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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: Bad weather comes with clouds attached to it .
Posted By: Robert N Pruden In Response To: Bad weather comes with clouds attached to it ... (Pamela)
Date: Wednesday, 2 March 2005, at 7:26 a.m.
: ... and I'm a big fan of monitoring the weather. I have no idea whether this
: group did or not. But the storm gods usually give you some fairly strong
: indications that bad weather is coming up and it's far better to curse
: good weather from the shore than curse to bad weather from the water.: I'd include weather skills right up there with other safety concerns.
If you see my message to inexperienced paddlers, Pamela, you will learn that bad weather can be as predictable as the six o'clock news.
These days:
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/seayaktwo/detail?.dir=c72d&.dnm=cd95.jpg&.src=ph
...became these afternoon storms:
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/seayaktwo/detail?.dir=c72d&.dnm=86f1.jpg&.src=ph
So many perfectly beautiful days changed so rapidly in the late afternoon that I learned to batten down the hatches and get into my rain gear well before the storms hit. Water characteristics changed with the incoming winds. I had to adjust my paddling methods to adjust to the changes. While I went through my learning process regarding these seemingly sudden weather changes I got caught a couple of times and had to scramble to get my rain gear on while trying to avoid wind-generated WW. I was amazed at how wind can change a flat-water experience into a hairy ride through WW. All that on a very shallow river. I don't think the North Saskatchewan River is a particular worrisome river to be on, except above those durned rapids.
Out on big water?, well, I don't want to think of the dangers I'd have to face were I to get caught during a storm. I've read enough stories about paddlers getting caught on Lake Superior to know better.
Robert N Pruden
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