----- Original Message ----- From: <JCMARTIN43_at_aol.com> > While we design our own personal color schemes and frequencies of flashing > lights, maybe it would be worth visiting the idea that staying well clear of > shipping lanes while in kayaks is another viable alternative. That's days, > too. We are tiny, tiny targets out there, folks. I've flown for hours in > Ralph's environment --- the brightly lit night sky of New York --- with both > Coast Guard and Navy SAR aircraft, and it's really, really hard to see big > things like Whalers and larger cruising boats, especially at night (although > night does tend to cut down on some visual clutter, assuming a foundering > vessel still has lights or radios). We are not visible, as low in the water > as we are, and radar is totally useless unless we're carrying an effective > reflector on a mast Jack is so right on this for both day and night paddling. I have thought both long and hard as well as written extensively on dealing with traffic for my newsletter (based on the assumption that folding kayakers are often urban paddlers, ergo, have a need to know how to behave around big boats). I even have a presentation on it that doesn't seem to have any takers (I've given it once or twice in a less than ideal setting) among symposium organizers. In my writing I came up with the 10 Commandments of Paddling In Traffic. Commandment One was to do every thing you can to be visible. Commandment Two was to assume that you are invisible no matter what you did to fulfill the first commandment! Beyond that, your greatest safety lies in knowing traffic patterns and being able to read where a boat is going vis-a-vis your own course; that old angle-of-bow test. This can be tricky but is highly doable. Here in NYC a big problem are the ferries. Our ferry company, New York Waterways, is constantly adding new routes and new terminals (some are small and inconspicious). So if you see a ferry in your vicinity you don't aways have a sure idea of where it will go in relation to you. At times, some kayakers have been sitting out a ferry's passage only to find that they are in its path because over the winter a new ferry slip has been created! This happened in a comical standoff between one local paddler and the tourist ferry that goes to the Statue and Ellis Island. But even if you stay on the edges and don't cross the harbor or Hudson River, you still need to be careful. Ships move out of slips all along the edges from marinas, ferry terminals, and just sightseeing small motorboats hopscotching in among piers along Manhattan's shoreline. You get little or no warning that something is pulling out. An example is the Staten Island ferry, which is a high pier post slip where you can't see it. It fills that slip. When the ferry pulls out, it gives its whistle toot as it stern passes the end pier posts; i.e. it is already in the channel when you hear the sound! At that point, it would be too late for any small vessel such as a kayak or small cabin cruiser to avoid contact. You proceed past those spots with extreme caution giving the terminal a wide berth after doing some mental calculations about the ferry's schedule frequency. One other local effort, other than the lights pilot program, is an attempt to mark the charts with arc circles denoting those alert zones in front of ferry slips and the like. If we can get this all together, we will have a chart marked with these (and ferry routes, etc.). Chart and map making by the government is now electronically generated and it is so easy for them to put such overlays on in new map/charts and even to get extensive statements about traffic into the white space at the bottom of the charts. In traffic paddling, you are as safe as your awareness, vigilence and savvy. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Mar 12 2001 - 09:58:42 PST
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