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From: Doug Lloyd <douglloyd_at_shaw.ca>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Canoe Rescue off Point Defiance in Fast Current
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 18:08:28 -0700
I tend to agree with you Dave if we're taking a vote.

Better safe than sorry and all that.

People embarrassed? Not happy. Yean, they should be...embarrassed they were 
so silly and what about being upset...yeah, with themselves that should be.

Family does lots of canoeing in local boat-traffic water. We have a drill 
for boat wake. We also know boats suddenly slowing down cause more hassle 
than if they had gone by - sometimes.

Recent strategies for canoeing? We avoid areas of congestion now. Wilderness 
is much more friendly. Sorry you big city dwellers.

Doug Lloyd
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From: Mark Sanders <sandmarks_at_ca.rr.com>
subject: RE: [Paddlewise] Canoe Rescue off Point Defiance in Fast Current
Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 17:13:06 -0700
Well Doug, this big city paddler reads all your kayak/boat close encounter
stories with a touch of bewilderment. I paddle out of one of the largest
pleasure boat harbors around and have nary one close call with a boater to
relate. I think it's much worse for lake paddlers where people sometimes run
out of real estate, but my usual travels take me out of most pleasure
boater's paths and harbor speeds seem reasonably regulated. I guess you
gotta take the good with the bad: perhaps in big city life we tend to smack
down those folk who get out of line as a general rule: or else we'd always
be in chaos!

Mark

-----Original Message-----

Recent strategies for canoeing? We avoid areas of congestion now. Wilderness
is much more friendly. Sorry you big city dwellers.

Doug Lloyd
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From: Doug Lloyd <douglloyd_at_shaw.ca>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Canoe Rescue off Point Defiance in Fast Current
Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 20:33:15 -0700
Kayaking? Nada problema. Wife kayaking? Little bit a problem. Maybe it's the 
current combined with the boat traffic. Do you have current? Current traps 
wake. Dynamics different. Canoeing with the kids (well, over the last decade 
when they was smalla)? Problemo. Do you guys make out better canoeing with 
kids in congested areas given the congestion is more intense given your 
population given you speed demon obsessed countrymen? Well then, good on ya! 
'Course, I'd argue our congestion runs rampant come summer. You guys have 
all year to spread "summer" boating traffic over. :-)

As for me kayaking again, not sure which close encounters you refer to. I 
try not to post those too often - they are usually at night up against ferry 
hulls in restricted tidal passages, playing behind ferries under the docks 
at pullout ( 90,000 gross tons, 9,000 horsepower, lots of backwash, oh 
yeah!), toying with  purse seiners, gill-netters, longliners, and trawlers 
in open seas, dogging submarines in Juan de Fuca,  rush hour seaplanes in 
harbours, freighter traffic in foggy shipping channels (oh yeah, forgot, 
Duane's the expert - inside joke), cargo vessel piolatage crews madly 
responding out past my breakwater play spots, log booms galore, barges under 
tow, whale watching vessels buzzing like bees, coast guard and fisheries 
vessels ordering me off the water/out of the way, foreign cargo vessels 
under difficult tidal-water maneuvering, and sailing vessels with little 
discretionary room to move. Those are only the ones I come across - or they 
come across me, serendipitously. Then there's the ones I chase down, hunt 
for dynamic tidal effects, stern-wash rides, and hydrofoil wake-riding. 
Close encounters of the Doug Lloyd kind. Sounds bewildering to me too.

Like, who misses rivers and whitewater venues for Vancouver Island when 
chaos is as chaos does?

DL

> Well Doug, this big city paddler reads all your kayak/boat close encounter
> stories with a touch of bewilderment. I paddle out of one of the largest
> pleasure boat harbors around and have nary one close call with a boater to
> relate. I think it's much worse for lake paddlers where people sometimes 
> run
> out of real estate, but my usual travels take me out of most pleasure
> boater's paths and harbor speeds seem reasonably regulated. I guess you
> gotta take the good with the bad: perhaps in big city life we tend to 
> smack
> down those folk who get out of line as a general rule: or else we'd always
> be in chaos!
>
> Mark
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From: Duane Strosaker <strosaker_at_yahoo.com>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Canoe Rescue off Point Defiance in Fast Current
Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 21:30:08 -0700 (PDT)
Doug,

I should be getting some of that foggy shipping channel stuff the next couple of weekends. I'll bring the didgeridoo as my fog horn. ;^)

Duane
Southern California


> freighter traffic in foggy shipping channels (oh
> yeah, forgot, 
> Duane's the expert - inside joke)
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From: Mark Sanders <sandmarks_at_ca.rr.com>
subject: RE: [Paddlewise] Canoe Rescue off Point Defiance in Fast Current
Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 21:41:33 -0700
No Doug, I didn't mean you really. But the folk who paddle lakes and rivers,
even in some remote areas, seem to have some nasty visits with rude or
inebriated water fowl that us city folk don't seem to run across!

