Re: [Paddlewise] Catalina for Lunch Crossings, 38 NM-Video Report

Jerry,

I'm 5'10" tall and at first I used GPs that were 88" long. In the surf it felt a bit long, so I made an 84" long one, which felt really good for distance too. Since then all of my GPs are 84s, and I use them for everything: crossings, touring, rock gardens and surf.

On crossings I try to eat about 250 calories each hour and drink at least every half hour. Typically for the 19 NM Catalina crossings I'll drink 3 quarts of water. I only stop long enough to drink, eat and pee. You may be interested in my group crossing procedures:
http://www.rollordrown.com/tips/cross.html

I don't worry about actual speed. How my body feels is much more important. On long paddles I try to think of doing walking effort, a pace you could do all day and still enjoy it. On one crossing, a friend took the lead for an hour, and during that time, he really jumped up the speed. Afterwards, I asked him why he paddled so fast. He said his GPS (I hate them) indicated we were going a speed that he didn't think was fast enough, so he speed up to what he thought was a good speed. I told him to "F" the GPS and go by how the body feels.

As far as avoiding cargo ships, a few times I've been in the fog and avoided them by listening to their horns, which they are required to blast in the fog. If you can cross a street safely, you can cross shipping lanes safely. It's the pleasure boaters zigzagging all over the place that freak me out.

Duane
Southern California

--- On Wed, 4/8/09, Jerry F <gfoodma_at_earthlink.net> wrote:
> 1) I presume you have GP's of different lengths.  For a
> long paddle like this do you choose a particular length and
> is that length different from one you would use in a normal
> day paddle?
> 
> 2) What is your pattern of eating, drinking and resting
> during the crossing?
> 
> 3) Your stats over of 5.5 hr for 19 nm is an average of
> 3.45 kts.  I presume your speed underway is somewhat faster,
> guessing 3.75 kts or so, still a fairly relaxed pace.  In
> knot meter tests with my own boats I have found a relatively
> easy pace to be between 4.0 and 4.25 kts, although I have
> never attempted to maintain this for 5 or 6 hr.  Have you
> tried to do the crossing at a slightly faster speed in order
> to reduce time on the water?  In general, how do you decide
> on the best speed?  Do you think a faster boat would provide
> any significant advantage?
> 
> 4) What makes you so confident that you can avoid a large
> ship in the channel?  Is it not difficult to gauge its
> direction and speed?
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