Paddle Posts

We ended our stay in Vieste and had a great drive down the only road on the south side of Gargano. We had amazing views of the ocean from the top of the same cliffs we paddle under on the first day. We drove to a wonderful beach just south of Barletta and launched from there. 

I’ll throw in a couple pictures of Vieste taken while we were walking down to the harbor to get the van and kayaks. 

When we got on the water we headed south to the south end of Termoli and had lunch at a great restaurant in the beach. Sorry but I forgot to take pictures of the lunch stop. In any case, here are some pictures from day 3’s paddle. These first few are of the cathedral in Termoli that is pretty spectacular. The pictures do not do it justice. 

This one shows the fortress in Termoli. 

And here are a couple shots of the Termoli Harbor. 

This was a very pleasant paddle day. After landing back at the van and loading gear we drove a few hours north to the Abruzzo area and called it a very successful day. 

Happy Paddling 

Scott 

We had another great paddle today. If you have looked at the Paddle Tracks you probably were thinking that we lost our way ?. Not really but we did have changes in the plan. 

We were at the launch around 0900 and got out on the water pretty quickly. The wind was building all morning along with the sea state. We went about four miles and Erika suggested we head back due to conditions. We had been running with the wind and waves so we had a pretty hard slog back to the launch. When we got back we went into town for a nice lunch and Erika headed back to the B&B. Marco and I went back out on the water hoping the wind had continued to build so we could do some fast down wind surfing in the Tarans. To our surprise the wind had dropped way down so most of the chop was gone but there were still some good rollers coming in. We went a couple miles down the shore and found a great beach where the rollers were coming in and breaking pretty nice. Nothing really big but fun to play in. We spent a couple hours playing in the waves. And wouldn’t you guess, as soon as we decided to head back to town the wind picked up again so we had a good paddle back into the wind all the way back. All in all it was another really fun day. We ended with pizza at a really nice spot with an outrageous view. I did not take a lot of pictures so here are some of today’s shots. 

More little caves to check out. 
Marco and me this afternoon. 
On the way to dinner. 
Our pizza place for dinner. 
And the view as it started to get dark. 
And a couple more shots while we were in the way to get ice cream. 

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we head farther south to paddle along a section of the coast with some remote and very old villages. We’ll site see from the water. 

Happy Paddling 

Scott

A little about getting here to start. It was a very long day “Sat & Sun”. One good thing was that I ended up with a free upgrade to first class from Atlanta to Rome ?. After a seven hour layover I had a one hour flight to Ancona. I met up with Erika in Rome and we both had the same flight to Ancona. Marco who owns Travel in Kayak picked us up at the airport and then we had a four hour drive south to the north side of Gargano Peninsula. We spent the night in a very small town on the water before another hours drive to our launch site on the south side of the Gargano Peninsula. Sounds like a lot of traveling and it was. But, absolutely worth it as today’s paddle was fantastic. The Paddle Tracks are live so you can see the route. Another fantastic point – Marco is a firm believer in very good equipment. I was paddling a Rockpool Taran which was an outstanding surprise Marco had set up for me. Nice job Marco!!!

Here are a few pictures from the town we stayed in last night. 

Here’s the view as we launched. 

We headed out through the opening you see hear and then went east (left) around the little point on the left of the picture above. Once rounding the point the magic happened. Huge cliffs, arches, hidden beaches and caves to paddle in. As you might guess I headed in ever cave we passed ?. I got a bunch of good pictures of the caves but actually stopped taking them after a few. Marco got a few good pictures of me as well. So here are some shots from today’s paddle. 

The start of the big cliffs. 

Marco
Erika
It was great paddling along the base of the cliffs. 
Into the caves. 

Me exiting a cave with Erika waiting on the outside. 
More caves to explore. 

Marco and Erika in the distance taking the lead. 
One of the many arches we paddled under. 
Inside another cave. 

Marco and Erika. 

Erika under an arch
Me coming through the same one. 
Me under yet another big arch. 

This cave was the best of all. All the other ones had multiple openings that let light in and mostly big entrances. This one had a small opening and once inside I discovered that it had a huge domed ceiling and no other openings. It also had a very big beach in the very back. Spooky thing was that if you left the shaft of light from the opening it was pitch black. I couldn’t even see where the paddle touched the water let alone the walls of the cave. 

