Navigation Tools and Rules - Victorian Sea Kayak Club

SeaTrek

NavigationTools and

Rules

Winter/Spring 2015 Issue 84

www.vskc.org.au

The VSKC

The Victorian Sea Kayak Club

was formed in 1979, aimed at

bringing together sea kayakers in

our part of the world, creating

opportunities to meet and

organise trips, and to promote

the interests of sea kayakers.

Club members have done some

marvellous and sometimes very

challenging trips by sea kayak

around our nearby coasts of

Victoria and Tasmania and

further afield. Our founding

members made the first sea

kayak circumnavigation of

Tasmania and the first south to

north crossing of Bass Strait.

Members regularly paddle across

Bass Strait, and take their kayaks

to remote and interesting areas.

Equally, we all love relaxing short

trips in our local waters, with

plenty of time to socialise.

We welcome new members and

encourage a culture in which

members help each other with

skills, gear, safety, trip

information and organisation.

The club runs training courses

and has a grading system,

although training is not aimed at

absolute novices. New members

are expected know something of

sea kayaking, have access to a

kayak, and be ready to explore

the marvellous opportunities

which sea kayaking offers. The

club gets together once a year for

its annual general meeting held

as part of a weekend of activities

on and off the water, with

informative training sessions and

presentations from interesting

speakers. We run a range of club

trips throughout the year for all

levels of ability, helping members

to improve their proficiency and

take part in trip leadership. We

keep in touch through this

website, email news, and our club

magazine Sea Trek.

For more information read go to

the Docs and Downloads link

from the Web page, and

download our Operating

Principles and Membership

application, or contact our

Membership Officer.

Sea Trek 84 Winter/Spring 2015

CoverPhoto: Helmut Heinze

Sigla

BF: Bob Fergie • BS: Bronwyn Skowronski • DG:David Golightly • GO: Gerard OReilly • GS: GregSkowronski • GT: Graeme Thompson • HH: Hel-mut Heinze • HT: Heather Thorbet • KH: KateHives • KV: Kerrie Vogele • LC: Lynden Costin •

PC: Peter Costello • RR: Richard Rawling • RS:Roger Bellchambers • RW: Raia Wall • SC: SteveCollins • TB: Terry Barry.

In this Edition

Regular Columns

Editorial 4 President’s Podcast 4

Feature

Using a GPS for kayak navigation (Raia Wall) 6 Rule of Twelfthsand 50/90 Rule revisited (Helmut Heinze) 8

Gear

A year in the Epic 16x (Helmut Heinze) 11

Day Trips and Overnighters

The Prom Alternative — Gippsland Lakes ( Terry Bary ) 12To the First Village in Scotland (David Golightly and Heather Tor-

bet) 13 Keppel Snippets (Bronwyn Skowronski) 16 Greenland— Sea Kayaking Heaven (Richard Rawling) 18

Food for Thought

Skills and anxieties (Roger Bellchambers) 29 Missing the Point?Women in Kayaking (Kate Hives (Vancouver Island, BC)) 29 Doyou Leave No Trace? (Bronwyn Skowronski) 31

Club Life

Walkerville Weekend (27–28 June 2015) (Greg Skowronski) 33Level 3 Surf Assessment (Steve Collins) 34 Level 3 AssessmentWeekend (Steve Collins, Helmut Heinze, Gerard Oreilly, Kerry Vo-

gele and Graeme Thompson) 35

Photo Stories

On—In—Under at Waratah Bay — Photo Story (Bronwyn

Skowronski) p37

Responsible Editor for this Edition:Helmut Heinze

[email protected]://www.vskc.org.au

c©Victorian Sea Kayak Club – http://vskc.org.au

SeaTrek 84 Regular Columns

Editorial

What is the connec-tion between long-distancejet travel and kayaking?Some club members travelaround the world eitherto get on the water (readRichard Rawlings accountof his Greenland adven-ture in this edition) or atleast manage to sneak in apaddle worth writing homeabout (David Golightly andHeather Torbet).

I myself had to contendwith winter paddles in localwaters with some time offdue to the flu and a visit toSouth China in June.

There I was in Fuzhou, aprovincial capital with fewattractions and a steamyhot climate. Suffering se-vere kayaking withdrawalsymptoms — even a mid-winter Red Eye in pitchdarkness started to look ap-pealing — I was lookingfor some on-the-water ac-tivity. Our hotel was next toa central leisure park witha large ornamental shallowmuddy lake. But all it of-fered to the burgeoning ur-ban middle class were somemotor-driven plastic swans

in a separate small pond. Ibriefly hesitated but couldnot see to make it workfor me, to my own disap-pointment and of those lo-cals who were taking snapsof me all the time on theirsmart phones, for Fuzhoudoes not encounter manytourists at all. Let alonelong-nosed ones.

Good enough a kajak ersatz?

The Fujian province isfull of shippable water-ways, rivers with strongcurrents winding throughvalleys with steep moun-tains. Scenes out of aChinese picture book. Akayaker’s dream. Yet therivers are a brown sludgeand carry a whiff of de-cay and sweet smellingchemicals, bringing backchildhood memories of theriver Rhine in Germany.Most Chinese never learnto swim — so the conceptof water sports in generaland boating in particularhas not emerged.

This China trip andother long-distant travelsbring me back to the topic

of kayaking in two ways.

One. All natural envi-ronments are at the sametime cultural environments.A landscape may be ideal tobe explored from a kayakbut pollution and regula-tions may prohibit it. In thisrespect we are very luckyin Australia with environ-mental conditions by andlarge improving since themid 70s. Still we can doour tiny bit — see BronwynSkowronski’s opinion piecein this edition.

Two. The topic of nav-igation. There’s a strange,inverse connection betweenjet aviation and kayaking.In a fast jet the motiondetermines place and time.Flying east or west, yourwatch is always wrong.There’s the local time of thedeparture port, the destina-tion port, and the currentlocation. The fast motioncompresses or dilates timeon the clock, determinesthe season when crossingthe equator, changes thelocation and its attributes.Navigation in aviation hasto deal with these dynam-ics criss-crossing the globe..Navigation in kayaking, incontrast, is bound to thelocal conditions, and theactual motion of kayaksis influenced by tidal cur-rents and local wind condi-tions. These are sufficientlystrong forces to be dealtwith. Thus, travelling ina sea kayak comes with its

own navigation challengesthat have to be dealt with.

Low-tech or high-tech?A compass, a chart, a wetthumb, a GPS? High-techpreparation before the tripand low-tech execution onthe water? What works,what doesn’t?— I wouldlike to explore these ques-tions a bit more, startingwith this Seatrek.

As always I am mostgrateful to our authors,our prolific regulars, ourfirst-timers and our guestcontributor. A big ThankYour to all who have con-tributed (in order of theirinitials): Bob Fergie, Bron-wyn Skowronski, DavidGolightly, Gerard Oreilly,Greg Skowronski, GraemeThompson, Heather Thor-bet, Kate Hives, KerrieVogele, Richard Rawling,Roger Bellchambers, RaiaWall, Steve Collins andTerry Barry.

Finally the obligatorynot exactly kayaking re-lated (but close enough)reading recommendation:A. J. Mackinnon, The Un-

likely Voyage of Jack de

Crow. Collingwood: BlackInc, 2009. A young teachertravelling in a 12 foot sail-ing dinghy from England tothe Black Sea. A craft evenslower than a sea kayak.Light entertainment, wellwritten.

Enjoy!

Helmut Heinze (Editor)

c©Victorian Sea Kayak Club – http://vskc.org.au 4

SeaTrek 84 Regular Columns

President’s Podcast

Photo: Tim Morris

As the weather warmsup quite a few folk are get-ting back into the water af-ter a period of winter hi-bernation. Others, on theother hand, have enjoyeda range of paddling tripsthrough the winter periodnot only along the Victo-rian coast but interstate andoverseas as well. This issueof Sea Trek includes articleson a number of these. Per-sonally, I find winter pad-dling a real delight and I’veenjoyed regular opportuni-ties to get out on the wa-ter for day trips in the main.I have enjoyed a numberof other multi-day trips aswell. I make mention oftwo of these in particu-lar, one inter-state and theother down at Snake Island,just south of the ‘Prom’.

Late August, and to-gether with three othersfrom our club (BronwynS, Jeannine S and DaveB), I drove up to Yeppoon(just north of Townsville)to participate in a brilliantfive days at the Keppel SeaKayak Symposium hostedon North Keppel Island andorganized by the PaddleCapricornia Club.

Numbers were limitedto fifty paddlers with par-ticipants representing NewZealand and various other

states and territories be-yond Qld. It was an honorto have been invited bythe organizer, Tim Mor-ris, to provide some Green-land paddling and rollinginstruction as one of five in-structors (Rob Mercer, DaveWinkworth, Garry Forest,Lyndon Brown being theother four). We were keptbusy over the five daysleading trips and offered abroad range of training in-struction. I was also askedto give an evening presen-tation based on one of mypaddling proverbs: Capsize

may be inevitable, but it’s

also recoverable.

Photo: Syd Mainland

Our little Victorian con-tingent had a wonderfultime and the three-daydrive each way was wellworth the time and effortinvolved. This was thethird year that this uniqueevent has been run andI would thoroughly en-courage other VSKC’ers toconsider booking in fornext year’s symposiumaround August. (https://www.facebook.com/

KeppelKayakSymposium/

?pnref=story). I know Iam planning to go again.I was able to offer an invi-tation to a number of thesymposium participants to

join us for this year’s VSKCBlue Water Paddle Fest ina spirit of welcoming reci-procity.

Showing little respect ...

L3 Assessment — Photos: TB

Another multi-day triptook place early Octoberat Snake Island and sur-rounds. This was our VSKCfinal assessment weekendfor Level Three candidates— a bi-annual trainingevent on the VSKC calen-dar. This year Terry Band I, together with in-structor trainees BrandonS and Wim B assessedfive level three candidatesover a rather rigorous twodays. Each of these candi-dates had completed a nine-month program of trainingand assessment culminat-ing in this final assessmentweekend. Over the week-end candidates were sub-jected to a range of on-

water tasks, testing leader-ship, judgement and sea-manship proficiency. Thiswas then followed by a twohour theory exam requiringan 80% pass mark.

While this was a veryenjoyable time together,everyone (instructors in-cluded) concluded theweekend feeling ratherweary given the demandsof assessment tasks. I’mcertainly looking forwardto presenting certificates tothe successful candidates atthe Blue Water Paddle Festover the Cup weekend (inspite of them showing littlerespect for my presidentialcarcass on one occasion).

The time and commit-ment involved in provid-ing these training programsare not insignificant and Ithank all those who havebeen involved, candidatesand instructors alike. WhileTraining is not our primaryfocus as a club, it is an abso-lutely essential part of ful-filling our mission purpose,“cultivating sea kayaking asan enjoyable adventure —inclusive, safe and sustain-able”.

Similarly, our Sea Trekmagazine provides a won-derful chronicle of sharedstories and insights aboutour common love for ad-venture in long skinnyboats. On behalf of allclub members let me thankour Sea Trek editor for an-other terrific issue of ourclub magazine. I hope youwill enjoy the read as muchas I have.CheersBob Fergie (VSKC Presi-dent)


https://www.facebook.com/KeppelKayakSymposium/?pnref=story




SeaTrek 84 Navigation Tools and Rules

Tracking with GPS on a Trak folding kayak (front centre of image: in waterproof case) — Photo: RW

Raia Wall

Using a GPS for kayak navigationThis text has been adopted in a

redacted form from a blog entry by

the author (source: Raia Wall, Kayak

Navigation — the Garmin GPSMAP

78sc. Blog. URL http: // www.

eastcoastkayaking. com. au/ blog/

kayak-navigation-the-garmin-gpsmap-78sc .

Accessed 1 Nov 2015. — (Ed.)

The Garmin close up

Proficiency in chart reading andthe use of a compass is a vital skillwhen venturing out on the water. Agood reference for sea kayaking inthe south hemisphere is Sea Kayaking

— A Guide For Sea Canoeists by PhilWoodhouse.

I use a GPS as a trip planning tool,particularly when I am going to anarea that I haven’t been to before —for planning daily distances and lo-cating suitable campsites. This is par-ticularly useful in areas where camp-sites are hidden in forest and there isno obvious beach to guide the way.It is then simple to follow the GPSroute into the campsite, with the pa-per charts as backup. We also usedthis technique in the Pacific coast sideof Vancouver Island in Canada wherewe took our Trak folding kayaks threeyears ago and also in Bathurst Har-bour, Southwest Tasmania, in Decem-ber 2013.

This article is primarily concerned

with GPS use, though the Navionicssoftware for iPad and mobile also con-tains some GPS functions. This is notintended as a comprehensive guide,but does give an impression of theworkflows and workflow options in-volved in the preparation of a trip.

