The Explorers: April 2008

About us

DOUG TAYLOR - former officer in the Canadian Forces (36 years) and manager at Osgoode Hall (7 years), retired to the Comox Valley in 2004. Can be found in my NDK Explorer HV, when not having a coffee at Rhodos or hanging out at Comox Valley Kayaks where I teach Paddle Canada courses.

JONATHAN REGGLER - Ex-British Army medical officer, became a civilian GP in the United Kingdom for 11 years then immigrated to the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, BC, in 2003. Sea kayaking since 2004. Family physician in Courtenay.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

OK ESN:0-7391670

Check this out!! Departure point, Sunday May 4th at 9 am
ESN:0-7391670
Latitude:49.6816
Longitude:-124.9842
Nearest Location: Courtenay, Canada
Distance: 0 km(s)
Time:04/30/2008 12:00:33 (America/Vancouver)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=49.6816,-124.9842&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

WHAT WE ARE DOING

When Don Lockwood, the owner of Comox Valley Kayaks, a fine kayaking emporium stuffed with goodies, learned of my plan for a solo circumnavigation of Vancouver Island (I did not imagine I would find anyone willing to join me) he put me in touch with Doug Taylor. We met, gelled, and the trip was on.

We leave on May 4th, weather permitting. Vancouver Island is a fantastic kayaking destination and we both feel extremely lucky to live here and to be able to undertake this expedition. We are not racing around the island. We want to be able to make safe decisions each day and to stay on dry land when that is the sensible thing to do. We also want to take the time to nose into inlets and thoroughly explore some of the more remote parts of the island.

We have lots of safety equipment. Doug and I will be wearing dry suits. We will have incendiary flares, laser flares and GPS. Both of us carry VHF radios. We each have a personal locator beacon which allows us to alert the emergency services in case of disaster, via satellite.

Doug's personal locator beacon is a little electronic wizard called "Spot". Spot will send an email message out twice daily, via satellite. Each message will appear on the blog. Clicking on the link in the latest message will allow you to see where we have got to - maps.google.com will open in all its glory, showing you a satellite image of our last notified location. If we appear to have stayed in the same place for more than a night the possibilities are:
- The weather is foul, we are hunkered down under a tarp waiting for a storm to blow through
- The weather is great, we couldn't resist a day lazing in the sun
- Doug lost Spot on the beach.

JR

About NDK Explorers - for our non-paddling friends

Both of us will be paddling Explorer HV kayaks designed by Nigel Dennis in Wales. Explorers are small by the standards of kayaks designed in North America. They are narrow of beam and low in profile but this makes them extremely easy to control in water that is bouncy. In common with almost all British kayaks Explorers do not have rudders, which means the paddler steers by means of differences in paddle stroke power, good (hopefully) paddle stroke technique and by setting the boat on its edge. There is a drop-down fin near the stern, called a skeg, but this is to help with straight line tracking in wind - it is not for steering. In case of capsize Explorers are also easier to right using the "eskimo roll". We absolutely love them. Anyone on the Island who is interested in Explorers or one of the other Nigel Dennis boats can try them out at Comox Valley Kayaks. No one else on the Island has them.

The Explorers

About us

WHERE ARE WE?

Comments

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

OK ESN:0-7391670

WHAT WE ARE DOING

About NDK Explorers - for our non-paddling friends

Links we like

Blog Archive