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Dan Foster

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  1. Dan Foster
    Yikes, I just looked at the specs for my tow belt. I can safely lower 65-pound kids off a cliff, given a 1:10 safety ratio. http://www.nrs.com/product/1829/nrs-kayak-tow-line Rope Length: 50' Rope Material: Polypropylene Rope Diameter: 3/16" Load Max: 650 lbs. (2.9 kN) http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/polypropylene-rope-strength-d_1516.html
  2. Dan Foster
    Here's a good article on why a rope that's rated for 3000 lbs may not be overkill (and may actually be pushing the limits of safe use) in a situation where there's a person on the end of it: http://whitewatersolutions.net/Rope_Breaking_Strength.html The Neptune's Rangers once had to haul themselves and their boats 800 feet up a steep hill to a road to escape the surf, using their tow lines. http://neptunesrangers.blogspot.com/2012/12/trapped-inside-at-devils-slide-by-bill.html
  3. Dan Foster
    What's your preferred brand/model or material for small dry bags? I've been using a small polyurethane coated-nylon dry sack for my first aid supplies and other day-hatch essentials. Recently filled them with water and noticed lots of pinhole leaks. My clear PVC dry bags are bombproof, but they don't slide well past each other when packing for camping. Favorite alternatives?
  4. Dan Foster
    I'll be there. Looking forward to hearing both trip reports.
  5. Dan Foster
    I'm upgrading some of my paddling gear, and would like to hear the criteria you've used when selecting a spare paddle. I currently use a 215 cm bent-shaft Werner Ikelos, and my spare is a low-end, generic low-angle paddle that was purchased for my wife's use on flat water. While I welcome specific recommendations for me, I'm more interested in the questions or criteria you used to select your spare. For example: A smaller blade might cause less strain at the end of the day. A cheaper, stronger paddle can be the primary paddle in surf and rocks, and for rescue practice. A one-piece Greenland paddle may be quicker to deploy in an emergency than a two-piece Euro paddle, and opens up new tricks at the summer Walden sessions. What other considerations am I missing? Some general questions: Is your spare the same length as your primary paddle? Is your spare the same type (high-angle, low-angle, Greenland) as your primary? Why or why not?
  6. Dan Foster
    Thanks for all the replies so far. Josko, I was paddling with an Ikelos which may have contributed, although I was moving at an easy pace in mild conditions. One remaining question about gasket placement on the wrist: Do you let the gasket cover your wrist bones (those boney knobs at the end of the radius and ulna), which is where my gasket naturally ends up as I punch through with my hand. Or do you try to get the seal further up the arm, leaving exposed skin in the area where you'd wear a wristwatch?
  7. Dan Foster
    I went out for a paddle on Christmas day (first paddle in a while), and within a few minutes I noticed some pain in my non-dominant hand, roughly from the index finger, along the back of the hand, and around my wrist. I was wearing heavy gloves and a newish drysuit with untrimmed/unstretched gaskets. I removed the gloves and managed to slide the gasket further up my forearm so that my wrist bones were exposed. The pain went away and I continued paddling, concentrating on keeping a loose grip on the paddle. I had heard anecdotal evidence from another paddler that tight wrist gaskets gave him tendonitis at an event this autumn. I did a quick google search this morning and only found two mentions of tendonitis and wrist gaskets. So, I ask here - is wrist pain or tendon issues a real problem with cold-weather paddling, and am I correct in blaming overly-tight wrist gaskets? Any tips to avoid wrist injury, regardless of cause?
  8. Dan Foster
    Rec paddle manufacturers should put an iPhone holder right at the center of the paddle shaft, and the problem would instantly solve itself. Just like how nobody knew where to put their PDFs until rec boats started including those handy bungee cords on the back deck...
  9. Dan Foster
    From the article: "It may look a little larger than the tent in the pictures, but when the tent is staked out, the tent is about 1 in wider."
  10. Dan Foster
    Are there any guidelines or suggestions for determining the optimal non-stretched circumference of the trimmed neck gasket, given the circumference of one's neck?
  11. Dan Foster
    One of my favorite off-season reads is Sea Kayaker's Deep Trouble, which presents lessons learned from kayaking incident reports. In fact, an NSPN forum post about a Plum Island incident a number of years ago was probably how I first became aware of this great group. Having some of these Hard Knocks stories (and even some minor mishaps that have a teachable lesson in them) from over the years written up, anonymized, and made into an anthology (NSPN's Deep Doo-Doo) might make a fabulous resource for new members, or a great recruiting tool.
  12. Dan Foster
    Thanks, Ed. Looking at how people mark up their charts is always helpful. Thanks for the suggestion to look at some UK charts - doing that now.