Garmin GPSMap 78sc

The Garmin GPSMap 78sc is afairly recent addition to the numberof rugged hand-held GPS’ available.Why do I use this GPS model? TheGarmin GPSMap 78sc has:

• Colour screen — so different coloursof marine charts can be seen

• BlueCharts for AU, NZ & part of SthPacific preloaded

• Memory expandable with a microSDcard slot — you can purchase addi-tional cards & load charts from otherareas purchased

• Buttons are that are easier & quickerto use on the water than touchscreens


http://www.eastcoastkayaking.com.au/blog/kayak-navigation-the-garmin-gpsmap-78sc




And it gives you something to playwith as you paddle!

Tips and Tricks

• Replace GPS unit’s batteries eachday on an expedition, otherwise every2 days

• Do not leave open on Map pages asthis burns valuable battery life

• While on the water place GPS unit ina waterproof case (eg. Aquapac 348)

• Understand how to also use abase plate and deck-mounted com-pass, and carry charts copied onto wa-terproof paper. Do not rely on tech-nology 100%! Each person on an ex-pedition should have and know howto use independent GPS units, in caseone fails.

• Use Google Earth to plan your trip— useful for finding beaches andlanding sites.

• When working between your GPS,paper charts, Homeport software andGoogle Earth, make sure you are us-ing the same Lat/Long units (eg. de-grees & decimal minutes) and map se-ries (WGS 84)

Setup

Batteries — use Lithiums — will last2 days for longer crossings if usedwith Compass/Trip Computer screen,less for Map page. Select correct Bat-tery Type in System

Position Format:

Charts — will be preloaded & en-abled in this model & correct map se-ries selected (WGS 84)

Lat/Long — use decimals ratherthan seconds (hddd◦mm.mmm’) —align with your paper charts

Display / Battery Saver — leaveOFF — otherwise screen will blankand you will waste time pressingbuttons to wake it up. Insteadreduce battery consumption by re-ducing Backlighting (reduce Back-light Timeout) and reduce backlightbrightness by quickly pressing thepower button and use the toggle.

Heading / North reference —you can choose True, Magnetic, Grid

or User. it is easier to leave as Trueand be aware of what the magneticvariation is. Also this is the menuwhere you should Calibrate the com-pass function.

Setting Waypoints

Setting a waypoint for the locationyou are currently at:• Hold down the Enter/Mark buttonand the waypoint screen is opened,recording Lat/Long. Use rocker but-ton to navigate through various fieldsto add notes or descriptive way-point name. Enter to select let-ter/number/Done.• Select Done to save & return to PageSetting a waypoint from knownLat/Long to navigate to:• Read Lat/Long off chart / atlas/ Google Earth or other record (eg.SPOT record from someone elses’trip!). Make sure the units are thesame when copy/pasting Lat/Longs,eg deg & dec minutes:• Menu / Waypoint Manager / NewWaypoint.• Use rocker button to navigatethrough various field and add notesor descriptive waypoint name. Enterto select letter/number/Done.• For ease of use, if naming waypointsin an area use a meaningful prefix,eg. WP-001 for a waypoint at Wilson’sProm.• Return to map or other page or useGo to navigate to this waypoint

Creating a route

A route is a series of two or more way-points that leads you to your desti-nation. Either first ensure you haveall the relevant waypoints already en-tered in your GPS or select them offthe map page as you go.

Using existing waypoints:• from Main Menu, select RoutePlanner / Create Route / SelectFirst Point.• Select Waypoints, then first way-point by name/number. Enter (se-lects Use)• Toggle to Select Next Point, Enter,then select Waypoints and the next

waypoint in the route — continue un-til all the relevant waypoints are se-lected.

• Press Quit button to save the route

Name the Route:

• from Main Menu, select RoutePlanner.

• Select the route (eg. at this stageit is probably called Route 001), pressEnter.

• Toggle to Change Name, press En-ter, then use the keyboard screen &toggle to type a new name, then pressDone.

View the Route on a Map:

• from Main Menu, select RoutePlanner

• Select the route, then View Map

Navigate a Route:

• Press Find button and select Routes

• Select a route, then Go — this willdirect you to each waypoint in turn

Tracking & use of GPS for dircec-tion/speed monitoring

Pages:

• Compass this page is useful for nav-igating to next waypoint on a Route— note that it is a straight line so ifthe waypoint is behind a headland itwill point in that direction. Also hasspeed & distance to next. While inthis screen use Menu button to bringup page-specific options — the fieldsbeing tracked can be varied.

• Trip Computer — again the Menuhas the option of varying which fieldsare monitored. Use menu to Reset thefields & Track as you are about to setoff on your journey — otherwise theaverage speed & odometer will con-tinue ofn from your previous journey(& even from the drive to the launchpoint!)

• Map — the map page displays thecurrent map — two views are possi-ble: North to the top of the map orthe course direction to the top. Gen-erally it is preferable to have northto the top as this is usually how wethink when orienting a map. Thealternate results in the view shiftingaround a lot with even minor direc-tional changes. To change this go to

• Main Menu / Map / Orientation.Note that leaving the GPS open to



the map page all the time severely re-duces battery life.• Track Manager — recording yourjourney:— In Setup/Tracks/Track log se-lect Record, Show on Map. Se-lect Record Method — an option torecord track points according to Dis-tance, Time or Auto— Select Recording Interval — Nor-mal will be ok for most purposes— Your track will record as youtravel. at the end of your jour-ney save your track by Track Man-ager/Current Track / Save Track. Itis now ready to transfer to your com-puter if you choose (see below)!— Clear the track at the start of yournext journey — Setup / Reset/ ClearCurrent Track / Yes

Trip planning

Charts on the PC/Mac:Rather than use up your GPS bat-

teries, use your computer to aid intrip planning — you can use Garmin’sHomeport software allows you to con-nect your GPS unit to your PC/Macand view the Garmin BlueCharts andcreate waypoints and connect theminto routes for your day trip or expe-dition. You can also view any otherpurchased marine charts on this soft-ware.

HomePort Software Link:Homeport software is free and is

designed to work with the BlueChartmarine charts on your GPS so thatyou can download / upload from yourGPS to/from your computer.

Download Homeport fromhttps://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/

AU/prod64242.html?locale=en_GB

Creating Waypoints & Routesahead of time

First select where you want yourwaypoints / routes to be saved (eg. inMy Collection)

Creating Waypoints:

• Use the Waypoint tool in Homeportto simply click on the map where youwant to place the waypoint. You canadd notes and change the icon in thewaypoint’s properties screen.

• Alternately, click anywhere on themap to create a waypoint, then dou-ble click on that waypoint to open itsproperties window (Advanced tab),then type in the co-ordinates you havepreviously sourced.

Adding waypoints and connecting them to

form a Route

Creating Routes:

• To create a route on the Map —click on the Route tool and click onthe locations on the map you want theroute to follow. To end and save theroute right-click or Esc.

• To create a route from a set ofwaypoints, select a waypoint or useCommand key to select multiple way-points and and click Create Routefrom Waypoint(s). To edit the routehold down the Option key to add ex-tra points to bend your route aroundland masses.

Using Homeport with Google Earth:

Use Google Earth to plan yourtrip — useful for finding beaches andlanding sites. Use the Add Placemarkbutton to mark a point. Copy the

latitude & longitude from the GoogleEarth placemark info window into anew waypoint in Waypoint Manageror in the Homeport software.

Uploading and Downloadingfrom your computer:• Save your waypoints and tracksfrom your trip to your computer:• Connect the Garmin to your com-puter using the USB lead and openHomeport software.• Use the Transfer / Receive fromDevice menu item or Receive button• Select what you want to transfer —eg. waypoints and tracks. All the dataof this type will be transferred so it isuseful to clean up the memory fromtime to time.• The tracks and waypoints will besaved as a list in My Collection as Re-cently Read from [device name] —you should rename this list to some-thing more meaningfulIf you have created a set of waypointsand routes on your computer as partof trip planning you can transfer theseto your GPS unit.• Connect the Garmin to your com-puter using the USB lead and openHomeport software.• Select the list you want to transferfrom My Collection• Use the Transfer / Send [Listname] to Device . . . menu item orSend List button

Final Caveat

Never rely solely on electronics!Electronic devices can let you downso never rely wholly on them — try-ing to push batteries too far or ingressby salt water could spoil your day. Al-ways have a back up — know howto navigate with a base plate compassand carry charts copied on waterproofpaper on your deck. Enlarge the de-tail so they can be read unaided!


https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/prod64242.html?locale=en_GB

https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/prod64242.html?locale=en_GB


Plymouth Tidal Stream Computation of Rates — Source: K Bater, Tidal Streams

Helmut Heinze

Rule of Twelfths and 50/90 Rule revisitedTides matter. Kayakers have to fac-tor them in. There are two tide-releated rules in use for kayak navi-gation: the so-called Rule of Twelfthsand the 50/90 rule. They are reason-able simple in that they don’t requireany serious mathematics, not even acalculator. Just some mental arith-metic required, with a bit of practiceand some generous rounding it can bedone on the go. Yet I have alwaysbeen bothered by the question howaccurate these rules of thumb are.

For those familiar with the rulesbut not troubled and still wanting toknow: here an executive summary:

• The Rule of Twelfths: very good

• 50/90 Rule: way off, to be used withgreat caution

Rule of Twelfths

To quote from VSKC training mate-rial:

... in the first your of the

cycle the tide will rise 1/12

of its range, the second hour

2/12, third 3/12, the fourth

3/12, the fifth 2/12 six 1/12.

The same relationship applies

to the fall of the tide.

(T Barry, Sea Proficiency

Course, VSKC, 16)

The rise is cumulative – eg in the sec-ond hour the tide rises and additional2/12 on top of the 1/12 of the firsthour:

• +1h: 0 + 1/12 => 1/12

• +2h: 1/12+2/12 => 3/12

• +3h: 3/12 + 3/12 => 6/12

• +4h: 6/12 + 3/12 => 9/12

• +5h: 9/12 + 2/12 => 11/12

• +6h: 11/12 + 1/12 => 12/12

Assuming in an area with a tidal dif-ference of 1.2m we would get a se-quence like this in hourly intervals:

• +1h: 0.1m

• +2h: 0.3m

• +3h: 0.6m

• +4h: 0.9m

• +5h: 1.1m

• +6h: 1.2m

To be precise the counting starts al-ways half an hour after slack tide.If low tide was at 10:15am thetime span +/- 30minutes, ie from9:45—10:45am would constitute the0 hour. The +1 mark would occur at11:45.

The Rule of Twelfths is a rule of



thumb, an approximation that can beapplied in the absence more preciselocal data, and under the assump-tion that fall and flow of the tide fol-lows more or less a sine-shaped curve(which is not really the case, evensimpler tidal models use breathtakingcomplex mathematical functions —just have a look at the Wikipedia ar-ticle at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide).

Cosine curve — Source: http://www.a-

levelmathstutor.com/sin-cos-tan.php

The ideal curve of the rising tidewould represent the part of the cosinefunction from -180—0o (or -pi/2-0).If we divide this range into 6 steps of30o, and adjust the result to our ex-ample (multiply by 0.6 and shift thecurve up by adding 0.6 so that wedon’t start at -0.6 but at 0) we get thefollowing results:

Apply the following formula in aspreadsheet

=(COS(3.14/6 * X) * -0.6 +

0.6)

and enter for X 1,2,3,4,5,6, you willget the following result (rounded totwo digits): 0.08m, 0.30m, 0.60m,0.90m, 1.12m and 1.2m. Let’s addthese values to our original list, cal-culated values in brackets:• +1h: 0.1m — (0.08m)• +2h: 0.3m — (0.30m)• +3h: 0.6m — (0.60m)• +4h: 0.9m — (0.90m)• +5h: 1.1m — (1.12m)• +6h: 1.2m — (1.20m)How good is this! An error of justabout 2% for the first and fifths hour!

— Too good. But then we ignored the1/2 hour shift after slack tide. Andthe actual tidal half-cycle is more like6 1/2h hours, but not exactly. Noris the typical tidal wave a clean sinecurve in our part of the world (or atmost other places). Still surprisinglygood. Given the irregularities of thetide there is no point in using com-plex formulae, for our purpose theRule of Twelfths has passed with fly-ing colours. No surprise that this ruleis so well established in maritime nav-igation.

For us sea kayakers the practicalrelevance of the rule depends on thecircumstances. Many won’t ever useit in anger. But if for example if youplan a trip along the northern edge ofFrench Island you may want to knowhow much water you can expect un-der your keel (or skeg, that is) on agiven day at a given time.

50/90 Rule

The 50/90 Rule, in contrast to theRule of Twelfths seems to be less es-tablished. Where the Rule of Twelfthsis concerned with the gradual in-crease or decrease of the water levelduring the tidal cycle the 50/90 Ruledeals with the relative flow rate.

The rule stipulates that at thenend of the first hour after slack tidethe water flows at 50% of the maxi-mum speed, at the end of the secondhour at 90%, the third hour 100%,fourth 100%, fifth 90%, sixth back to50%.

