This may be an odd question, but my wife and I were discussing this the other night and neither of us could really think of a practical or sanitary way to go about this.
What do you do if you are out from shore in your kayak, and get a sudden urge to pee?
Some of you guys talk about going out for 6-8 hr trips, so this has to happen.
I’m almost afraid of what the answer is going to be
Paddle a SOT
What do you think those scupper holes are there for???
peeing
Land on shore! When you can’t do a landing (and you don’t have a wet suit on), some women carry a little plastic margarine tub shaped to fit. I imagine guys could carry a plastic water bottle cut off to fit. But how often are you 6 hours from shore, unless you’re doing some heroic 20 mile crossing, in which case peeing is the least of your worries.
Pee in a one quart nalgene jar
never drink fron my amc membership nalgene jar. Never never never.
If in a bathing suit just take a swim. (yes in 65 degreee and above water and hot air I’ll padddle in a bathing suit). Use a paddle-float outrigger and kneel in the cockpit and lean toward the downwind, paddlefloat side.
take off
remove the skirt if you are wearing one, roll wrong side up and proceed to business. Under no circumstance do you open eyes and/or mouth. Quickly roll back up, paddle a few yards and roll again, we’ll call this the rinse cycle.
Simple
For us guys, you can use your bailer as a urnial. If you don’t carry one, you will now. Cut the bottom off a dishsoap bottle. A unit for women is available from some outfitters.
Thats what I said at first
But note that I mentioned sanitary…LOL. The wife wasn’t too enthusiastic with that idea, nor was I, But I guess you do what you gotta’
Some people use
specially shaped bottles (West Marine sellse them), others use plastic zip lock bags or their sponge.
I personally carry a second sponge - they hold a lot of liquid.
My wife doesn’t want to use one of the “female devices” that are on the market, so she usually just pops her skirt, wet exits, and then re-enters the boat after taking care of business.
long trips in cold water —
i use a texas catheter. look it up.
Sanitary and sterile
Urine is the cleanest and only sterile fluid the body produces (except during urinary infections).
http://www.barefooters.org/faq/14.html
Though we are conditioned to avoid contact with urine, there is little to fear from the stuff. If you have to pee, then pee. If you are in the boat, then use your sponge to mop it up, If you can take a swim and relieve yourself there even better. If your are in a wet suit just relax and go, you can rinse the suit as soon as you land or just flush out the suit like the old timers do.
Cheers,
Jed
I Live In A College Town
Drunken students are forever throwing good quality plastic cups down in or near the road. As I ride my bike, I find these and convert them into kayak urine recepticles.
Alternatives - Male/Female
For us guys, a wide mouth Mason jar of an appropriate size can do (or hold) the job. For the ladies, just Google FUD.
most of my women friends use this –
http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=13827&memberId=12500226
I know some people who use a small
Gatorade bottle, but my…(ahem)…situation requires the larger, wide-mouth bottle.
Condom Catheter and a leg bag
under a drysuit. for cold weather long trips. Usually, I just pee in a urinal.
Once or twice I have had to…
in my many moons of off shore paddling, just let a stream go in my bathing suit.
I then use my bilge pump in reverse, and pump a bunch of water all over my shorts and flood the cockpit with several gallons. Then I pump it back out.
Luckily for me this has been in southern warm waters.
In recent years, I have learned to keep away from coffee prior to a all day off shore paddle and have not had to resort to the above.
Luckily I have never had to consider the back end stuff.
cheers,
JackL
Not an odd question–definitely
an issue that can require planning. In warm weather, I just hop out of the boat, pee, re-enter, and roll back up. In cooler weather, you can put a Greenland paddle behind the deck (or use a regular paddle with a paddle float) to make an outrigger, then sit up onto the back deck, sling a leg over the paddle, and go in the water.
In cold weather, wearing a drysuit, I’ve learned very carefully to estimate how much water I need so as not to dehydrate but also not to need to pee for many hours. A drysuit with a relief zipper is still the best thing, though, so that if you really have to go, you can pull go ashore, and not need to remove the entire drysuit while hopping up and down in agony.
Sanjay