Helen Ready !

I needed some (p)repa(i)ring for the Helen Wilson event that Freek with support from Arjen Bloem and Tahé Marine are organizing upcoming weekend.

I tore my latex neck gasket in my dry-suit. Amazingly this is my first gasket replacement ever. My dry-suit is now four years old. I have yet to replace any wrist seals. I have to add that I wear my Kokatat stuff thread-bare. This is a bit different from what I hear that many have to replace their neck gaskets (bi-)annually. Anyway, my guess is that being bald (no fatty hair) has some advantages after all. Furthermore taking very good care of the seals might also have helped!

The Helen Wilson event is generously sponsored by Arjen Bloem and Tahé Marine. I am only to bring my own Greenland paddle. That is, it is one of Freya's and made by Don Beale, and it is black. It goes well with my black dry-suit and a (probably) black Greenland-T kayak that I can try.

Although the Greenland rolling still remains a bit off main-stream sea kayaking, the rolling progressions (body awareness) of Greenland rolling are highly recommended for anyone wanting to learn (and coach !) rolling, regardless of kayaking discipline.

P.S. I opted to remove the complete gasket from the fabric, because the latex had started to go a tiny bit loose from the fabric. Now I understand the Kokatat recommendation not to completely remove the gasket when not needed... It is a lot of work. The gluing was easy with the custom-made wooden (and no-stick Trespa) rings.

Gimme Shelter, Gimme Wind

During the Ascension day weekend, I went on a three-day ramble with the NKB. Starting from Kornwerderzand to Vlieland is a seldom paddled (longer distance) route. Originally just as a participant. Because 16 paddlers signed-up and not to disappoint half of them, I agreed to head-up one of the pods. Beautiful sunshine on a mostly windless day on this five hour paddle.

The forecast for the next day was a bit more wind... With a force 5-6 Beaufort tailwind we made it to Texel. Finally I had a chance to try out my sail in strong winds. The GPS logged a max-speed of 9.5 knots for combined sailing and surfing. That is not a good speed to stay with a group, without continuous breaking strokes. So I reluctantly put down the sail, to try it again for a bit at different wind angles. The picture above is of part of the group take wind shelter behind a beached ship on the Vliehors sand flat during a short break.

How to get back to our cars with a north-easterly strong wind warning (6 Beaufort) in effect? With the group experience of the previous day it was an easy decision to go (mostly) downwind to Den Helder. There a group taxi was arranged to get the drivers back to their cars at Kornwerderzand.

It is not often that we can paddle in these conditions with a capable group, to have a group build upon their comfort zone on a (no landing) trip. And to have aspirant trip leaders and an aspirant sea kayak coach take the lead at the upper end of the award and remit.

If you want to open the GPS track directly into Google Earth, you can open or download it from here.

Dislikes

The proliferation of the Facebook like button that is popping-up on just about every website got me annoyed to a point where I was becoming angry.

Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry...

How about a Dislike button? While I cannot write 'viral' code to have that inserted on every website on the internet, I was just angry enough to make something for my own blog and to learn from it and from you :-)

So if at any time you get annoyed by my posts or my website. You can click your annoyances away with my Dislike button.

You don’t need a weatherman
To know which way the wind blows

(Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan)

Oosterschelde

Yesterday I went on a Peddelpraat club trip from Zuidbout to Sophiahaven, crossing the Oosterschelde. It was a gorgeous day with highlights of seeing two porpoises and a 'sleeping' squid (Zeekat / Sepiida). Apparently this time of year these squid are in the Oosterschelde to mate. This one did not look alive, until it got startled by Jan and shot off into the deep leaving an ink cloud behind. My first glimpse of these 'owners' of the white skeleton shells that wash upon our seashores.

Chatting to Roland, I learned a bit about sea kayaking in Belgium, or should I say the lack of. In Belgium one cannot legally paddle on the sea above force 3 Beaufort. That might be a reason that more and more Belgian paddlers show up at Dutch sea kayaking events and trips. And the Zeeland tidal estuaries are close enough for great sea kayaking.