Navigation tools for vector solu-tions of flow rates suggest that thereis a linear (!) relation between thespeed of the vertical rise of the tideand the horizontal flow rate of thewater (see figure at top of article,Plymouth Tidal Stream ComputationRates).

So let’s assume, for the ease of cal-culation, that the maximum flow ratebe 1.2kn and map it against the rela-tive increments of a tide rising. Refer-ring to the Rule of Twelfths, the max-imum flow rate of 100% would occurat the time when the water rises inincrements of 3/12ths of the overall

difference. So let’s multiply our Ruleof Twelfths steps by 400 to get flowrate percentage values that max out at100% (3/12*400=100%). What dowe get are figures like these: 1st hour:33% — 2nd hour: 66% — 3rd hour:100%. This is very, very far of whatthe 50/90 Rule suggests and yet con-sistent with more sophisticated toolsas tidal stream computation sheetssuch as the one depicted at the headof this contribution.

How can we salvage the formula?

Starting the clock 30 minutes af-ter slack tide, as we do for our ruleof Twelfths, we may point out thatthe flow rates apply to the endof the

hour in question. So we may shift our

curve by adding 33/2=17%, the equiv-

alent of half an hour. Then we would

get for the first hour 33+33/2=50.4%and the second 66+33/2=83.4%. Weare getting closer but it’s too much astretch as we would get into troublewith our 100%.

So it seems that the 50/90 Ruleerrs, not just a little but a lot. This isfine if the rule is used when dealingwith adverse conditions requiring aferry glide or upstream paddle. In thiscase the rule errs on the side of cau-tion. If, however, you want to knowhow much downstream speed youcan expect to exploit, then the 50/90Rule is misleading, promising way toomuch. In these cases better expecta flow rate proportionate to the ver-tical rise or fall of the tide (keepingin mind that the actual flow rate anddirection is heavily influenced by thewave form of the tide with it har-monic and non-harmonic distortionsand the complex swirls that form overthe uneven seabed).

Sources

• T Barry, Sea Proficiency Course,VSKC-internal manual, Vic, 2015

• K Bater, “Tidal Streams.” SkysailTraining. TidalStreamInterpolationHandout:Web Site. URLhttp://www.skysailtraining.co.uk/tidal_

stream_calculation.htm. Accessed15 Oct 2015.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide

Tidal Stream Interpolation Handout

http://www.skysailtraining.co.uk/tidal_stream_calculation.htm



SeaTrek 84 Gear

Helmut Heinze

A year in the Epic 16xBy now my Epic 16x is well used withadd-ons, scratches and scuff marksall over. I had the Kayak out onglassy calm winter mornings on theBay, in messy, whipped up waters,in peaky rebound, on short leisureruns on Canadian Bay paddles and onlong distance paddles of 70+ km (adouble crossing of Port Philipp Bayand a French Island circumnaviga-tion), not to mention various train-ing events that involved planned andunplanned boat contacts, altogetherabout 60 paddles.

The good

• The kayak has a comparatively hightop hull speed — tested in occasionalsprints against traditional kayaks withstrong paddlers.

• Comfortable enough on long dis-tances (with an additional layer ofbubble wrap on the seat shell).

• Well-defined secondary stability,easy paddling in really choppy waters,including rebound.

• Easy directional fine-control justthrough edging, lateral upwind /downwind control through leaningforwards / backwards with the seat inthe right position.

• Paddling downwind is a treat, theboat accelerates fast, starts surfingearly on typical Bay wind waves in 12to 15kn.

• With the rudder up (I only use therudder downwind) it is quite playfuland can be easily turned with bowrudder or an aggressive low braceturn in a tight circle.

• The 16x can be surfed reasonablywell despite its rockerless hull; the

easy acceleration helps to catch waves(so tested by John E).

• The movable seat and footplate withthe rudder pedals show no signs ofstress cracks despite heavy use —dueto the pure carbon construction (car-bon either breaks or stays but doesnot fatigue).

The bad

• No compass mould, no fittings forspare paddles, electric bilge pump,flimsy 4mm deck lines that were soworn after a year that they had tobe replaced (now with proper 6mmlines).

• Rudder lines and the uphaul line forthe rudder blade look fluffy after ayear despite having been rarely used.

• Hatch covers leak and require con-stant attention. They need to be keptclean of sand and salt and carefullycentred before fastening the levers. Ifitted the front hatch opening withan additional rim of rubber whichseemed to keep the water out but fora few drops. The large back hatch,however, remains a concern. Roughseas or a few rolls mean inevitable asmall puddle.

• The gel coat is extremely thin, orrather, there is no traditional gel coatbut a protective layer of epoxy. Aftera year the boat is full of scratches andscuff marks; a few deeper ones (lessthan 0.5mm) expose glass fibre.

• Hard turns require super-aggressiveedging, harder than in many tradi-tional designs, sculling brace and rollsare OK but there are kayaks that seemto be much easier to handle (for ex-ample the Avocet which I had the

pleasure to paddle on one occasion).

The ugly

• I managed to smash the rudder as-sembly in surf (my fault, I lost hold ofthe boat after coming out on the wayto a rocky beach and it rear-ended ona boulder). When patching togetherthe pieces with epoxy and some car-bon I became aware that the rudderassembly is filled inside with whatlooked like unprotected polyurethanefoam. Over time this foam will soakwater through osmosis. Shoddy de-sign?• After a getting clobbered a few timesin surf I noticed an inordinate amountof water in the day hatch, even oncalm days. It turned out that the bulkhead behind the seat has partially de-tached from the hull and water wasseeping from the cockpit into the dayhatch. Hard to tell weather it wasjust glued in or epoxied in. Bad de-sign, bad workmanship, or too mucha pounding in surf? — I fixed andreinforced the rear bulkheads witha multi-layered seam of glass fibrecloth.

Verdict

You need to be very careful in an Epic— more than I am willing to be, oraccept to watch out for problems andfix them. Yet the Epic 16x remains at-tractive to me as multi-purpose craft,mainly because I have become ad-dicted to its overall speed and ef-fortless acceleration while retaining agood level of playfulness.


SeaTrek 84 Day Trips and Overnighters

Terry Bary

The Prom Alternative — Gippsland LakesAs many readers would be aware ithas been a long standing tradition torun a trip to the Snake Island Cattle-man’s Huts on the Queen’s Birthdayweekend in June. However this yearthe unfavourable tide times and cat-tlemen’s use of the huts meant an al-ternative plan was put in place- A tripdown the East Coast of Wilson’s Promto Johnny Souey Cove.

This trip is doable for relative be-ginners if conditions are right and

there are enough experienced pad-dlers in the pod.

As it turned out the weather godscombined against us and the fore-cast was pretty bad- 15 knot Westerlywinds on day one, 20 knot NW on daytwo and 30 knot NW on day three !

So an alternative paddle was de-cided on the Gippsland Lakes a cou-ple of days before the event, wherethe forecast was for west and northwest winds of under 10 knots for thewhole weekend, We were amazed atthe difference in conditions a coupleof hours drive can make. While weenjoyed sunny calm conditions overmost of the weekend we kept check-ing the wind observations back at theprom and they got up to over 30knots!

The Gippsland Lakes is alsoknown as “The Victorian Riviera” witha climate that is milder than Mel-bourne and quite a lot of winter sun-shine. The lakes system is the secondlargest navigable inland waterway inAustralia, the Murray/Darling systembeing the biggest. The land surround-ing the lakes is a mixture of free-hold land, state game reserves andnational park, between these thereare a number of formal and shall wesay ‘discrete’ camping opportunities.

The lakes are also home toabout 50 of the recently describedspecies of bottlenosedolphin,the Burrunandolphin (tursiops aus-

tralis). The other 150 or so ofthis rare species are to be found

in PortPhillip. We were luckyenough to see these fascinating crea-tures every day, often jumping com-pletely out of the water and very closeto shore.

Burrunan dolphin — Source unknown

We met at Hollands Landing onthe eastern end of the McClellandStrait that joins Lake Wellington toLake Victoria at 0900 after Richard ,Tony & Terry camped the night nearbyat Marley Point, Evelyn & Michaelopted for the soft option of accommo-dation in Stratford and Bill took thehard option of a very early start fromMelbourne! After unloading the gearwe did a car shuffle to our finish pointin Lakes Entrance, a three hour oper-ation and returned to set off to ourfirst camp site at Storm Point, a shortpaddle of around 8 km. On arrival inthe calm sunny conditions the groupsoon were met by the local welcom-ing committee of mosquitoes. (I didtell them before attending, that if theyliked mosquitoes they were in for areal treat!) However with a little carethis problem is easily managed withappropriate clothing and a spray ofrepellent, don’t let if put you off ex-ploring the Lakes.

The area has a great beach whichwe chose to camp on rather than inthe more sheltered (and mosquito in-fested) bush. Soon after arrival thedolphins turned up only meters from

the shore and we could hear one closeto shore during the night as well. Wehad an enjoyable evening around arobust campfire (thanks to Michaelthe volcanologist) and discovered themozzies disappear soon after dark.

Enjoying camp at Storm Point — notice the

‘terrible water conditions!

The next morning we awoke to thesounds of gunfire as it was duck sea-son, the birds on the lakes seemedvery skittish all trip and we attributedthis to the amount of hunters on theswamps surrounding the lakes.

Tony doing war dance to fend off duck

hunters

By 0900 we were on the waterheading for our longest days paddleto the eastern end of Raymond Islandsome 28km away.


bottlenose dolphin

Burrunan dolphin

Port Phillip


We stopped at Waddy Point tocheck out future camp options (nottoo bad here), then a short break atWattle Point before a lunch stop onthe Banksia Peninsula. Predicted NWwinds did not eventuate but we hadlittle resistance from the light NE, notenough to call it a headwind! Dol-phins put on quite a display along theway, jumping clear of the water andcruising close to shore where we hadlunch.

We than paddled across the lake toRaymond Island and continued on thefar eastern point where we were ableto locate a nice discrete area to campat about 1600. The NW winds camealong and helped with this last sectionand made for some small chop.

Cruising towards Raymond Island

Day 3 arrived and we were under-way at 0730 after an efficient pack

up by all the group. Again we en-countered a very light NE wind whichdropped out to no wind by mid morn-ing. We were conscious of the pre-dicted 20+ knot NW winds forecastfor the afternoon so keen to makethe 17km to Lakes Entrance beforelunch. We stopped for a short breakat Metung and cruised the last sectionto Lakes Entrance with the assistanceof an outgoing current flow. At somepoints we were cruising at 9kmh.

We arrived at Lakes entrance be-fore midday at a balmy 21 degrees(highest for the state that day) andsoon packed up and headed for home,just as the predicted high winds hitthe area. (it was gusting to 40 knotsat the prom at the same time) pick-ing up a car left at Hollands Landingalong the way.

Cruising near Lakes Entrance

End of the paddle — Photo: Michael ***

We all agreed we chose the bestplace for a paddle given the forecastand although it was not ‘The Prom’ itwas a great paddle with lots of inter-est and for most of the group the firsttime paddling to Lakes Entrance.



The Fisherfolk of Eyemouth Witnessing the Disaster of 1881

David Golightly and Heather Torbet

To the First Village in ScotlandWe are again fortunate to be spend-ing the Victorian winter in a North-ern Hemisphere summer – or at leastwe were hoping for a summer in thethree months we planned to be here.Our schedule included some paddlingand we had a number of iconic daytrips in mind including Gigha, Seil Is-land, Skye, Arisaig and perhaps evenas far north as the Summer Isles.

Our initial attempts however weredefeated by the forecast of adversewinds on our preferred sea kayakingdestination of Scotland’s west coast,so we turned our attention to ournearby East coast and what it had tooffer.

Our recently purchased copy ofDoug Coopers ‘North & East Coasts of

Scotland Sea Kayaking Guidebook pro-vided the inspiration and the infor-mation we were seeking, when aftera careful study, we modified a tripwhich recommended a launch in thefishing village of Eyemouth and con-tinues all the way to England with

a finish at the historic border townof Berwick on the River Tweed, it-self famed for its link with Sir WalterScott.

Located approx. 58 degrees N and2 degrees East with a tidal range inexcess of 3 metres, this was a very dif-ferent paddling location for us, add tothis a sea water temperature approxi-mating Port Phillip in winter, this wasan area we would be wary off

Knowing that the potential keyrisk of the trip was the continuous lineof skerries, sea caves and cliffs, whichline the coast in this part of Scotlandwe needed a ‘friendly’ wind to makethe paddle possible for us.

The forecast favoured us with SW– WNW winds making at least thedirection for our planned South toSouth-Easterly outbound paddle, intheory at least, sort of working in ourfavour. The forecast velocity howeverfor 12-18 knots, gusting to 26 knotsas well as the threatened wind shiftto the WNW later in the day was more

of a problem, that said, we were con-fident that in the expected high tideconditions we would be able to tuckclose into the cliff line and make ourway through the rock gardens.

