Cybersecurity Newsbites: Be Careful Out There

Memorable Memorial Day Mileage

I've never been a big "let's go drive somewhere over the three-day holiday weekend" kinda guy, and with gas at $4 per gallon, a stay-at-home Memorial day weekend sure makes a lot more sense anyway. The weather gods smiled on the Baltimore-Washington area for the holiday, with blue skies, temperatures in the 70s and not a drop of rain in sight.  The movie gods also cooperated, with some good opening night opportunities for evening activities.

I started the weekend with a hilly 32 mile bike ride through Montgomery and Howard counties, stopping at the new "House of Flavors" in Highland for an expensive coffee and a bagel. I did the Haviland Mill hill both ways for my first granny gear test of the year - I could do the hills in 3rd gear, so I'm starting out the bicycling year a little bit ahead of last year anyway. Though, 7 miles an hour isn't much faster than 5 mph. This route passes by about 7 different coffee shops (only one of them a Starbucks) so some day I will map out a tour de java where every 7 miles or so you get another jolt of caffeine.

I followed that up with an 8 mile kayak training run on Rocky Gorge Reservoir, where I concentrated on trying to do every stroke the right way. Lots of herons and turtles out, and the one bald eagle, to watch me as I tried to keep both hands high, both upper arms bent, both hips rotating, both lower arms straight, both paddles fully in the water - oh, and sit up, and forcibly stab the paddle in the water, too. I made some progress - without really trying to push it, I got my standard time of 1:28 (5.5 mph average) down to 1:24 (5.8 mph). Maybe I will make some progress in doing less thrashing and more actual boat propulsion. That put me in a good frame of mind as Carole and I joined some friends to go see the new "Indiana Jones" movie (many thumbs up if your thumbs like Indiana Jones movies, which they probably do) and a really good dinner at the Aida Bistro in Columbia (many tongues up if you are one of those who eat.)

Sunday morning was the standard "bicycle with Carl" day and we decided to check on the Gwynns Fall Trail which had opened a new segment from the Park and Ride lot at I70 and the Baltimore Beltway. This is a very odd trail, mixing in new paved segments along the river with riding on abandoned roads with riding on dirt paths through the woods with riding on open heavily trafficked streets through urban Baltimore. It goes all the way down to the Inner Harbor, but we only did the northern, more rural part. The new northernmost section includes several switchbacks and lots of brand new landscaping - it will be a good looking trail section when that all matures.  About 5 miles in some fire trucks up on the road were spraying their fire hoses over the trail into the river, for some reason - this created a mini-waterfall that had us puzzled for  bit, but they stopped spraying as we sat there deciding what to do.

We went as far south as Carroll Park, home of the Mt. Clare mansion that dates from 1760. The Gwynns Falls route beyond that is basically mostly on streets, except for a few sections of paved path that get you under the Baltimore Beltway. It is a fun way to bike into Baltimore's Inner Harbor, if you are so inclined, but it ain't scenic - nice view of the Greyhound bus station, though. On the way back, we detoured to do the abandoned road section to beeyootiful Dickeysville, MD - a town that seems to have been isolated in time and remained unchanged for 100 years. Even though there is a tree down across the trail, it is well worth the 2 mile detour. We then headed back north and chugged back up those new switchbacks, for a ride total just shy of 20 miles. You can stretch this out to about 35 miles round trip if you go all the way to the southern end.

Later that night, Carole and I (along with Jim and Jacquie) did another dinner and a movie night, seeing "Son of Rambow", a weird British movie. Half a thumb up, if you like oddball movies with lots of kid actors with British accents using all kinds of British slang as they do all kinds of things you hope your kids never do.

The next day it was back to paddling. Jerry and Marie had mapped out a paddle on the Monocacy River, starting at a launch ramp north of Frederick, MD (essentially in the parking lot of a WalMart!) and ending at at Pinecliff Park, 6.7 miles downstream. With all the rain we've had in May, the river flow was about 50% above normal which gave us a nice downstream assist. We saw lots of herons and other birds, and one river otter - a first for most of us. The river is largely isolated from development, but you do go past the discharges from a few water treatment plants and you get to experience that nice minty fresh smell. At this water level you hit a few small rapids, probably Class I at best, which added a bit of fun. I lead the way through many of them and cleverly lead Carole and me to run aground at one point after passing under a bridge. However, we quickly moved on and enjoyed a nice float, er paddle down the river. A quick (but huge) bite to eat at the breakfast buffet at the Four Seasons in Mt. Airy, and a quick viewing of the fancy bicycles at the Mt. Airy Bicycles shop and a very nice Memorial Day weekend drew to a close.

