April 8, 2000

Intense Practice

Ft. Belvoir

I had gotten there early, so I had about an hour of on water time before I noticed Joan unloading her stuff. Rolls, bracing (including the not-all-in exercise) was the order of the day. I tried to perform a draw on the move several times with little success. The most notable item of the day was the wind. Long gusts up near 30-35 MPH made it a challenge to paddle against, even in this protected area. Wind was blowing us towards shore. From all this practice today I learned several things:

1) If you burp too much air out of a dry suit it becomes uncomfortable. It's like having your clothes vacuum bagged against your skin. Too much air and you're dangerously buoyant. The right combination for me was to burp as much out as I could, then let in just enough to free up around my shoulders.

2) The strap on my rear deck to aid in my paddlefloat recovery worked well. Joan tried to get me to get one leg up on the paddle, but I found I couldn't reach the cockpit with my other leg when I did. I ended up sitting sideways in the cockpit with feet on one side and head hanging off the other. A back flip helped get me out of that situation (and provided a good example of a yellow rainbow). The key is to find what works for you, and practice it.

3) At the peak of the wind Joan wanted to try a paddlefloat reentry but thought she would get blown ashore before she got in. I hooked up to her boat with a tow belt and attempted to paddle backwards (I sat facing her so I could watch) while she tried to get in. Even paddling backwards hard, I slowly lost ground. Joan's bungies kept her paddlefloat from holding her boat properly when she tried to climb on. Soon we were both too tired and had to let Joan and the boat float ashore. I tried towing her and her boat by her grabbing my stern toggle but made little or no progress.

4) We practiced swimming with the paddle. The easiest we found was to float on our backs and hold the paddle across our chest while we paddled backwards. Worked great, and we even made a little progress against the wind. With the wind we moved quickly through the water.

5) Since a lot of my practice is solo, I often choose to paddle where the wind would blow me ashore in case I couldn't get in. Today I decided to actually practice getting blown into shore. I could hold the stern toggle if my skeg was down and keep the boat in front of me. The bow toggle if the skeg was up, but the bow toggle is higher and the boat easily flipped upside down using this method. Joan suggested holding onto the side of the boat and keep it broached to the wind. This allowed maximum speed across the water (if that is what you want). I also found you need to float your entire body near the surface for maximum speed.

6) After 4 hours of skills practice, I was tired but not overly so. My endurance is improving in these types of conditions.

7) I practiced reenter and roll many times. By far the easiest is to be on the upwind side of the boat. A few extra seconds to turn the boat around is certainly worth the gain in ease for rolling up.

8) Joan poised the question that made us think: How much wind does it take to dump over a porta-john? Not the place you want to be when that threshold is reached, I'm sure.