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 *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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