These are shots of Vieste, the town we are staying in. 


And this is Filli and Martino. They are the owners and our hosts at the Relais La Pretura B&B. 

Both Filli and Martino are fantastic people and their B&B is outstanding. Completely renovated and a really great place to stay. Martino even came down to the harbor, arranged for a place for us to store the kayaks for the night. Helped us get the kayaks from the beach to the storage spot and then drove us up to the B&B. You don’t get any better help and support than what they have provided. 

We have changed our plans a bit for the first part of the trip and are staying in B&Bs instead of camping. This will allow us to shuttle as needed and “cherry pick” the best sections of the coast to paddle. 

I’ll end this Paddle Post with a few shots of us in town this evening. 

Well, that’s enough for today. One of the best paddling days ever?. 

Happy Paddling 

Scott

It’s been a few months since my last post. I’ve been paddling every weekend and catching up on chores around the house. I also had the chance to join in on the TIPS (Traditional Inuit Paddlers of the Southeast) retreat which was a lot of fun. I ended up learning a couple new rolls to add to the mix?. 

Now it’s time to get paddling again on another adventure. I’m sitting at the gate waiting for my flight to Rome and then on to Ancona. I’ll be meeting several good friends over there and expect to have a really nice mini adventure. The first few days we’ll be camping as we paddle around the Gargano Peninsula. 

After that we’ll stay in guest houses and paddle in several different locations including some mountain lakes. The villages where we will stay are off the beaten path so that should give us a great opportunity to experience the true Italian culture and have some great food. All that on top of some fabulous paddling. Here are the general locations we’ll be paddling. 

Marco owns Travel in Kayak and will be meeting us at the airport in Ancona. He has done all the planning and logistics and is taking care of all gear. Besides clothing I’ve only packed a sleeping bag and one Greenland paddle plus a few electronics. After the extensive planning and gear collection for my CT paddle this feels a bit odd. 

The Paddle Tracks will be up and running so you’ll be able to follow along. I’ll upload pictures and Paddle Posts whenever I can get a WiFi connection. At the least, I should be able to post most days when we are staying in guest houses. 

More to follow from Italy ?

Happy Paddling

Scott

OK, so I’ve been slow at getting this gear review post together as promised. No excuses for the delay so here it goes. I’ll start out with a few significant items and then work my way thru the gear list as appropriate.
BEACH ROLLERS:

Many folks have asked about the “beach rollers” I made. They were extremely handy and saved the bottom of the kayak. If you are a solo paddler, these are a necessity in my opinion. Even when I was paddling with Gus and Mike, we all used the pair I made. They are very easy to make yourself and I’ve not found anywhere that you can purchase them. Start with some swim noodles from Walmart or other source. Decide how long you want the rollers to be based on the width of your kayak and cut the noodles to desired length. Next cut some PVC tubing to the same length and force inside the swim noodles. I used ½” grey PVC conduit as it gave a very tight fit. You then cut 3” vinyl heat shrink tubing to length and place over the noodle. If you have a heat gun, use that to shrink the tubing. If not, a hot hair dryer will work as well. After the roller is all together, trim the ends so everything is cut nicely. I made two rollers and made mountings so I could pull them out quickly on a surf landing and roll the kayak up the beach. The setup is a line going thru each roller with a loop on each end and an S-clip connecting the two rollers at each end.

I discovered a few things about the rollers that I’ll pass on. First is that after several weeks in the sun, the heat shrink tubing seemed to shrink in length a little more. Along with that, the noodle seemed to expand in length a little as well. I ended up trimming the noodles with a borrowed bread knife at one of my stops. After several weeks, the entire setup stabilized and I was able to slide the heat shrink tubing to the middle of the roller as needed. The tubing will “walk” towards one end if the rollers are on an angle when you are rolling the kayak. I made one other interesting discovery concerned using the rollers. I had made two with the expectation of placing them about ½ the kayaks length apart and rolling the kayak. On one of my stops early on in the paddle, I placed both rollers (still connected together at each end) under the bow and picked up the stern and rolled the kayak up the beach. I was amazed how much better this worked than having the rollers placed far apart. So now I use them together all the time. Here are some pictures of the setup.