The modification made to DougCoopers trip was to simply paddledown to a wee village called Burn-mouth (The First Village in Scotland),hang around for a bite to eat thenhead back the way we had come toEyemouth, a modest all round trip ofsome 12 km. Just what was neededafter a years absence from our Scot-tish based kayaks and from the chill-ier waters of these parts. In addi-tion we hadn’t paddled at all sincethe VSKC Nooramunga National ParkEaster Weekend trip, understandablywe both felt somewhat apprehensive.

The launch site of Eyemouth isetched in Scottish fishing historyas the site of a nineteenth centurytragedy where the local Herring Fleet,which was the largest in Britain atthe time was hit by a huge storm



when temptingly close to home af-ter days at sea working in treacher-ous conditions. Almost forty fisher-men from the small town drownedwithin sight of their families whowatched the struggling boats trying toreach the safety of the harbour. To-day a poignant sculpture of minia-ture women and children commemo-rate the disaster.

Our chosen launch site from thebeach in front of the modern LeisureCentre provided a much relievedshort carry to the waters edge andsoon after our arrival we prepared fora nervous launch by retiring to a localcafe for a coffee! Suitably sustainedwe loaded the little red and yellowNorthshore ‘Atlantic’ kayaks with theminimum gear we needed for the dayand at 11.30 am we were off.

Our timing came from the Seakayak Guide and its recommendationto do the trip around high tide whichwould allow a more up close and per-sonal relationship with the skerries aswell as good access to the inner ar-eas of the Burnmouth harbour at theother end.

Getting used to the boats again af-ter a years absence made for a gentlestart to the North-East as we paddledacross the bay towards the narrow en-trance to the harbour, this is a verybusy harbour and you are well ad-vised to approach the almost hiddenentrance with care which is what wedid and soon we were making the firstturn around the headland to changecourse to the south.

The first kilometre or so is flankedby the local golf course so it is not ashigh as the land mass further south,as a result we didn’t get as muchshelter as we had hoped, neverthe-less onwards we pushed leaving be-hind us the well known local fea-tures such as Nextends & Scout Point,sometimes paddling harder than wewished for against the strong down-drafts coming in overland from theSouth-West. Where we could wewould head closer into shore seekingthe refuge offered by the land whichwas getting higher and higher as wemoved south.

Before long we paddled into asmall bay with a considerable sea caveas its backdrop, we took stock whilewe identified Hurkers Haven; wewere both somewhat nervous but alsoenjoying finally getting out on thewater. Heather requested a changeof paddle, she would normally pad-dle with a ‘Greenland Stick’ but beingcautious in the conditions had optedfor using our friend Stuarts Euro-Blade, it was now feeling too heavy– so Heather then used David’s lighterEuro-Blade for the rest of the trip.

Continuing on we soon met thebigger natural elements of high cliffs(up to 150 metres or 300 feet in el-evation) at Fancove Head and withit some of the most impressive cavesyou could imagine, in and out ofthe rock gardens we dodged aswe rounded headland after headlandnone of which posed any threat in theconditions of the day. We were carefulhowever not to venture too far fromland as a capsize and potential needfor a rescue in the off-shore winds,would see both paddlers pushed wellout into the North Sea towards Nor-way before a rescue could be com-pleted.

High cliffs and some of the most impressive

caves you could imagine ...

Another attractive feature of pad-dling this magnificent coast of geo-graphical and geotechnical wonders,is the sea birds which nest annu-ally in the area, Shags, CormorantsFulmars and Kittiwakes screechedand squawked as they flew around

us from their nests perched precar-iously high in the sheer cliffs. In-terestingly this is an area appar-ently devoid of seals although theinformative website resource www.

seakayakingnorthunberland.co.uk

does mention the possibility of spot-ting Dolphins, or even a BaskingShark or even rarer – an Orca. How-ever, we did rejoice however in thecompany of the thousands of sea birdsthat make this area their home for atleast part of the year.

Judiciously ignoring the tempta-tion to actually enter any of the some-times massive sea caves that dottedthe cliff line – there were only two ofus and we were determined to con-tinue with our cautious approach aswe explored islet after islet, reef af-ter reef on our southwards journey to-wards England.

Soon the line of houses along thebottom of the cliff which we knewto be Burnmouth came into view andas we drew closer we marvelled atwhat must be the sight of this tinyfishing hamlet under the force of anEasterly storm, frankly it’s a wonderthere is anything there at all after cen-turies of winter gales. The high wa-ter mark is just metres from the frontdoor of the houses backing onto thesteep cliffs and the 1 in 5 road whichsnakes down from adjacent the mainEdinburgh to London Rail track atopthe cliffs.

Approach to Burnmouth Harbour

Burnmouth despite being a tiny


www.seakayakingnorthunberland.co.uk

www.seakayakingnorthunberland.co.uk


village has a busy productive doubleharbour, which displays a prominentsign advising of the ten pounds ster-ling fee for the landing or launchingof boats – of any size! As a resultwe wound our way into the inner har-bour and with Heather firmly grip-ping the rusty rungs of an access lad-der built into the rock wall, we ex-tracted our tea and our lunch. Nowwe were simply ‘moored’ – no pay-ment of fees required at least by ourinterpretation of the sign.

We were both feeling the nowbright sunshine burning our faces sobefore we left we reapplied copiousquantities of sunscreen, why did wedoubt that the sun would shine inScotland?

This little village has to be seen tobe believed, a single row of housesin a street just wide enough for onecar, one wonders who lives here,are they now ‘weekenders’ owned bywell-heeled Edinburgh folk, or per-haps even the English gaining a toe-hold in Scottish real estate before thecountry elects itself independent?

It was time to head back to Eye-mouth so we began to extricate our-selves from the inner harbour, luck-ily Heather warned of an engine noiseand around the corner came a bigfishing boat looking to occupy thevery mooring space we had just va-cated – the men were friendly enoughalthough a bit surprised to see ourwee craft hanging around where theyshould be.

The Doug Cooper recommendedstrategy of planning our paddlearound high tide certainly paid off aseven on the journey back we wereable to stick reasonably close in to thereefs.

Having played around in the rockgardens on the outbound journey wedidn’t hang around so much on theway back, we also had the benefit ofthe wind behind our backs, which wewere grateful for. Nevertheless, we

did stop and marvel at one or two ofthe larger caves en-route.

Steadily we worked our way around rock

features such as Breeches Rock and Hawks

Nest

Steadily we worked our wayaround rock features such as BreechesRock and Hawks Nest. As our coursechanged from north to north-westand we began to sense that the ex-pected wind-shift had come earlierthan forecast, we were now battlingto make headway as the strongerdowndrafts belted us from the highridges of the sea cliffs. Pausing in thelee of each headland we continued onuntil the Eyemouth Golf Course cameinto view as well as the rock anglersperched on every accessible spot inthe now considerably reduced eleva-tion to our left.

After about one and a half hoursof our journey back we arrived atthe final headland of Nextends . Wepaused and consulted, we knew wenow had to cross the kilometre widebay with what was now a lively breezein our faces, the nearby reefs to ourleft served as reminder that a capsizewould inevitably see us struggling toeffect a rescue in time.

Anyway, with nothing more to saywe poked the bows of the kayaksaround the corner and just kept on go-ing ... and going.

Pausing at the narrow entrance tothe harbour to make sure we were notgoing to be run over by an emerg-ing boat, we headed straight for thebeach and with much relief landedsafely.

No sooner had we caught muchneeded breath than we were ap-proached by an enthusiastic local pad-dler who chatted for a while abouthis experiences paddling these wa-ters. We were surprised to learn thathe regularly went out alone – hope-fully he picked his weather well ashe also admitted that as yet he didn’thave the skills to roll!

Our first paddle in local watersover we slowly made the transitionfrom water to car, wet to dry gearand headed for the compulsory andhighly sought after local ‘fish & chip-pery’ which Eyemouth is famed for.

Later after suitable sustenance wemade our way back to Haddingtonvia Heathers brothers place where weknew we could hang out our wet gearfor a hose down and dry – a difficulttask in our apartment.

We had enjoyed a good day and itwas Heathers first time paddling suchcontinuous cliff and reef zones; in-deed we were fortunate to be able toexperience such a place.

Safely landed at Eyemouth



Bronwyn Skowronski

Keppel SnippetsNorth Keppel Sea Kayak Symposium.2015, Mid-winter. What was this Mel-bournian really looking forward to?Warm weather and warm water. Ev-erything else would be icing. Thatcake of warm QLD conditions was re-alised, so what topped it?

Perfect weather. We enjoyed a per-fect window of weather. Unbrokensunshine (apart from the one morningwe spent snorkelling off Great KeppelIsland, what a rude joke Miss MotherNature!) and calm breezes, joyfullywasteful evenings with rich sunsets.The oceanside of North Keppel Islanddelighted in gentle onshore winds,enough to whip up lumpy water fora play, but none too big to miss out onventuring into the sea caves, and forsome, daring rock gardening.

Birdlife. Spotting and talkingbirds with fellow bird nerds. Sharonhave you got that bird app on yoursmartphone yet? The Sea Eagles werea treat, with babies spotted peeringabove their nest. Curlews. I thoughtsomeone was playing a joke on mysenses. Those massive eyes, tall legs,and their unreal comical darting andfreezing. Such a funny bird! Toomuch to distract you from a greatconversation at breakfast and lunch,seated outside under the shade of atree.

A Curlew “if I stand still no one will see me”

Total immersion and selfish paceto enjoy all things paddling. Relaxedand copious time to spend with newand old friends, great to paddle with,be inspired by, learn from, and pro-voke sore abs from so much laugh-ter (one being Bob’s talk one evening,I suspected the woman next to mecame close to wetting herself).

People. As with my other outdoorpursuits, kayaking is a sport that at-tracts all sorts, and what a rich andlively world it is to mingle in. Hooksieand Syd. Syd took up kayaking at anage that would have enabled him freeskiing at near any resort in the world.He paddles and rolls with the best ofthem, Greenland no less! If you havetendency to spit the dummy, Syd hasyour fix. If you ever meet these two,

you need to ask the story about theGreenland stick and the unrestrainedrelentless dog.

Inspiring evening talks, as din-ner was digesting, on paddles nearand far, done mildly and others doneboldly. Europe by the Danube. NewZealand firsts. Rolling lessons for life.North Reef QLD, all man power.

Bob Fergie and Tim Morris

Learning and unhurried practice.Remarkable line-up of fabulous kayakteachers, who all gave their time forfree, yet gave the guidance, care andeffort worthy of a top paid perfor-mance. Egos left at the shore, greatcare and comradeship of all paddlers,new or decades seasoned. So oftenpaddling peers were more supportiveand delighted in assisting the learn-



ing of others. What a joy to witnessBob get one paddler rolling (who pre-viously voiced that “Kayaking is nota water sport!”). I enjoyed being apart of Rob Mercer’s beautifully or-chestrated pod control. Intense learn-ing sessions in perfect pockets of is-land shore, and ventures of scenic cir-cumnavigation.

Wonderful hospitality and tucker.Though many a time, conversationsspoke of temptation to crash theneighbouring ‘XXXX Island’ and all itsnovel amenities.

Whale and her calf. Darn it I didnot see them, but other paddlers werelucky enough! I did get a treat of a seaturtle or two.

Well done and a big thank youto Paddle Capricornia and Tim Mor-ris for organizing such a great event.Please don’t all you sign up for nextyear’s symposium, as I’d like to attendagain myself!

Richard Rawling

Greenland — Sea Kayaking HeavenPaddling Group – Tasermiut Trip Leader

Leti Boscos (Argentina), Richard and He-

len Rawling (Australia), Concha Guil

Marchante and Cristina Fortuny (Spain),

Bjørn Rasmussen (Denmark), Matteo

Carinelli, Andrea Dipietrantonio and

Tomaso Pelos (Italy) — Photos by various

members in the group.

What do you want to do for your big“0” birthday next year? Good ques-tion I thought and the more I pon-dered over it, the more I was se-duced by the idea of sea kayakingsomewhere unique, somewhere mem-orable and somewhere with paddlingdimensions I had not experienced be-

fore. This sounded like a much bet-ter idea than getting slowly drunk andeating too many party pies! For me,atop my sea kayaking bucket list waspaddling amongst ice and experienc-ing the culture of those who live there– not just a land of ice alone.

But where? Antarctica is logis-tically a very difficult and expensiveplace to go sea kayaking in. Patago-nia was of interest but is too far northfor there to be large ice flows, plusI have already explored and hikedthere. That left the Arctic regions,and as I researched options one placeclearly stood out – Greenland. As Itested this idea with friends the reac-

tion was universal – WOW! I reckon Ihad the answer to my birthday bashchallenge, and the coolest (get it?!)thing was that my wife Helen was go-ing to join in the adventure (albeit en-couraged by the promise of some his-tory jaunts and the vague attractionof some decent single malt whiskiesin Scotland post kayaking).

