Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board

What a thread!

Posted By: Thomas Duncan
Date: Thursday, 16 December 2004, at 8:46 p.m.

In Response To: Re: One Final Bear Story (Will)

Wow.

Robert, You're a prominent paddler in my mind. I sincerely hope you have many pleasant, challenging and bear-free paddles! I enjoy reading your posts (along with a few other names I always look for), and if you want to carry a BFK on your PFD, more power to ya! I hope you never have to try it out on a bear. If I were ever stranded and had to hack together a camp or clean a fish, I'd probably be wanting your knife in exchange for the short blunt one I carry on my PFD.

Luckily I don't have to worry much about bears around my parts although we do have some black bears and I *swear* I saw a Carolina panther cross the road through the Croatan forest last year, although they are extremely rare this far east. Most I'd have to worry about in a coastal camp would be racoons and bugs, *maybe* the odd pit viper. The greenhead flies out there are so lethal I think maybe one of the shotguns you guys talk about might be useful on them! You can slap them down and step on them and they'll get up and bite you again. The absolute worst is to be crossing a bay on a windless day and have flies following you. Even if you roll, they are still there when you come up. They don't seem to mind getting wet either. I've slapped them into the water and watched them get up and fly back around my head. I could probably bottle some of them up and ship them to you and you could release them in the general direction of any attacking bears! They'd be right hungry after making the trip to Edmonton!

To get back on topic, a ditch kit is something I am thinking about putting together myself, and your notes in the first post are helpful.

I wanted to mention something that one of the instructors at a safety symposium last fall had, and I can't recall what the brand name or exactly what he called it. It was basically a big nylon bag, folded up very small, but you could unfold it and seat like up to seven people under it. We used it on a beach stop for lunch. Basically we all sat down in a circle, with each person sitting on the edge and leaning back into the "wall". We were wet and chilly in a ~20 mph wind, and getting under the shelter (basically like a tent with no support poles) was like instant tropics. It got very warm under there pretty quickly and the wind was cut off. The instructor said it could also be used at sea --you just spread it over all the paddlers in the raft up and roll it under deck bungies. Obviously you would choose the place and time for that on the water. The shelter had a "window" at each end which I could best describe as a "head tube"--basically a tunnel sewed into the shelter with a bit of elastic around the end of the sleeve so that it stayed fairly shut, but you could poke your head out, as we did on the beach to make sure the tide wasn't floating our boats away.

Such a piece of kit would make a good survival bag and would fit into a "ditch kit".

If anyone knows or has seen what I'm talking about, do you have a link to one?

Messages In This Thread

Ditch Kit Contents Ideas For Long Kayaking Trips *LINK*
Robert N Pruden -- Sunday, 28 November 2004, at 7:29 p.m.

Re: Ditch Kit Contents Ideas THANK YOU
Magoo_ns -- Saturday, 4 December 2004, at 12:06 p.m.

Reentries
Robert N Pruden -- Saturday, 4 December 2004, at 7:29 p.m.

Re: Reentries
Brian Nystrom -- Monday, 6 December 2004, at 8:22 a.m.

Re: Reentries
Robert N Pruden -- Tuesday, 7 December 2004, at 6:35 a.m.

Re: Reentries
Alan -- Tuesday, 7 December 2004, at 10:29 a.m.

Re: Reentries
FrankP -- Tuesday, 7 December 2004, at 2:22 p.m.

Agreed!
Robert N Pruden -- Thursday, 9 December 2004, at 10:22 p.m.

Re: Agreed!
Ed Hopkins -- Saturday, 11 December 2004, at 12:56 p.m.

Re: Agreed!
Robert N Pruden -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 1:02 p.m.

Re: Reentries
Brian Nystrom -- Wednesday, 8 December 2004, at 10:44 a.m.

Re: Reentries *LINK*
FrankP -- Thursday, 9 December 2004, at 8:31 a.m.

Re: Reentries
Brian Nystrom -- Thursday, 9 December 2004, at 10:37 a.m.

Re: Reentries
Robert N Pruden -- Thursday, 9 December 2004, at 10:53 p.m.

Re: Reentries
Robert N Pruden -- Thursday, 9 December 2004, at 10:34 p.m.

That sounds like your testosterone talking
Brian Nystrom -- Friday, 10 December 2004, at 10:12 a.m.

Re: That sounds like your testosterone talking
Bert -- Friday, 10 December 2004, at 1:59 p.m.

Re: Esoterica
sing -- Friday, 10 December 2004, at 6:09 p.m.

IMO, the issue isn't the weapon...
Brian Nystrom -- Saturday, 11 December 2004, at 8:07 a.m.

Sounds like your inexperience talking, Bryan
Robert N Pruden -- Friday, 10 December 2004, at 8:26 p.m.

Re: inexperience talks, experience walks
Alan -- Friday, 10 December 2004, at 10:53 p.m.

Re: inexperience talks, experience walks
Robert N Pruden -- Saturday, 11 December 2004, at 2:22 p.m.