The Googlefied map of the paddle:

More Paddle Stroke Analysis

This series of pictures are captures from a video taken at Lake Anna during the race training days and show Brian (grey shirt), Holm (blue shirt) and me (white shirt) at similar points in a forward paddling stroke. The set of three above show us all just at the start of getting the left blade in the water. I look OK compared to Holm, but I think he has actual torso rotation to the right, so his paddle angle is higher and the blade is going in closer to the boat. I think I'm also leaning a bit too far forward and not sitting upgright enough, plus my shoulder looks higher with my forearm less vertical than Holm's. Brian looks like he has rotated around but compared to Holm, his hand is way higher - above his head. I think Brian is just a split-second earlier in the stroke, as his paddle is less in the water than Holms, so that explains most of the difference.

The pictures below show the end of that stroke, with the three paddlers just at the point where we are taking our paddles out of the water on the left. Here the differences are much more noticeable - Holm and Brian have rotated so much to the left that their right paddle blades are completely clear of the left side of the boats and the paddle shafts are almost parallel to their boats. My right paddle blade is still over the center of my boat - you can see I only have shoulder rotation (not torso) and no way to get the paddle entirely to the left of the kayak. I think a lot of this is due to the fact that I'm still in "sea kayaker" position with my thighs locked in under the thigh braces (vs. in knees up position) but so was Brian - his knee injury meant he wasn't really able to push with his feet to get better rotation either. I just have to focus on using abs/obliques to twist and not just shoulder/lats. More to work on - its always something.

Toto, I Don't Think We're In Rocky Gorge Anymore

I live less than 2 miles from the Brown Bridge put-in at Rocky Gorge Reservoir. After work I can decide to paddle and be on the water within 20 minutes, though when I move that fast I invariably forget something. Last night after work, I figured I had thought of everything:

1. Left a mini-float plan for my wife: "Putting in at Brown Bridge for usual paddle, should be off water by PM"
2. Checked weather forecast and looked at weather radar: partly cloudy, chance of showers, nothing but showers on local radar
3. Loaded PFD, paddle, glasses strap, GPS, boat on truck - even remembered to put the seat in the kayak.

I headed over to the ramp, put-in and took off under blue skies with fast moving white clouds, as it was quite breezy. The air temperature was in the high 60s, about the same as the water temperature, so I was just out in shorts and a t-shirt, and didn't bother with the spray skirt.

I'm working on "institutionalizing" my forward stroke with the wing paddle in my new Kayakpro Marlin, so I focused on sit up straight, stab down, rotate out and around, lift up, hand high, repeat - without worrying about how fast I'm going. With the new boat I'm just about now at the point I remember reaching when the P&H Capella was new to me: whenever I get the stroke mechanics right for a few strokes in a row the boat veers to one side or the other. Since the Marlin has a rudder, compared to the skeg in the Capella, I'm still at the point with the rudder that I have to pay attention to which foot does what. When I get that under control, I look up and my stroke has gone all to hell.

Usually, that means my upper hand has dropped down and when I get it back up I'm leaning forward. I then oscillate between sitting up straight with low hands and slumping with high hands, until I get back in synch. All this takes so much concentration that time actually passes quickly - often before I know it I'm approaching the Rt. 29 bridge which is the turn around point for my standard 8 miler. However, this time at about 3.4 miles I looked around and noticed that there was no more blue sky and that the reason the boat was veering was that the wind was swirling around on the water. Oh, and the water landing on my head wasn't from the paddle, it was actually raining.

The clouds looked ominously dark and the tops of the trees were starting to bend over, so I figured there might be a thunderstorm coming and turned around at the 3.5 mile mark. That put me directly into the main thrust of the wind and the actual waves and mini-swells that were now on the water. The wind got stronger, the rain got harder and the temperature was dropping. About 2.5 miles from the start I thought I heard thunder and had an internal debate about lightning safety: which was safer, staying on the water or getting out under the tall trees that line the shore? Is a carbon Kevlar kayak an insulator or a conductor? What is the difference between flammable and inflammable?

I decide the answer was trees, conductor, nothing and pulled over to the shore. The wind and rain really picked up - it was like a mini-hurricane for a bit. The weather data at Motionbased says the peak gust was 25 mph but it think it was a good deal higher than that for a bit. All the birds seemed to hunkering down to wait it out, too. I listened for a while and heard no thunder and saw no lightning, so I got back in the boat and continued on. What I realized I had forgotten was throwing the sprayskirt and a rain jacket in the hatch would have been nice - it was still raining and windy and it was actually pretty cold.