Another interesting bit is that in Belgium, sea kayaks need to be registered with a name and have a certificate of registry plate riveted on the deck. Reminds me of a discussion about French regulations were a sea kayak has to have rigid floatation in the form of fixed foam in the bow and the stern; float bags not accepted. If European rules are to be 'harmonized' to the strictest rules of member states, where could I go to paddle on the sea?

Germany to Australia

Yesterday, Sandy Robson started on her multi-leg, multi-year, kayaking trip from Germany to Australia. Retracing as much as possible the route that Oskar Speck started on 14 May 1932.

I think it is quite an interesting coincidence to have two kayaking expeditions being 'launched' in these past two weeks that have high relevance to the 2nd World War; see also my previous post on the "Engelandvaarders".

Oskar Speck's enormous achievement never made any headlines in his time. He completed his 50.000 km (!) trip while his country was starting the war with the rest of the world and Oskar spent the rest of the war in Australian internment as an enemy foreigner.

(^(\w+\b.*?){2}).*
Above is not hiding a rude word, although that could well be the case while I tried to make an RSS-feed out of Sandy's website expedition update page. To my knowledge, Sandy does not (yet) offer an 'automated' blog-feed on her Expedition website. Using the internet services Open Dapper and Yahoo Pipes I set out to make something out of it and the above piece of Regex code made it work. Not for the fainthearted! I could have pulled all my hair out (if I had any left) to produce myself this magic bit of code that I needed for it to work, to no avail. Luckily I found it on the Internet and thus make Sandy's progress available on my Expedition blog roll. Click on the post title (day) to directly jump to Sandy's Expedition website from the blog roll.

It's a long way there, it's a long way to where I'm going...
(Little River Band)

Engelandvaarders

On UK Rivers Guidebook Sea Kayak Forum my attention was drawn by a Dutch word on this English language forum: "Engelandvaarders".

A team of three British paddlers is preparing to cross the North Sea from the Netherlands in August this year. Their website is very thorough on explaining the history of the Engelandvaarders and in particular of the achievement of Henri Peteri and his brother Willem, for the English speaking community.

It triggered memories of many years past. In August 1996 I attended the Peddelpraat Sea Kayak instruction week in Zeeland. It was my second year sea kayaking. Peddelpraat has a long standing tradition for inviting inspirational sea kayak coaches over. This year Nigel Foster was present. One of the evening lectures was by Henri Peteri, an Engelandvaarder.

Henri's lecture had us glued to our seats and listen in awe. What I vividly remember is his account of the loss of half their equipment on a capsize directly on launching. They had two compasses, one survived, two watches, one survived, three torches, one survived.

Nigel Foster wrote about this encounter in the August 1996 issue of Sea Kayaker Magazine. A Dutch translation appeared in the Peddelpraat club magazine #145 of November 1996.

As far as I know only three Dutch paddlers have crossed the North Sea after the war. Hans M-H. and Rick D. crossed the North Sea from Westkapelle to Harwich in 1989 in single kayaks. In August 1999 Hans crossed again, now in a double with Gerard G.

Again the Peddelpraat sea instruction week proved a rare coincidence for me to learn about it, as Hans had just returned from the crossing by ferry. After dropping off Gerard in Zeeland he decided to stop-by the Peddelpraat campsite. He had me puzzled when he told that he had not paddled on the sea for a year before the crossing, quickly adding that on the conditions he had been planning it to do, it would be the same as 'just' a long flat water paddle. He had waited for a stable high pressure system that produced weak easterly winds, and August was the most reliable month to plan this. Hans wrote about this crossing in the 1999/2 NKB Mededelingen.

Henri Peteri passed away in 2007. On the website www.engelandvaarder.com of Alec, Ed and Harry, I saw this picture of a beautiful monument that was erected in 2009 at the spot where Henri and Willem Peteri came ashore. In memory of the Engelandvaarders.

In memory of the thirty-two young Dutchmen
who tried to escape to England by kayak
during World War II to join the Allied Forces.
Eight of them reached the English coast.