Zoom in and you can see how I mounted the rollers on top of the spare paddle using short bungee loops. 

WHEELS:

This is the other significant item for a solo kayaker. And just like the beach rollers, I used them for Gus and Mike’s kayaks when we paddled together and had to move the kayaks to a camp spot at a campground. I did a lot of research on different “carts” and actually purchased several different ones to test. The one I settled on is listed in the gear list with a link to the manufacturer. I would highly recommend this “kayak trolley” (as they are called in the UK). Here are the main benefits of this cart.

The entire setup disassembled into smaller components and fit inside my kayak behind the aft hatch. Extremely rugged components (you will not break anything). Fairly fat pneumatic tires that roll over everything extremely well except really soft sand (rocks, roots, curbs etc. were no problem and soft sand was doable).

I placed the smaller parts into a heavy duty dry bag (just to keep them together) and then stored them in the back of the kayak. Here are some pictures of the setup.

Now I’ll go thru the gear list and mention anything that stands out.

KAYAK:

There are pros and cons to every kayak on a long adventure like this. The only real con I had was that I had to be more careful of the fiberglass. With that said, I did get some good scratches as expected but nothing thru the gel coat. Oyster bars can get you as well as rocks/shells etc. on the beach if you are not paying attention when using the rollers. I paddled a Rockpool Taran for this adventure. This kayak model has set the record for paddling around England as well as around Ireland just to name a few. That demonstrates the first benefit of a good expedition kayak. They must be fast. On several occasions, I ended up combining two days into one for various reasons and would not have been able to do that with a slower kayak. I paddled a bunch of days that were between 27 miles and 35 miles. The kayak should have high volume without being a “barge”. The Taran is 18’ long and 20.5” wide. And, it has significant volume to hold what you need. What was really interesting about the Taran was how it handled the sea states. On smooth flat water, other kayaks in good hands kept up ok. But, when the chop picked up, the Taran walked away from the other boats. She seemed to love the rough water and was a lot of fun to paddle when the waves picked up. The kayak dimensions also made it a great rolling kayak although I never had the need to roll her on this paddle.

PADDLES:

I’m a fan of Greenland paddles and have not paddled with a euro blade since I spent my first day with a Greenland paddle three years ago. Both paddles that I used are Gearlab carbon fiber paddles. They break apart and stow nicely on the back deck and also fit nicely on the front of the kayak when not in use.

SPRAY SKIRT:

I use Reed Chillcheater gear all the time. My spray skirts, cockpit covers, cold weather gear and emergency hatch covers all come from Reed. They are very high quality and work great. They also pack up much smaller than most other brands and the skirts don’t soak thru like a neoprene skirt. What I did discover concerned using the skirts for significant lengths time. Not counting the skirt that I wore holes in due to some clips on my PFD rubbing on it, I went thru two skirts during the paddle. The rubber coating on the fabric ended up separating from the underlying material along the cockpit coaming seam. I have several Reed skirts that I have used for years and never had this problem. After giving it a lot of thought, my hypothesis is that being in a saltwater environment for fifty to sixty days and never getting rinsed off caused the rubber to weaken at the stress points. I’m really not sure if this is the cause or not. Regardless, I will continue to use the Reed skirts as they are the best on the market in my opinion.

PFD:

I used a Kokatat Poseidon PFD with a chest pack, belly pack and tactic pack on the back. It was the clips on the tactic pack that caused the spray skirt problem (be careful of the attaching clips if this add on). As with Reed products, I think the Kokatat products are the best on the market. I’ve got several PFDs from them as well as dry suits and other items and have always been impressed / pleased with the quality. I was able to store all my gear (VHF radio, camera, knife, whistle, emergency flares, backup compass, mini ditch kit, chapstick etc.) in the chest and belly packs perfectly. My DeLorme inReach clipped on the shoulder strap and lived there for the entire paddle.