Greenland and sea kayaking

Greenland is the largest non-continental island in the world withan area of some 2.18 million km2 .The name was coined by a famousScandinavian settler Eric The Red,



who thought that the name “Green-land” would attract potential settlers.Despite such a large landmass, thecurrent population is only 57,600,with about 15,500 living in the cap-ital Nuuk, located on the west coast.Greenland is a protectorate of Den-mark, and is self-governing, albeitrelying heavily on Denmark for eco-nomic growth. Danish is widely spo-ken in addition to the native dialect.English is typically understood. Thecurrency is the Danish Kroner, andthe economy is largely founded onfishing, tourism, sheep farming andforage agriculture. The majority ofgoods need to be imported and foodreflects the expense of this necessity.The bulk of the population (some42,100 people) live outside Nuuk insmall villages concentrated on thewest coast. Perma-ice inland covers85% of the country and is generallynot inhabited.

The actual North Pole is within

Greenland’s borders and at these lat-itudes, the ice is essentially perma-nent. Down south there are extensivefjord systems, with non-permanentsnow on land but large glacier sys-tems that calve a lot of ice (10–15,000icebergs per year). July is the onlymonth in which Greenland’s temper-ature rises above freezing point. Po-lar bears tend to appear between lat-itudes 66–880 north, which is a goodthing because these animals are a realthreat to paddlers. But they can alsoappear further south due to their ten-dency to live on ice flows, so it pays tokeep vigilant. Other wildlife includereindeer, musk ox, artic foxes, hares,birds, whales, seals and some prettyweird fish!

Greenland is the home of the Inuitpeople who populated this land inabout 1300 AD (the first Europeansactually arrived on the west coastaround 980 AD). Arctic peoples spo-radically inhabited Greenland fromabout 2500 BC. Together with theAleut peoples further west, the Inu-its invented the kayak. They used itto hunt and fish from, and for travel.The classic shape of the Greenlandichunting kayak with its long overhangsat the bow and stern derives from de-signs that date back some 4000 years.Inuits became masters of these small,close fitting craft and this design in-fluence is still felt today with manyof our sleek, high tech kayaks owingtheir lines to these fine boats. We canlargely thank enthusiastic early 19thcentury European paddlers for copy-ing some of these designs and intro-ducing them into western kayakingactivities. Books like Kayaks of Green-

land – The History and Development

of the Greenlandic Hunting Kayak,

1600–2000 by Harvey Golden (2006)point to the amazing variety of Green-landic kayak forms, and many of uslove the light, sleek, stripped backskin-on frame Greenland-style boatsthat are a joy to paddle. I must saythat I do love my own skin-on frameboat built at a VSKC workshop lastyear. Many of our paddling actionsalso owe their origins to the Inuit pio-neers of kayaking, notably numerous

types of rolling. This kayaking her-itage was an utterly compelling rea-son for me to want to visit Greenland,especially to paddle a modern boat inits home seas – complete with lots ofice of course!

Getting there is always half thebattle

As many who have tried will attest,long distance paddling logistics canbe a serious challenge. The only vi-able way to do this trip was to finda guiding company who could sup-ply the gear and organise the trip. Itwas not feasible to take boats or largegear with us, especially since we had3 weeks of onward travel. So I firedup Google and started researching. Tomy pleasant surprise I turned up a fewcompanies, but some ran custom trips(at a premium price) and some spenta lot of time outside the fjords. Thiswas an issue because with my wifeHelen coming along, it would not befair to take an inexperienced paddleron a challenging paddle such as out toCap Karvel and similar territory. Justquietly, I shall keep that in mind for afuture trip!

My research finally turned upTasermiut South Greenland Expedi-tions. This Spanish company isnamed after one of the iconic fjordsin southern Greenland. It has beengoing some 20 years and was es-tablished by Ramon Larramendi, aSpaniard who has run extensive ex-peditions in Greenland since the1980s. Tasermiut offers a range ofguided kayaking trips, mixed hik-ing/kayaking and Rigid InflatableBoat (RIB) based trips. Tasermiut hasa long history of using South Ameri-can guides from Patagonia, I suspectbecause of their Spanish origins andfamiliarity with a similar landscape.Tasermiut also offers kayak logistics(boats, etc) for independent paddling(now there’s an idea!) I made con-tact and I have to say that the wholeprocess of due diligence – registrationand pre-paddle information flow wasexcellent. I kept wondering if some-thing was going to unravel, notably



that they had failed to get enoughpeople to sign and had to cancel. Butin the end they were actually over-subscribed and ran two trips back-to-back (in opposite directions). As thedate drew nearer I could hardly con-tain my excitement. I was about tolive out one of my greatest kayakingdreams – paddling amongst ice!

Geography on steroids!

We flew into Narsarsuaq fromReykjavik, a 3-hour flight affordingus some truly jaw dropping viewsover the immense Greenland coast-line. Greenland’s geography reallydoes appear to be on steroids. Ev-erything – the mountains, fjords,glaciers, icebergs – are so large andmonolithic, it completely screws upyour sense of depth and distance per-ception. Narsarsuaq effectively func-tions as the airstrip for the little town

of Narsaq, which is located some50kms further south and is home to1,500 people. We were met by theTasermiut logistics team who wran-gled our bags down to a waitingboat for transfer to Narsaq (where wewould start the paddle). And we hadquite a few bags too! I decided tobring our own sleeping bags, inflat-able mats, some paddling gear (hats,gloves, etc) and a seat. I knew 2.5weeks camping would do my back in,so in went a Helinox chair as well. Iswear I could have sold 8 of them bythe end of the trip!

Our speedboat roared down thefjord toward Narsaq on a perfect blue-sky day . Arriving in the town, ourbags were ferried up to a Tasermuit-owned hostel (the standards of whichwere well above the average hostel).

Walking around Narsaq ahead ofthe pre-trip briefing, the evocativecoloured houses on the shoreline

were reminiscent of typical Scandina-vian architecture, and the sight of ice-bergs just off shore blew us away.

They are unique, beautiful, myste-rious and potentially quite dangerousbecause they are prone to rolling andbobbing up in surprising places (butmore on this later).

Forming the pod and getting togrips with the trip ahead

Our fabulous guide was Leti Boscos,an Argentinean who hails from Bar-aloche in northern Patagonia. Leti’sleadership style was extremely profes-sional and encouraged cohesion de-spite the group’s differing paddlingexperience. There were 8 paddlersin our group, with myself the mostexperienced paddler apart from Leti.Cristina from Spain was a passion-ate sea paddler from the Barcelonaarea, and Dane Bjorn had lots of shel-tered waters experience. My wife He-len, three young Italian guys (Matteo,Andrea and Tomaso) and a Spaniardfrom Cadiz (Conche) had limited pad-dling experience. With Leti at thehelm, our group bonded quickly intoa team with great spirit. We mainlyspoke English, but our pathetic effortsat Spanish and Italian were well re-ceived. I gave up on Danish, but hav-ing Bjorn in the group was a greatbenefit when it came to communicat-ing with the locals, and his anecdotesabout Greenland were always inter-esting. Given the mix of experiencein the group, the trip was never go-ing to be ‘fear, pain and danger’, butit was going to have its challenges asany extended trip of 15 days would.We were living out of the kayaks, car-rying all our food, water and gear.

Before we begun, we sorted outthe gear into what we were leavingbehind in a secured store, and whatwe were taking. That went into atruck and we then decided to walkthe 2.5kms over to the old mink farmsheds that Tasermiut use as their gearstore. It is always fun getting kit-ted up, but when Leti arrived with amountain of food and stuff, I was be-ginning to wonder where everything



was going to go.

We took the kayaks down to thewaters edge on trolleys. We were us-ing a mix of single and boats (PrijonKodiak – single and Prijon Excursion –double). These boats were very stableand given that we were always land-ing on rocky beaches, a good choice.We had to wear drysuits (Crewsaver)because the water temperature wasabout 1.5–2.5C. I thought I would boilin these suits, but because of the coldambient air conditions, they were ac-tually very comfortable. Mind you,they required a bit of assistance toget on/off as they have a stiff diag-onal chest zipper. You also had tobe well organised for toileting, be-cause they had no pee zip! For safety,Leti used a Delorme In Reach GPS-enabled communications device in or-der to stay in contact with base andother guides. This satellite-based de-vice worked flawlessly. Those with

phones could sometimes get 3G cov-erage, but as we went further and fur-ther south this was lost.

Down at the water’s edge, wecould not take our eyes off the bay fullof icebergs that we were about to pad-dle through.

The excitement was palpable!Given some of the group was not thatexperienced in boat packing, it tooka while to optimise everything, but inthe end there was a place for every-thing – even a large saucepan and ket-tle in the back of Leti’s boat for groupmeals!

Tasermiut favour a system ofputting 20-litre dry bags on decks,which I reckon is basically not a goodidea in any sort of wind or significantwave action. But I didn’t get to testmy theory – the weather turned outto be pretty tame!

Finally our paddles hit the water

First paddle strokes are always excit-ing, but especially in such an exoticlocation! After some simple guidanceon forward paddle strokes, we wereoff. Leti was always (rightly) con-cerned about paddling too close toicebergs because they have a nastyhabit of tipping over. Paddlingamongst ice is like paddling amongstfloating rocks – it is hard when ithits a boat. Despite this we couldnot get the smiles off our faces as weglided past iceberg after iceberg onwhat was to become a 10km paddleto Eric The Red Island (Illutalik), so

named because this island is thoughtto be one of the sites of those earlyeastern Viking settlements.

Leti’s concern about icebergs wasquickly vindicated because we hearda roaring noise and turned to seea massive iceberg in the process ofrolling. A spectacular sight, but anevent riddled with danger for un-wary kayakers. We quickly learnt totell which icebergs were likely to rollgiven their shape and age, but thetemptation to paddle up close was al-ways there. We often heard this roar-ing sound, but sometimes it was hardto get a bead on where it was com-ing from. Cameras were whirring aswe glided along in slightly ruffled wa-ter and we probably took a lot longerthan we should have to paddle 12kmas we soaked in the unique sights (in-cluding one iceberg that I reckon wasat least 75m long – huge!).

It took some of the less experi-enced in the group a while to get thetiming of the paddle strokes in thebig doubles, but I was pleasantly sur-prised with the tempo and style of thegroup as we neared our campsite.

The top end of the fjord we werepaddling in is close to a large glacierand as a result, the iceberg densitywas high. As we headed further souththe icebergs thinned out, and as weskated through the last of the ice-bergs in this section, we beached onthe island and carried the boats upabove the high water mark. Thiscampsite, and many others like it, in-volved camping on grass. This meant



mosquitoes. They were not as badas I thought they might be, but de-cent repellent is a must if you’re evenin these parts. Our tents were Atlus(Spanish) and of excellent quality.Leti used a large Bergen Tee Pee Tentfor the communal tent, and she alsocooked and slept in there.

It got very cold at night and byrunning the MSR fuel stove it be-came quite toasty in the Tee PeeTent (we did not make fires becausethere wasn’t any surplus natural woodto burn). Our dinners were alwayshealthy and tasty, but I must say thatI was feeling very guilty with Leti do-ing so much work. Dinner was alwayspreceded by what became our signa-ture beverage of the trip – fruit tea.We always had hot thermos flask ofwater on hand in the boats, one perkayak.

As the sun started to go down onour first day we spotted a whale not100m from camp and I was grate-ful I had packed binoculars. Thiswas a pleasing offset to the fact thatthe area we were camped in an areathat had been used in the past as awhale slaughtering ground. Fortu-nately, viewing Minke and Humpbackwhales close to our campsites becamea regular occurrence throughout thetrip. We snuggled into our tents rel-atively early, given we found that by9.30-10.00 pm we were all so tiredthat a warm sleeping bag was a prettyattractive option. It would get verycold at night (probably -10C at least),so being well organised to avoid an

agonising trip to the nearest rock for apee was a good idea! Going forward,our plan would be to have breakfastat 8.00 am and be on the water by10.00 am. Breakfast was always pre-saged by Leti’s musical call “Breakfast

is ready!”; what more could one askfor, really? This regime was prettyleisurely paddling by my expeditionstandards, but all things considered itwas a very practical plan that workedwell. It was also one that the groupwas very disciplined in observing, lestwe incur Leti’s wrath!

Heading south – whales, icebergsand a flying tent

Day 2 of our trip dawned as perfectpaddling conditions indeed, anotherblue sky day with little wind. Ourroute for the next few days saw us fol-lowing the southern coastline of Tut-tutooq Island in the Tunuaraq Fjord(see map) in a south-westerly direc-tion. There is a narrow neck in theisland and in a worse case weatherscenario you would have the optionof a 400m portage to get over to Ik-ersuaq Fjord on the northern side ofthe island. This then opens up theglacier-infested fjords to the west (butmore about that later). We had a solidpaddle of 20kms or so and endedup camping at a place called TurtlePoint (by virtue of its appearance).Some of our open crossings on thisleg were long (approximately 7kms)and would be potentially pretty ex-posed in decent wind. Day 3 startedin similar weather to Day 2, but gotwindier with what I reckon was only a12 knot headwind, but can neverthe-less be annoying for unseasoned pad-dlers. As a result, we stopped short ofthe preferred camp at a place calledthe Lakes Camp that featured an ele-vated site up a short cliff at the backof the landing area. It also lost all thebeach at high water, so diligence in ty-ing the boats up was required.

