[Paddlewise] floating campsites

Hey Folks,

Ealier this summer, I spent a week paddling around Santa Cruz Island with
my parents powerboat as a base camp. I sincerely apologize for not giving
a trip report, although I could de a belated one if asked. I was lucky to
have my parents boat to sleep on, since 3/4 of the island is off limits to
camping; and so I was able to see an area that relatively few kayakers get
to see, including the painted cave. It was so incredibly beautiful that I
was already thinking about a circumnavigation around the island next
summer -- that is until I learned about the no-camping rule from Harold at
Southwind (a paddlewise denzien btw).

Now here is where I want to make use of a rarely explicitly discussed
but extremely useful characteristic of the Paddlewise list. Namely, to
post the kernel of a half-formed good idea, and let it be melted down by
the so called "crucible of experts" who reside in Paddlewise-land, until
that idea is either refined enough to be completely viable in practice, or
exposed to be completely ludicrous.

So here's my idea: To take an inflatable K-mart special raft for the
express purpose of anchoring the raft in 10-15' feet of water in the
multitude of nice sandy-bottomed and protected-from-weather coves that
litter the coast of Santa Cruz -- and then sleeping thereupon, in a bivvy
sack of course. The raft would be deflated and stored in the hold of the
kayak during the day, and it would probably have to be relatively dry in
the 1-2 feet of wind chop that often enter the coves at night.

So what do you think? Does such a raft exist that might hold my 6'2" body
comfortably, while not taking up too much space in the hold? Is this a
good idea to avoid lawless poaching of campsites?

Cheers,
kevin

                         -------------------------------
                         |        Kevin Whilden         |
                         |     kwhilden_at_seanet.com      |
                         |   Kayak Academy Instructor   |
                         | http://www.halcyon.com/kayak |
                         -------------------------------

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