  13. Dan Foster
    Thanks for all the suggestions, Phil. I've found that in a lot of cases, USGS topos have more relevant information and better scales for paddling, and they tile together better in places where you're paddling off one chart onto another. On a few occasions this summer, I'd paddle with a topo or aerial photo with my intended route, and the NOAA chart on the reverse for reference. I spent some time playing around with NOAA's vector ENC charts, which let you turn on and off various features (deep water soundings, for example). It's still pretty crude. I had better luck taking a recent topo or aerial photo, and overlaying buoy and light data on that.
  14. Dan Foster
    John, I've been following along with your posts here on NSPN, and recently stumbled across a tracking podcast where you discuss more primitive ways of navigation. Great stuff! I agree that having the magnetic lines spaced one nautical mile apart really helps, and having the perpendicular east-west lines makes it easier to construct a "mental compass rose" at the closest grid intersection, rather than having to guess the angle from your current position to a target, and mentally bring that angle over to the chart's compass rose.
  15. Dan Foster
    Imagine that you had an infinite, free supply of NOAA charts, and could therefore mark them up to your heart's content to make a customized chart before each paddle. Imagine you could draw lines and get bearings and distances added automatically. You could move compass roses around, or add a magnetic grid overlay. You could rotate the chart so that magnetic north was up, or your destination was at the top. What would you do or add to create the ideal chart for use out on the water? The reason I ask is that I write mapping software, and I've been realizing as I paddled this summer that sea kayak navigation on the water is a lot different than stopping in the woods to check my compass against a topo map. Having a chart oriented to magnetic north helped, and having pre-determined magnetic bearing lines for critical crossings REALLY helped. I tried a few things out, and have some ideas how I'd like to prepare my maps for next season. But I'd really like to start a discussion about what's worked for others in the past, and what issues you're still facing out on the water (or in camp planning the next day). If anyone has real, marked-up charts from expeditions or trips they've done in the past, I'd love to see them.
  16. Dan Foster
    I can't paddle Sunday, but would be interested in Lane's Cove to Rockport on Saturday, in mellow conditions.
  17. Dan Foster
    Yes, as you can see here, if we'd been any closer to high tide, it would have been a tight fit. The bridge keeper came out to say hello as we went through on the way back, and seemed amused when John thanked him for putting the bridge up for us.
  18. Dan Foster
    Some photos from yesterday's paddle on the Annisquam River. Seven of us paddled down from Gloucester's Long Wharf Town Landing to Gloucester Harbor, and then back up the Annisquam. We took a break on the tip of Wingaersheek beach across from Lobster Cove, and then padded out to Annisquam Light before returning back to the put-in. The beach briefing. Local wildlife. We also saw a peregrine falcon, herons and egrets, and a huge raft of what we decided were eiders. The second time through, the MBTA bridge keeper was kind enough to raise the bridge for us. Annisquam Light. Total distance: 9.7 n mi, 11.2 statute mi.
  19. Dan Foster
    It was last weekend.
  20. Dan Foster
    To get an idea of just what an impact a single kayaker can have, take a look at this local paddler's blog: http://www.trashpaddler.com He's collected and disposed of over 4000 items along our rivers and shorelines this year alone.
  21. Dan Foster
    Some time when you KNOW your grab loop is available, and you have help standing by, practice releasing your skirt without the loop or strap. Mine comes off if I grab a handful near my hip - there's less tension in the spray deck there than up by my knees. You can also try punching your fist down through the spray deck to try to implode the sides of the skirt. I have a plastic boat, so the coaming is less grippy. A few times after practicing rolls, I've found that my grab loop ends up under the first bungee line across my bow deck. I may tie it forward to reduce the chance of it getting in the way of a release. Have you practiced reaching back to grab one of your spare paddle halves, and doing a broken paddle roll?
  22. Dan Foster
    Go to http://www.blackburnchallenge.com/CARC_Race_Results.asp and view the Blackburn results by class - you'll see each racer's boat model next to their time and place. 2014 results aren't up yet, but you can see several years prior.
  23. Dan Foster
    I've never seen a nautical chart that didn't have grid lines labeled in degrees and minutes of latitude and longitude. On the water, I'd stick with that format instead of decimal degrees or deg min sec. Another popular option is UTM coordinates, since the UTM grid is rectangular, not curved like lat/lon, and the grid spacing is one kilometer. If you are going to be determining coordinates by looking at features on the map, UTM is much easier to use, since it's base10. You should also be aware of the horizontal datum. Almost everything is WGS84 these days, unless you are using an old USGS topo map in NAD27 datum.
  24. Dan Foster
    Yes, the tide was going out, and the fishermen were afraid they'd be aground before Sea-Tow arrived. Two of our paddlers attached tow-lines to the stern of the boat and pulled it out a few dozen yards, before realizing that the boaters hadn't pulled their anchor up yet! So they got to do it twice.
  25. Dan Foster
    Some more photos from the rocks...
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