Waterlines -- A Sea Kayaking Journal, Penobscot Bay, Maine

3-29-04:
While looking for kayak news today, I kept running into articles about Kayak Interactive, a company specializing in "mobile multiplayer gaming" that has had the audacity to take a word for something genuine and real and good and apply it to some vicarous experience involving pushing buttons and watching images on a small screen. According to a recent article, the Kayak Interactive platform" allows players to compete directly against each other across different mobile network operators and handsets." And so we're supposed to believe the world is now improved somehow? What times we live in!

3-28-04:
Ice out! Spring is here at last! Ran the course of the 6-mile St. George River race today in preparation for the race next Saturday. What a joy to be on the river -- with the wind at your back, the sun on your face, and mallards skirting up at every bend. I am a sea kayaker at heart, but running whitewater is a lot of fun -- and like downhill skiing, it teaches me to be present in the moment, stroke by stroke, rock by rock, now, and now, and now.

3-24-04:
Nights well below freezing and days barely above it have conspired to keep the river under ice and postpone the St. George River Race for the first time in its 26 year history (apparently the effects of global warming are being experienced elsewhere). Thhis canoe and kayak race has stretches of flatwater interspersed with sections of Class II whitewater, lots of standing waves, and one Class III drop. Canoes are the most popular craft on this first race of the Maine river racing circuit, with downriver kayaks and whitewater kayaks being in the minority. And then there are the few of us who run it in sea kayaks, which work well on the flatwater sections and run the white water pretty good too -- as this river is not very technical.

It all adds up to twice as much fun for the weekend of April 3 and 4, as the St. George on Saturday will be followed by the Passy River Race on Sunday. Both races are about 6 miles in length.

3-21-04:

Buoy F - W. Penobscot Bay

Last update: 03/21 9:00 PM EST Wind: NW at 7.9 knots Wind gust: 9.6 knots Wave height: 2.1 ft Period: 6.4 sec Air temp: 37° F (2.8° C) Visibility: 1.6 nm (1.8 miles, 3.0 km)

Water temperatures (at a depth of 1 meter) in western Penobscot Bay today peaked at 34.8 degrees F, up 0.7 degrees from several hours earlier. And temps have picked up an entire 2 degrees since they bottomed out at just above 32 degrees in mid-January. Meanwhile, the rivers are starting to run a bit but are not yet free of ice. The St. George River Race is scheduled for next Saturday, but as of yesterday at least, stretches of the river were still impassible. The race is always run on the last Saturday in March and has never been cancelled or postponed in its 24-year history. Be interesting to see if things open up in time this year!

3-19-04:
According to an article in the Local Power News, the new federal energy bill now before Congress, if approved, would amount to "a bigger land grab than the Louisiana Purchase." The bill would supplant state control of coastline (apparently California has been especially intractable about allowing certain kinds of industrial development) with an "oil and gas title" which would grant the Secretary of Interior leasing, permitting, and regulatory authority over U.S. ocean waters within the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for a range industrial projects related to offshore Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities, subsea oil and gas pipelines, offshore wind and wave energy facilities, and undefined "other" hydrocarbon and energy projects.

The article goes on to explain that offshore gas terminals will provide a transition infrastructure to the energy industry's next Big Thing -- methane extraction from the ocean floor and from the arctic.

Environmentalists are concerned that significant adverse environmental impacts on marine life can be expected from methane extraction technologies:

"Extraction technologies will involve removal of the "overburden" sea floor rock, followed by large-scale strip-mining of the seabed, or "in situ" gasification of hydrates using pumped-in antifreeze agents injected through horizontal boreholes.  Large scale geologic hazards caused by destabilization of the sea floor, release of toxic substances into the water column, and discharge of silt plumes and other pollutants into the ocean are among the impacts of this process.

"In particular, some experts predict that strip mining the ocean floors and arctic for methane could catastrophically accelerate the already alarming global warming trends of recent years."

It seems to me that the development of new energy resources only means cheaper energy -- and a greater appetite for energy. So I cannot support development of any energy resources that are non-renewable or damaging to the environment.

3-18-04:
A paddling.net discussion on favorite paddling and / or wilderness movies included the following titles: Deliverance, River Wild, Never Cry Wolf, Grey Owl, The Great Outdoors, Black Robe, The Edge, Alaska, Last of the Mohicans, The Bear, & Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. To that list I would add Mountains of the Moon and The English Patient. Both are wilderness films only in part, but both have spectacular footage of African desert landscapes.

3-14-04:
During a pool session today, tried rolling for the first time with a wing paddle. (In this case a Simon River Sports Shark -- carbon shaft, carbon blades). What a revelation! I had read somewhere that doing an eskimo roll with a wing paddle is like having a paddle float on end your blade. Whoever said that wasn't exaggerating. "Explosive" is a word that could be used to describe how I came up out of the water while doing my "c to c" roll. I'm now wondering if a wing paddle might be used to teach the eskimo roll.

I've been playing around a bit with my wing -- a touring wing, more forgiving and less extreme than a racing wing -- since last spring. Found it to be more versatile for braces and turning strokes than I thought, but don't (yet) use it as my primary paddle. Haven't yet experienced that 5% boost in speed that is claimed for wings. Do like the crisp bite it provides. I wonder if wings or some variation of them will become more mainstream in the future.

3-13-04:
A few weeks ago, I wondered if other areas of the country had something equivalent to our www.gomoos.org site which provides up to date buoy information on conditions in the Gulf of Maine. A recent Paddling.net post led me to NOAA's National Data Buoy Center which provides buoy data for the entire coastal United States as well as portions of Canada, Mexico, South America, and Europe. Forecasts are useful, of course, but there is nothing like buoy data to find out what conditions are right now.

3-11-04:
Locally, the future of Sears Island continues to be very much in the news. At this point the anti-LNG (liquefied natural gas), anti-development crowd is by far shouting the loudest. The governor supports the industrial development of the island based on anticipated economic benefits. From the governor's point of view, the island is a good choice for industrial development as already the cargo port at Mack Point is nearby on the mainland. However, as my photos from a paddle around the island last Sunday afternoon reveal, despite the proximity of Mack Point and Sprague Energy, the island remains a place of quiet unspoiled beauty.

3-8-04:
Sometimes the simplest things are the most complicated . . . and the assumptions you feel most confident about turn out to be fiction. A recent discussion on wave height in The Kayak Forum shows there is a lack of universal agreement on how to describe the height of a wave. Some measure from trough to crest, others from sea level to crest. According to Ocean World and other sources, the trough to crest measurement is more widely used. I always thought that was the method to use when bragging to friends after a trip; and that the more modest method was for describing conditions to your concerned spouse before the trip.

3-6-04:

Buoy F - W. Penobscot Bay

Last update: 03/06 9:00 PM EST Wind: NW at 13.2 knots Wind gust: 17.4 knots Wave height: 2.5 ft Period: 6.4 sec Air temp: 40° F (4.3° C) Visibility: 1.6 nm (1.8 miles, 3.0 km)

That 24 hour figure is even more impressive when you break it down to average speed -- Petri had to average 6 miles an hour over the entire period to reach that distance. Let's hope he had the prevailing winds in his direction, at least.







Waterlines Archives:
December 2003
January 1 - 15, 2004
January 16 - 31, 2004
February 1 - 15, 2004
February 17 - 29, 2004

lives a mile from the water in Belfast, Maine with his wife, 2 daughters, and 3 dogs. He is owner of Water Walker Sea Kayaks and also teaches English at a local public high school. Please write him with comments, questions, or suggestions.