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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