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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: thunderboats
Posted By: dave mcadoo In Response To: Re: thunderboats (Lee)
Date: Saturday, 23 December 2000, at 10:26 p.m.
: so that's what those are called, a friend and his co-leader of a local kayak
: tour company was about to lead a large group (10 paddlers) across a 100yd
: channel in the Chesapeake to an island about 1/4 mile away. The boat
: traffic was 5-20 mph with breaks in the traffic safe for the group. The
: channel was marked off well with shallow 4-6ft water towards the shore and
: island 1/4 mile either side. He was waiting with the group on that nice
: warm calm day near a channel marker, a guy in the group said "we can
: make it across in no time",,his co-leader said "what do you
: think?",,, my friend had people of such different paddling skills
: that if they went at their own speeds one person would be across while the
: other was half way, so keeping the group together would be a 2 mph affair
: at best. "Nope, this is assuming too much." So with crystal
: clear visibility for as far as one can see from sitting in a kayak he
: decided it was better to be on the safe side and turn back to shore to
: have lunch. Just as they turned around and started paddling back a group
: of "thunderboats" came roaring down the channel at very high
: speed (maybe it was "only" 45mph). Even though this channel was
: 1/4 mile from shore and parallel to it the water was fairly shallow on
: either side. Those muscle boats came down randomly in groups with one or
: two shooting out of the channel and around the group of kayakers that were
: not in the channel. He told me this story later in the day after I had
: taught two classes and he had finished the trip. "hey , how'd your
: day go?" ... He looked just a bit beat and said "I almost got 10
: people killed today". I'm sure the sailboats and smaller powerboaters
: in the channel weren't too pleased either.The water can be so territorial, not a pleasant message at Christmas but I must confess I hate the operator of a 50?ft v hull open water cigarrette style boat known as Celestial Voyager. My friend and I were paddling out of the main channel of the St Lawrence River and those !@#$%^&* kept making passes by us at maybe 100mph. The Miami Vice style boats that get gallons to the mile. Back and forth by us and I could tell they were staring and laughing as only mean spirited rich kids can. Again not a nice thought but it did remind me of how occasionally sunken logs will rise and float semi submerged...
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