Sea Trek 85 Summer 2015/16
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SeaTrek Safety on the Water www.vskc.org.au Summer 2015/16 Issue 85 The VSKC Bass Strait, and take their kayaks its annual general meeting held to remote and interesting areas. as part of a weekend of activities The Victorian Sea Kayak Club Equally, we all love relaxing short on and off the water, with was formed in 1979, aimed at trips in our local waters, with informative training sessions and bringing together sea kayakers in plenty of time to socialise. presentations from interesting our part of the world, creating We welcome new members and speakers. We run a range of club opportunities to meet and encourage a culture in which trips throughout the year for all organise trips, and to promote members help each other with levels of ability, helping members the interests of sea kayakers. skills, gear, safety, trip to improve their proficiency and Club members have done some information and organisation. take part in trip leadership. We marvellous and sometimes very The club runs training courses keep in touch through this challenging trips by sea kayak and has a grading system, website, email news, and our club around our nearby coasts of although training is not aimed at magazine Sea Trek. Victoria and Tasmania and absolute novices. New members For more information read go to further afield. Our founding are expected know something of the Docs and Downloads link members made the first sea sea kayaking, have access to a from the Web page, and kayak circumnavigation of kayak, and be ready to explore download our Operating Tasmania and the first south to the marvellous opportunities Principles and Membership north crossing of Bass Strait. which sea kayaking offers. The application, or contact our Members regularly paddle across club gets together once a year for Membership Officer. Sea Trek 85 Summer 2015/16 In this Edition Regular Columns Editorial 4 President’s Podcast 4 Feature A Frustrating Day Out (Terry Barry ) 5 Spray Skirt Safety (Terry Barry) 6 Caught in a Gale (Helmut Heinze) 8 Gear Why the Sirona? (Bruce Downes) 10 A Humble Safety Device (Helmut Heinze) 11 Day Trips and Overnighters A Winter’s Journey around French Island (Peter Wilson) 12 Christmas Turkey Burn–off Crossing (Helmut Heinze) 14 A Furneaux Adventure (Terry Barry) 18 Cover Club Life Photo: Ben Flora (Red Eye, 14 Feb 2016) Four Blokes, Five Islands (Simon Lehman) 25 Paddling Red– Eyed (Ben Flora) 28 Paddling, Peddling and Puddling — A Newbie on the Sorrento Circuit (Laureen Knight) 30 My First Day Trip with the VSKC (Gayle Burke) 33 Rescue Training at Barwon Heads (Peter Wilson) 35 Sigla BD: Bruce Downes • BF: Bob Fergie • BFL: Ben Flora • GB: Gayle Burke • HH: Helmut Heinze • LK: Laureen Knight • PW: Peter Wilson • SL: Simon Lehmann • TB: Terry Barry. Responsible Editor for this Edition: Helmut Heinze Contact [email protected] Photo Stories http://www.vskc.org.au Those Mornings — Photo Story (Ben Flora) p35 c Victorian Sea Kayak Club – http://vskc.org.au SeaTrek 85 Regular Columns Editorial ter (see image) due to some safety on the water. Not mixed skill levels and ex- unforeseen work commit- only is safety something im- perience is a great way ments that took priority. Yet portant ‘anyway’ to warrant of sharing the adventure it was a heart-warming to attention but it goes to the of sea kayaking. Have a see how many chipped in core of the Club: enjoying read of Terry Barry’s arti- and wrote terrific pieces on the adventure of sea kayak- cle on group cohesion and short notice and helped out ing in many forms while then go out and paddle with great photo shoots. trying to mitigate its inher- together (and feel free to Apologies to everyone ent risks through safe prac- dunk your head under wa- whom I kept waiting for tices. It is not good enough ter, polish your strokes or this edition, and apologies to have training schemes zigzag within the pod if Finally another Sea Trek for the contributions that and rules on paper, what is you need a bit a technical is out, thanks to our trusty have been deferred into the required is a lived culture of challenge or need to let of authors and photographers. next number of Sea Trek. safe paddling. steam). Your editor struggled a bit This issue collects a cou- Paddling and practising — Ed. to keep his head above wa- ple of contributions about in a cohesive group with President’s Podcast dling out from Tasmania to large in my mind. On My thanks, on behalf two Island groups in the the scary