Wild Turkey Paddlers

The best info is from the National Buoy Center:

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

If you navigate down the ther area of interest, you'll get current reports on water temp, air temp, wave conditions, wind conditions - as well as information over time periods.

The "Sudbury kid" - is Alex Stubbs. He's a maniac about surf kayaking. I know his dad.

Funny thing though, on flat water those boats are real slow.

I usually paddle into New Years. I find that Jan-Feb-Mar are my off-months, typically.

OK. I'm there. We're starting to get Taurus rising later in the evening. Can still get the summer triangle after sunset, and if that scotch holds up, we could even get to Orion.

I think it's more likely you'd find east-west churches in places where the churches are large, there's a lot of real estate, and the construction is lengthy - then the architects would probably want to "get it right".

And, Cambridge streets anything *but* a grid.

Yeah, Mark, I was more than a bit over the top. Just mention "navigation" and I go nuts...

Anyway, I'd gladly give anyone who wants a "tour" of the navigational stars - preferably while camping on a remote island with a good single malt scotch.

There is a trick to using an analog watch and finding south, but it only really works in the mid-latitudes with any reliability. The moss on the north side of the tree - in the northern hemisphere - use with caution - local shadows and such can make a huge difference in this - I don't trust it at al...

If we aren't careful, someone's gonna say "get a room". But that notwithstanding: I think the idea of the church facing east-west is so that the sun comes directly down the main axis of the church, illuminating the altar at Easter at sunset (about the equinox). I was vaguely aware of this from a cou...

There's a great book, called "Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass" - it has a ton of useful things. One trick I always learned from this book was using the fact that the prevailing winds would cause trees to bend and grow in the direction downwind. If I'm outside - driving or running or whatever...

Thanks Kate - I can't think of a more poetic way of expressing navigational wisdom. Sort of on topic. I've read that a brit named Spencer Chapman was paddling along the east coast of Greenland in total fog with a hunting party. He was worried about how the group would find the entrance to their narr...

Hey, Doug - Thanks! Yeah, I was pretty amazed that the trainer let the guy continue to wrestle. His mom was going nuts, and I really didn't have a convincing "he'll be OK" lined up, because I was pretty worried myself. I'll have to try your hand-of-god technique, next time I get the chance to practi...

1.) I'm glad she's OK. Those can be real painful. Non-relevant anecdote - the captain of my son's wrestling team dislocated his shoulder during a match. He lay there on the mat in pain. Somehow, the trainer reduced it. I was sitting next to his mom at the time. The wrestler decided to keep wrestling...

They'll get a narrative up on that site Mark posted in a bit. From what little I could gather, they used two doubles so that one person could rest while the other paddled, also they only needed to raft up two kayaks. They practiced by going out 10+ nm into the open ocean and returning. On the websit...

Yup, they're all different - first answer. You certainly can play on both the incoming and outgoing tides at Sullivan. I'd guess that the peak end current velocities at Sullivan and Cohasset/Little Harbor are about the same. I hadn't seen a front wave as large at Sullivan as the one at Little Harbor...

I don't know why, but message boards seem prone to this kind of thing. Folks get themselves kinda worked up, when they wouldn't if it was a face-to-face conversation. I'm sure there's a place for rudders - people who I paddle with rarely have them, so that's already an inbuilt bias on my part. I got...

Kate and Mark pretty much have it right. Only things I might add: Early on, skegs can be helpful to combat weather cocking, allowing you to concentrate on other stuff. Over time, you end up edging and using strokes to combat weather cocking, and tend to just forget about the skeg, but it helps early...

Hi - My name is John Huth. I live in both Newton and Harwich Port, on Nantucket Sound. I've been sea kayaking for about three and a half years, now. I had the good fortune to paddle with some of you folks on Satuday in Cohasset rips. A few trips I've done include a circumnav of Monomoy, and paddling...

Many thanks to those I paddled with! This is the first time I've paddled with this group (well, maybe with the exception of Jason, and...hadn't seen Phil since a surfing class a couple of years ago), and I'm grateful for the invitation. I'm still working on improving my fast water skills, and this w...