Articles

If 40-knot gales aren’t enough for you….

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Sep 27, 2009 in Great Lakes waves | 0 comments

…how about gusts to 50? …

Thar she blows!

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Sep 26, 2009 in NOAA, waves | 5 comments

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, has a dry sense of humor as befits federal agency whose name sounds the same as that of the only guy who survived a flood of Biblical proportions.…

Serious butt-in-boat time

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Sep 21, 2009 in Bloyd-Peshkin, sea kayaking | 1 comment

We love playing in the waves and practicing rescues, but last Friday we decided to simply paddle. In fact, we decided to paddle from Evanston to Indiana and just glide by Chicago’s entire shoreline.…

Stuff we love, part two: Cags!

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Sep 17, 2009 in cag, caguole, hypotherma | 0 comments

Of all the regular denizens of our day hatches, one has a special place on our gear list: the cag.

Its formal name is “caguole,” a British term for a lightweight anorak.…

Taking advantage of a wavy day

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Sep 16, 2009 in Lake Michigan, waves | 1 comment

Mariners and coastal dwellers consider nor’easters trouble. Paddlers on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan consider them a gift.The forecast for today was NE winds 15 to 25 miles per hour and waves 4 to 6 feet building to 5 to 7.…

A weekend without kayaks

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Sep 8, 2009 in devil's lake | 0 comments

This past weekend we headed up to Devils Lake, Wisconsin. We didn’t bring boats. We didn’t bring bikes. We didn’t even bring camping gear. But we did bring family: the four of us, plus Alec’s parents and his brother and sister-in-law.…

Rough water weekend

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Aug 31, 2009 in Lake Michigan, rough water, waves | 1 comment

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, here’s a 3,000-word story:

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Rainy day paddle

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Aug 27, 2009 in Lake Michigan, rough water, waves | 0 comments

The forecast today was rain and waves. So as soon as the kids left for school, we packed up and headed to Montrose beach to paddle with Scott Fairty. This wasn’t supposed to be a paddling day, but you don’t just let 2- to 4-foot waves get away unsurfed.…

Stuff we love, part one: Sun protection!

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Aug 26, 2009 in kokatat, sun protection | 0 comments

One of the tricky aspects of kayaking is protecting yourself from the sun. We slather on the sunscreen and SPF lip balm, and we still get burned. We’re simply exposed to too many hours of direct sunlight.This summer, each of us discovered a favorite garment that kept us happily protected day after day in the sun.For Alec, it was the long-sleeved Kokatat Destination Paddling Shirt.…

Rough water rescue practice

Posted by havekayakswilltravel on Aug 22, 2009 in Lake Michigan, rescues, rough water, sea kayaking | 0 comments

North winds at last! The forecast was 3- to 5-foot waves, so we hastened to the lake. This time we wore drysuits, only to find that some of the surface water had returned and the water was relative balmy–somewhere in the mid-60s.We love practicing rescues, but don’t often have an opportunity to try them in the conditions in which we’re most likely to need them.…