I think the adage "Don't paddle any further any further offshore than you're willing to swim." is useful in making people consider seriously where they're paddling, and whether they should, and to encourage them to prepare properly for the possibility of losing their boat, but that it shouldn't be taken too literally; after all, any boat, no matter how big, can be sunk by some combination of water and weather, and sailors certainly take those boats much further offshore than they would choose to swim. (There's an equivalent saying with ultra-light planes and gliders - "Don't fly any higher than you're willing to fall." -- yet I see folks soaring thousands of feet into the air. But maybe they just bounce better than I would.) I'll forgo the obvious ribbing of the good Reverend who originally posted the query (that if he was really up to speed in his vocation, he wouldn't need to bother with rolls, paddlefloats, or for that matter, kayaks - he could just walk across the water to wherever he's going:-) To second what others have said about paddling on North America's west coast vs. the east coast: especially on the outer coast (west side of Vancouver Island, and the unsheltered shore north of Vancouver Island) you can find "boomers" miles offshore. Boomers are submarine rocks and reefs, whose presence is not apparent most of the time, but which can "trip" especially high swells into fatal breaking waves. Whether or not a rock is a boomer depends on the height of the swell, the wind speed, and the height of the tide, so what was a boomer-free zone one day may not be the next. If you've ever had the very spooky experience of being far offshore on a calm day, with large but smooth swells sliding hypnotically beneath you, only to have what appears to be a salvo of artillery shells explode just off your beam, you'll know why they're called boomers. I may very well paddle two nautical miles or more out to sea if the chart shows such rocks. I enter "danger waypoints" in my GPS, and mark "danger compass bearings" relative to prominent landmarks on my charts for especially insidious-looking rocks and reefs. As for the furthest offshore I usually go: the longest crossing I've done "routinely" is Georgia Straight (the channel between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island). The course leg length is about thirteen and a half nautical miles, but it's not at direct right angles to the shores, so I would guesstimate that the furthest offshore I get is about six nautical miles, before I pass the "point of no return". Some people complain that long crossings are boring - but, trust me, boring is good; boring is very good when you're far from any boltholes. Much better than "exciting". So I always check the extended weather forecasts, watch my barometer, and listen carefully to the pitch of my weather frog's peeps before setting out to sea on such a crossing. Cheers, Philip N49°16' W123°08' *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Philip Torrens wrote: > > I think the adage "Don't paddle any further any further offshore than you're > willing to swim." is useful in making people consider seriously where > they're paddling, and whether they should, and to encourage them to prepare > properly for the possibility of losing their boat, but that it shouldn't be > taken too literally; after all, any boat, no matter how big, can be sunk by > some combination of water and weather, and sailors certainly take those > boats much further offshore than they would choose to swim. [big snip] Philip's post certainly struck a responsive chord with me. I've been out of town for a week (more on that later -- it was a nice trip), so I missed responding to the original poster. To some extent, this is a question with no fixed answer. Sometimes it is safer to paddle a substantial distance from land (to avoid tide rips off points, near-shore clusters of boomers, etc.). OTOH, no one advocates paddling so far from shore that you could not return to a safe harbor (campsite) for your evening rest. (Excluding Art Hebert and others bound for long-distance journeys.) I guess my bottom line is that the nature and number of near-shore hazards should be the biggest determinant. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Its Sea kayaking... the point is to get as close as conditions allow. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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