Re: [Paddlewise] New Year's Paddle

Chuck Holst wrote:

> One last note: East Greenland paddles typically have bone
> tips that are wider than the blades. One speculation has
> been that this makes it possible for a kayaker to hook onto
> an ice floe. As an experiment, I put similar tips made of
> UHMW (ultra-high molecular weight) polyethylene on the
> West Greenland paddle I used New Year's Day. I tried
> hooking onto the inch-thick cakes of ice floating in the river,
> but the ice edge was so rounded that the paddle tips slipped
> right off. (Maybe I need real whalebone.)

[long winded story about ice floe paddling]

I paddled on Jan 1 1998 with some folks in Windsor ON on
the Detroit river.  This was an annual event for them and some
paddlers had considerable experience with paddling in ice
infested waters.  One fellow had a pair of Philips screwdrivers
under the bungies on his fore deck.  He had drilled holes in the
tops of the handles and ran lines through them.  The other end
of the line was tied to a snap hook that was hooked to the bungies.

One paddler went over and lost his paddle in the process.  When
we got to him, he was hanging on a tad hypothermic (cotton sweat
suit, wind breaker - left his wet suit at home because he thought it
would be a nice day [+3C, wind chill about -5C]).   We got him into
his kayak and tried to pump it out.  His built-in pump had fouled with
a line he had on the floor of the cockpit.  By them we had blown over
to Peche Island and decided to go ashore there and get him into
dry clothes (between the two of us - his rescuers - we had a complete
set of dry clothes, hot tea, emergency blankets, a tarp etc.).  The island
was surrounded by an ice sheet about 10-15 metres out from the
shore.  We drifted into a little bay out of the wind and did a seal
landing onto the ice.

This is where I found out what the screwdrivers were for.  The leader
paddled full speed onto the ice, whereupon he tossed his tethered
paddle onto the ice, grabbed his screwdrivers and used them as
picks to drag himself up onto the ice.  Once secure, he towed me onto
the ice and I towed the soaked paddler up.  We got him to dry land
and into dry clothes. The ice was thin and quite a jumble of rafted
pieces about 3 cm thick.  I went through a few times, usually up to my
mid calf of one leg.  Once I went through with both legs to mid thigh.
My layers of wet suit, neoprene socks and reef boots kept the water
out and I only got a tad damp.  My mistake was leaving the kayak and
walking to shore - next time I'd use the kayak as a sort of sled and take
it all the way to shore.

The fellow was taken away by other paddlers who had borrowed an
ice canoe (used for ice racing in the Quebec Winter Carnival) from
Steve Lutsch of Shining Waters.  The oars of this canoe (it's really
a kind of double ended row boat in spite of its name) had spikes on
them and they could pull right up onto the ice.  They dragged the
canoe to shore, put the paddler in and rowed back to Windsor, with
his kayak in tow.  We intended to paddle close behind, since we
expected the towed kayak to capsize and wanted to assist.  We
couldn't keep up to the six oarsman going full tilt into the wind,
however.  The now dry paddler had a full recovery with no problems.
We were the heroes of the after paddle party.

So  -  Philips screwdrivers - that's the key!

PS - The biggest problem I had that day was with frazile ice.  Frazile
ice is the fine crystals that form before an ice sheet congeals.  It's
a bit like paddling in a thin Slurpie.  I found that it made turning
very difficult.



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