The last living survivor dedicated this memorial
to his brothers in arms who were less fortunate.
He reached England - and freedom -
on this beach on 21 September 1941.

Source: Wikipedia

My 99 Pence Worth...

Justine Curgenven has started to sell her films as on-line (high quality) digital downloads at CackleTV at D-I-Y (download it yourself) prices. From the complete This is the Sea series through the individual episodes of those DVD's and more... Some of these films have not been seen before!

In February 2004, Justine interviewed me on camera about Around the Netherlands by Sea Kayak by Nico Middelkoop and me. While there was hardly any (spectacular) film footage of our trip to combine it with, I had no expectations that this interview would ever make it into any of Justine's This is the Sea DVD's.

How big was my surprise today, that Justine had indeed edited the interview and combined it with the best of the available footage of our trip and more... into a complete, excellently edited, entertaining short film that can be downloaded from here !

Some of you might remember some spectacular sea kayak surf footage in the introduction to the first This is the Sea. This was filmed in Callantsoog in the Netherlands by long-time paddling buddy Nico Pennings. This day is also prominently featured by Justine in the same film.

While I am at this 'not seen before' thing, below picture is of Justine 'imprisoned' on Egmont Key off Tampa Bay in Florida, February 2004. We now know what happened when This is the Sea got released into the sea kayak community.

Interestingly, hearing myself again for the first time after all these years, I noticed that my views on sea kayaking have not changed, at least not my 99 Pence worth of it.

if you're worth more than 99 Pence
those who have a lot and those who have not
remain Francs, Marks, Pesetas or Cents

Lines from "The Root of all Evil" by The Beautiful South

Easter Sun Day Texel

While contemplating about whether or not I should join and commit to an Easter weekend trip with NKB or Peddelpraat, Jan suggested to paddle around Texel on Easter Sunday.

At 06:45 Jan and I set off from Den Helder to cross the Marsdiep. On the Texel side we were joined by Karien. She lives on Texel and started at 06:00 from Oudeschild. The weather was gorgeous with an almost negligible 1-2 Beaufort easterly wind (how fitting!) on a totally flat North Sea.

At 10:45 we already landed at the Cocksdorp on the northeast coast of Texel. We could have gone for a record-time, but to not offend Jan's regular long-distance paddling buddy (and to enjoy this day to the fullest) we left that for another day.

After a long break we left again at 12:30 to get over the Wantij at a time when the tide changes to have the ebb assist us to Oudeschild. A Wantij is the highest part of a tidal flat barrier. At Oudeschild, Karien finished her (first !) one-day Texel circumnavigation. After another relaxed break, Jan and I crossed back over to Den Helder where we landed at 18:00 sharp.

To view our route in Google Earth, click here.

I can now tell that I am officially 'in training' for my second '11-stedentocht' this September. That is just another circumnavigation. In this case on inland waters connecting eleven cities in the Friesland province, a route of about 200 km length to be completed within 36 hours.

Perseverance

Jan asked me if I could assist him on the "Rondje Bommelerwaard" trip for Peddelpraat. This trip used to be advertised as a training-run for the (now defunct because of 'red tape') 140 km GRIMA (Great River Marathon) down the river Rhine from the German Border to Rotterdam.

Apparently his enthusiastic promotion in the club magazine for this 70 km long-distance trip on inland waters did not entice many. At 07:15 we set off with four...

For me this would be the first trip for a long time with these 'kilometer eaters'. Jan (with a buddy) regularly paddles 'weekend trips' in one day; i.e. around Texel. How would I cope, not having been 'tested' for a long time on these kind of distances and sustained paddling speeds.

After a busy indoor week with lots of issues to solve and lots of time behind the computer would I be in any shape to do this today? After half an hour I already knew that I made the right decision. I cannot remember going on a paddle and regretting it, whatever 'mental exhaustion' I would be in.

