yeah
I think 3mph (I assume we’re talking 14 statute miles, right?) is a bit slow if you’re an average paddler in a sea kayak. It seems to me that decent paddlers in a group do about 3 and a quarter knots (that’s about 3.7 mph) over the course of a day. You may know from personal experience that you do better than that, but make sure you’re not measuring how fast you can paddle for 1 hour, and extrapolating that to a much longer trip.
If I have a 10 knot headwind, my speed made good drops by about half a knot. That’s pretty significant, and 10 knots is not a strong wind. Your 4 hours could easily be 6 if you get even mild headwinds. I assume you’ve planned your route to put the prevailing winds at your back. If not, I’d very strongly suggest doing that.
You mentioned something about being less comfortable with waves behind you than in front of you. I’d work on getting some practice and gaining comfort in those conditions. If a wind pipes up, and you don’t have the energy to keep making decent progress against it, you’ll need to be comfortable turning down wind, and running towards the nearest shore, with the wind direction over your stern quarter.
If you’re out there and are nervous about running before following waves, you might make a bad decision about fighting into headwinds longer than your should, and end up at the end of your energy reserves no where near shore.
Lake Tahoe
Dave
The Coast Guard Station at Lake Tahoe provides continuous monitoring of VHF Marine Radio Channel 16 (156.8 MHz) 24 hours a day, an alternative is to have a cellphone with you. They have 2 patrol vessels.
US Coast Guard location at Lake Tahoe
Dave, the US Coast Guard location at Lake Tahoe is situated in the North West area of the lake between Tahoe City and Dollar Point.
and dress for the water temp. ,
… they mentioned that to you before , but you did not acknowlede it so far as I can see .
jen724 , I am impressed very much …
...... you really did something "very special" there in my book , I know the Chesapeake and you have my upmost respect for what you did .
Way to go jen724 ...
Fantastic !!
Hey Pika…
How would paddling half way and returning minimize his exposure or risk? 