Scotland, with April/May water temps in the low 50's at best if I have that right and seas easily building to 8 feet on a typical day, coastlines that may involve long rocky stretches with no decent landing point, huge honkin' tidal races with current hitting several knots?
Maybe you have a route to avoid a lot of this - but trip reports I've seen from people who have paddled around Scotland seem to involve a great deal of these kinds of conditions. And not to be rude to Georgia Kayaker, but no way in heck did his long distance paddle down an interior flat and warm river come close to offshore Scotland.
Do you have layers for over that wetsuit - a wet wetsuit without a good wind blocking layer up top is instant hypothermia. Because you tend to use a diving wetsuit under water, you may not have discovered its lack of warmth when you get the thing topside.
Overall, for early spring up in that climate and water - it'd be prudent to check with folks who regularly paddle that area on clothing. It may that a drysuit or good drytop and pants combo is the minimum that is a good idea.
Sorry if this is overly judgemental and all that - but I get the impression that you don't have a roll or solid self-rescue skills, don't have paddle time in bad conditions like if a storm came up... but with the limited information in hand my most prudent advice is that you as the paddler shouldn't be trying this trip solo until you have a lot more skills and boat time under you. The boat is the least of the issues.
You have protective motherly instincts and that’s a compliment. But he is planning a May trip in November so I would expect that he will have his ducks in a row by then.
I imagine knowing and being in the proximity with the weather and conditions will also make him aware of what he is in for.
Heck he’ll probably be so careful I’ll bet he’ll wear a PFD too.
I am not allowed to take it out by myself. I have paddled it in calm conditions, unloaded and like the way it handles. More of a playboat than a long distance tourer. I would take a look at Feathercrafts, Long Hauls, Trak,Kleppers or Waylands and other folding kayaks since you are concerned with size and space I wish you luck. Hope you get some lessons and coaching and maybe take some whitewater classes. Learn to roll and spend lots of time in the water this winter doing so.
I wonder if they have Beanie Weenies in Scotland. I agree about their importance in an expedition...
Seriously though, I hope you are right. It occurred to me after I posted the last reply that I'd be hard-pressed to figure out how to store the amount of clothing that I'd consider to be prudent in those conditions in a boat that small. Let alone food and shelter as well. The only thing that may be easy is water - I've been told by people from the UK that clean drinking water can easily be found on land in much of Svotland.
In sum, it isn't clear from these posts that the trip planning accounts for the conditions that may easily be present outside of a sheltered bay.
re planning meals Hi Georgia-kayaker, im thinking of taking high protein energy health stuff, energy through the roof gear, it stems from my early camping trips,so i may visit the odd fish and chip shop, i have a katadyne water filtering pump, for the fresh water inlets,just in case ! how long? im not sure ive not had time to thing this out yet,ive been roughly informed /3 mph 160 ish paddling hours/
re wait a minute Yes ive got dry suits, dry cags and pants,semi dry wet suits(sealed wrists/ankles)under suits, i know the temperature can be all over the show, wind and rain too,there will be times when im holed up for a few days at a time,
Hey guys i dont mind the weather being bad, Every time i grab my tent lately it bounces down,as for clothes im going to get some serious tramp practice in well in advance, in fact i might put the misses through a bit of a test starting today,its easy enough to dry clothes ,i use the tarp wind tunnel , ive pretty much perfected it , its good for the soggy down sleeping bags too, What are beenie weenies ?
re my wife has one Il be learning a lot, between now and then,ive got three lovely daughters, a four year old,nine and fifteen, so there is a pattern to my madness,im due a silly stunt!! What can possibly go wrong ?
Your prior posts only mentioned the old diving wetsuit, not the stuff in this one.
If you have the gear, perhaps you should get it into some drybags and find a 120 to try and stuff it all into. It might make for an odd stop in a kayak shop, but I don't see any reason they souldn't let you do this. And if there is a fit issue, it gives you the winter to look around for alternatives like folding kayaks.
Evertthing !!! my friend. Everything can go wrong but the beauty of the trip and the greatest memories / stories will be how you overcome them.
You can make a list of things that could possibly go wrong but after the trip you will probably be able to add to the list.