DELORME INREACH SATELLITE TRACKER:

I had originally planned on using the SPOT satellite tracker but got a good recommendation from Dan concerning the DeLorme and I’m glad I did. The inReach performed flawlessly the entire trip. It has all the functionality of the SPOT and significantly more. It was also very easy to use. I do admit that I did not use many of the functions but having the ability to communicate (send and receive messages) via satellite was significant for me. In my research I found many positive reviews and most all of them said you could get about five days on a single charge. I opted for the DeLorme extreme plan which allowed me to “ping” the satellite every five minutes while I was paddling and the most battery life I used on a long day was ten percent. What I did was turn it on in the morning when I hit the water and send a “Paddles Wet” pre-canned message to a group of folks and start tracking. At the end of the day when I landed, I would send a “Paddles Dry” pre-canned messaged and turn the inReach off. I would then recharge the unit from the Goal Zero battery pack at night and be good to go. A normal “top off” charge took about 30 minutes. This routine worked great for the entire paddle.

CAMERAS:

I had a GoPro mounted on the front deck and used it several times. The quality was great and the unit was small as well. No issues with this one. The other camera I used is what I would recommend to anyone. It is a Nikon Coolpix AW130 and lives in my PFD pocket. I put a wrist strap on the camera that would float it if I dropped it in the water. The camera took great pictures as well as video and has its own WiFi so I could connect to the phone and download pictures for my daily Paddle Posts.

COLD WEATHER GEAR:

I had a Reed Touring Cag and pants but only used the jacket three times. They are great for cold weather but when the sun starts to shine and temps climb a little you end up getting too warm. I had a pair of bicycle leg and arm warmers and used the arm warmers several times. They worked great and you can pop them off easily while out paddling. The arm warmers were all I used when I left Ochlockonee Bay and the temps were at 31 degrees. It was all I needed since the water was warm so my lower half was fine inside the kayak and the PFD kept my torso warm. If I had to pack again for this specific trip, I would probably leave the Reed pants behind since I did not use them. I only used my MSR neoprene gloves on one day. I was glad I had them.

TENT:

Please see the note in the gear list. The MSR Elixir 2 worked great for the entire trip. It’s very durable and had just the right amount of room for me and gear I normally brought into the tent at night. I’ll use my MSR Hubba Hubba tents for backpacking and keep the Elixir specifically for kayak trips. I highly recommend this tent.

CAMP CHAIR:

I had the Helinox Ground Chair and ended up breaking one of the plastic joints. Regardless, it was still usable until my backup got sent down to me. In my opinion, this is the perfect chair for a kayak trip. It’s small when packed up, comfortable when in use and also allowed me to use it inside my tent when the sun went down and I was doing my daily posts. I do think I was a bit rough and caused the joint to break. My backup was my older one that I’ve used for several years with no problems at all.

TYVEK SHEETING:

This was a list minute item I added to the kit and is not listed in the gear list. I will never do a paddle trip without the Tyvek sheets. Here’s the scoop. I had two sheets that I cut from a big roll I had in the shop. My thought was that I would have one for the front and one for the back when I had to empty the kayak of all the gear stored inside. I did do this and it worked great but that was not the biggest benefit of these sheets. The smaller one was 4’ X 4’ and I would fold it into a 2’ X 2’ square and use it under the camp chair. It kept sand and stuff from getting in the joints when I used the chair out in the open and protected the tent floor when I used the chair in the tent every night. The second sheet was 6’ X 4’ since I wanted a bigger sheet for unloading the bow compartment. What I ended up using it for may surprise many of you. I used a sleeping bag liner more often than the sleeping bag and if the temps dropped into the upper forties I would pull the Tyvek sheet over me and be toasty warm for the rest of the night. This was not in the plan and I’m not sure what prompted me to do this the first time but I ended up doing it a lot on this paddle.

SOLAR PANELS AND BATTERY PACK:

I used a Goal Zero Venture 30 battery pack and Nomad 13 solar panel. One of my earlier Paddle Posts has some pictures and a discussion of the modifications I made to ensure they would handle the saltwater environment. I believe they would have failed if I had not protected the connections and battery pack with the dry bag modification. I learned that keeping the battery pack topped off every day worked great. If I let it get discharged most of the way it could take a little over a day to fully charge. I think this was because the solar panel would sit flat on the front of the kayak and not be aimed directly at the sun for most of the day. Other than that, the setup worked perfectly. This is another “highly recommended” item for a long distance paddle. I never had any power issues or concerns.