side, when those of all club members, go to Bass Strait—in the North three ‘P’s are neglected, editor Helmut and all the East (Furneaux Group) and consequences can be se- article contributors. I’m the North West (Hunter vere, if not terminal. On the sure you’ll find, as I have, Group). We experienced other side, when they are that this is another won- some pretty challenging well covered, even very se- derful read. Summer may weather at times and I rious combinations of prob- have passed, but the cooler became keenly aware of lems can be managed and months provide some fan- the importance of being overcome. tastic opportunities for pad- well prepared for problems, You’ll find some very dling and so I hope to see Welcome to another is- both on and off the water helpful articles to this end you out on the water enjoy- sue of Sea Trek. This edi- during expeditions. in this issue. You’ll also find ing all of the challenges and tion’s focus on safety at sea From tiger snakes to some inspiring stories of a pleasures of paddling our is very timely given the fact mid-crossing capsizes, sea range of other short and long skinny boats together. that our sport has very real sickness, and pod separa- long sea kayaking adven- Cheers risks and potential dangers tion, the priority of be- tures undertaken by club Bob Fergie when things go wrong. ing ‘prepared, provisioned members in recent months. I have just returned and practiced’ well before I’m sure you’ll enjoy the (VSKC President) from a few weeks pad- things go wrong looms read. c Victorian Sea Kayak Club – http://vskc.org.au 4 SeaTrek 85 Safety on the Water Terry Barry A Frustrating Day Out Terry Barry is VSKC Instructor with a long over a decade. Here is what hap- leader was again torn between the history of contributions to leadership and pened. ‘rebels’ at the front and the tail en- kayaking safety as practitioner, educator After a good pre-launch briefing ders. Quote from the leader — I agree and author of training material – (Ed.) and group consensus of the days pad- that the next leg we got spread again, dle given the conditions and make- and I was torn about pulling everyone up of the pod, the group paddled off up, including those that went to play When you go sea kayaking you make to our first destination some 6–7 kms in the waves. Again we had the rebels a conscious decision whether to pad- away. This involved a ferry glide to head off and I did blow a whistle to try dle solo or with a group and who you overcome tidal forces as well as a 1 reel them in. will paddle with. km crossing of a busy shipping chan- After lunch this is when the situa- Most paddle with a group or at nel. tion further deteriorated. As did pad- least a buddy. The main reason is a dling conditions! feeling of safety, having someone to There was a designated leader and Destination was again five or so help out if you find yourself in the wa- two tail enders appointed. The group kilometres away, into the tide and a ter instead of on it! quickly headed off through a flotilla headwind causing small choppy con- Paddling with others also adds a of moored boats and it was soon ap- ditions. Tough going if you are not social side to sea kayaking and a parent that the pace of the group was used to it. And remember the less chance to learn skills. It also allows going to be a problem for a couple of experienced had already had a tough you to participate in paddles that oth- the less experienced. Not to worry, morning. erwise you may not have the knowl- the leader will soon realise this and edge and /or skill to safely attempt. It regroup and perhaps set a more real- So off we went, quickly the pod is arguably the main reason why we istic pace after the initial ‘adrenalin’ of spread ahead of the tail enders, also join the VSKC in the first place. the launch. Sadly no. the spread went to the sides. Paddling solo has its own rewards, The group did regather before It was not long before if you some of us enjoy the added adven- crossing the shipping channel, then looked hard, you could see some ture and challenge. However it comes as we set off again. It seemed to be heads in the distance and to the sides at the cost of significant risk increase a case of who could reach the first similarly. and should only be attempted by the destination the quickest. The leader I would estimate the spread to be 1 more experienced. was left mid-field and the less expe- 2 kilometre front to back, a little less I am prompted to write this piece rienced were left at the rear, albeit side to side.