The rest of the paddle was pretty uneventful and of course the rain stopped just as I reached the ramp to get off the water. I was able to keep the stroke and boat direction together for a few more strokes in a row than the last practice paddle and averaged the usual 5.4 mph. Basically, in a year I've gotten my time for the 8 mile round trip down from 2 hours (in the 13 foot Ookpik with a Euro paddle) to 1 hour 28 minutes (in the 18 foot Marlin with a wing paddle) without going all out. I'd like to be able to get that down to 1 hour 20 minutes for a 6 mph average, but for now I'm focusing on beating that forward stroke into submission.

The usual Googlefied map:

Nature Is Out To Get You Because That's Its Nature

I knew that stingrays are evil but pelicans - who knew? In Disney movies, pelicans are always the most pleasant of the characters and when you see them out in the wild (which is pretty rare in the Baltimore/Washington DC area) they always seem to just be peacefully skimming across the water, occasionally dipping their beaks to skim up some unsuspecting, low on the food chain fish. However, it turns out they are just as sneaky as those stingrays. I guess we will have to start wearing football helmets on top of our aluminum foil beanies to deter incidents like this:

Woman Attacked By Pelican 

Debbie Shoemaker was attacked by a pelican when she was visiting Treasure Island.

TREASURE ISLAND - A woman swimming in the Gulf of Mexico is recovering from a pelican attack.  Debbie Shoemaker visits Treasure Island every year from Ohio.  Thursday, she was splashing around in the water when the bird appeared out of nowhere. "It was like somebody took their fist as hard as they could and smashed it into the side of your face," Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker said she was terrified.  There was no one in the water swimming nearby as she screamed for help.  Some people on the beach called 911. Shoemaker called her close friend in Tampa from the hospital. "My first thought was a sting ray or a jelly fish," Barbara Hatcher said.

Shoemaker had to have 25 stitches to close the three-inch gash in the side of her face.  She says doctors had never seen anything like it. "The event just keeps happening in my mind over and over and over," Shoemaker said.  "It could've gotten my eyes. It could've gotten my throat.  It could've knocked me out in the water."

Shoemaker returned to Ohio, where she may face plastic surgery.  She hopes to have her stitches removed Wednesday.

Kayak Stroke Do Bees and Don't Bees

I grew up in Long Island back in the 60S, and as a rugrat back then Miss Louise and "Romper Room" was my equivalent of today's Sesame Street. There were some creepy aspects of that show (I still shiver when I think of Miss Louise turning to the screen pointing at us and saying "I see Suzy, I see Johnny...") but I always remember the "Do Be a Do Bee, and Don't Be a Don't Bee" segment:

Did you ever see a Do Bee,
A Do Bee, a Do Bee?

Did you ever see a Do Bee
Go this way and that?
Go this way and that way
And this way and that way.
Did your ever see a Do Bee
Go this way and that?

Sung to the tune of "Auch Du Leiber Augustine" while a cartoon bumblebee with big floppy antennae buzzed around, this song was finally driven out of my head in my late teens when John Belushi started wearing his killer bee suit on Saturday Night Live. However, the concept of the "Do Bes" and the "Don't Bees" always stuck with me, reinforced I guess by reading all those "Goofus and Gallant" stories in Highlights magazine at the dentist's office. What better way to learn than by simultaneously seeing the examples of what to do and what not to do? The kayak race clinic at Lake Anna gave me a great opportunity to try to apply that to my forward stroke.

THE FORWARD STROKE DO-BE

Actually, there are two Do Bees in this picture: in the white shirt on the left is Coach Holm just finishing a stroke, while in the black shirt on the right is Brian "The Blur" Blankinship just getting ready to start a stroke. You can see Holm has fully rotated his torso counter-clockwise and his paddle is completely clear of the left side of his boat - it might even be beyond parallel with his boat, he is really coiled up. Brian is a little ahead in the phase of the stroke, as he has already taken the paddle out of the water on the right side and beginning to do his catch on the left, but you can also see his torso rotation. They are both sitting pretty upright with some lean forward.