Before you go on this wild crazy ass trip of a lifetime you will need to spend some time preparing the man inside. It will be a mental as well as a physical challenge. You will need to be mentally prepared to deal with everything that happens. Of course you can’t be prepared for everything but if you are mentally prepared to be reasonable in every situation and resourceful enough to figure out an alternative plan or a solution then you’ll make. This is what separates the men from the boys.
Don’t be stupid…stupidity kills. You can be reckless and survive providing you know your limitiations. You have a lot of responsibility with a young growing family and I can reason with you wanting to do this. Accomplishing this feat if weather and water conditions are tough can be majorally difficult. Do not let the personal success of this mission drive you into the stupid class.
Is this trip going to be anywhere near where you live so that you can go out and practice to determine how far and fast you will be going?
Fortunately my daughter is grown and I'm divorced so when I go on a trip I am under no obligation to be anywhere or to finish on a certain date. The trip and each day's activity are my choice.
bbbbb The only thing that I see which might be a problem would be the bulkiness of the clothingthat mey be required.
You can get the past weather history which to some extent will tell you the range in temperatures and weather conditions. I was border line hyperthermic on one trip which I didn’t plan on the extreme temp drop but I’m still here.
In all of your planning you will need an emergency exit plan if all fails. Remember this… when you are out numbered it’s better to run and fight another day.
Not that complicated I wasn’t talking about multiple attempts at packing - just bring a lot in and go for a loose shot at whether it is clearly too much, might just make it or is going to fit with room to spare. You could get a decent gauge by just laying the bags alonside the boat for that matter, see if the pile on the floor bears much resemblence to the space in the boat.
I am personally betting that it’ll be clearly too much long before anyone gets upset.
Or - find a local paddling club and see if they have a Tsunami 120 that he can visit.
Carbs You’ll need carbs. Some protein, some fat, but mostly carbs. This is endurance stuff. Even if the pace is not intense, the duration is.
High protein intake also requires high water intake to process - not what you’re after here.
This is the small stuff - I’m really more concerned about the big picture stuff: The conditions and the right gear for it.
If you want a truly fantastic experience - and value your life - PLEASE find some EXPERIENCED local SEA KAYAKERS to learn from and train with before you even consider this sort of trip. Coastal environments are not to be taken lightly.
My point was not about "easier" It was about being smarter.
It was about coastal conditions - and gear designed to handle that. It’s about seaworthiness and handling characteristics (and skills, clothing, etc…).
Could he make a worse kayak choice? Sure. Could he make a better choice? Damn skippy!
I agree scoper - three daughters aged 4 thru 13 and happy about it indicates either the patience of a saint or a serious imbalance. That said - your post in reply to Tsunamichuck invites the question of how you are going about the learning stuff for paddling part.
Have you contacted a local paddling club about things like finding indoor pool sessions to learn basics over the winter? Regardless of what kind of support is being provided by the trip organizers, you'll still be much happier after the first run into some conditions if you have some basics down like bracing and self-rescue(s). You'll be better able to handle the actual paddling and less distracted by concern over what you'll do if you capsize.
Is the sponsoring charity arranging for a level of support, if so what kind? There is a large paddle every year down to New York City here, for example, where the organizing group arranges for campsites ahead of time, shuttles one bag or clothing etc for participants from one site to the next, arranges for a lot of the meals and handles the on-water stuff with pre-trip training and a heavy guide ratio. As a result of how they run their trips, no one needs to carry or do a paddle-float re-entry. The group paddles in quite tightly held packs and an assisted rescue is always available if need be. You should find out to see if there are wrinkles like that.
Also, if there is a group what kind of pace would they be holding - or is it looser and there are check-in points that you have to make? That'd go to the question of how much time you have to spend on the water in spring to avoid damaging something from over-use.
As a very basic recommendation - get some instruction in a good forward stroke. On that long a trip, if you try to get thru it with muscle and zeal rather than proper form you could end up with an injury that could take a looong time to heal.
And don't neglect learning about marine weather - if there is a single thing that elevates the risk level to a fatality, it seems to be in making erroneous or overly optimistic estimates about wind and seas on the ocean.