 second to turn the lock function ON or OFF.
Hold down for 1 second
[lock icon] Appears while the lock function is in use.

http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/marine/handhelds/m73/default.aspx

My Standard Horizon HX870 has a dedicated lock key, with the same functionality and description in the manual. It displays KEY LOCK across the entire screen when you hit any button (except Vol up/down, Squelch and Push-to-talk) while locked, including 16/S. I didn't try hitting the DSC Distress button on the side while locked. Mine also remembers the key lock when powered off, and flashes it across the entire screen on startup and when pressing any key.

Maybe the takeaway from all of this is that if we're going to take advantage of the key lock so we can stuff the radio into a PFD pocket, we need to commit the unlock sequence to muscle memory so it becomes automatic.

I write mapping and charting software, so I've been creating 24x36" PDF charts with magnetic lines, scale bars, and compass rose overlays, and printing them at Staples. They charge $5.89 for a sheet. I was going to offer to create a series of standard PDF charts for popular club destinations, but the initial feedback I got was that everyone preferred waterproof charts over paper charts.

Muscongus Bay Kayaking Chart.pdf

Nice report!

A family member was considering taking a ranger job at Point Reyes National Seashore a few years back, and so I immediately started scouting kayaking options in case I ever got to visit. It's nice to know there's a friendly kayak club in the area!

Thanks, Joe, for the photos!

Here's the forecast for the Marblehead area for this week's king tides on Tuesday and Wednesday, noonish:

Neither day looks particularly pleasant for paddling, at least to me. If anyone wanted to get lunch amidst the destruction, Tuesday is probably the nicer day (plus you get an extra inch of tide). How much ice and snow did you all get on the North Shore or Boston area? Is it walkable? I'm game for Tuesday lunch somewhere along the water, or given that many of us will see each other at the winter party on Saturday, we could cross our fingers and wait for February's two big tide days.

If Kurt doesn't want them, you could also bring them to the book swap table at the upcoming winter party.

Pablo and anyone else interested in getting a table of "interesting" tides:

Go to the NOAA tides page for your favorite location.

Here is Salem, MA: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/noaatidepredictions.html?id=8442645

Click the Click Here for Annual Published Tide Tables button in the upper right corner.

If you have an idea for what constitutes a "really big tide" (12 ft in Boston, 11 in Salem) you can enter that number in the Threshold box, and then ask for a text output instead of PDF. Search for the asterisk * in the resulting text to see all of the tides above the threshold you entered.

I have a morbid curiosity to get out and paddle along a low-lying area during an astronomical high tide (a King Tide), to see first-hand the flooding that occurs, and reflect on what that means for the next century along our beloved coastline. Unfortunately (for me and for shoreline property owners) the highest tides in 2019 will occur around noon in the winter, and around midnight in October. Neither options are great for paddling through flooded streets.

But NSPN loves an excuse for lunch, so if there's interest, I'll organize a noon-time walk with accompanying lunch, somewhere in Boston or along the North Shore, on one of the first four dates listed in the table below. Those are NOAA tide predictions for Boston, for dates with greater than 12ft high tides. Times for Salem Harbor and other potential meeting spots are similar.

Date         Day    Time        Pred(Ft) 
2019/01/22    Tue    11:45    *12.12
2019/01/23    Wed    12:38    *12.04
2019/02/20    Wed    11:29    *12.11
2019/02/21    Thu    12:22    *12.01
2019/08/03    Sat    01:11    *12.01
2019/08/31    Sat    00:00    *12.03
2019/09/01    Sun    00:54    *12.05

If you're interested, get in touch and we'll figure out which date and location works best. Here's a map with photos of potential impacted areas to visit:

https://mycoast.org/ma/king-tides/photos

I added info about parking and the book swap at the top of the post:

I'll be bringing Rum Balls to help pass the time during the Annual Meeting.

If anyone wants to carpool from west of Boston, I'm happy to pick up on 495 at Market Basket in Westford or Littleton and drive.

Gear gets hosed off and left to dry on the lawn in the summer, or washed in the shower and strung over a railing to dry in the winter. Drysuit gets folded over a huge plastic hanger (sold for SCUBA wetsuits) and stashed in the coat closet, with mini soda cans in the wrist gaskets to stretch them out over the winter. Almost everything else lives in the garage. Boats live outside, inverted on sawhorses all summer long, then stacked like cordwood under the deck for winter.

I was told to keep rubber and gaskets away from gasoline fumes, although I can't find a definitive citation on the Interwebs. I had a pair of rubber muck boots go brittle and crack in the garage. +1 for rinsing the car roof of salt. For anyone like me who keeps kayak cradles on the car year-round, take them off every once in a while and oil the nuts and bolts, or you'll be cutting them off with a hacksaw a few years down the line.

Book Swap at the Winter Party

There's not going to be a raffle at this year's party, but there's still a way for you to come home with some new (to you) kayaking swag! Stop by the Book Swap table at any time during the evening, and pick out some new reading material to help pass the long winter nights away from the water.

The book swap is open to everyone - you don't need to bring a book to participate. Everyone is encouraged to go through their bookshelves and bring Books and DVDs only that you are finished enjoying and that you feel other NSPN members could benefit from. Please limit your donations to books and DVDs on subjects related to paddling, the outdoors, New England, and adventure. Feel free to slap a post-it note on the cover with a recommendation, if you like. Add your books and DVDs to the table when you get to the party, and check out the offerings throughout the evening.