The first half of the trip is on the Bergsche Maas against a weak river current. The second half of the trip is with the current on the faster flowing river Waal. The trip statistics and GPS track shows that this trip is only 65 km! So that much smaller distance ;-) should attract more paddlers next year!

The trip took us a bit over 10:15 hours of which 8:15 hours paddling time. On this gorgeous day I think we were a bit lazy with three breaks totaling two hours. At 17:30 we were back. At least I feel comfortable (and pleasantly tired now) to join these guys and gal on another long distance trip.

P.S. The historic vessel on the picture that we encountered was named "De Volharding". A better motto than "Perseverance" one cannot find for long(er) distance paddling.

The Better Facebook Graffiti

I was about to kill myself again on FB. What is it that makes me 'suicidal' every time I log-on to FB ?

For so many times I tried to enable my blog entries to automatically show-up on my wall. I tried it again yesterday, to no avail. A FB forum thread of more than two years (?!) of people complaining that this supposed FB functionality is not working! I was about to give-up again on FB (that would be forever). I had already let go of most my friends (again). Then some software threw me a life-line...

RSS Graffiti is an add-on application for FB that imports RSS feeds into ones Wall. And it works! The only reservations I have at this point is my understanding of the authorization settings that allows this to happen. With a few clicks it works like a charm.

My main FB 'frustration' however is the proliferation of recent activity notifications. By now I have no clear overview of where I all had to tweak the FB privacy settings to make it a bit more bearable. Being able to see EVERY FB activity of my friends makes me 'shiver'. It is thus not only the clutter on the Wall/Feed pages that annoy me.

Again, just by coincidence, I found out about the Better Facebook browser add-on. Just about anything from big to tiny annoyances can be alleviated with this piece of incredible software. No more activity notifications; the software physically deletes it from FB whenever one loads the profile page. Everything I detest FB for is now 'configured away'. And so much more!

The only thing I could not find is how to hide the FB activity notifications of my friends FB pages... But that would be their responsibility and choice anyway.

With other companies doing a better job than FB, it is just a matter of time that FB will end it's reign. And that there will be better social networking software than FB. Looking in my 'crystal ball' I see the end of FB before the next decade.

Back to work!

Flash Cookies and other Big Brothers

Regular Blog Reader Warning: This is Off-Topic!

A year ago I became aware of a thing called 'Flash Cookies'. Like anything on the internet (and in life) things are there to benefit us or can be (and often are) misused and a lot of shady areas in-between.

Most of us are aware of 'cookies' and know that it is our responsibility and choice to set them according to our privacy preferences. Within a browser session, cookies are for instance used to keep web form input available throughout a session. I have set them to clean them out after closing my internet browser(s).

Cookies are more and more used to specifically target advertising, based on our internet browsing and search activities. And as a result of growing user awareness, cookies are more and more 'disabled' (deleted after sessions) to prevent the build-up of a 'profile' for privacy reasons.

Off course, if one is logged-on to ones Google account and does all the searching from within that Google account, we have no control over that Google tracks all our activities to that user account (and not the IP address). The price of 'free' searching... Probably Google sells this as 'enhancing our searching experience' and to 'better be able to find what we are looking for'... (and target advertising along the way).

But now back to the Flash cookies. Not many sites even work anymore without us having Flash Player installed on our computer. And very few might know about Flash cookies.

Flash Cookies are now massively in use. Just look in the (Windows XP) folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys\

From the moment I read about it, I am thinking of Flash Player (cookies) as the ultimate Trojan. No, you cannot set it through your browser cookies settings. And yes, one finally can find the hidden 'documented' Flash cookies Settings screen.

Now that I thought I am in control of what I allow Flash Player to track, I was astonished to see it is still tracking websites (url's) that I visit, not adhering to my settings what I would think... And also puts that in your local settings.sol file.

Is this a problem?

Well, it depends. I still haven't found what I am looking for. But I do not want to find something that someone else decided for me to find. Anonymous browsing and searching is the way to go. Not that I have something dark to hide.

