[Paddlewise] Kiwis Who Did

Here's a quick report on the two Kiwi lads. It's just a quick, unedited
post by a tired old guy.

Last Monday (a week ago), the Irwin brothers, Garth and Kevin, returned
to the exact beach from where they had departed last April. I would have
liked to have joined them for the last day or two (Gordin and others
were able to join them toward the end), but I had some ongoing issues
with my leg graft.

One of the local TV stations showed up while the champagne flowed (or
was that sprayed -- way to go, Gordin). Three years in the planning, the
two brothers had finally set off and now had finished their dream trip -
to paddle to Alaska (Anchorage, I believe) from Victoria, and back,
non-stop. I was able to add a few words to the news cast after the two
smelly guys were interviewed, crediting the brothers for careful
preparation, execution, and the mental strength to do such a trip.

As it turned out, they both enjoyed fairly moderate seas, especially in
the muchly anticipated, but calmer than expected, outside Alaskan
waters. Seas got up to 20 feet in Alaska at times however, and then
slowly dwindled down to 3 feet after Tofino. Only one day, on northern
Calvert Island (just above Vancouver Island) did they run into problems
after exiting a surge channel -- before they realized how rough it was
(and thankfully did not head down the west side of Calvert). It was
touch-and-go getting back in, but they just managed.

Other than that, they had a spot of difficulty on the leg from Port
Hardy to Tofino, when a lady from our club joined them for three weeks.
They were kind of used to their way of doing things by then, and so
found there were some nifty tensions develop. Rushed one day to depart,
for example, one of the lads left his fuel bottle behind. The other went
back for it later in the day, while the other brother and guest went on
to a different beach further down the coast. A freak bear encounter,
rough seas, and lots of afternoon wind meant the other brother was
delayed from rejoining his partner and the clubby. A PAN-PAN was issued
by the concerned brother who had heard nothing back on the radio, as the
held-up brother was in a radio dead-spot. The Coast Guard (Rescue
Coordination Ctr) made a decision to start a search, and found the
wayward brother at Raft Cove, safely ensconced. The Coasties wouldn't
land their Zodiac in the surf, and there was lots of shouting from the
sea and seashore. Fortunately, weather conditions prevented the military
from getting involved (expensive) and all was stood-down by late
afternoon.

I phoned the lady from our club (inquisitive, ain't I, not to mention a
few other things?) to get her side of the story, and all the other
stories/difficulties - like some of the problems the group encountered
agreeing on how to round Estaven headland in the boomers, and an
interesting story about rafting up and some light-emergency, downwind
raft-sailing to Hot Springs Cove.
I somewhat sided with the female paddler in the end: anyone who invites
a paddler (like her) along, in the end, has to default to the newer, and
weaker link (I've found that out the hard way). And, where an individual
has a different agenda, or way of handling headlands, or inability in
heavy whitecaps/ boomers, there needs to be a whole lot of communication
going on before the difficulties arise. In a sense, group decision
making and on-water communication (as well as off-water) are just as
much a necessary and important skill as navigation and boat-handling,
etc. And, assumptions, mind-reading, etc., have no place on the open
sea. In the end, they all hopefully learned some valuable lesson in
group dynamics. In that sense, the trip (and portion of difficulty
described here) was a success in my estimation.

After the return Monday, we all enjoyed a special dinner at the home of
someone kind enough to host such an event that night. I listened to
Kevin for a long time, with his stories and exciting details. They did
run low on food, so supplemented their dried food supply with flour,
molasses, and other staples, which were baked into breads and cakes on a
camper's oven. A very expensive pair of hiking boots rotted out, and
were replaced by rubber boots for shore duty. Basically, everything wore
out on the trip. The two brothers probably put as much wear and tear on
their equipment, as do many of us in a lifetime of paddling. Their
aluminum tent poles corroded and were useless after a while (they didn't
rinse them - a classic error on a long s/w trip), a dry suit neck gasket
blew out, and one of the spray skirts "stuffed it in." Kevin's hull was
the subject of much amusing on the beach.

Interestingly enough, Kevin used plain automotive Bondo to do field
repairs (and there were a lot on his Seaward kayak). The polyester resin
poduct even took well to impregnating fiberglass cloth. Local paddlers
told Kev about the use of Bondo. Apparently, one guy in Alaska even uses
an air/UV "catalyzed" product that air dries quickly when exposed. Now
how simple is that? Bondo feathers easily, sticks tenaciously, and dries
quickly - and is cheap. The green colour (from the hardener) wasn't too
appealing (but amusing, as suggested). Garth's kayak, a Current Designs,
seems to have held up much better. Perhaps its about time seaward
reviews its lay-up schedule.

And BTW, young Kevin is in the market for a Nordkapp. Also, when Kevin
was asked if there was anything he took that he would not take if he
were to do the trip again, he said "Yes, my sunglasses!" As far as I'm
concerned, 7 months in a kayak, hmmmm, my dream trip would certainly
have been somewhere warm and tropical with my spouse -- and leave the
rain gear behind. Some enchanted evening(s)...

DL

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