THE DON'T BE PADDLER

Here's a picture of me, a little earlier in the left hand stroke than Holm is. On the positive side, my paddle is fully in the water and it looks like my right hand is up at eye level, though it should probably be higher. But it looks like I'm leaning way forward, vs. sitting up straight, and it looks like I've pushed my right arm forward  vs. rotating my torso at all. In my defense, I'm not yet all the way around, but the paddle is pretty close to my hip and should be coming out of the water soon. It also looks like my left hand has moved too close to the center of the paddle. Holm put some tape marks on my paddle for his grip recommendations which had my pinky just about on the yellow label and I am definitely not doing that. Though when you look at Holm's grip, he has a lot of space showing between the outside of his hands and the paddle blade.

EXPERT OPINIONS

I asked Cyndi and Brian, who both have excellent strokes and are skilled kayaking instructors, for some additional input:

Cyndi: "I'd also note that when Holm fully exits that blade his entire paddle shaft will be parallel to the side of his boat (like you said) and both hands will be over the water and at shoulder level. That can only be achieved with really, really good rotation. To the left is a picture that Dave took of Melissa (in the blue boat on the left, Anke is in the boat on the right) doing just this. I'd also note how Holm and Brian are both rotating from "the lower spine up". Too many of us just rotate our shoulders and not the lower torso."

Brian: "There may be more to compare than to contrast between the Do-bee's and the Don't-Bee.  You have to think of John's (mid stroke) picture as between mine (start of stroke) and Holm's (end of stroke). 

Take a look at off-hand height (the hand not engaging the water).  In all three cases it is at about eye level.  As Holm's back hand comes up to eye level, it will be where my back hand is. As mine comes forward it will be where John's is.  As John completes his stroke, his off-side hand will be where Holm's (front) hand is. I find this is a key feature of using a wing paddle. If you keep your off-hand so that it follows the horizon completely across the stroke, then you will tend to have good rotation. If you drop your off-side hand, you tend to shovel water up and towards your kayak which is inefficient and may cause the kayak to steer with each forward stroke.

Speaking of rotation, if again you visualize the three of us taking one stroke you can see I have wound up for the catch and am about to spear forward as I rotate my arms down. John is half way through his stroke. The lines on his shirt indicate there was some rotation going on, but perhaps not from the bottom of the spine like Holm and I. The stroke continues around to where Holm is completely rotated around and starting to exit.

 

Due to my knee injury, I was locked into the thigh braces so I would not use my knee too much. Holm on the other hand is pressing with his legs to use his largest muscles (quads) to help power the kayak.  With John leaning forward as much as he is, he might be inhibiting that rotation a bit.  (Note from John: I was also locked into "sea kayaker" position vs. knees up, as I'm not yet stable enough in the new boat to paddle knees up.)

 

I find the best position for full body rotation to be feet and knees together in the middle of the kayak, butt to the back of the seat, leaning slightly forward (like Holm and I) and the lower back arched forward (belly button pushed up and forward). This really frees your body for rotation.  Unfortunately most sea kayaks are not designed for this type of stroke.

 

John's paddle is correctly submerged (right length). The entire throat is under but the shaft is not.  He is getting all the power the blade can provide but it is not so deep that it slows his exit. If John was rotating more from the spine and less from the shoulders, the wing paddle might be a little farther from the kayak, which means he would have powered through a longer stroke without it being any further behind him. John's elbow has not pulled past his shoulders so at least he is not arm-paddling.

   

John also mentioned pushing with his off-side.  When I started paddling, I remember reading the push was a certain percentage and the pull the rest of the power.  I no longer think of it in those terms at all.  Now I think of reaching as far forward as I can for the catch by straightening my lead arm and rotating as much as possible. As I plant the blade, I think of pulling back with my abs while my on-side foot shoves the boat forward. Holm (again this year) told me to engage with the bicep. He is trying to get me to be more aggressive in the stroke, not pull with my arms.  When I get that 18 foot kayak up to 6 MPH, I can hold that speed with out too much effort. To maintain 6.5-7MPH, I have to be aggressive and always pulling harder."

 

Thanks to Bill Woodruff and Dave Biss for the pictures, and to Brian and Cyndi for guest commentary.

Did you ever see a Do Bee,
A Do Bee, a Do Bee?

Did you ever see a Do Bee
Go this way and that?
Paddle this way and that way
Paddle this way and that way.
Did your ever see a Do bee
Paddle this way and tha-a-a-a-t?