What a picturesque spot, but thewind really started blowing as westruggled to set up the tents. It wasso windy in fact that as I was settingmine, our Italian friends lost their tentinner and poles as the wind picked itup and blew it out to sea! I gave chaseas did the others but once it landedon the water (upright) it behaved likeany good sea-going tent and startedheading for the far shore at a rate ofknots! This was funny, but deadlyserious of course. Copious swearingin Spanish, Italian, Danish and Aussiecould be heard as Leti and Bjorn whowere still in their drysuits took off inthe kayaks after it. Once Leti snaggedit about 500m offshore, she hooked atowline and Bjorn helped her wran-gled it back to shore.

Lesson absolutely learned! Afterthis excitement and given the shortertrip we decided on a hike up into theglorious mountains nearby. Once wegot to the top the panorama was spec-tacular. As we gathered wild blue-



berries and spied yet more whales, Ireflected how uplifting it is to knowthat places like this still exist on thisplanet. Simply sublime.

We continued south-west the dayafter the flying tent episode, pleasedthat the wind had settled somewhat.Day 4 saw us paddle through a com-plex area of channels near Little Tut-

tutooq Island and crossed over intoIkersuaq Fjord to the north. We al-ways had lunch on these days inlovely little locations on grass or rock.We saw many beautiful plants, somejust coming into flower. Prostratebirch grew everywhere, as did blue-berries.

We stopped at another stunningcampsite on the southern side of theIkersuaq Fjord (The Chilean Camp)after a 25km paddle. There werestrange shaped icebergs everywhere,because they had spent a lot of timeonly partially melting. We saw a spec-tacular whale tail slap and dive rightin front of the camp, in addition toplenty of seals and auks (a relative ofthe Puffin and the northern replace-ment for penguins which do not ap-pear in northern climates). We werenow bearing north-east, and headingfor a large glacier field that we weregoing to spend the next 4 days or sochecking out.

Glaciers here we come withmystical blue ice and curious seals

Day 5 saw us undertake a long andexposed crossing of Ikersuaq Fjord. Itwas pretty cold and if we had signif-icant wind this would be tricky foranybody. My hands were starting toget quite chilled as I was paddlingin yachting gloves, but on this I legswitched to neoprene gloves (whichunfortunately tended to give me blis-ters). We could see the massiveQaletallit Glacier in the distance on

the edge of the main Greenlandic icesheet.; it looked absolutely spectacu-lar, especially as the sun set.

As we paddled, we were shep-herded along by inquisitive seals,which were clearly gun-shy given thatthey are still hunted in these parts.We saw many stunning blue – violeticebergs in this area, their colour tes-tament to the fact that they are olderand the ice has been compressed overtime. Different spectral effects thenoccur as light passes through, whichrenders the blue shift in the light spec-trum.

We saw Caribou at our lunch spot.They were stunning as they appearedon the ridgeline, darting over boul-ders in an elegant dance. We finallyset up camp at the northern end of aplace called Skinny Island. We caughtsome local fish (cod) using left oversausage spread from lunch as bait.

This was tasty with cous cous fordinner the following night. It was



a measure of Leti’s overall approachthat she solo paddled back a coupleof kilometres to fetch water, then gotback and made fruit tea and dinner.

Day 6 saw us paddle further up theQaletallit Imaa to Tasermiut’s fixedgeodesic dome base camp. They usethis as a base camp for RIB boat trip-pers. Here we wrangled a food dropand did a walk across to see a largeglacial lake in the moraine field whichwas pretty impressive in itself. Thebase camp had been trashed the weekbefore in really strong winds, so wewere wary of that episode repeatingitself. We then paddled over in theshadow of the Qaletallit and Naa-jaat Glaciers to what is known as theGlacier Camp (kayakers and trekkers)where we were to stay for two nights.

The paddle over to the campseemed to take a while and it wasthen I realised just how large ex-panses of white completely throwout your distance perception. Be-cause there were two groups doingthe trip in opposite directions, wecaught up with the other group forone night at this camp. We alsogot our first good glimpse of theNorthern Lights. At first they ap-peared as white clouds (even thoughit was dark around 10.00 pm), butas midnight approached, they steadilyturned green. We saw these lights onseveral other nights, but it was alwaysa struggle to haul yourself out of thesleeping bag at 1am when it was socold and there was no guarantee thatthe ionospheric activity would occur.

Day 7 saw us do a 22km returnpaddle past the front of the NaajaatGlacier and then over to the QaletallitGlacier where we did a walk up ontothe surface of the glacier.

This was a spectacular paddle,rendered more so when as we tookselfies, a huge jagged iceberg of blueice broke free from the foot of theglacier and burst through the water

near our kayaks, much to our con-sternation and the annoyance of hun-dreds of seabirds feeding on micro-organisms in the water.

The walk up onto the glacier re-vealed deep fissures and strange icyanthills that occur due to osmosis ofearth laden ice through the glacialcore. Walking up to these glacierfields is very hard work as you haveto negotiate cracked boulders andmoraine debris. We were absolutelyexhausted when we got back to theGlacier Camp, but what a stunningday’s paddle and exploration.

Day 8 saw us paddle south-eastback down the Qaletallit Imaa in astiff breeze. We had contemplatedstaying given the long downwind pad-dle and the fact that once we turnednorth we would have to paddle backup into that breeze. But the down-wind leg was pretty quick as we shotalong at about 10kph. Once weturned north into the breeze we hadto hop from headland to headlandin order to leverage our way up toour next campsite where we wouldagain be for two nights. We sloggedit out and after 21kms finally pulledinto a magical camping location at thefoot of large mountains (Akuliaruseq)where we would do a full day trek thefollowing day.

We were all knackered, but wewere getting pretty fit and droppingbody weight as the combination ofhealthy food, strenuous activity andthe cold caught up with us. It washard to find fresh water for drinking



at this particular site, and the climbup to the high level creek was toughas you navigated your way throughsharp, cracked boulders that werewicked on boots. Definitely not agood place to fall over.

Day 9 was set side for a hike upinto the mountains to view the Naa-jaat Glacier from the opposite moun-tain range. We geared up and startedour 18km trek up into the mountains.At first the scenery comprised of rockyboulder spills as we grappled to getup onto the moraine fields proper. Wepassed many picturesque lakes andvalleys, but there is a distinct lack ofsoil in these parts, so what vegeta-tion there was clung to a precariousexistence. The trail was unmarked,but Leti guided us well through theboulders and scree. Once we got uphigher we came across a very largefreshwater lake that was convenientgiven this was our designated ‘wash-ing day’. The girls went right off alittle rock outcrop and the boys wentleft. It was far too cold for me butTomaso and Andrea plunged in starknaked. Suffice it to say, the look ofhorror on their faces was well wor-thy of photographic record as the trueimpact of the icy water took hold ofvarious parts of their anatomy. Helensaid and my hair was pretty disgust-ing after 9 days without washing, sowe both opted for a head wash onlywhich was well worth it.

Our climb took us further up ontohuge granite slabs, much like whatyou see at Wilsons Promontory. Here

though they had been scoured overhundreds of years by active glaciers.Eventually we arrived at a stunningoverlook of the Naajaat Glacier wherewe had lunch and napped in thebright sun.

Our trek back down was via a dif-ferent path and we twisted throughmoraine fields where the bouldershad been for hundreds of years afterthe ice had melted. Pretty awe inspir-ing, although I thought Andrea’s at-tempt to roll one of these monolithswas a tad ambitious!

We saw an artic hare on the wayback, which for all the world lookedlike a bunny on steroids, much likethe mountains.

The vistas of rock, small lakes,alpine grasses and the odd flowerwere stunning. Once we got back af-ter a long day our legs were prettywobbly, and we greatly savoured thefamous fruit tea. By this stage anothergroup had turned up. They were do-ing the 5 day kayak trip. Two Tasma-nians in the group bemoaned the factthey had not done the longer trip, andI have to say that doing the longer tripwas a far better call given what theytold us they were not seeing what wewere.

Narsaq bound but in no hurry toend our magical journey

Once we left the trekking camp wehad effectively started our long, slowtrip back to Narsaq, and we wantedto be sure to savour every last paddlestroke. By now everyone’s paddlingwas really efficient and we glidedalong at a good clip. I kept thinkingthat we should slow down to soak inthe glorious scenery. As we headedsouth-east down Manitsup Tunua, themajesty of the massive mountains re-ally hit us. So too did the tirednessof a period of non-stop activity. Westopped many times for a breatherand Leti always seemed to find a foodbar or a bit of chocolate, and of courseour lovely fruit tea! On Day 10 weleft our camp spot on the northernside of the fjord and crossed in per-fect weather, but I again thought thatthis could get pretty gnarly in a strongside wind. It was a 22km leg that tookus through a field of jagged and un-stable icebergs.



There were more icebergs herethan further south because we werenow much nearer the calving headof the main glacier in the area – Eq-glorutsit Kangilliit. Some of the ice-bergs were huge, and in some caseshad fallen onto their neighbours. Wegave these a wide birth, as we didthe ones with moraine rubble embed-ded in their upper levels. We campednear an old fisherman’s hut, which al-though being relatively modern wasquite run down. The red colour of thehut was in stark contrast with the bluewater, white icebergs and dark moun-tains in the background. We met agroup of three Spanish women whohad hired their boats from Tasermiutfor a self-guided trip (this is actuallya great option for this area providedyou know where to find water ). Iremember ending this day sitting inmy Helinox chair, sipping fruit tea andgazing out over the scramble of ice-bergs, and made a note in the diaryfor the umpteenth time – “this really

is kayaking heaven”.

Day 11 saw us leave iceberg al-ley and head over to a place calledStephensen’s Haven. This is anold Inuit village dating from 1350that was archeologically excavated in1935. There was not much there, butwe enjoyed checking out the old ru-ins where stone houses had been. Itmust have been a very hard life. Thiswas only a short paddle (12kms) aswe decided to avoid a big group fromanother company who were campedwhere we were heading. So we spieda nice spot and pulled up there in-

stead. Conditions were dead calm.We saw many whales and many ice-bergs fall apart and reform, againunderscoring the dangers of gettingtoo close. We could also by nowsee Narsaq in the distance. We werenearly at the end of our kayaking iceodyssey, although I think many of uscould have happily gone on. Our finalnight was really cold and we awoketo fog. We knew Narsaq was due east,but care was required in those condi-tions. As we pushed on, Narsaq grad-ually emerged from the fog as the sunburnt through. We only had to cover8kms or so, but use of the GPS wascertainly prudent.

As we stopped to reflect on ouraccomplishments, a tinge of sadnesswashed over me at the knowledgethat the trip was nearly over. We tooka celebratory photo with our paddlesin the air and then weaved into thebay west of Narsaq where we hadstarted. It was pretty unrecognisable

as a lot of the ice had moved around,but it was still full of icebergs anda perfect opportunity for Andrea andMatteo to finally test out the drysuitsin the water – suffice to say it was stillbloody cold!

We decamped all the boats anddragged them back up to the stor-age shed. Once we had washed allthe gear, we had a final picnic lunchon the grass, again in sunny, blue-skyconditions. We decided to walk the2.5kms back into Narsaq as somehowit did not seem right to jump into atruck after all we had just achievedin the boats – 180km of sheer kayak-ing bliss. The hot shower in the hostelwas sublime, to say the least!

Time to explore Narsaq andreluctantly head back to

‘civilisation’

Once we had settled back into quasicivilisation, the focus quickly turnedto food. While paddling, we haddaily fantasies about spaghetti car-bonara and pizza, and this was a chal-lenge that our Italian friends gladlyaccepted. So off to the small su-permarket we went for supplies andthen back to the hostel for a lazypasta lunch. The boys really excelledthemselves, actually hand making thepasta. Once that had barely hit thesides along with a few of the localbeers to wash it down with, we wentfor a stroll around Narsaq taking in-teresting photos and checking out thelittle local stores. The little churchinterior was gorgeous, as were thebrightly painted little houses in thetown. The local hotel was the onlyplace with any sort of wi-fi so weused that to reconnect with emails,and sample a hot chocolate and cake.That night the two groups joined upfor a pizza party courtesy of our Ital-ian friends again. The pizzas keptcoming and we were only too happyto keep eating them – marvellous.



The next and final full day, we didsome shopping for local maps and thelike, and just kept exploring around.Our French friends in the other groupwere cooking on the last night andhad chosen to do fish. The fish vari-eties in these waters were unknownto me, except wolf fish, which is godawful ugly with jaws that can crushrocks. It is a bit like an arctic versionof a Moray eel. But it ended up beingvery tasty! They had also purchasedsome seal, and cooked that up in adark glaze. Probably because I am aproud owner of a lovely Golden Re-triever dog, and seals seem much likethe Goldens of the sea (cute and play-ful), so to Helen and I the thought ofeating seal was too much. Suffice tosay that those who did try it did notrush back for seconds!

