rec boats and sea/touring kayaks...

Just got back from the cold, cruel, north to wonderfully warm and sunny South Florida. Ah... I can taste the air, I can feel the humidity reinvigorating my dessicated body. It no longer feels like someone's sawing a hair stylist's brush and a batch of expensive chefs' knives up & down my throat when I breathe, nor like some dermatologist's numbing my skin with cold prior to some procedure or another. I can actually dispense with long pants, socks, and a shirt AND a sweater -INDOORS!

But enough of that. I'm thankful to be home, but the real reason for this post was a phone call to JackL and his lovely wife Nanci yesterday on our return from 'up north'. I'd reported, boat-wise, what I'd seen, and he said post it on P-Net cf. a prior thread.

http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=advice&tid=785602

So, after more than 3,000 miles on the road from Miami to IL then IA, then back to IL, and finally, yesterday evening, to home in warm and cozy Coconut Grove, here's what I found:

Canoes were the most-observed boats being toted or pulled -by a long shot! They were going southbound when we were headed north, and (unfathomably, to me) northbound when we were headed south. I don't recall seeing anything like Jack & Nanci's Kevlar Jensen Rocket Canoe -hey, at closure rates of 160 mph or sometimes MORE than a little bit more (do NOT tell Sally!) you can ID the boat type, not all the details, right? -but rather a mess of good ole' canoes. Maybe 30 or so...

I only saw 3 SOTs, one atop an enormous 5th wheel being pulled by one of the biggest pickups I've ever seen in my life.

On the kayak side, there were a lot of rec boats. All hail Pamlico140! (Maybe he's really a sales rep... ya think...? LOL!) Funny thing was, these were often pulled on trailers in the company of canoes. Two were being toted IN boats -one in a jon boat, one in a 12-15' aluminum freshwater fishin' boat.

And close to the tail end, with a total of six spotted, were sea/touring kayaks -2 plastic, being towed together behind a medium-sized RV, a single plastic atop a car, a single composite skeg boat (hull side facing us) atop a car, and a pair of composites atop an SUV.

Well, P-Net fans, canooers and kayakeists alike, that's the I-75 boat and weather report for mid- and late-December.

Happy New Year to all, and may we all find more and better opportunities in the coming year to

PADDLE ON!

-Frank in Miami

Wecome back… but…
don’t put all those sweaters away just yet as an Arctic cold front is due tonite. May reach down into the 50’s for a day.



You KNOW everyone is going to blame you for bringing it back. Worst part is the wind will be up for the rest of the week with gale force tonite.



It’s gorgeous today so time to paddle…

YEP-THEY’VE ALREADY STARTED BLAMING
me. Jack accused me of exactly that when I called him yesterday from near Ft. Pierce on the way down.



Me? I’m sick from my northern excursion -sore throat (brought about by the 66oF my sister keeps her otherwise charming place in Cedar Rapids), a stuffy, runny nose that thinks its running a marathon, and a bloated head full of “stuff”. Been trying most OTCs for symptomatic relief.



Best relief? Stepping outside. Ahhh… 80s, water near same, sunny, mild breeze, blue sky, some salt in the air…



Have a great day on the water, friend!



THIS is how it should be in winter when ya wanna



PADDLE ON!



-Frank in Miami

Frank, it’s a swell post, but why is it
on the Advice, Suggestions, and General Help forum?

G2D -BECAUSE IT WAS AN ADMITTEDLY
oblique follow-up to the “Canoes: Endangered Species?” thread already posted on this board.



Of course, neither of us should’ve posted here, but over on the Paddlers’ Place Discussion Board. But I guess I just kinda followed Jack’s suggestion and went here.



Ain’t the first mistake I ever made, likely neither the last… ;->



At least it gives me something aquatically-related that I can connect to, down here -as in liquid, as opposed to solid or crystalline water -as I begin recovering from this damn insipid cold I’ve acquired on the way to making those observations, as I contemplate how I get get out on the liquid stuff and



PADDLE ON!



-Frank in Miami

sot loose?
How did it get out?



P

well
thats becouse Canoes are the opiate of the masses!!!

You left too soon, Frank.
These paddlers weren’t here in Cedar Rapids, but paddling yesterday in Iowa, nevertheless. You would have needed more than a stocking cap, however.



http://www.paddlingiowa.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1721&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0



Since this is the “advice” thread, let us know if you head back this way in warmer weather; maybe we can arrange a paddle.

Trouble maker!

I demand a Left Coast recount!

I see lots more SOTS than anything else, at least around the coast.