Not quite
Brian Nystrom -- Saturday, 11 December 2004, at 8:25 a.m.

Re: Not quite
Robert N Pruden -- Saturday, 11 December 2004, at 2:30 p.m.

The panic reaction and a bear story
Pamela -- Sunday, 12 December 2004, at 4:37 p.m.

Re: The panic reaction and a bear story
sing -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 5:48 a.m.

Re: The panic reaction and a bear story
Will -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 10:55 a.m.

Re: The panic reaction and a bear story
sing -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 11:16 a.m.

BINGO! That's exactly it, Sing
Robert N Pruden -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 12:57 p.m.

Guess I've been underestimating the pig threat *NM*
Mike Scarborough -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 9:55 a.m.

The Flow of Forces
Robert N Pruden -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 12:46 p.m.

One final note on ditch kits
Robert N Pruden -- Saturday, 11 December 2004, at 3:37 p.m.

Re: One final note on ditch kits
Alan -- Saturday, 11 December 2004, at 5:08 p.m.

question for Alan
Don Flowers -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 11:11 a.m.

Re: question for Alan
Alan -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 11:24 a.m.

Re: question for Alan
Don Flowers -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 2:20 p.m.

Re: question for Alan
Alan -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 2:27 p.m.

Re: question for Alan
shawn baker -- Wednesday, 15 December 2004, at 3:38 p.m.

Re: One final note on ditch kits
Will -- Saturday, 11 December 2004, at 9:46 p.m.

Re: ditch kits and Bears
Paul Jacob -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 12:46 p.m.

I'll use it for a sweetgrass ceremony
Robert N Pruden -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 1:05 p.m.

Re: One final note on ditch kits *LINK*
KenC -- Monday, 13 December 2004, at 11:57 p.m.

Thanks for the link, the rad was totally rivetting
Robert N Pruden -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 11:28 a.m.

Re: One final note on ditch kits *Pic*
Bob Kelim -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 8:35 a.m.

Re: One final note on ditch kits
Robert N Pruden -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 11:31 a.m.

Re: One final note on ditch kits
Bob Kelim -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 1:08 p.m.

Re: One final note on ditch kits
Robert N Pruden -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 3:24 p.m.

Re: guns not for bears
shawn baker -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 3:41 p.m.

Re: guns not for bears
Don Flowers -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 5:30 p.m.

Re: guns not for bears
shawn baker -- Wednesday, 15 December 2004, at 3:33 p.m.

Re: guns not for bears
don flowers -- Wednesday, 15 December 2004, at 11:41 p.m.

Re: guns not for bears
Bob Kelim -- Wednesday, 15 December 2004, at 9:10 p.m.

Re: guns not for bears
Robert N Pruden -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 6:19 p.m.

Re: guns not for bears
Alan -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 7:40 p.m.

Re: One final note on ditch kits
KenC -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 11:47 p.m.

Agreed
Brian Nystrom -- Wednesday, 15 December 2004, at 11:54 a.m.

Duct Tape *NM*
Don Flowers -- Wednesday, 15 December 2004, at 2:56 p.m.

The problem with that is...
Brian Nystrom -- Thursday, 16 December 2004, at 8:29 a.m.

Re: One final note on ditch kits
sing -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 1:15 p.m.

Bush Whacking Blade
Robert N Pruden -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 3:30 p.m.

Re: Bush Whacking Blade
sing -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 3:54 p.m.

Re: One Final Bear Story
Will -- Tuesday, 14 December 2004, at 7:43 p.m.

What a thread!
Thomas Duncan -- Thursday, 16 December 2004, at 8:46 p.m.

VCP Igloo *LINK*
Nelson Labbé -- Friday, 17 December 2004, at 7:22 a.m.

Re: VCP Igloo *NM*
Thomas Duncan -- Friday, 17 December 2004, at 7:34 a.m.

Re: VCP Igloo Alternative
Evan Shaw -- Friday, 17 December 2004, at 9:35 a.m.

Another VCP Igloo Alternative... *LINK* *Pic*
Brian Nystrom -- Friday, 17 December 2004, at 5:49 p.m.

Re: Another VCP Igloo Alternative. yes it works!
Evan Shaw -- Friday, 17 December 2004, at 7:43 p.m.

Looks like a beached walarus but...
Robert N Pruden -- Saturday, 18 December 2004, at 1:30 p.m.

It looks better in red. *NM*
Brian Nystrom -- Sunday, 19 December 2004, at 8:39 a.m.

One way I used my knife was to clear an area
Robert N Pruden -- Friday, 17 December 2004, at 11:53 a.m.

Re: One way I used my knife was to clear an area
Pete -- Friday, 17 December 2004, at 1:51 p.m.

Re: What a thread!
Will -- Monday, 20 December 2004, at 12:48 p.m.

Big Knives revisited: Entymological Discovery... *LINK*
Robert N Pruden -- Thursday, 6 January 2005, at 9:51 p.m.

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