Remembering a bad experience in Cabo San Lucas (and probably all tourist locations). Being constantly harassed by people trying to sell you stuff for ALL the time you are walking on the street and even during dinner. Wearing a t-shirt with "Do not F#@!ing Harass me!" would not work as I would get more custom T-shirt offers and more, featuring the 'F-word'.

And that is also why Facebook will never become my cup of tea. Seeing the movie "The Social Network" does not help either. Such and such likes your T-shirt and before you know it...

My solution to Flash cookies is something as simple as going back to the 'good-old' DOS days with a batch file that I put in the folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\


@ECHO OFF
REM FLASHDEL.BAT
RD SYS /S /Q
MD SYS
COPY SETTINGS.SOL SYS
EXIT

Before running it, save the settings.sol file (that one contains your modified settings) from the \flashplayer\sys folder into the \flashplayer folder.

Adding a shortcut to this FLASHDEL.BAT batch file into my Windows start-up folder solves the issue (for now). If you want to use it, please use this carefully and at your own risk and only if you know your way around WindowsXP (and DOS). And Macromedia will sure change the workings in future versions.

And while this post is already so totally off the topic of kayaking, I could add that WindowsXP will be my last Windows version, having had horrible close encounters with Vista/Seven. And that Microsoft won't be around in ten years time. Time for me to retire from almost 30 years of CP/M, DOS and Windows and back to more kayaking.

And now wondering what Google AdSense will show next to this blog entry.

Porpoises and Purpose

Last week there were a lot of sightings of Porpoises in the Texelstroom off Oudeschild on Texel; much more than usual. So when Karien wanted to check this out, I was easily persuaded.

I joined Karien, Geert and Hauke from the Texel sea kayak club. Just drifting with the ebbing tide towards Mokbaai we soon were amidst a pod of three porpoises that just kept doing 'their thing' without really taking notice of us.

They were all around us. I never have been so close to porpoises before; they generally are quite 'shy'. It was interesting to see them intermittently lie totally still at the surface of the water (resting?) before diving again.

The only 'drawback' was that the porpoises did not care about my positioning with the sunlight to take pictures and shoot some film. With so many camera's ready, we had more than enough good pictures and some really funny shots!

Geert and Hauke both work for the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and Geert took with him a hydrophone and I could hear the porpoises make a high pitch 'rattling' sound. Also he had a good telephoto camera with him to make the best close-up shots.

Porpoises generally are in this area at this time of year. In the past five years there are increased sightings. Overall we spend more than two hours among them until the ebb tide had brought us and the porpoises to the Mokbaai and we returned to Oudeschild on the beginning of the flood.

Listen for the sound of a Porpoise or read more about whale sightings in the Netherlands on Walvisstrandingen.nl

Baja Niña Reflections

Whenever we landed at a spot where other people were I got the question: "How did I get so lucky guiding a group of only women?" I never found any prompt answer at the time, but looking back at the pictures that 'the girls' made of me, now I think I should have answered: "Because of my yellow clogs !"

My second time guiding in Parque Nacional de Bahia Loreto was planned as a thirteen-day trip linking the islands of Coronados, Carmen, Danzante and Montserrat out of Loreto in Mexico's Baja California Sur. Planned, because any kayaking trip itinerary is weather dependant. For us it started on the second day with a force 5/6 from the north with a 'Yachters Net' small craft advisory for breezy whitecap conditions. So our crossing was postponed a day where we still found interesting rough sea conditions on the Northwest coast of Carmen.

The general weather was blue skies and off-and-on windy. Our three 8-10 nautical mile crossings proved to be 'interesting'. With one two-and-a-half hours slog from Montserrat back to the mainland against a 20 knot headwind; not quite from the direction it was 'forecasted'... And being half-way into the, until then flat-calm, crossing, what to do else...

We made it, but the night on the mainland was even worse with the strongest arroyo downdrafts I have ever experienced. Winds ricocheting from the arroyo walls building-up to 'wind explosions'. Next morning I found the kayaks and the tents 're-arranged'. One was sleeping ON her tent. Another had taken down her tent as a precaution. Fortunately no damage or lost equipment. A welcome rest day at the hot springs were my yellow clogs served as bath ducks.