Back On The Res

Water temperatures on Rocky Gorge Reservoir are in the high 60s and the air temperature is regularly in the 70s and even 80s now - it is officially summer and the dry-suit can go back in the basement. I've been able to get in some after-work paddles from the Brown Bridge put-in, where the ramp is still blocked requiring an annoying 100 foot carry. Luckily, the new Marlin is under 40 pounds, not bad at all to schlep. The ramp being blocked tends to keep the fisher-people traffic down, in any event. This year there seems to have been a heron population explosion - last night I saw at least 5 different pairs of herons, though never more than 2 pair in view at one time - they could have been tricking me by circling overhead in a false show of force. The turtles and barn swallows were out in force, but I didn't see the usual bald eagle. The water level continues to go up to where it is finally back to really looking like a reservoir all the way up to Browns Bridge.

Two things Holm said at the race clinic stuck with me: (1) You have to get an effective, efficient paddling stroke burned into muscle memory before you worry much about speed; and (2) don't be a slave to your GPS speed readout - just focus on some set distance or waypoints and work on reducing your time, not trying to increase your instantaneous speed. So, in my usual 8 mile paddle to the Route 29 bridge and back, I only looked at the time readout. Well, I tried to only do that - until I changed the display to not show speed, I was peeking when I thought I was going really fast. I'm usually wrong when I think that and then I start trying to muscle the paddle and my stroke goes to hell.

When I first started doing this 8 miler with the 13 foot Ookpik it took about 2 hours. With the Capella and a wing paddle, I got that down to 1 hour 36 minutes. With the Marlin, I'm down to 1 hour 28 minutes. So, actually I'm getting less and less exercise - there is a downside to efficiency. But I am definitely now the limiting factor - if I could average 6 mph, it would be down to 1 hour 20 minutes. With the right engine, the Marlin can certainly do 6 mph.

I'll start worrying more about speed once I can get the right stroke mechanics to stay on autopilot, where when I zone out my hands don't drop, or my attempt at rotation doesn't disappear, etc. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the ever changing view along the twists and turns of this section of Rocky Gorge. Google-ified map below.

Paddling With The Big Dogs

A quick summary: I got into kayaking a little over a year ago and quickly found I enjoyed seeing how fast I could go. That lead to entering some races, then buying another kayak, and then a few months ago yet another which was longer and faster yet. The paddler is now definitely the limiting factor, both in stability and in speed. The former I'm working on, for the latter Brian Blankinship invited me to attend a race training weekend down on the nuclear-warmed waters of Lake Anna.

This has been held for a few years now on the Thursday and Friday preceding CPA's annual SK102 kayaking training weekend. SK102 has been held on the waterfront property of a CPA member for 10 of the 12 years he has lived there - the man is a saint. I spent Wednesday night loading up my truck with two boats (the Marlin for the racing clinic and the Capella for helping out in the training classes on Saturday) and all the gear and food for three days of paddling and camping. I also had to make a quick trip out to LL Bean to replace a Thule Hullaport cradle that turned out to have a cracked base. Thursday morning I packed up the tasty fruit salad and blueberry buckle Carole made for my turn at supplying breakfast to the group(forgetting the two dozen bagels and many bricks of cream cheese I had also bought) and hit the road at about 0430, arriving down at Lake Anna at about 0645.

The cast of characters included:

• Holm and Melissa, the instructors  - Holm was a member of the 1988 East German Olympic team and has great stories to tell of life before the wall fell and of world class kayaking. He isn't a tall guy but has a back the size of a garage door. Melissa is also a champion-class kayaker and both of them had kayaking strokes that were impossibly strong and fluid, and they paddled a variety of kayaks, none of which were much wider than a pool cue.
• Jack and Anke - an East German and Russian couple living in Florida, both looked like poster models for exercise and healthy living and paddled long, skinny telephone pole like racing boats.
• Cyndi and "Cabin Boy" Dave - Cyndi paddled her Nemo and Dave entertained us with his Greenland rolls in his newly built wooden kayak and his acrobatic antics in a white-water playboat. Seeing the puzzled look on Holm's face as he looked at Dave in his "red corpuscle" tulik doing qjkilkqq rolls was worth the price of admission.
• Brian and Christina - both paddled Epics but Brian had just had a few quarts of transmission fluid drained from his knee and Christina had been off the water for a while. Oh, and the sun was in their eyes.
• Bill - also paddling an Epic, Bill (along with Cyndi) trains with the Washington Canoe Club and was already used to world-class coaches yelling at him.
• Stephen - paddling his popsicle green Huki surfski, with a hand-made matching water bladder. All he needed was a lime-green boutonniere to finish off the outfit.
• Me - paddling my brand new Marlin, I felt like the "special" kid who has been mainstreamed into the Advanced Placement class. If there had been a police lineup to pick the suspect who had killed someone by paddling very fast, no one would have ever chosen me.