I paddled canoes for 20 years before I ever paddled a SOT. I would probably still be paddling one if I didn't spend so much time at the beach

I did the reverse, but count’s the same
We went down I-95 to Florida (80F degrees when we left New Years day, I was surf riding) and came home to 18F degrees and a foot of snow in upstate NY. (I know, I know–We have your condolences.) As half Siberian Tiger, I’m glad to get back to cold clean air, raging whitewater, skiing, snowboarding, and not a Publix/Walmart within 50 miles (Hell, we only get one FM radio station and must live in the only cell phone dead zone in the entire Northeast.) It’s a wonderful country we live in that allows folks to go anywhere at anytime and experience such a wide variety of geographic beauty. Or to quote Jimmy Buffet, “Changes of Lattitude, changes of attitudes.”



Anyway, I have to agree with your survey: Rec and Sea kayaks far outweigh canoes and SOT’s from what I could see as the miles spun by. Still prefer all three types of boating over using a motor though. Happy New Year!

BUT SPIRIT, THAT’S NOT WHAT WE SAW…
You wrote:



“Anyway, I have to agree with your survey: Rec and Sea kayaks far outweigh canoes and SOT’s from what I could see as the miles spun by.”



Au contraire, mon ami, what I found was that canoes predominated, and that sea kayaks & SOTs brought up the rear.



I am happy for your cold weather tolerance. Might might, on the other hand, be spelled ‘toil-erance’ -seems, these days, when’ere I travel north in winter, my breathing system gets clobbered unless I’m exceedingly careful about warm and humid air to breathe.



I guess my blood’s irreparably and finally permanently thinned out. As I’m fond of telling folks, I grew up in NY, went to school in Iowa, and THAT’S why I live in Florida!



And yes, Virginia, there IS a Grinch: we’re forecast for frigid temps -for even Miami-Dade County tonite! -with possible freezing and a landscape frost warning for the interior sections away from the ocean between midnight and sunrise. We’ve got the heat on! Thank goodness we’re just 4 blocks in from Biscayne Bay…



Makes a body have 2nd thoughts about getting out to



PADDLE ON!



-Frank in MMMMiammmmmmi

OK, WHY’S GUY…
Is that a P as in Paul, or a P as in >8-p -you know, the way you look when you get on the “I” to



PADDLE ON!



-Frank in Miami

THANX, G -I AIM TO BE UP THERE ONLY

in warm weather!

We'll be happy to return the favor when next you come south -there's a great contingent of fine South Florida paddlers who'd be happy to show you around various nooks of the Glades, Biscayne Bay, the SW coast, and up & down the Keys.

Wholly spit! Those pics made me cold just lookin' at'em! Where were you? We went up to Galena, and my bro-in-law pointed out a couple watercourses he said were good canoeing routes. And double wholly spit -was that fellow all the way on the right in the group shot in an old S-Pro? Brrr... even in a dry suit, brrr!

You guys ever go kabogganing? Spilling onto snow seems a lot more "hospitable" a way to crash than getting wet when y'all

PADDLE ON!

Frank in Miami

WELL, CUDA, I ADMIT THERE’S A LOT MORE
SOTS on the Left Coast than anywhere else on earth. Probably a lot more SOTs, too, LOL! CA’s the premiere wine growing are in the USA after all, and there’s an awful lottta Krazy Kalifornyans that are sideways, true?



Speaking of KKs… When you hangin’ up the DOT, EPA, VMT, VHT, MPG, NOX, AND CO reports as well, son? You’ve been sniffin’ them tailpipes too long! It’s time to come back to Florida, find a sleepy MPO, and do a couple LRTPs and get your second retirement down here, y’know…



But, yeah, you’re right. If I did a count on CA 1, there -and US 1, here -it’d show up a lot of SOTs. But that ain’t where we drove, and that ain’t what I saw…



They’re all. however, in the right season, great and wonderful things to be in or atop when you



PADDLE ON!



-Frank in Miami

ooops.
My reading comprehension was off. Must be the cold or way too much late night reading on P-Net.



But my highway observation remains the same.

(I like to think, I’m alert at least as a driver. But of couse, watching what boats people are carrying isn’t exactly eyes glued to the road.) Maybe your sighting of more canoes is indicative of Midwest interstate travel as opposed to my sightings of more kayaks on the East Coast? Perhaps the Dept. of Transportation should get on this with an official survey? (But then again, strike that, who needs more government officials around.)



My brother tells me it was 23 last night in Tampa. Make sense, since it was zero here.

I blame those darn Canadians in our attic. Since their dollar is now more stable than ours, let’s get them hosers to cough up some cash should we lose the citrus crop.

Addendum.
What I’d really like to know, Scup:



How many P-140s did you actually spot while driving?



(This is knowledge that all P-Netters and Americans in general need to know, because I have read in this forum about how this particular boat is the quintessential gift to all mankind. It has also been rumored as a boon to science and posssibly even rescued sick children from orphange fires. As paddlers, we simply must concede there is no other boat like the P-140 if ever there is to be even a glimmer of world peace.)

Dun’t fergit…
Pam-140s are de world’s sanctuarys fer homeless ‘gray things’ too…



FE