I think it is often important to consider that tents are not perfect in foul weather. Several years ago I was paddling on the Wisconsin River on a sandbar with about 15 others when a storm hit in the evening. The winds were at least 50 mph while the local authorities said between 80-90 mph. Lots of trees down, and a nearby tornado that luckily we did not encounter! My 3 to 3 1/2 season tent was anchored VERY securely by lines to wood and supplies buried under mounds of wet sand. The tent was fairly new and in good condition yet with the strong winds you could literally see the water wafting through the air. Using a flashlight, it was like headlights on a foggy night. Within a few hours despite the tent being fully closed up we had taken on a LOT of water, maybe half a gallon to a gallon had collected in a low area! The bags were all pretty much either very wet to soaked and while a soaked synthetic bag is not great, I have heard it is far better than a soaked down bag in terms of providing you with some insulation. I think it also probably drys faster. Now that is an extreme weather example, but my point is that I was very glad that I had a synthetic bag. There have been cases with using an ultralight summer tent with fairly unprotected screening even with the fly on, that just a regular strong wind can drive the rain through and on to the bag. Bob *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Robert Brubaker wrote: > I think it is often important to consider that tents are not perfect in > foul weather. I have used my sea sock (from Feathercraft) as sort of a poor man's bivy. It isn't deep enough for the whole sleeping bag to fit in, but it protects the vulnerable lower half, which for me, usually presses against my tent wall. If the sea sock was long (deep) enough, it might double as an emergency bivy. It doesn't breathe, except at the opening, but might keep you warmer than without. And for those of you who use less than full-length thermarest pads, using your sea sock as a cover might not be a bad idea. Speaking of bivies, I wonder who's slept inside their boat? I wonder if anybody has modified their boat to make it possible to lay down and sleep in. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
There is a wonderful anecdote in the book "Inside Passage" about a gut who paddled into a kelp bed for calm conditions and slide down into his boat to sleep and was awakened by looking up through the cockpit hole to see a killer whale flying over his boat to check it out. Christopher G. Madden maddencg_at_earthlink.net *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Elias Ross <genman_at_noderunner.net> asked: <SNIP>>>>>>Speaking of bivies, I wonder who's slept inside their boat? I wonder if anybody has modified their boat to make it possible to lay down and sleep in.<<<<< Having been influenced by long distance voyager John Dowd's first book "Sea Kayaking" that had just come out (about 24 years ago) that had favored a kayak like a Klepper you could sleep in, we made sure you could lay down and sleep in our first kayak design, the original Mariner, if we had to spend the night out at sea. Our second kayak the Escape also had a relatively high front deck and the same long enough cockpit (that the sliding seat could be slid all the way back in for more room) to be able to do this as well. I could get all the way down in them both and rest my head on the seat for a pillow. I may have fallen asleep for ten or fifteen minutes on Lake Washington once while testing this in the wind waves and boat wakes at Sandpoint. I hadn't intended to fall asleep but I found the rocking motion of the broadside waves to be very relaxing even though they were 12 to 18" high and quite steep and whitecaps were starting to form. I remember waking up and wondering how far I had drifted before taking a look. I can sleep almost anywhere, so this might not work for everybody even if the boat was comfortable. I had learned is wasn't going to capsize and I could right it easily if it did, and the wind wasn't blowing me towards shore but rather along it, so I had very little to worry about to keep me awake. I usually have carried a sea anchor when paddling on the open coast in case I couldn't get back in through the surf and had to spend the night at sea but I have never had to use it in earnest (or lay down in my kayak to get some rest and lower my center of gravity while doing so). With the center of gravity so low in that reclining position I had discovered that I couldn't even capsize the kayak (to test righting it again should I accidentally capsize) by rocking around inside it as hard as I could. A roll was easy from that position though (when somebody would help me capsize in the first place to practice). In fact, in the 20.5" wide original Mariner I could right myself just by rocking around inside the boat as it seemed a lot less stable when upside down than when right side up (probably due to the high buoyant bow that didn't want to stay straight down and round fore deck and narrow width). If I left my spraydeck on (it had quite a large opening at the top if the shock cord wasn't tightened up at all) I could slip down through the opening and close it over me (by tightening the shock cord down to a little hole, or by gathering up the slack near the opening and holding it together in my hand) and keep out almost all the water when capsized. Then I could just rock the boat upright. There was no hurry to do this though as there was plenty of air inside the cockpit to breathe while upside down. As a back-up I learned that I could reach one arm out of the hole in the spraydeck and right myself with one arm sticking out of the cockpit very easily with just one downward stroke. I can still get slouched down to where only my arms and head are out of the cockpit with the smaller cockpit size of our later kayaks but at 6'1" and 190 pounds with broad shoulders and size 12 feet it is harder for me to get totally inside than it would be for a smaller person. To do this you must either have a front bulkhead mounted well forward or no bulkhead and a float bag with a long fill tube so you can let some air out of from the cockpit to make room for your legs when laying in the cockpit (like I did). Matt Broze www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** 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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