On our last morning we paid avisit to the small local museum. It hadan interesting display of old kayaks,harpoons and other related gear. Boy,those Inuit kayaks are tight fitting!

Eventually we made our waydown to the wharf for the RIB boatride back up to Narsarsuaq. We leftLeti on the wharf as she reluctantlygot ready for another 3-day trip – thefinal trip for the season. We donnedpolar jackets for the fast boat ride be-cause the air was bitingly cold. It wasalso quite foggy and the driver wasnavigating by GPS. I am just glad hedidn’t smack into one of the big ice-bergs!

Once back at the airport we got or-ganised for the flight and had a fewsnacks plus what was left of the beerfrom our raid on the Narsaq super-market the day before. We left ondifferent flights at different times, de-pending whether we had flown viaReykjavik or Copenhagen. It was a bitsad saying goodbye given the bondsmade within the group, but we havestayed in touch quite a bit since andwe now have many couches that wecan crash on in various parts of Eu-rope. Concha has made a stunningvideo and checking that out boughtback many great memories. I havea video as well if I can ever get itsorted. . .

As the plane pulled out of Narsar-suaq, we gazed over geography onsteroids one last time. In many ways,the ice flows, glaciers and mountainswere somehow now all in an evenmore sensible context. We had beenpart of that brilliant environment for15 stunning days and it will live withus forever. In many ways, the selfieHelen and I snapped on the plane on

the return trip said it all – a senseof having had one of the experiencesof our lives and one of great achieve-ment. So how do I come down fromsuch an amazing experience? Byworking on the logistics for trip num-ber two on my sea kayaking bucketlist, that’s how!

Reflections and dreams of more ice

Would I go back to Greenland? Yes Iwould – in a heartbeat. It was stun-ning and logistically very doable inthe end. My target if doing it a secondtime around would likely focus onDisco Bay, Ilulissat and maybe Nuuk.But by the sounds of it, the paddlingsouth of Narsaq around Qaqortoq andNanortalik warrant attention. I mightbe tempted to free rent kayaks thistime, but there is a lot to be said fora guided trip, especially with a guidelike Leti, and I thought it was reallygood value for money (see Tasermiutwebsite).

Things to remember when plan-ning your own Greenlandic kayakingadventure:• Do your homework – if you go ona guided trip be confident it will haveenough stretch for you given your ca-pabilities. But be satisfied that attimes what will be easy for you, mightbe harder for others.• Check expected weather – investi-gate the weather relative to the timeof year you plan to go (the pad-dling season in Greenland runs frommid-June to mid-September), outsidethose times forget it. If you want tosee the Northern Lights, then late Au-gust is best.• Take a few paddling luxuries– I took a collapsible chair, a bet-ter than average sleeping mattresses,good head torch and some well wornand trusted paddling clobber.• Check out proposed gear andguide – we thought Tasermiut got itpretty right, but I have heard horrorstories about others who have got itbadly wrong.• Appreciate local context – seek tounderstand the local people, customs,history, geography, etc before you go,



as it makes for a much richer experi-ence.

• Leverage the trip – if you are go-ing to the other side of the planetfor sea kayaking purposes, then fac-tor in some other activities that makeit worthwhile. We spent 4 days in Ice-land and I paddled in Scotland for afew days (and the west coast is an-other branch of sea kayaking heavenfrom what I saw), but we also checkedout a lot of historical aspects in Scot-land and then had a lovely stopoverin Shanghai on the way back

• Reasonable expectations – if you

are going with a non-paddling part-ner, be patient and do not push theenvelope too much. This was not atrip for novices, and I worked a lotharder on boat wrangling, camp setup and the like more than I wouldhave with an experienced paddlingpartner. But to do a trip like this withHelen, was really special. Kudos toher for having a go, which she didbrilliantly well.

Some useful web references

• Tasermiut – www.kayakingreenland.com/

• Narsaq weather –www.worldweatheronline.com/

v2/weather.aspx?q=Narsaq,

%20Greenland

• Viking settlement – en.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_

Settlement

• Greenland Tourism – www.

greenland.com/en/

• Ilulissat – whc.unesco.org/en/list/1149

• Lagavulun Whisky Distillery,Isle of Islay –www.discovering-distilleries.com/lagavulin/


www.worldweatheronline.com/v2/weather.aspx?q=Narsaq,%20Greenland




en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Settlement



www.greenland.com/en/

www.greenland.com/en/

SeaTrek 84 Food for Thought

Roger Bellchambers

Skills and anxietiesI write this brief piece as a reflectionof my years of paddling experienceswhich I hope may help other pad-dlers.

When paddling on club day trips ,AGM paddles and any extended expe-dition, -in fact any paddle, the thingsI think of as we get underway relate tothe dynamics of the paddling group,including the confidence of the leader,the groups’ collective skills, the expe-rience and personality of individuals ,and then where my past paddling ex-periences fit in with this group.

The questions I ask myself in-clude;

The leader ...

• How confident is the leader with de-cision making?• Has the leader got the skills for thisparticular trip and prepared for actualor potential conditions involved?• Will the leader encourage the groupto do as instructed?• Will others try to take over and thenpossibly undermine the leader’s confi-dence to lead?

The group ...

• What is the size of the group ?• Will they stay together or stretch out?• Is there a big variation in people’spaddling ability and speed?

• Does everyone have the skillsneeded for the paddle?• Does everyone have the capacity forthe distance required?

... and myself

• What is my personal paddling abil-ity and skill set?• What is my level of comfort on thisparticular event?• I believe EVERYONE needs to assessthemselves at the start of every trip.• It is then possible for YOU to thenfeel comfortable with your positionwithin the paddling group,-regardlessof your degree of experience.

After looking at, and considering allthe above, I would add one morethought.

Anxiety

Let’s distinguish anxiety from edu-cated concerns about recognised spe-cific risks. Anxiety, in contrast, isgeneric, a broad perception of danger.This perception of danger might havean object but it remains vague — it’sthe fear of the unknown and unspeak-able. Thus, anxiety can be called irra-tional and unproductive, but yet, it isreal.

I consider anxiety to be a major in-fluence one’s enjoyment, and abilityto stretch oneself to a higher level.

My belief is that we all do need thepractical skills that are taught throughthe VSKC — but there are often manyunspoken anxieties.

We need to recognise our ownfears — including fear of the un-known, anxiety about what other peo-ple think, fear of coming out of one’sboat, not being able to get back intothe boat; fears of the depth of wa-ter, difficulty in unfamiliar water,fears of drowning, ... and of course,the primordial fear of sharks!

Until we overcome anxieties onewe struggle to move forward.

Inability to roll, and coming outof one’s boat is all a normal part ofkayaking, and should not be thesource of personal anxiety and, thus,an impediment to improve and enjoy.

I feel it is vital for each person tobe able to think through the abovequestions, and have confidence in thegroup of paddlers around them. Itmay then encourage paddlers to stepout of their comfort zone, take moreopportunities to increase skills anddeal with their possible anxieties.

I have wanted to share mythoughts as have personally expe-rienced challenging kayaking condi-tions, including unplanned swimmingevents- but have had complete faith inmy fellow paddlers’ ability to assist inany situation and left me with lifetimememories.



Kate Hives (Vancouver Island, BC)

Missing the Point? Women in KayakingAdapted for Seatrek with friendly permis-

sion by the author. Source: Kate Hives,

Love what you do, inspire others to do what

they love. Blog. http: // katehives. com ,

Posted 2 Sept 2015. Accessed 10 Oct 2015.

— Kate is a coach with ‘SKILS’ (www.

skils. ca ) and holds certifications as a

Level 3 Sea Kayak Guide, Guide Trainer and

Examiner with the Sea Kayak Guide’s Al-

liance of British Columbia (SKGABC ), with

Paddle Canada as a Sea Kayak Level 2

Coach and Level 3 Coach aspirant. Kate has

been with the VSKC during training weeks

with Nick Cunliffe in March 2015

I was recently asked for my opin-ion around how we can encouragemore women into the sport of Sea

Kayaking. This has been a topic thathas been circling my awareness forsome time now and as a woman in seakayaking, I feel it deserves some fur-ther investigation. It may be true thatthere are more men participating insea kayaking than women; We see thisrepresented at symposium, in coach-ing demographics and on the water.However, the question itself of howwe might encourage more womeninto sea kayaking, might be missingthe point.

If, for a moment, we set aside thepolarizing aspects of gender and lookat general participation in sea kayak-ing, perhaps we can see more deeplywhy more people don’t get involved in

our wonderful, albeit fringe, sport. Ifyou are a sea kayaker, you can proba-bly identify your motivations for seakayaking – fitness, friendship, com-munity, time in nature/outside, loveof the water, personal challenge, toovercome fears ...

The reasons that we participatein sea kayaking are varied and di-verse, just like our community of pad-dlers. In the same breath, we needto acknowledge the various differentstyles of paddling that people par-ticipate in. From flat water tour-ing in lakes and calm water; to longchallenging expeditions circumnavi-gating continents; rough, adrenalinpacked play around waves, surf and


http://katehives.com

www.skils.ca

www.skils.ca

SKGABC


rivers; technical rolling skills with tra-ditional blades; racing and glide athigh speeds; and so much more . . .we all find a niche within the sportthat suits our needs, hopefully.

This is the point . . . we are diversecommunity of paddlers, with a rangeof motivations for participation in thesport. So what then are the barriersthat inhibit newcomers from joining?I can identify some obvious offenderslike time, money, knowledge and fear,however I will highlight that these af-fect both men and women. (It couldbe argued that it is more challeng-ing for a certain demographic to over-come these challenges, but I’d rather

not go there right now.)

Ok, Kate, so what’s the solutionhere?

With such a mix of paddlers, mo-tivations and challenges how can webuild our community to create astronger more inclusive and unifiedadventure sport?

We are all paddlers, regardless ofwhat kind of waters we like to pad-dle — this needs to be a part of ourdialogue. To be a paddler does notmean you must surf the biggest wavesor roll in 200 different ways; it alsodoesn’t require that you paddle thou-sands of miles around countries. . . itmight mean you paddle around your

local lake. There is room for all kindsof paddlers in this community, weneed to foster acceptance around thisreality.

What this looks like in practiceis clear communication around pad-dling events and excursions. In creat-ing space for a discussion around in-dividual expectations, goals and de-sires, participants can more accu-rately select a paddling partner orgroup that suits their needs. Thisway we don’t scare new paddlers inconditions over their heads and wecan limit frustrations held by pad-dlers waiting at the front of the group,wanting to push harder. There isnothing more important in building astrong, healthy and vibrant commu-nity than clear communication andacceptance of diversity.

My call to action here is to buildacceptance around all genres of pad-dling (from calm water paddles torough water play), to support new-comers to the sport and cultivate clar-ity around expectations on our tripsand events. There is room for a lit-tle bit of everything in this commu-nity, but it requires support from allangles. Love what you do, inspireothers to do what they love.

Bronwyn Skowronski

Do you Leave No Trace?With summer almost here, and thepeak of camping season upon us,let’s review and refresh ourselves withthe principles of ‘Leave no Trace’camping and general outdoor adven-tures. Think about how you go abouttreading and paddling, your goodand bad habits around this, and thebroader picture, so that you might en-courage and educate others to lookingafter our beautiful playground better.

Here’s a few thought provokingprinciples I have either previously gotwrong myself, must keep remindingmyself of, or commonly see others

getting wrong. You can check outthe full list athttp://www.lnt.org.au/programs/7-principles.html

One. Dispose nothing in freshwaterways. No, not even tooth-paste, soap, environmentally friendlydetergents (whatever that is?!), foodscraps, urine, old dishwashing water.Nothing.

Two. Apple cores, banana peelsetc. Yes they are biodegradable, butthey do not belong in the bush. Packthem out.

Three. Don’t leave food lyingopenly obvious, or easily accessible to

animals around campsites and picnicspots, both while you are there, andafter you leave. Wombats, possums,birds learn to frequent these areas,and even become aggressive, some-times destroying bags and tents, intheir pursuit of this learned resourcefor food. People’s food is often harm-ful to wild animals. Currawongs inTasmania have even learnt to unziptent flys and bags to gain trekkersfood!

Four. Don’t burn used toilet paper.Either bury it or carry it out.

Five. Have an attitude of “Leave


http://www.lnt.org.au/programs/7-principles.html

http://www.lnt.org.au/programs/7-principles.html


it better than you found it” when ven-turing outdoors. If you find rubbish,if it’s safe and easy to do so, collect itso it can be disposed of properly.

So?

Remember that the preservation ofour wild playgrounds are dependenton the good habits of every individ-ual. The actions of 100 people, or asingle one, can have a massive nega-tive impact on an ecosystem.