Too much experiences to share for now. We saw a lot of whales. The comment was that long crossings are less boring when there are whales around. We saw Finback whales frequently and every now and then a Blue whale from 100 yards distance or more. They where all over the place. After dark and into the night we could still hear the Finbacks breath with their distinctive sound.

This year was a La Niña year. Somewhat different than other years. I should have known. So maybe it was not only my yellow clogs that made the difference.

Sea kayaks, equipment and local logistics were provided by
Sea Kayak Baja Mexico. SKBM uses Nigel Dennis sea kayaks, Werner paddles and Kokatat PFD's.

For a full length slide-show, click here.

For a Google Earth GPS track of the trip, click here.

Baja Whale Encounters

Bay Sydney Rollers

In Sydney the NSW Sea Kayak Club organized a well-attended club weekend at Bundeena for coach and trip leader development. The Sunday afternoon sessions ended a bit abrupt and prematurely by a bush fire a little south that, with the southerly force 6 winds, had a chance for an evacuation of Bundeena and/or closure of the only road into town.

In the week after, Rob Mercer of Expedition Kayaks, organized a number of courses out of Watson's Bay. Most popular were the Greenland paddling and rolling sessions.

On Thursday Rob and business partner Mark Sundin took me on a trip along the coast to Manly to experience some 'rebound'. One can pick almost any condition and on bigger days even in the various bays and beaches inside the large bay that is Sydney Harbour. A great paddling and coaching environment. It is not difficult to imagine that sea kayaking is VERY popular here! And one does not even have to venture out into the open ocean.

After some play with the rebound off Blue Fish Point we continued to Manly. This is a popular spot for board surfers. We were surprised to find only one surfer and excellent sets to work with.

Being aware of the surfing etiquette, I was quite careful not to steal the waves from the surfer. But he let pass a number of good waves when he signaled me to go for it. By then I had a late start, for what looked like (and was!) the biggest wave of the day.

The very steep surf ended in a bongo slide (towards Mark) and a capsize. Wearing a wide-brim hat is not a good idea in surf... It was ripped off my head, taking with it my glasses and sun-glasses. While carried-away by the foam-pile I was totally focused on holding on to my glasses and sort-out the rest later. Holding the glasses in one hand an my paddle in the other, I resurfaced right-side up. So I was quite amazed that I only lost my hat. Only to have Mark tell me it was dangling off my strobe-light. A few days later I noticed that the surf took something after all; the plastic 'nose-clips' of my glasses.

Mark wrote something about this day (and something about my hat and sun-glasses) on his blog.

BTW, we do not have this kind of waves in the Netherlands, so it was very enjoyable to surf these waves on long runs, maneuvering with edge, trim and paddle rudders at will.

On my last day in Sydney I joined Raewyn, Sally, Karen and David for a paddle in Sydney Harbour. At least I got to experience some of Sydney's major 'watermarks'.

With a strong afternoon sea-breeze, again appreciating the wonderful and varied sea kayaking there is to do in the Sydney area.

Solo

Upon leaving Barwon Heads, John and Tina gave me the book "Solo" by Vicki McAuley. Yesterday evening I finished reading it. And when the disastrous day unfolded in it, it dawned upon me that it was exactly 4 years ago, on 9 February 2007 that Andrew McAuley was lost at sea in the Tasman.

This week I am in Sydney and I came across quite a few (place) names that are mentioned in the book; the area where he lived, worked, trained and tested out his equipment. Andrew was a local Sydney paddler. He has touched many lives. And with the age of the internet we know this is world-wide. It is an emotional read, even more so than the viewing of the documentary with the same name.

The Tasman Sea at the 40 degree parallel is a very, very dangerous place. After reading the book I now have some clue of what "The Roaring Forties" are about to any vessel, let alone a sea kayak. It also gives a close-up insight to what it is to live with an adventurer.

