Doug said: >>BTW, I have had some fun, uneventful crossings too! Wanna go Duane? >> Duane said: <snip> >I'd like to come up there and do a crossing with you someday, possible during a symposium a couple years down the road.> <snip> I should mention that the crossing over to the US side is the easy one, its the one back to Canuck Land that people blow. The Canoe Club, more often than not, winds up at the "Race" too (they paddle at 6 knots with 10 people with a change-over crew), and the escort military boat has had to fish them out of trouble a few times. Like the Storm Island area, Juan de Fuca has an ebb bias too (no where near as much), that throws a curve to the best. And the club blows it, despite all the new stuff available that we didn't have two decades ago, like GPS, current atlases, etc. I don't feel too bad about missing my mark. BTW, I really did love my mother, just not flee markets! As far as macho, well, perhaps. Don Diamond is one of _the_ consummate paddlers on this list, and says he finds a spiritual context to long crossings as well as a defining purpose in his life to undertaking them, moving on to the next subsequent challenge - of course, he only paddles on lakes! (I'm just joking, guys, lakes can be difficult!). Just to prolong this post interminably, I should say that I didn't have communication equipment in those early days, no weather radio, and no poly gear, etc. My roll was not entirely reliable and most of us had little in the way of self-rescue techniques. You lived by your boat handling skills, and how well you outfitted your kayak for control. We really did kayak by the seat of our pants. I just don't think newer paddlers to the sport realize how much more gear, comfort, options, safety equipment, and information we have nowadays. This isn't profound or anything - just meant to remind us to be grateful for how much better off we are now. There were less crowds out there though, but I better not "go there" again! BC'in Ya Doug Lloyd (Squeezed that one dry, eh?) BC'in Ya Doug Lloyd *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Jan 21 2000 - 21:23:44 PST
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