[Paddlewise] ice

Hi Mike, et all,

My comments follow below.  I'm kind of surprised really that I haven't taken a
real flaming on this one, considering the PaddleWise venue that it was posted
to.  Guess everyone is thinking about warm Cuban crossings and such.  :-)

Michael Vandamm wrote:

> On January 2 Vince Dalrymple wrote:
>
> "Spent last Saturday knuckling my way across a couple hundred yards of sea ice
> against 25~30 mph. (locally higher??) head winds.
> >Ice of every variety:
> >slick "floes" (on which the Anas would spin like a weather vane as it would
> be
> >slid backwards by the winds - only purchase to be had being the ice ridges
> >between the "floes"),
> >slick to crusty textured ice (still ~ 4" thick and impossible to break
> >through with my "basher" spare paddle),
> >softening crusty ice on which the Anas would slowly sink into place if
> stopped
> >for a break (had to mix knuckling with separate paddle halves as makeshift
> >ice axes to achieve forward progress),
> >and rind ice (?) where the wave action could be clearly seen throughout (fun
> >stuff - always felt safe and stable, even rotated backwards trying to put the
>
> >spare halves away or moving through to achieve the open water beyond).
> >As working my way out to open water cost me about an hour to hour and a
> >half, considerable skin off my knuckles under a new pair of NRS Reactor
> Gloves
> >(worked flawlessly - no connection to the co., yada, yada), and about 50 % of
> my
> >strength reserves, my much anticipated lee shore paddling in the short, fast,
>
> >piled up 3' chop was cut very short, about 20~30 minutes and another 10 %
> >or so of my strength.  Slid back across the ice to the put in in another
> 20~30
> >minutes with 40 % of my strength still intact.  Oh, and none of my regular
> end of
> >paddle rolling this trip - being solo.
>
> Vince, If I had any regrets about not joining you on Saturday, they vanished
> when I read your story. And I was deterred merely by the weather forecast
> (temperature around the freezing mark, wind 25-35 knots), without
> considering possible ice conditions!

Understandable.  I doubt I would have "allowed" any other paddlers (you, Jim, or
Greg) to go out there with me at that time due to the conditions.  Would've let
it go as a deterrent to anyone else toying with the idea and suggested a change
of venue to the (mostly ice free) Western Shore.  Only reason I did it was
because I was solo.  With a makeshift bow painter looped to the deck bungees in
a quick knot (easily untied with the heavy gloves on), I flatly turned down an
offer from a stranger on shore to "help (tow) me out."  With all the boats in
the area being penned in by ice, I knew before hand that I was completely on my
own and thus left the VHF in the car.  It was one those paddles to "help clear
the cobwebs out", though.  You know the kind, Mike.  And I'm absolutely positive
there are others on this list to which it would apply, too.
Hopefully I didn't come off crowing about it as much as offering some first hand
knowledge of some very interesting conditions which most here have not seen,
will not try, but are curious about none the less.

> Launching in those conditions strikes me as taking a life-threatening risk,
> especially going out solo. It's a whole lot easier to seal launch off ice
> into open water than to do the reverse.

Agreed, and thus scouted the outside "edge" to see if it could be re-entered.
If there had been any firm ledge visible (such as the case is with fresh water),
I would not have tried it for exactly the reason you stated.

> How did you climb back from the
> water onto the ice in your kayak(even if it is an Anas)?

The slushy ice bits congregated together enough on the outside to keep the high
chop from breaking any further, thus becoming a frozen swell.  I could still
maneuver in this fairly easily.

Closer in it all became kind of a slushy mixture where even the swell slowly
dissipated.  Maneuvering in this area was much more difficult - basically just
forward and reverse with a few degrees leeway if pushed for.  Paddle still going
all the way through freely, but could certainly tell it was there.  I guess if I
really tried, I may have been able to partially plane the boat through this area
with a heavy duty paddle (real solid blades).

Eventually this gradually hardened up to the point where the kayak was planed
more or less out of the water at my slow speed, but it would immediately sink
down (with the surrounding ice) to a degree if I stopped (which I did at one
point for a break).

> Do you think you could do it again reliably, say ten times out of ten?

One hundred times out of one hundred in identical conditions.
Like I stated, Mike, - No ledge.

> Even in a short, whitewater boat, with room on the water to build up full
> speed, I have only
> been able to bring off the move occasionally, when the ice is just so.

I guess if I was faced with that prospect, I'd try a full layback as I hit the
edge, still under full power, but would be somewhat afraid of the ice breaking
further in (denying any chance of climbing up onto it), while possibly glancing
the boat off sideways - which, given the forward momentum of the boat, could
broach it to the ice edge while forcing a chine up, thus creating a capsize
scenario in line with the ice edge.  Bad news for the paddler - especially if he
(I won't put she since they always seem to exhibit more common sense :-) doesn't
have an off side roll and his on side is under the ice. = 8-O

> In the conditions which you describe, it's easy to find oneself afloat,
> completely surrounded by ice and unable to paddle. I have never been able to
> generate significant thrust with hands and or paddle on the top surface of
> the ice, and if I'm "lucky" enough to find a gap in the ice to start a
> paddle stroke, withdrawing the blade can cause me to pry on the underside of
> the ice, destabilizing the boat. The last resort, I guess, is to wait until
> shifting currents or a change in wind direction breaks up the ice. But
> that's not what I call recreation.

My "ace in the hole" which unfortunately went unmentioned throughout the
original post, was that I was never more than 8' away from the frozen rip rap
the whole way out to the loose rind ice area (and used the same route back),
except for a short stretch between the beach and the rip rap.  If I broke
through and dumped, It would have been possible to climb my way up the rip rap
and out, then use the bow painter to retrieve the bow and drag it over the ice
(after emptying) back to the beach via the rip rap.  It's large enough stone to
wedge feet in but small and angular enough to wrap fingers over or arms around.
And the rip rap extended out beyond the ice into open water.
The biggest reason I paddled the bridge (straight upwind from the water launch
point) was to set up a drift pattern which would land me against all that rock
rather than along the ice.  Of secondary benefit was the fact that the bridge
pilings and rip rap point had the piled up waves just hopping mad with
clapotis.  There were no wave sets or trains there, just semi frozen chaos.  :-)

> My rule for kayaking in the vicinity of ice is to give it a wide berth if at
> all possible. Ice is way too dangerous a playground for me in a kayak.

Ice is a very dangerous place, and so are rock gardens in breaking surf, and
crossing major shipping channels in the fog, and . . .

> I'm glad you made it back with no more damage than scraped knuckles.

Same here.

> For Pete's sake, stay safe. I can't afford any inventory shrinkage in the
> paddling partner department.

> Mike Vandamm

Point understood, Mike.  Just one of those paddles I felt I needed to do for me.

"All work and no play makes Vince a naughty boy."
"All work and no play makes Vince a naughty boy."
"All work and no play makes Vince a naughty boy."
"All work and no play makes Vince a nau              "

Vince

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