Re: [Paddlewise] Ship jousting

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> From: Dave Kruger <kdruger_at_pacifier.com>
>
> Wow.  Those are some great anecdotes, Mark.  Any reliable plan of attack 
> you'd use the next time one of those monsters comes your way ... maybe an 
> immediate sprint to the shallowest water you can find, as far as you can get, 
> at right angles to the channel?

For the regular barges I just try to stay just off the channel and make
sure that I am not in a real shallow spot when they do go by.  I have been
passed by 40-50 of those barges and that was the only time I really had a
problem.  

For that floating hotel monster I am going to do just what you suggest. and
get as far away as possible even if it means being aground.   If I am not
close to the channel edge, the return wave will break before it gets to me
and I will just be re-floated as the water returns to the flats.

When we have inexperienced paddlers on trips with us we often have them
stop and point their kayaks at a 90 degree angle to the channel as the
barges go by.  That way they can just backpaddle against any suction.  That
is much easier for them than using a draw stroke especially since they
often do not even know what a draw stroke is.  That 90 degree orientation
also makes it easier for them to turn directly into the return wave rather
than taking the wave from the side.  That is especially important if the
barge is overtaking the group such that the return wave would otherwise be
coming from the rear quarter which seems to be the most problematic for
beginning paddlers (for experienced paddlers too). 

Mark J. Arnold
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