Every Spring Break I volunteer with a youth counseling service (OMNI Youth Services of Illinois) to lead wilderness therapy kayak trips in the Everglades. This year it was back-to-back ten day trips because the two counties served by Omni had different weeks off. We drive because it is cheaper than flying and because the thirty hour van ride each way with no music is part of the team building. We loaded the trailer three days before the trip and, sure enough, the trailer with all the contents was stolen. I lost everything one needs for twenty days of ocean paddling (we stay on Florida Bay for the whole trip) but I wanted to let you all know about the identifiable stuff, just in case it pops up somewhere. The paddle was a brand new, never in the water carbon AquaBound Manta Ray. It is FOUR piece, has reflective tape on both sides of both blades and is a custom length - it is 215 cm long. The manufacturer's labels were peeled off (I have a fetish about logos on products, but that's another discussion), so the paddle is all black with the reflective tape as the only decorations. It has the TLC ferrule system. I also lost an older, but beloved, lifejacket. It is a red Extrasport rescue type with a round patch sewed into the middle of the back. If the patch is gone there will be an unfaded spot, if it is there the patch is from Aasiaat, Greenland and says "Aasiaat" on it with an illustration of a spider with kayak blades on the ends of its legs. The jacket also had a Gerber River Shorty knife attached and a Benchmade rescue hook in one of the pockets. The rest of the stuff, marine radios, GPS and sleeping bag and compasses are all generic without anything to identify them. A long shot, I know, but just in case . . . Jim Tibensky *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Arrugh! I hate to hear this. What really makes it bad was that you were doing a good deed! To bad we can't live in a world where people leave other people's stuff alone. I hope the youth were able to learn a lesson from this rather than getting caught up in anger and frustration and channeling that into bad behavior. I know it is a long shot but i hope you get you stuff back. Take care Bob *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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