I think of my waters as as easy or as complicated as you probably want to
find, so you can easily avoid situations that are above your skill level. In
truth, I'd say you have to go out of your way to find situation to tax your
skills to move on to a level of paddling beyond what your used to. We do
have a few folk to help take you there, but they're few and far between and
I think a northern migration is in order for real growth.

We SoCal folk can eliminate ferries right off the bat and you're right that
our all year climate to a degree eliminates the seasonal riff raff. Of
course everything is relative you know, so us southern folk hunker down when
the climate dips to around 50!!!

My point is I think we have it pretty easy down here, which brings me to my
amazement and confusion when I read many of the close calls listed here on
Paddlewise. Hopefully, I store them somewhere in my memory for the untimely
time they might come in useful. We have a rather large barge dredging our
back bay and as improbable as it may be, I sometimes imagine having it
bearing down on me on some rare night paddle and imagine myself in the same
predicament as one of the northern boys or some NY Hudson river paddler.
Probably ain't gonna happen, but that's the genius of Paddlewise!

As I said, we're a pleasure boat harbor and so are spared from the reality
of folk who make the sea their living and have no time for dabblers on the
salty sea. There's got to be a different mind set between someone heading
out every day to put food on the table and someone using the sea for
recreation. I imagine a few of the former lack a bit of patience for the
latter, which can  lead to conflict.

Any way, I hope you don't deny us all your close calls. Remember many of us
on this list live vicariously!!!

Mark Sanders
www.sandmarks.net


-----Original Message-----


Kayaking? Nada problema. Wife kayaking? Little bit a problem. Maybe it's the
current combined with the boat traffic. Do you have current? Current traps
wake. Dynamics different. Canoeing with the kids (well, over the last decade
when they was smalla)? Problemo. Do you guys make out better canoeing with
kids in congested areas given the congestion is more intense given your
population given you speed demon obsessed countrymen? Well then, good on ya!
'Course, I'd argue our congestion runs rampant come summer. You guys have
all year to spread "summer" boating traffic over. :-)


DL
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From: Doug Lloyd <douglloyd_at_shaw.ca>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Canoe Rescue off Point Defiance in Fast Current
Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 22:10:36 -0700
Oh, it gets interesting around here some days. Strong onshore winds with 
wall to wall cruiseship docking mayhem. How's a guy supposed to navigate 
safely when a floating hotels the size of 50 Wal-Mart's are spinning 180's 
on abow pivot?

Even out on the open seas off North Vancouver Island while crossing to 
remote islands in the fog I have to skirt around these dang things coming 
like clockwork from John Carpenter's The Fog  - only on caviar and steroids.

Mostly, all in all, collision avoidance is just a matter of avoiding 
collisions. Choas does as chaos is is my game.

I'm better behaved these days - not so much the bad boy anymore. Habits die 
hard though. Reputations remain. When I show up at kayak symposia, I still 
get a wide berth from the cognoscenti. And I'm not even in my kayak.

Doug L




> No Doug, I didn't mean you really. But the folk who paddle lakes and 
> rivers,
> even in some remote areas, seem to have some nasty visits with rude or
> inebriated water fowl that us city folk don't seem to run across!
>
> I think of my waters as as easy or as complicated as you probably want to
> find, so you can easily avoid situations that are above your skill level. 
> In
> truth, I'd say you have to go out of your way to find situation to tax 
> your
> skills to move on to a level of paddling beyond what your used to. We do
> have a few folk to help take you there, but they're few and far between 
> and
> I think a northern migration is in order for real growth.
>
> We SoCal folk can eliminate ferries right off the bat and you're right 
> that
> our all year climate to a degree eliminates the seasonal riff raff. Of
> course everything is relative you know, so us southern folk hunker down 
> when
> the climate dips to around 50!!!
>
> My point is I think we have it pretty easy down here, which brings me to 
> my
> amazement and confusion when I read many of the close calls listed here on
> Paddlewise. Hopefully, I store them somewhere in my memory for the 
> untimely
> time they might come in useful. We have a rather large barge dredging our
> back bay and as improbable as it may be, I sometimes imagine having it
> bearing down on me on some rare night paddle and imagine myself in the 
> same
> predicament as one of the northern boys or some NY Hudson river paddler.
> Probably ain't gonna happen, but that's the genius of Paddlewise!
>
> As I said, we're a pleasure boat harbor and so are spared from the reality
> of folk who make the sea their living and have no time for dabblers on the
> salty sea. There's got to be a different mind set between someone heading
> out every day to put food on the table and someone using the sea for
> recreation. I imagine a few of the former lack a bit of patience for the
> latter, which can  lead to conflict.
>
> Any way, I hope you don't deny us all your close calls. Remember many of 
> us
> on this list live vicariously!!!
>
> Mark Sanders
> www.sandmarks.net
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