Cold Weather Paddling

During the ISKA Symposium 2009 I attended the rescues workshop. This would have been towards the end of October and the water was beginning to get colder. I had my Reed ChillCheater semi dry and after being in the water for a while I started to feel the cold. The people at the workshop who were wearing drysuits all seemed comfortable and it was then I swore I was going to get a dry suit for all further winter paddling. I spoke to a number of people who had got Lomo Renegade drysuits and they were all very pleased with them. I ordered one for £275 direct from Lomo and so did a number of others in our paddle group. So far I've done a few rolls and rescues and they are bone dry with no leaks at all through the cuffs or neck seals. However one huge bonus is with the latex socks you don't get your feet wet wading in the water when launching. I use the ChillCheater transpire fleeces under the suit and it keeps me nice and toastie.

However warming the hands is a different story. I got some regular kayaking gloves from Lomo but found they gave no grip on my Greenland paddle when wet. I searched around for different types of gloves and found these CrewSaver Open Palm Mitts which allow skin contact with the paddle. So far I've used them on a few trips and they work great with Greenland paddles and keep the hands warm. You can also slip your thumb and fingers out of the gloves without having to take them off and that can be handy at times.

So now I'm sorted with body and hands the last thing and probably most important is the head. I hate when cold water gushes into my ears so for this reason I prefer something that covers head and ears. Its also handy if you can get something that wraps around the back of the neck as well. Currently I use a neoprene hood with Velcro neck strap. Its sort of midway in design between a skull cap and balaclava. The big downside is you can't wear it when paddling as its difficult to hear when its on, so its really only worn just before a wet session etc. I was looking for something which could be worn more often and notice the ChillCheater Aquatherm hoods are only 1mm thick. You can also wear them as a neck cowl which is a handy feature on windy days. They claim to provide the same insulating properties as 2mm neoprene.  I've ordered one of these so should be able to provide an update in a future post.

Tuskar Trip

Tuskar Rock is one of the more challenging locations off the South East coast. The weather had been calm for the past few days and it was decided to give Tuskar a go. The trip planning is different from the usual direct out and back approach since this would bring you over The Bailies which is an offshore reef between land and Tuskar. Instead you need to slingshot and head East from Rosslare beach and then drop South to Tuskar. Its all outlined in Oileain and this formed the basis of our trip plan. Slack water at Tuskar was 10:00 so the plan was to leave Rosslare beach at 08:30 to arrive Tuskar around 10:00.

The group consisted of six paddlers and we met in Rosslare at 07:30 to allow time for a briefing on the trip. It was a beautiful morning and I was relieved to see the absence of mist or fog.

We planned to head due East for about 6km (about an hour paddling) and then a SE bearing to Tuskar. I had a small GPS to to check distance and speed. Leaving Rosslare beach you need to ensure you don't drift South to Greenore Pt as this has overfalls and strong currents. We paddled straight out and that brought us to the Calmines marker. Continuing past this puts you in the shipping lane so we kept an eye out for any ferries departing Rosslare. An hour had past and a bearing of 150deg took us straight to Tuskar. There was no drift from this bearing so we had the current directly behind us. Average speed to Tuskar was about 8.5kph. We did a deep water landing which involved getting one person ashore first who then helped to steady boats while the rest landed and scrambled over rocks. We landed at about 10:20 the delay due to hauling boats up on to rocks.

Tuskar is a well maintained lighthouse and its light is on during daylight. I suppose this is due to the volume of shipping in the area. The seals were very curious and a large number gathered outside the landing area to check us out.
After a short tea break enjoying Ann Quinn's pecan flapjacks (containing rum I'm told!) and a walk around the rock we departed at around 11:15.

Heading back we kept to a bearing of due West with the intention of the building NE flood pushing us clear of The Bailies. I stopped occasionally to check our drift on the GPS and found when we left Tuskar the drift was NE at 0.8kph but it had risen to NE at 2.1kph by 12:00. This higher current was confirmed by checking out some of the fishing buoys and seeing how they were being pushed with the current. It was interesting to see the eddyline caused by the current at Greenore point and there was a definite acceleration around here. Once we crossed the eddyline things settled back to flat water and we put ashore.

Looking back on the day, we picked probably the best day of the year to do this trip. We were close to a neap tide and the sea was flat due to several days of calm weather. I certainly wouldn't like to venture out on spring tides or rougher conditions. Overall distance was 22.9km