Speaking of flare stories, sometimes things go wrong even when you are doing the testing according to Hoyle. About a half dozen years ago, I went out into the middle of Jamaica Bay, which is a large shallow body of water bordered by Brooklyn and parts of Queens. You usually fly over it if you have ever landed at JFK airport. We were a small group of people who had earlier heard a good talk on some boating items such as marine radios, GPSs and signalling devices. This was our field day. The guy organizing the talk was in the marine electronics business and had managed to get a wide assortment of legally out-of-date flares of all types (pistol, skyblazers, parachute, etc.) and smoke cannisters of various types and sizes as well as dye markers. Our intention was to paddle out a ways into the bay and shoot off a number of these things. To make certain that we would not get the Coast Guard alarmed, he applied for and got a license to do all these pyro-technics...it is something you can file that alerts the Coast Guard, an events permit, that at a certain date and time at such and such coordinates, some flare and smoke demonstration would occur. Well, we went out and started the demonstration. A few people happened to have their marine radios turned on for monitoring. As soon as we started, all hell broke loose on the airwaves. Motorboaters were calling in frantic messages about boats in distress. Pilots in planes landing and taking off from JFK airport chymed in. In short order, a Coast Guard patrol boat, a zodiak type, came out to see what was all the commotion. Our leader indicated that the Coast Guard had been alerted a week before and had the written permit to prove it. Where was it? Oops he forgot and left it back at the clubhouse. So, he gets out of his kayak, which we hang on to, and gets motored back to the clubhouse by the Coast Guard to get the permit. We hang around and they return in about a half hour. It seems the Coast Guard filed the notice but didn't alert its crews and station people about it. Now every thing was kosher. The Coast Guard patrol boat stayed with us as we fired away with everything we had to our hearts content. Of all the signals, the most impressive was the smoke. It billowed in huge clouds of either orange or red. And even though the wind was blowing at about 10-15 knots the smoke did not dissolve. It blow down range in a long tight column that any rescuer could have easily followed to its source. The skyblazers were pretty useless (I still carry some) as the lightup time was measured in a handful of seconds. Parachute flares were the best with lots of lightup time and great elevation. Conditions were pretty calm and so it was easy to set off all of the stuff. I don't think anyone felt uneasy about doing it. The important thing though was to be sure to hold any of the stuff with its bottom away from the boat and with the least amount of you under it. Some flares leaked a bit and you would not have wanted the burning stuff on your boat or clothing. It was out-of-date stuff however and that may have accounted for it. We must have blown away about $500 of stuff, which would have been prohibitedly expensive practice if it were not donated outdated items. ralph -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Dec 18 1998 - 09:59:42 PST
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