ALL THE OTHER GEAR:

The remaining items in the gear list all worked well and I had no issues with any of them so I’ll not go into any details. Just take a look at the gear list. If anyone has any questions about the items above or any other items in the gear list, please leave a comment and I’ll be happy to get back to you.

Happy Paddling

Yes I know. I’m very late with this post. I’ve been going a mile a minute since getting home. 

Iain and I were on the water at normal time before sunrise. Good thing as the bugs were coming out in force. Here are the morning sunrise pics. 

Here is Iain enjoying the morning paddle. 

And another traveler on the ICW at sunrise. 

We had a really nice paddle all morning. Some light winds on and off and pretty cloudy until around 1100. Then it cleared up and was really nice out. Contrary to what a lot of folks had told us, the tidal currents were not too bad. We were against them most of the morning but still made pretty good time. 

We landed at Ft. Clinch around 1300 and found a great welcoming committee waiting for us. Hard to see but this is Kelle, Barb, Carl, Marc, Jim, Vinnie, Gus and Lynn. It was really nice to have this support ?. 

Here I am coming into the beach and getting ready to roll the kayak up on the beach. 

The entire group of us went out to a local restaurant and had a great lunch and then everyone hit the road. 

And this small group of paddlers represents 22% of all the paddlers that have completed the CT paddle. From left to right – Carl, Jim, me, Gus and Marc. I’m honored to be part of such a great group of paddlers. 

Ok, just to put things in perspective, what happens when you leave the corporate world for a 3.5 month paddling journey? You go from this (taken prior to leaving the working world). 

To this (taken on the drive home from Ft. Clinch and getting a little sleepy).  

This will not be the last post for this adventure. I’ll put some effort into doing a gear review to share with others. I really had good luck with everything I had planned to use. The review will include building the beach rollers. Several folks have already made some as well and are very pleased with the results. 

And I’ll end this post in the normal manner with the sunset picture. Only difference is that we pulled the truck over so I could get the shot ?. 

I’m really happy about the loads of notes from folks following my adventure and the fact that they really enjoyed all the posts and pictures. 

Happy Paddling 

This was another great day. I planned on getting on the water around 0900 because several folks were going to launch and paddle a while with me. With that said, old habits die hard. I was all packed up and ready to get on the water just before sunset ?. At that point, I just took sunrise pictures from the dock and walked around a bit. Here are the morning colors. 

The actual sunrise was not that great behind the trees. 

Gus was the first to show up, then Iain and Lynn. After that, Kelle arrived and Chris. Then several other new friends. All together I had seven kayakers join the paddle for a few miles. This was really nice and a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone for coming out to paddle. And a special thanks to Chris for organizing everyone to come out!!

When we got to the St. Johns River everyone turned back except Iain and me. Iain paddled today and is camping tonight and will paddle into Ft. Clinch with me tomorrow. 

Only twelve miles today and it was with the current all the way. This made for a really easy paddle. We found our little Island around noon. 

We set up tents and Iain’s screen house ?. 

We decided to have an early dinner since the weather report was predicting rain at 1500. I was amazed because at 1500 to the minute it started to sprinkle ?. It only lasted about ten minutes and then cleared up again.

Iain made his special noodle salad and brought along a lot of goodies to munch on ?. 

?Here’s a good shot looking east across the ICW. This is really a nice area to paddle. 

And of course we need the sunset pictures. 

And when you paddle with a Canadian you should expect the cousins to show up. They never disappoint. 

This is my last night camping on this paddle adventure. It’s really nice to share it with Iain since he and Dave also paddled out with me on the first day. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll land at Ft. Clinch and call this adventure a success. 

Happy Paddling 

Great weather for paddling today. With that said, it was 40 degrees when I broke camp this morning. Yep, cold weather gear was used for the first two hours. Here are the morning colors. 