(Photos from this point on courtesy of Bill Woodruff)

The first day started off with a group meeting about goals and techniques and then Holm looked at each of our paddles to maximize their configuration in relation to us and our boats. I have never feathered my paddle and Holm immediately made me set it to a 45 degree feather. That was like throwing one more ball in the air for a novice juggler - what little stroke I had completely fell apart, and by the end of the day most of the skin was gone from the most useful fingers on my left hand as I slowly learned to let the paddle rotate in that hand between strokes on that side.

We then got in the kayaks and Holm and Melissa paddled alongside each of us and gave us specific things to work on. For most people that meant sitting up straighter, or keeping the top hand higher, or raching farther forward for the catch, or rotating more, etc. For me, it basically meant all those things - when Holm first watched me paddle he pretty much had the same look on his face as he did when watching Dave do the "drowning swimmer" maneuvers on his whitewater kayak. I think at one point Melissa felt bad for me and yelled out "Great breathing, John."

They then had us do a really good drill: paddle 10 strokes on the left side only, then 10 on the right side only, repeat. This really helped me focus on trying to get each aspect of the stroke right and also pointed out how each side works a bit differently since we all tend to be stronger on one side or the other.  It is also exhausting, even though you go slower. That is definitely one drill I am going to continue to force myself to do. Holm also had me move my seat and footbraces forward, which helped a lot. Thanks to Cyndi and Dave who explained how to move the footbrace, which also explained the plastic bolt that had mysteriously appeared in my cockpit one day - it was one of two plastic stops that made adjusting the footbrace impossible until they are both removed.

For the next session, Holm used a video camera to tape us while we paddled past him from both sides and then towards him and away from him. Brian also taped Melissa and Holm as they paddled by the dock so we would also have the "do be" examples. After lunch we then watched the video and Holm critiqued each of us. It is amazing (and depressing) to realize how your mind and your own eyes can fool you but the video camera doesn't fall for it. Once again, for most everyone this meant working on one or two particular flaws Holm pointed out. For me, Holm asked if I had ever considered taking up the shot-put and Melissa said "your boat is nice and shiny, John."

The final session of the first day was breaking up into groups of three and practicing paddling in vee formations where the two side boats ride the wash of the center boat. Holm partnered me with Christina and Anke, realizing that my compensating for lack of paddling skill with energetic brute force thrashing would create a nice wake for them to ride. Staying in formation, and periodically switching the leader position, added yet another variable (sit straight, lean forward, top hand high, twist right hand, stab down, oops - move left, which rudder pedal is that? - get back on the wash, yikes.) I doubt that anyone watching us would have realized we were actually paddling in any kind of formation..

That night the tasty dinners prepared by the plant-killer team (lead by Cabin Boy Dave) and the animal-killer team (lead by {well, actually completely prepared by} Brian and Christina) tasted great as we sat around and shot the breeze as the lake quieted down. Holm had all kinds of funny comments, both on the state of kayak racing leadership in the US (not tremendously positive...) and to individuals: "Stephen, your boat is too small, you are man with man-bones; Cyndi, your boat is too big; Jack, you must throw your stroke away; John, perhaps you should bring fishing pole."

The next day we started at 0800 (late by East German coaching standards) and repeated the one side drills and the vee-formation drills for a bit. We then practiced starts, and Holm did a demonstration of his race start. One second he was sitting in his needle-thin kayak talking to us, two strokes later the kayak was up in the air and mostly out of the water, and in 10 seconds he was out of sight. We all just sat there gaping. If you have ever taken swing dancing lessons it was like when, after patiently showing you how to do "step, step, backstep, step" very slowly for 30 minutes, the instructors break loose into these complicated rapid dance moves.  You realize these people are from a different planet, operating under some different, more kindly form of gravity or something.

We closed out the training session by paddling continually in 1/2 mile circles practicing our strokes as Holm and Melissa individually worked with us. By then, I had covered my left hand in band-aids and I think I finally got the feathering down, but I would focus on sitting up and then I wouldn't be reaching forward enough; I'd reach forward and my top hand would drop; I get my hands up and I'd be slumping, repeat. Holm: "perhaps you try competitive lumberjacking?" Melissa: "you have made real progress in looking straight ahead."

After that, Brian and Stephen and Bill and Cyndi tried paddling the variety of pencil-thin boats Holm had brought and a variety of occasional splashes ensued, and we shut down race training operations to relax and then prepare for helping out at SK102. For me, the two days were thoroughly frustrating, as while I knew I had absolutely no overall kayaking skill I thought I at least had the basics of a decent forward stroke. However, the frustration was way outweighed by the knowledge gained and the fun I had. The few times where I actually strung four or five good strokes in a row and felt the boat leap forward (OK, totter forward) gives me hope.

