When it is necessary to stake out in the sand a line that will be under a lot of tension such as one holding up a fly, I usually use a deadman - a stake turned sideways and buried about 16" with the line running through a hole drilled in the middle of an aluminum stake that is itself "T" shaped in crossection. I've tried wide sand hog type stakes and found them to be quite heavy and less secure against pulling out. Lighter "sand stakes" are made and work well for just staking out a tent. Being able to keep sand out of the tent and cooking area has become pretty easy with the use of a designated tarp to unload gear onto just at the entrance to the tent. That tarp with its corners weighted down then becomes a sand free area for cooking etc. At the front of the tent ( or side of the tarp) goes a collapsible fabric "washbasin" half full of water to dip feet into before entering the tent or treading on the sand free sanctum. Folks I've paddled with have extended the sand free concept to include walkways between tents or to a boat. It makes for an easy effective way to keep grit out of gear. When cooking it is sometimes useful to have one person designated as "clean" and another as the sandy "gopher" to facilitate the fetching of things to the cooking area. I have been accused of being anal re. my avoidance of sand but: It's good to keep your cockpit covered to keep out blown sand.(But be sure to leave no foodlike stuff in the cockpit lest small rodents eat through your cokpit cover to get at it.) It is good to wipe out the inside of your cockpit with a damp sponge before paddling to get out any stray grains that might abrade your knees, thihgs, lower back ... It is useful to have a freestanding tent that can be "shook out " when breaking camp to rid it of sand before packing up. It is useful to get back in the dunes if possible to avoid auditory and tactile overload from the wind. Let there be no hint of sand in the ferrule area of a break down paddle when it's assembled - a wash of the connecting surfaces in the water before assembly suffices. Larry Koenig *************************************************************************** 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 Jan 01 1999 - 19:28:55 PST
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