In many ways the book is a true love story. Allowing someone to pursue his dreams with the ultimate sacrifice of losing the one you love and dealing with loss. Andrew's spirit of adventure was never lost.

Sea Kayak Victoria

Arriving at Melbourne Airport, Ginni and I were picked-up by David Golightly of the Victorian Sea Kayak Club.
David would be our 'coordinator' for our stay in Melbourne. We were moved from one venue to another, but under the professional and in the very relaxed care of David this shuffling around relieved a lot of the pressures of getting the most out of our stay for the club. On the Friday evening lecture the first question I got asked was what I thought about rudders... And when I told (with pictures) something about paddling in the Netherlands: if Dutch kayakers often cross the North Sea. Well, not really, only very rarely. I learned that for Aussies, the 'pinnacle' of sea kayak proficiency is crossing Bass Strait. With Geoff in Tasmania, I looked into a Bass Strait navigation and I learned it is a kinda advanced crossing.

By Sunday afternoon I was totally spent (through a combination of heat and session concentration) when John and Tina drove us on the Sorrento ferry to Queenscliff for two days of easy-going chilling-out on the Geelong coast. We could use Sea Leopard sea kayaks that were kindly lent to us by Bob Mitchell of Rafta Sea Kayaks. Sea Leopards can fly... I just barely cleared a big set wave over a reef break and felt fully air-borne for a moment, with some adrenaline-rush. On Tuesday, Tony lent me his Nadgee sea kayak. Despite fitted with a (retractable) rudder, I found the Nadgee very easy to control without the rudder. I had a great time in clean surf with long rides on the swell-generated surf and surfing a following sea in increasing winds.

When comparing sea kayak performance my 'bias' tends to evaluate how well/quick the kayak responds to the effort or stroke I put into it. Instant 'feedback-loops' between the mind, body, blade, boat and the water; a constant 'activity'. The ONE 'perfect sea kayak' does not exist. Sea kayak performance is something to experience one selves and is very personal !

Returning from Barwon Heads we visited Queenscliff lighthouse to view 'the rip' and give homage at the Paul Caffyn 'plaque', the location where he (and Freya Hoffmeister) started their Australia circumnavigation. Currently Stuart Trueman is well on it's way and his progress can be followed at: www.nadgeekayaks.com.

A big thank you to all the people at the VSKC for organizing our stay. Next stop on the "Australia Tour" is the New South Wales Sea Kayak Club in Sydney.

A Paddle Salute

Very sad news arrived this week from the Netherlands. Fred Leemans very unexpectedly died. I first met Fred at the Anglesey sea kayak symposium where his enthusiasm was very catching. Puzzled with the question from the local instructors wether he had any 'BCU stars', he answered that he had 'no stars', and I subsequently referred to him as Fred 'no-star', with a smile. Sometimes one has those special people on trips that by personality boosts group morale. Fred was one of those 'naturals'. He joined me on trips to Jersey and Baja Mexico. Fred, it has been good to know you; I very much enjoyed your company. From Half Moon Bay in Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, Australia, a salute to you!

From a Sea Down Under

It is almost a month ago that Ginni and I arrived in Australia. So much experiences to share from this (for me) other part of the world. Is it about the pro's and con's of rudders versus skegs; a frequently asked question? The 'cultural' differences in sea kayaking. The similarities, the differences, the 'local' variations and adaptations. The stories of the committing crossings of Bass Strait (east, west, middle), challenging West Coast Tassie, Big Ocean Swells, frequent 30-40 knot winds and 30 knot afternoon sea breezes.

This all in a climatically very unstable year for Australia and Tasmania, with massive floodings in Queensland and even Tasmania! The 'La Niña' cycle is taking it's cause. Australia is VERY BIG, the TV news is as close as it got to us, while Summer in Tasmania has yet to begin.

