Re: [Paddlewise] Beach Camping

In a message dated 12/28/1998 8:05:43 PM EST, MichaelN_at_cycat.com writes:

<< Remember to tie up your kayak.
 How many stories have we heard of people waking up and finding
 their kayak gone?
 
 As Sinbad would say, "Trust in Allah, but tie your kayak." (sic)
 
 If you are going to the ends of the Earth, you might also want to
 take a pair of earplugs. After a day or two of listening to a screaming
 wind a break can be very nice. :-))
 
 michael >>

Tying up one's boat is so fundamental that we sometimes take it that all know
this.  A grounded boat is NOT tied!

This reminds me of a duck hunting trip one day.  When my two hunting buddies
and I returned to where our 16 foot flat bottomed boat was pulled up on the
salt grass AND anchored, another hunter was there waiting.

As we approached, he asked if I could take him to get his boat.  Thinking he
had walked quite a ways from it hunting (salt marsh grass makes easy walking
with teh lay, but tough against it) I said sure, where is it?  He pointed
across the lake about a mile across and said over there I think the wind blew
it away.

I inwardly laughed to myself and agreed to take him while my partners waited.
There was not enough room for all four of us in teh boat.  As I got ready to
relaunch my boat, I went to retreive the anchor about 30 feet into teh grass.
He asked me "what is that for?"    I told him "to keep MY boat from floating
away!"  Duhhhhhhhh!  Some people never learn.

Always TIE your boat.  If you ever canoe or raft teh lower canyons of the Rio
Grande between Texas adn Mexico, at night tie your boats with at least 60 feet
of rope adn tie it to a rock UP the canyon wall.  A thunderstorm hundreds of
miles away can dmp enough water to run down the side canyons from a hundred
miles away.  You will never know it, but during the night you will awaken with
just enough time to grab sleeping bag and haul ass up the rocks of the canyon
wall to save your own sleepy but now wide awake butt.  Never mind enough time
to retrieve canoes up there also.  They will survive at the end of their
tether.

Tie your boat and tie it well.  Good is not enough.

John LeBlanc


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