Overhead imagery map of Lake Anna and race training out and back paddle route:

The Accidental Duathlete

It seemed like a simple plan: put the kayaks in the Patuxent at Benedict Bridge, paddle 20 miles to the Solomon's Island/Drum Point area and then get out. However, first we all had to play schedule bingo and find a day where a critical mass could make it. Saturday worked out for Charlie and Stephen, but when we checked the weather forecast on Friday we saw "SAT SW WINDS 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 KT. WAVES 2 TO 3 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. VSBY 1 TO 3 NM." Since we were paddling to the southeast, that didn't sound like too much fun.

The weather forecast for Sunday was much more favorable: "SUN W WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. WAVES 1 FT. SCATTERED SHOWERS POSSIBLY MIXED WITH SLEET IN THE AFTERNOON." So, Sunday it was - the sleet was a low probability thing according to the weather guessers. Charlie showed up at my house at 0800 and we loaded his wooden kayak and my new KayakPro Marlin on my truck and headed down to the Prince Frederick area and the launch ramp at Hallowell Point where Rt. 231 crosses the Patuxent between Calvert County and Prince Georges county. Stephen's wife and daughter drove him and his wooden kayak up from Drum Point, and his 13 year old daughter watched horrified as we all donned geeky looking cold weather gear and PFDs and radios and the like.

I've had the Marlin for a few weeks but the hatch rims weren't properly attached when it arrived, and it took a few weeks to repair, so my actually paddling on it has been limited to a few reservoir paddles and one evening paddle on the Potomac River. I'm just learning how to deal with a rudder, and hadn't been out on the new boat in any kind of wave action, so this would be the shake-out cruise. Little did I know how literally it would be that.

We got going at about 1030 and the weather was gorgeous - sunny skies, temperatures in the 50s and a nice tailwind and the tide going our way. We headed south and were effortlessly averaging close to 6 mph for the first 9 miles or so. The river was deserted - very few boats and not many birds or any other wildlife, either. If we stopped paddling there wasn't a noise to be heard - very peaceful.

At about the 9 mile mark we reached Broomes Island and the river takes a jog to the west. We headed across the river to cut the corner and paddle along the western shore for a while, which was when the wind took an unexpected shift and started coming from the east directly on our port beam. From Stephen:

It was just after the Broome Island transition from the Eastern Calvert shoreline to the Western St. Mary's shore that the wind switched 90 degrees and picked up force. The water picked up from a following 6" chop to 1' beam seas with much confused water.

The paddling got tougher from this point and while it really wasn't that rough, my lack of experience with the Marlin's stability points and the rudder started to tell. In my Capella with a skeg I feel pretty comfortable in those types of conditions but I still don't quite have the Marlin's edge points nailed down, and I'm definitely not very good yet at rudder control - pushing down on the rudder with the same foot where I'm lifting the knee to edge just seems counter-intuitive.

As the seas got a bit steeper, Charlie started to tack back and forth to avoid running parallel to the seas and I decided to give that a try. We were about 12 miles into the paddle and 50 feet from the western shore when I tried to turn right to run with the seas a bit, when all of a sudden I saw the water coming up to my face as I fell to the right - splash! I think where I went wrong was probably lifting my right knee to edge to turn right but pushing the rudder with my left foot which turned the boat to the left - with a little help from a wave over I went.

This was actually the first time I've gone over accidentally. My first thought as my face went into the water was "how embarrassing" and then "how cool would it be to know how to roll." Then I remembered about wet exit and all that, and released the spray skirt, popped out with my paddle and grabbed the boat. As I was coming up I felt something go over my head and when I got my head out of the water I realized my glasses were gone. I did have a strap but I hadn't tightened it enough - big mistake. Mistake number 2 was not having spare glasses with my dry clothes in the hatch - I did have a spare set in the truck, but didn't bring them along on the paddle.

From Stephen:

We were fortunately only thirty or so feet from the shore when you flipped, although the shallower water may have added to the steepness of the beam waves. I wasn't too far from you as you capsized and heard your "yelp". It was about thirty seconds before I was on site by which time you had successfully exited, surfaced and had hold of your Marlin with paddle in hand. We were out of the water in less than four or five minutes but I was glad you had your drysuit on in the mid fifty degree water.