So: Leave only footsteps, Takeonly photos (and other people’s rub-bish).


SeaTrek 84 Club Life

V–tow under sail — Photo: BF

Greg Skowronski

Walkerville Weekend (27–28 June 2015)As part of his path to level 3, Steve Coranised a weekend of paddling downat Walkerville on the weekend of June27-28th. Around a dozen paddlersturned up for the weekend. On Sat-urday the weather conditions werequite pleasant with moderate swelland moderate N-NW winds so the de-cision was made to do a leisurely pad-dle from Walkerville South to CapeLiptrap. Initially the wind was be-hind us as we were paddling south,so we made quick progress towardsour destination. After 3 km we turnedwest so the wind was more offshore.Just after the 5km mark a pod mem-ber felt quite sick and low on en-ergy. So the decision was made to V–tow them back to Walkerville South.Four pod members volunteered to as-sist with the chaperoning duties. Ini-tially myself and Terry B volunteeredto do the towing. We put our sailsup which helped slightly. After a fewkms the decision was made not to doa burial at sea but just yet but keeptowing them back to safety. Bren-don S took over the towing duties andhe and Terry finished the job. Allgood! The rest of the pod kept pad-

dling towards Cape Liptrap but as itturns out they turned back shortly af-ter we left them. Apparently withthe offshore wind and no safe passageclose to shore the decision was madeto turn back for safety reasons. Af-ter we got back a few of us decidedwe haven’t had enough paddling yetso we paddled from Walkerville Southto the nearest reef in search of somesea life. To our surprise we were soonsurrounded by a pod of dolphins andseals playing around so it was wellworth the effort.

A few of us played ...

... around the surf in Warathah Bay – Pho-

tos: BS

On Sunday morning a few of usplayed around in the surf in WaratahBay. The more adventurous oneswere surfing the dumpy surf and therest were just happy to play in thesmaller stuff closer to the shore. Thetide was going out and the waveswere steepening so after about anhour or so we exited the water.

I thought Steve did a great job thatweekend and I do hope he gets hisLevel 3. Good luck!



Fun playing in the waves — Photo BS (Waratah Bay)

Steve Collins

Level 3 Surf AssessmentOcean Grove, 19 September 2015

The surf zone is one of the most dy-namic areas that we as sea kayak-ers paddle in. Whether you enjoyplaying in the surf, or, find it con-fronting and a bit scary, there aretimes when it is unavoidable. For in-stance, a club weekend at Tidal Riverwill pretty well always require thatyou paddle out through small to mod-erate surf, most can manage this, it’scoming back through the surf to landon the beach where capsizes oftenhappen. Flipped over, a wet exit, thelong walk, with your kayak full of wa-ter back to the beach. Sounds famil-iar? It does to me, I have done it somany times in the past, pleased to saynot so often now. Learning to controlyour kayak in surf is an intrinsic el-ement of sea kayaking. Our club of-ten runs training sessions in the surf,and experienced kayakers are alwayshappy to give advice and pointers.Learn and practise in the club envi-ronment, as there are certain rules to

learn to protect yourself and othersfrom injury. Once you have built upsome skills you will feel much moreconfident, and, even find, that play-ing in the surf is loads of fun.

Our grading system requires thatwe have a degree of ability in surf atboth Level 2 and Level 3.The require-ments at Level 3 are, of course, morerigorous. With this in mind, three,of a larger group, of this year’s LevelThree candidates met at Ocean GroveBeach to undertake Level 3 Surf As-sessment. Club instructors John E andGreg M generously gave up their timeto assess whether Helmut H, GerardO and myself each had the skills andability in surf required of a Level 3paddler.

Surfing, rolling, re-enter and roll,surfing backwards, entering and land-ing in surf and organising a group onand off the beach were a few of theskills that we needed to demonstrate.

We started out with a scenariowhere two of us had to lead a group ofintermediate paddlers out to the seethrough some quite moderate surf.

The only catch was a rocky beach withsome shallow rocks above and underwater that required a bit of cautionand good timing. After a successfullaunch we followed the beach east in-side and outside the surf zone, catch-ing the odd wave. The launch thenwas complemented by a surf land-ing scenario, organised by a differ-ent team (well not entirely different,with just three candidates to mix andmatch there are limits). No dramahere as well. This was followed bysome play in the waves, tumblingand bumbling, rocking and rolling,forwards, backwards, intentionally orunintentionally (Helmut kept accus-ing his Epic spinning him on one oc-casion maliciously from a broach intoa fast backward on a pile of bumpywhite stuff — yet another way of surf-ing backwards). The session was fin-ished of with a re-enter and roll foreach of us in the surf zone.

I must say that we all had fun play-ing in the waves, and better still, Johngave each of us pass.



Yet another holdup, what is it this time?

Steve Collins, Helmut Heinze, Gerard Oreilly, Kerry Vogele and Graeme Thompson

Level 3 Assessment WeekendFind below some reflections on the Level 3

Final Assessment weekend that took place

9—11 October 2015 at Port Welshpool and

on the waters around Snake Island, Wilsons

Prom. It should be mentioned to our read-

ers that as much as we wish and as much as

there was to tell we are not able to render a

detailed account of the assessment weekend.

The best stories have to remain untold.

All photos by Terry Barry. — (Ed.)

A challenging weekend

I was not feeling particularly anxious

as I arrived at Port Welshpool for theLevel 3 Assessment weekend, how-ever, as with the other Level 3 candi-dates, I did not sleep particularly wellthat first night, and not much betterthe second.

So, it’s probably fair to say, that,with a certain level of trepidation Ibegan what was to be a challengingweekend, both on and off the wa-ter. From the start, there was defi-nitely a feeling of, them and us, the in-structors and the aspiring candidates.Early on a bond was formed betweenus five candidates, so much so, that I

will forever remember who I did myLevel 3 with, a great bunch of com-rades .As for the instructors, well, theless said the better. They confrontedus with scenario after scenario, andchallenged us in many ways .

Weary and tired we arrived atthe Cattlemen’s Huts on Snake Is-land ,once we had completed a writ-ten exam we were able to relax a lit-tle and reflect on what had been aneventful day. There was more to comethe next day, and then finally we wereback at Port Welshpool.

It was a weekend where I learnt



so much, the instructors, were really,not that bad ,and I thank them forthe time and effort they put into thewhole Level 3 program , it has been agreat experience and I highly recom-mend it to others. And a big thankyou to Kerrie, Graeme, Helmut andGerard.

(Steve Collins)

Weary and tired ...

A fantastic team

At last the Assessment Weekend, theGrand Final of the Level 3 sequencewas on. Actually I had been look-ing forward to this weekend. I ar-rived early at Port Welshpool after achaotic week at work. We had dinnerat the local pub, and then the pres-sure was on. Us, the candidates in onecabin, were sweating about details ofour trips we were to lead; them, theinstructors in the other cabin seem-ingly having a good time, presumablyfine-tuning the mischief they were go-ing to inflict upon us candidates —may their bad conscience haunt themin their sleep, I thought. But itwas me lying awake and having sec-ond thoughts and re-doing tide andferry glide calculations in my minduntil dawn, only briefly nodding ofwith nightmares about mass drown-ings at Singapore Deep in mountain-ous waves. — Saturday morning weloaded the kayaks and readied our-selves for what was to come. Every-body complained about having sleptbadly, some coped better, some worse.

We pushed off on from Port Welsh-pool, taking turns leading assignedlegs of our trip to Snake Island, andonly minutes later we were battingaway all sort of minor and major-made incidents. To be expected, butstill nerve-racking. And when therewas a lull and everything seemed tobe peaceful, you knew something elsewas brewing and you were wonder-ing what it might be. In the after-noon, at last, came the signal thatwe are off scenarios and ready toset up camp. With our last strengthwe pushed and dragged the loadedkayaks up the dunes. Done? No, notyet! A 100 meter swim. Bob undTerry took position in hip-deep wa-ter marking a distance of some (gen-erously inflated) 50 meters, and wehad the pleasure bumbling from oneend to the other and back in what-ever mode our aching and cramp-ing bodies with PFDs, spray decks,trapped air in our clothing could han-dle. Not pretty, best described as truly’freestyle’.

Very ‘free’-style

The rest of the day was just a blurin my memory, my lack of sleep madethe simplest task a challenge. We putup our tents, had a quick coffee andthen sat our written exams until dark-ness, exhaustion, lack of willpower orall three made us and hand in the pa-pers. I got pretty early to the pointwhere I did not care re-checking myanswers and handed in early. Ku-dos to my fellow candidates who keptworking with a head torch after dark-

ness. — Sunday was pretty mucha continuation of Saturday’s work.More legs to paddle, other leaders,other disasters, other stuff-ups. I hada bit more sleep, was feeling muchbetter than on the day before but wasstill sluggish and made too many un-forced errors.

In the end I was disappointed withmy performance. It’s easy to blamethe circumstances such as lack ofsleep but the whole idea is prove thatone can still navigate, keep a grouptogether, make the right decisions andperform rescues under duress. Thisway, the assessment weekend dou-bled as invaluable training days. Theweather and the sea had been verypleasant and did not pose any chal-lenge paddling-wise, but is was an in-teresting experience to see how thingsstart falling apart (at least for me) un-der stress.

All in all it was a tough but fan-tastic weekend. Big thanks to the in-structors who put in their time and ex-hausted themselves (almost) as muchas us candidates. My fondest mem-ory however of this weekend wasthe spirit of solidarity and coopera-tion among us candidates. A fantasticteam we were!

(Helmut Heinze)

Testing times

The Assessment Weekend seemed likeages away from the Level 3 Intake, itcrept up on me. Nervous, am I upto this? Meet and greet at the PortWelshpool pub on a Friday night, a bitof navigation to be done that night,Saturday on the water.

The Saturday would be a gruellingday scenarios to face the prospec-tive trip leaders, group reflections andself-assessments. Saturday’s paddlingended on a beach at low tide in frontof the Cattlemen’s Huts, Snake Island.The last boat is lifted well above thehigh water mark, legs straining, willthere be a cardiac arrest? What an ac-tion packed day, relax at last! Just onemore hurdle this day, an exam to bedone as the sun sets. Soon we wouldbe using head torches to finish, there’s



that question again; how fast will thegroup paddle? I’ll get that one right!Finally time to light up the Trangia,relax and talk about the day’s events.

Soon we would be using head torches ...

Sunday back on the water and ademonstration of how quickly thingscan unravel. Finally the home stretchto Port Welshpool.

What an action packed weekendand great experience. The group dis-cussions and feedback, priceless. Af-ter a de-brief from the instructor’sgroup everyone split to go their sepa-rate ways. This feedback from each ofthe instructors was most valued andwill be reflected upon for a long time.Thanks to all, level 3 candidates andthe instructor group for a great learn-ing experience.

(Gerard OReilly)

Nothing is as good as getting outthere and experiencing it

Wow . . . it’s over . . . an intake week-end, six months of training to impoveskills and prepare for the unknown,a mentored paddle, a surf assessmentand now the final assessment week-end . . . all done. Now that the nerveshave settled, the muscles aren’t quiteso sore and feeling has returned to

numb extremeties we can look backand, almost, laugh about the Level 3assessment weekend.

After a (sort of) relaxing drivefrom the beautiful south coast of NSWwe arrived at Port Welshpool and, be-ing first, claimed what was apparentlythe best cabin . . . not a good wayto gain favour with the instructors . . .really, we were just going where thereceptionist told us . . . honestly.

A ‘nice’ room (well, a bed at least),a walk along the waterfront, a cou-ple of quiet drinks, a meal at the pub. . . this weekend might be alright af-ter all, we thought!! Well, a coupleof hours later, after we had been in-vited into the hallowed cabin of theinstructors and briefed on our mis-sion for the weekend, that thoughthad certainly disappeared. The bestthought though was knowing all fiveof us were in this together and thatwe would be working as a team to getthough the next two days.

There was no turning back now.Two days of paddle skills, safety, firstaid, leadership, navigation, swim-ming and camping — all testedthrough carefully planned scenarios.Some would say the instructors tookway too much delight in thinking upthese challenges!!

Two days of paddle skills, safety, first aid ...

... leadership, navigation, swimming and

camping

Yes, it is over and yes, it was tough. . . would we recommend this toothers? Most definitely. It is a fan-tastic learning experience and, whilstyou can read all the theory, study themarine charts, buy navigation books,watch YouTube first aid clips and per-form calculations on paper, nothing isas good as getting out there and expe-riencing it.

Oh . . . and yes, we do havevery fond memories and lots of laughsfrom the weekend.

A big thank you to our fellow can-didates and especially to our instruc-tors who certainly put it all on the linefor us.

(Kerry Vogele & Graeme Thomp-son)



On—In—Under at Waratah Bay — By Bronwyn Skowronski


Navigation Tools and Rules - Victorian Sea Kayak Club

Documents

Transcript of Navigation Tools and Rules - Victorian Sea Kayak Club