I was a little late for the sunrise. With it being so cold there was a lot of mist on the water and I was just enjoying the paddle so much I almost forgot. Better late than not at all ?. 

Very little wind all day so it was really nice paddling even though I was going against the tides. 

I stopped for lunch at a great seafood restaurant. Gus drove over and met me there as well. Really nice. One little mishap. While we were eating my spray skirt was blown off the dock. Not sure how as there was no wind. Regardless, it was halfway across the channel before we noticed it. I got back into the kayak to chase it down and it ended up drifting between pontoons holding a 150 ft dock. I thought I was going to end up swimming for it in the cold water. After locating it, I noticed it was moving in my direction. After about ten minutes it drifted out the other end. I was really lucky. Lesson learned – even if no wind, don’t leave anything where it can blow away ?. 

After lunch it was only about an hour to Dutton Island. I took the scenic route based on input from two guys fishing. When I finally showed up at the kayak launch I was greeted by Tiffanie and Bob from the Florida Times Union. Bob is the photographer and took a lot of pictures and Tiffanie is the reporter who interviewed me. Very nice folks to meet. I’m told the article will be in the paper this weekend. Tiffanie called me a little later and said her editor wanted to know how old I was ?. I told her but also added that age is all about attitude ?. 

When I checked my phone, I found a text from Julie. Her class had learned that I drink Boost every morning to get enough calories. The class was doing a Boost toast for me ???. Here they are congratulating me for making it around. 

Pretty nice!!! Thanks to all of you and for the great face time calls we had. 

Here’s my camp site for the night. 

I didn’t have to worry about what to have for dinner. Gus’s wife had made a great noodle, beef, beans and vegetables dinner for me that Gus gave me after the spray skirt fiasco. He also loaded some cold soda so I was all set. I’m stuffed from a very good dinner. Thanks guys!!!

Bugs were really bad when I landed but not so bad when it started cooling down. I’m in the tent for the night anyway. 

Tomorrow I’ll have a handful of friends joining in to paddle a bit with me. That will be a lot of fun. Iain is also on his way from N. GA and will paddle with me for the last two days and then drive me back home. Pretty cool indeed. 

Here is the sunset sequence to end this great paddle day and post. 

Happy Paddling. 

I made pretty good time today. I had sixteen miles to do and was at the Spoil Island at noon. I had some pretty strong head winds all morning but also had the tide with me. I was ready to launch a little  too early as it was still too dark. 

As soon as I could paddle safely I hit the water and got out to the Inlet for sunrise. 

Then headed north under the big bridge and got the sun between the supports ?. 

By this time the wind was picking up fast. I worked at staying close to the lee shore for a little protection but the ICW is very twisted in the area and it is running thru a wide marsh area so not much help. 

I had started out with my normal paddling clothes but as the wind got stronger I had to pull over and dig out my cold weather gear. I’ll start out with it on in the morning ?. The weather report says it will get down around 42 tonight. 

I found the little island with no problem. It’s a pretty nice spot and even has a picnic table. Only issue is broken glass everywhere. Idiots with guns shooting bottles ?. 

This spot is the only dry area for many miles so it’s working out great. The marsh around the island is beautiful. 

I broke out the camp stove and had a good hot dinner. I’m in the tent now putting this post together. I’ll end as usual with some sunset shots. 

Happy Paddling 

?

It’s a good thing I had planned a no paddle day for today. A front came through with sustained winds around 30 and gusts up to fifty. Not good for paddling ?. No worries since I was a tourist today. Gus came by and picked me up and our first visit was to the lighthouse. 

There were a lot of steps to get to the top but we made it ?.  No hats on top or you would lose them. ?

I’ll be going under this bridge and heading north in the morning. 

Next stop was the Castillo De San Marco. 

The history of the fort is really interesting. Then we walked through the old part of town and over to the west end of the Lions Bridge. 

After a great shrimp lunch I was back at the hotel and Gus was headed home. The wind was really starting to howl as I was hanging out by the water when the main front was coming through. 

I’ve got my laundry done and groceries loaded. Just a little stowing of gear in the morning and getting the kayak down to the water and I’ll be headed north again. 

That’s it for today. 

Happy Paddling.