Anything on the table is up for grabs - take what you want. At the end of the night, if something you brought is still there, take it back home. I'll round up everything that's left at the end of the night and either save it for a future swap, or dispose of it appropriately.

We are discussing other ways to members to easily donate, sell, lend, or borrow gear within our club's network of paddlers. Please find me at the party to learn more.

Address and parking info for the Gould Barn, since I always have to look it up:

Gould Barn - 1 Howlett St, Topsfield, Massachusetts

Parking is limited to the 11 spaces in the Emerson Center lot labeled Gould Barn Parking and the 2 spaces on the grounds labeled Capen House Parking. Additional parking is available on the street nearby.

I'll be there.

My own answers:

Name some paddling locations you expect to visit in 2019 or 2020 for which you don't already own a chart:

Muscongus, Stonington, don't have a full map of Salem Sound/Marblehead

If you DO own some charts, how do prefer to get them? I print small charts at home, big charts at Staples

If you were to BUY a chart, would you choose a $25 waterproof chart or an identical $10 paper chart? probably the $10 paper chart, unless I'm going back yearly.

How much would you be willing to pay to BORROW a waterproof chart that you didn't have for the duration of an NSPN trip? $5

Which of the following do you NOT currently own? I own all of those, but don't typically carry the handheld compass on day trips.

I've been tossing around some ideas for making it easier for club members, especially newer members, to get charts and gear. To see how well those ideas match up with reality, I ask you to take a moment to reply to the survey questions below, especially if you don't typically have a chart on your deck during club paddles.

Copy the following into your reply and add your answers.

Name some paddling locations you expect to visit in 2019 or 2020 for which you don't already own a chart:

If you DO own some charts, how do prefer to get them? (buy online, marine supply store, print them myself...)

If you were to BUY a chart, would you choose a $25 waterproof chart or an identical $10 paper chart?

How much would you be willing to pay to BORROW a waterproof chart that you didn't have for the duration of an NSPN trip? ($0 is a valid answer)

Which of the following do you NOT currently own? waterproof chart case, deck compass, handheld compass, marine radio, tow belt, helmet

Seven of us enjoyed a weekend of paddling, hiking, dining, and camping on Moon Island in Squam Lake. We launched under sunny skies from the Squam Lakes Association in Holderness, NH, and paddled to Moon, where we set up camp and then set out for an afternoon exploration of the islands and coves to the south. Cocktail hour in the sun by the water's edge transitioned to our traditional potluck dinner and dessert and conversations around a roaring fire.

On Saturday we all paddled north to visit the outdoor chapel at Church Island, and then half of the group hiked up the Rattlesnakes for lunch and views, while the rest of us explored the NE end of the lake. The SW wind picked up in the afternoon, and both groups had a sporty paddle back to camp, where more food, fire, and fellowship ensued. A few of us even pried ourselves away from the campfire for a moonlight paddle under the starry sky.

We woke on Sunday to dropping temperatures and building SW wind, and decided to head back to the cars after breakfast. In our final 5 minutes of paddling before turning into the shelter of Piper Cove, the winds ratcheted up another few notches, and we all got one final thrill before ending our trip and heading back home.

These kayak camping trips are absolutely my favorite part of the NSPN experience, and I'd love to see more members join us at Squam or on other beginner-friendly overnight trips in 2019. If there are things that held you back from camping with NSPN this year (too cold, can't take time off work, not sure if you have the right gear, e.g.), I'd really like to hear from you (you can send me a PM or discuss it here). For next year, we're aiming for a Saturday/Sunday trip on Columbus Day weekend, with an option to stay over until Monday, so that nobody has to take time off of work. There's also talk about scheduling some early and late summer trips for people who aren't comfortable with "shoulder-season" camping weather. Come join us!

There are a few spots available for this weekend's camping trip on Squam Lake. Come join us for peak foliage, a night-time navigation paddle under clear skies and a full moon, and potluck dinners around a roaring fire. Post here or PM me if you'd like to join us.

Here are a few from my camera. The big takeaway for the day for me was the constant reminder of just how much energy those long-period waves pack. It was an awe-inspiring and humbling day.

I'd like to paddle with you all on Saturday.

Planning for this year's trip is now going on by private message. If you are planning to join us this year but haven't received a group message, let Peter or me know so we can add you to the group discussion.

My point was that your proof basically starts by saying "for simplicity, assume the kayak is actually a stern paddlewheeler, and the punt is actually a tank driving through shallow water" (both vehicles where the drive mechanism maintains contact 100% of the time and exerts constant force 100% of the time on the water and ground respectively) and then goes on to show the physics behind a race between those vehicles. I find that simplification difficult to accept, since (among other things) there's a non-trivial amount of time when the kayak blades are out of the water, and the pole is not pushing against the river bottom. I don't disagree with your solution, but I feel you're answering a different question than the one you originally posed to us.

How many of us believe that a punter poling off the bottom against a 4-knot current is best modeled as a constant force propelling a mass forward at a constant velocity. Not me. What happens to your thought experiment if both paddler and punter deliver all of the power of their "stroke" in 1% of the time, and glide forward for the remaining 99% of the stroke time? What happens as the impulse time approaches zero? Isn't that just as valid a simplification of the problem as your "constant force over 100% of the duty cycle" solution?