Michael Dziobak wrote: > I just checked environment canada WX for W coast Van I N and there's a > hurricane force wind warning this afternoon and tonight. Seas building > to 9 meters after midnight. Suppose you were camped some where out there > like Lawn pt or N Brooks. What sort of defensive position could be > created against 65 kt winds? First, find some lee for your camp, behind a point or similar. If you are in larger trees, you take some chance of getting whacked by limbs, but the big trunks will kill the windforce. If no trees or they are small, then try to build a short wall of larger rocks upwind of your tent. For the tent, anchors are everything: sturdy cord or line (I take a substantial quantity of quarter inch along, now cut up into convenient lengths for use on the tarp) for the tent lines and run to trees, larger rocks, or buried items (rocks, smaller limbs or short 3-4 inch diameter logs) placed as deadmen in the sand. If you are on forest soil, you can usually drive stakes that will hold. Boats: get them in the trees and tie one end securely to something solid. No trees? Anchor securely to whatever you've got and hope they are still there afterward. If the tent fails, hie yourself to the boat, punch out the bulkheads, and insert yourself into it, wrapped in insulation, and roll over onto your thermarest. You'll get wet, but the boat and the wet insulation will prevent hypothermia. Food/gear: store in drybags, and tie the drybags to something solid, behind a tree or rocky area. Paddles should be stowed in hatches if possible. They can easily become airborne in 65 kt winds, especially if feathered. A feathered paddle will actually "walk-roll" itself down a flat beach in much lesser breezes. Unfeathered not so much. I've weathered 40 kts in exposed locations in the high mountains, in good mountain tents, but I really do not think the commonly sold three-season tents would survive that, let alone 65 kts, if exposed. That is an unholy wind. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** 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 Oct 06 2008 - 11:53:51 PDT
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