A very nice piece Craig! A couple of additional pieces of advice... If you are thinking of paddling in fog in an area with motorized traffic, think very long and very hard. Kayaks are nearly invisible to larger boats in clear conditions, in fog it's even worse. If you are paddling in fog on the ocean, you (and all other boats making way) have a legal requirement to sound a fog horn periodically (I think it's every 2 minutes) to warn other boats of your location. Also, if you suspect there is traffic in the area, it's a good idea to put out a Securite'-Securite' announcement on your VHF radio, again to warn other traffic that you are there. After spending a little time on a commercial fisherman's boat and seeing how fast he moved in fog and how reliant on radar he was, I make every effort to stay within spitting distance of shore when I am kayaking in fog. My kayak and I don't show up on radar at all yet that was pretty much the only method this particular guy was using to steer by and he was moving right along! Scary. As far as plotting courses from the cockpit, I use graphic software to prepare chart segments with lines of magnetic north overlaid on the chart. Attached by a lanyard to the chart case, I have a hiker's compass that I can use as a protractor to quickly get magnetic bearings to use with my deck compass. Also, the hiker's compass acts as a backup for the deck compass or as a hand bearing compass. It's a pretty convenient system that has worked well for me over the years but it does require a bit of preparation. Mark Goff Hampden, Maine ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Sep 24 2007 - 07:40:34 PDT
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