Just wanted to let everyone know that I had an extremely pleasant day trip with a fellow Paddlewiser yesterday. About 10 days ago, Alex Ferguson from New Zealand, posted a message that he was coming to the Los Angeles Area and was interested in paddling. To make a long story short, a friend of mine had organized a paddle from one of the local harbors to one of the off shore oil drilling platforms and back. All in all about a 7.5 NM trip. Thirteen paddlers (members of California Kayak Friends and/or Santa Barbara Kayak Association) in 12 boats set out from the harbor at about 9:00 AM. Alex was paddling a SOT (for the first time) that I loaned him and was surprised that it wasn't quite as fast as the boat he usually paddles. Upon arriving at the platform, we noticed some Sea Lions lounging on a mooring buoy for the tender ship. One of the sea lions had a festering wound around it's neck from fishing line. We called the Coast Guard on VHF and one of our group was a veterinarian and he discussed with them and later seal rescue how badly the seal was injured. My GPS proved valuable because the CG needed the longitude and latitude of the platform (it is marked on the charts!!). On the way back to the harbor, the swells were coming from behind and Alex kept trying to surf them in. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the loaned boat moving quick enough to catch them. I guess that's what happens when you are paddling a strange boat. As we entered the harbor, a zodiac full of teenagers saw us and opened the throttle all the way and tried to make a high speed run between each of the kayaks. The idiot driving was laughing and the girls on board were all screaming. Our veterinarian in the group also happens to be a retired deputy sheriff. He placed a call on the VHF to the Ventura County Sheriff and one of their boats met us. After we got off the water, we all went to a local sandwich shop and while we were eating, watched the zodiac, VERY SLOWLY return to the harbor. Mission accomplished. We then sat and talked with Alex for several hours about his trips in New Zealand and ours in Calif. All in all it was a great day. Now I can't wait to go to NZ and borrow one of Alex's boats. Steve Holtzman *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 05:04 pm 17/07/00 -0700, Steve wrote: >Just wanted to let everyone know that I had an extremely pleasant day trip >with a fellow Paddlewiser yesterday. Thank you Steve. >About 10 days ago, Alex Ferguson from New Zealand, posted a message that he >was coming to the Los Angeles Area and was interested in paddling. > >a friend of mine had organized a paddle from one >of the local harbors to one of the off shore oil drilling platforms and back. > >Alex was paddling a SOT (for the first time) that I loaned him and was >surprised that it wasn't quite as fast as the boat he usually paddles. Well not actually surprised, I'd been warned about the boat's dimensions. It did feel like I could go for a walk round the boat at sea if I'd wanted to!!! One interesting thing, I was seated next to a Swing SOT owner on the flight over (from NZ) and at the time didn't know that that was the model I'd be paddling - small world. > My GPS proved valuable because the CG needed the >longitude and latitude of the platform (it is marked on the charts!!). If nothing else, we were navigationally well equipped (I even had a compass tucked away somewhere). >On the way back to the harbor, the swells were coming from behind and Alex >kept trying to surf them in. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the loaned boat >moving quick enough to catch them. They were mainly too flat for that weight of boat (my own boat would be about a third of the weight). I just got one wave to just give a very short run - probably un-noticed as I headed for the lumpier bit on the way round the end of the breakwater. > I guess that's what happens when you are paddling a strange boat. ANY boat at least gets one out on the water.... >We then sat and talked with Alex for several hours about his trips in New >Zealand and ours in Calif. And ate lunch in the sun - it's scattered cloud and almost 50 F here in NZ today... I had photos of NZ paddling areas with me - Abel Tasman, Marlborough Sounds, D'Urville Island, Milford Sound..... >All in all it was a great day. Now I can't wait to go to NZ and borrow one of >Alex's boats. At the rate of dollar exchange, I'll be surprised if all the USA paddlers aren't here this coming summer !!!!! From an NZ perspective it was an interesting paddle - preparation, the boats used, the sea conditions (OK, they can change from day to day and it was fairly flat), other traffic, the distances to get anywhere (before paddling), and all the other differences between NZ and USA plus the changes since I was last there. Alex . . Alex (Sandy) Ferguson Chemistry Department University of Canterbury New Zealand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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