Glenn wrote: - > I've read several stories of kayakers getting in trouble with the winds > off of Newfoundland ................. > I was up there kayaking in '99 and remember driving past spots early > in the day thinking that they'd be a great place to paddle > and then, a few hours later, looking at white caps and wind that > seemed to come from nowhere and deciding that it wasn't for > me. Chuck wrote: > About 3 decades back, three highly trained paddlers went out somewhere along > the south coast of Newfoundland early one morning. > Not early enough! How high are the coastal mountains there? I don't remember > exactly, but they could be 1-2000 ft. In the morning, the winds roll off the > high uplands and fall down onto the ocean at great speed. That happened to > us once along the Gaspe peninsular where the sea cliffs are only about 500 > ft. You could see the wind puffs hit the water- cats paws! They were strong > enough to stop some of us in our tracks. G'Day Glenn and Chuck. Hard for me to imagine cliffs that high and what the wind rolling down them must be like. But your stories reminded me of one that Wayne Langmaid used to tell. Wayne was a Canadian who took up residence in Oz and used to run a kayaking outfit near Sydney as well as kayaking tours all over the world. He used to tell the story of a trip down to the fjords in the Seno D'Agostini National Park of Tierra del Fuego. On one of these trips it had been raining and blowing a gale for days on end. The tour group were going stir crazy on the mother ship and Wayne was just barely holding them together. Saturday dawned and it was sunny and calm, very warm, seductive. The fjord beckoned and the group held a briefing, lowered the kayaks and planned to explore it to within a discrete distance of the glacier calving at its end. Wayne was a bit nervous and so was the guide, considering the previous week of unsettled weather and the unnatural warmth, but it didn't seem justified to hold back. Then just at the entrance to the fjord Wayne felt the slightest puff of wind on his face. So did the local guide. They looked at each other talked for a few minutes and then Wayne pulled the plug on the trip. He told me that coping with the protests was the hardest exercise in group management and logical persuasion he'd ever had to carry out. But within an hour of the group returning to their yacht they were pitching and rolling in the wildest katabatic wind; people retching everywhere, no one disputing the decision and Wayne and the guide thankful that they weren't trying to find shelter either in or out of the fjord. Wayne had worked on the sea as a commercial diver and kayak tour guide all his life. He'd seen more than his share of bad situations and had a compelling way of using them to illustrate ideas on safety. I sometimes wonder if any of the Canadians on this list knew him. All the best, PeterO (A pittarak is apparently the Greenland name for a katabatic wind) *************************************************************************** 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 Tue Jul 13 2010 - 03:54:52 PDT
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