Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Notes from Here and There


News from Here and There – June 2020

1.Windy.com

If you are wanting to use one source for weather forecasts for your kayaking outings, consider using this free resource. It is a very accurate tool for determining upcoming weather conditions (air temperature, wind direction and speed, cloud cover, water conditions plus other features) at any water borne location in the world. It provides forecasts up to 10 days in advance and has a very easy-to-use interface. I can personally attest to its accuracy from two different experiences.

On Slo-Mo’s first paddle of the season at Sproat Lake, I was trying to determine what the weather conditions would be like on the day of the paddle. Windy.com’s forecast was very accurate and assured us that the day would be sunny for most of the day with some light winds part way through the day.

Windy.com is available as an App for both IOS (Apple) and Android


2. Tide-forecast.com

Tide-forecast.com provides Tides Times and Tide Charts Worldwide for 10,749 locations in 196 countries. For each location you will find an easy-to-read graphical tide chart for the next 7 days plus the an easy-to-read chart of tides for the next month. Once you search for a location, you can also access the tide charts for 20 nearby locations. This website has been developed by the same people who developed snow-forecast.com which is used by most ski areas in North America for accurately predicting weather and snow conditions.

This is an easy to read free resource for planning any ocean going trip.


3. BC Marine Trails Newsletter

The BC Marine Trails Network Association monthly newsletter is full of lots of interesting articles about kayaking and canoeing. In the latest edition (June 2020), there is a fascinating article about the Journey of Oskar Spek. This German adventurer kayaked from Germany to Australia over a span of 7 years from 1932 to 1939.  He paddled an 18-foot long double kayak with a 33-inch beam. His boat called the Sunnschien could carry a load of 650 pounds. Loaded the boat averaged 3 knots an hour, but with his sailing rig he increased his speed to 6 ½ nautical miles an hour. His journey was written up in a Vanity Fair article.


4. Canoe and Kayak Vancouver Island

A great guide to canoeing and kayaking fresh water lakes on Vancouver Island is Canoe and Kayak Vancouver Island. There is an easy-to-use alphabetical index of the lakes and information on each lake includes information on driving to the lake, tourism facilities at and nearby each lake, a Google Map of the lake plus photos of the lake. One great feature of the website is that the author of the website has kayaked or canoed at every lake listed on the website.

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