On the plus side, my Kokotat Tropos semi-dry suit worked very well, no water came in. I had thermal long johns and just a tee shirt on underneath (all non-cotton), and did not have gloves or a hat on at the time, but I really wasn't cold at all. Since we were so close to shore, I just swam in with an assist from Stephen and we beached. If I had carried a spare set of glasses, I could have just carried on but without glasses I can hardly tell the front of the boat from the back. So, I called my friend Chris who lives not far from Stephen in Drum Point and we got back in the boats and paddled about 3/4 mile down stream to Greenwell State Park. Stephen helped me carry the Marlin up to the parking lot where Chris and his wife June met me, and Stephen and Charlie continued the paddle.

Chris and June drove me back up to Benedict Bridge (a much longer drive than the direct river route) and I drove back in my truck to get my kayak. From Stephen's account of finishing the paddle:

Charlie and I ended up paddling 33.7 km in 4:12 at an 8.0 average. With the GPS running the whole time it captured quite a lot of bobbing around time.

As Charlie and I ran along the Solomons Island stretch we were being wind and tide assisted with one foot plus following waves and were briefly making progress in excess of 11kph.  After rounding the Southern tip of SI, Charlie begged off the four km crossing to Drum Point and the Chesapeake Bay, we would've had a tail wind and it could've been a great run, but on the other hand conditions could've got quite interesting crossing the mouth of the Patuxent. This is my home turf and although I contend with this open water on most of my outings, I had to respect Charlie's misgivings. Drum Point would've been only another 1k further than Chris' house.

As we faced into the 15mph plus wind entering the harbour we struggled to keep a 7kph pace (sorry for the mixed units). There were a couple of big sail boats leaned way over by the stiff wind, they were tacking their way into the protected water and we kept out of their zig-zag path.

Just as I was leaving Greenwell, Stephen and Charlie were nearing Chris's house on Leason's Cove, where June made us tea and cookies and we all warmed up.  Other than my going kerplunk, it was a really nice paddle and lucking out with support from Chris and June kept my swimming from ruining the paddle for Stephen and Charlie.

My lessons learned:

1. Carry spare glasses and check that strap.
2. The KayakPro felt so stable on calm water that I was over-confident. I should have spent time first with the rudder out of the water getting used to all the edging points, then adding in the rudder before doing a real paddle.
3. For 52 degree water and 52 degree air temps, my cold weather gear and wet exit skills at least up to a real test.
4. My hatch repair job on the Marlin seems to have worked - no water in the hatches.

So, for me it was both fun and educational to do an accidental duathlon, and thanks to Stephen and Charlie for their support. Here's the GPS track:

 

Hatches? We Don't Need No Steenken Hatches

Good News: the hatches for the new KayakPro Marlin finally showed up.
Bad News: when putting the front hatch cover on, the plastic hatch rim popped right off of the kayak.

Very disappointing but with a bit of duct tape I was still able to go on the Chesapeake Paddler's Association Pirates of Georgetown Thursday night paddle on the Potomac (pictures courtesy of Page D.) It was a beautiful evening to paddle, with air temperatures in the low 50s and just enough breeze to keep it pleasant. The water temperature has just barely broken 50, so it is still dry suit weather. It will be nice to ditch all the extra clothing soon.

The cherry blossoms were out in a big way so it made for a very scenic paddle. It was a nice leisurely paddle - the only other boat traffic was the college rowing crews returning from training paddles. Very different from the land traffic, as the Tidal Basin area was jammed with blossom viewers. On the way back to Jack's newly renovated (and unfortunately much more homogenized) boathouse, Cyndi and I pushed the speed up a bit. We held 5.5-5.8 mph fighting a current, and I figured out I needed to lengthen my paddle a bit. Afterwards, a quick trip to Chipotle in Georgetown and then back home to emailing with Kayakpro about how to get this hatch situation fixed.

They Fly Through The Air With the Greatest of Ease - Till They Hit You in the Face

It's not enough that vicious stingrays stalked that alligator guy and killed him, but now they are hunting down women from Michigan on vacation and leaping out of the water to attack and kill them.  Be afraid, be very afraid - and don't listen to those PETA wackos. Wrapping your head in aluminum foil is not enough - you need to be much more careful. Before you get in your car, look in the back seat and under the car. In your bedroom, sprinkle Wye River seasoning under your door, as those sneaky suckers can fit right under even the mostly tightly locked door. If your doorbell rings late at night, don't fall for the old "candy gram..... land shark" scam - hide under the covers, hold your breath and don't make a sound. Sting rays have short attention spans and will soon go next door. Phew.