The first three weeks Ginni and I spent in Tasmania where Geoff lent me his Explorer and Alaw Bach to have familiar kayaks to paddle in. Ginni used a Valley Atlantic. So we found ourselves not only on an Island (Tassie) but also in a very isolated patch of British design kayaks. Short (too short) hops in the Mirage sea kayak and the classic self-built glass-fibre Tassie 'Greenlander' kayak, both designed to go long distances, fast and straight-tracking, often powered by wing paddles and another addition... Differences in sea kayaking environment and paddling preferences and habits lead to different kayak designs. During our stay Ginni and I were 'drawn into' help building a website for Lyn for the Cambodian Children's Trust Challenge.

It can be very windy out here and it is the wind that the kayakers have learned to use in their favor: kayak sailing... It got me right into a 'controversy', where Geoff's sail (on top of that on a skegged kayak!) is considered a 'Victoria Sail' and not a true 'Tassi Sail'... But WOW!! what an experience, even a (kayak) life changing experience...

Mick MacRobb of Flat Earth Kayak Sails from Australia makes a sailing rig that is mounted up-front the deck and that in no way limits (my) normal/performance forward paddling and stern rudders. The sail was reviewed by Douglas Wilcox in issue 22 of Ocean Paddler Magazine and that article didn't mention or even hint towards the, for me, most rewarding part of the sailing: tracking by edging!

Cruising effortless at four knots in a 15 knot quartering tailwind, catching and overtaking surfing waves and changing direction by just applying edge and trim (body position / skeg) ! And a wide range of wind directions to work with. My first experience ever with sailing, and it is a good one. My sailing vocabulary might need more work than the kayak sailing itself. This is fun! Within a minute after raising the sail up for the wind to catch it!

The USA distributor for Flat Earth Sails is Columbia River Kayaking. For the Netherlands it is Zeekajak.NL working through the European distributor Kari-Tek. You probably want to try it yourself first. When I am back in the Netherlands, my Explorer will be fitted with the sail. And more developments are on their way. For the US, keep an eye out for the symposium traveling schedule of Ginni Callahan to have a sailing opportunity near you.

And now I hope I will not be 'outcasted' by the Dutch sea kayaking scene from 'jumping ship' to the 'other side' (Sailing). Ginni words it as "Kayak Sails for Paddlers"; it adds a dimension to it and not take anything away.

Next stop is Melbourne, home of the Victory Sea Kayak Club, home of the 'Victoria Sail' and home of the Nadgee Sea Kayak.

Date, Time & Hemispheres

26 hours on three airplanes and 12 hours of airport waiting time. Add to that crossing of about 15 time zones and the 'black-hole' date-line. I know where I am (Tasmania), but it might take a 'day' or two to know exactly when I am.

I flew via Los Angeles, because after this I have a trip in Baja Mexico and it seemed a good idea to combine the two trips to reduce overall traveling time and hassle. At LAX I met-up with Ginni Callahan for the flight to Sydney and then to Hobart.

Ginni and I are in Tasmania on the invitation of Geoff & Lyn Murray. For a month we will be visiting the sea kayak clubs of Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney. For me it is the first time in the Southern Hemisphere.

P.S. This time I am not traveling with my paddles. Packing for multiple climates and keeping to a 23 kg (key) weight limit I had to be very selective. And then that old song got stuck with me for the past three days.

There's a guy with a ticket to Mexico
No, he couldn't look much stranger
Walking in the hall with his things and all
Smiling, said he was the Lone Ranger

Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of keys
Don't touch my bags if you please
Mister Customs Man

(Coming into Los Angeles - Arlo Guthrie)

White Out

I stayed with Justine & Barry for a week. While they are heavy into the final preparations for their Tierra del Fuego trip starting January, I had some NDK business to attend. Some of the weekend plans got changed because of the wintery weather that moved into the UK.

I barely made it back to the house on Friday afternoon in the worst road conditions I ever encountered with my car. Lots of trucks stranded along the A55 and abandoned cars on the smaller roads. I was lucky I guess with my snow tires that made all the difference.

Paddling plans changed into a mountain walk through knee deep snow with Justine through the slate hills with views of the Menai Straits, Puffin Island and overlooking Llanberis. Today driving to the Hull ferry to be back for Christmas with the family.