Rough Water

Tropical storm Noel swept by New England in late October and sent some fun waves towards Napatree Point. I didn't get much good footage while paddling, but the resulting video is still fun.

More video from the reefs in the passage between Watch Hill, RI and Fishers Island, NY. This is out near buoy #2 on a day with about a 3 knot ebb. I'm paddling my Petrel. Also on the water were a Chatham 18 and a couple NDK Explorers.

After teaching my class at the WoodenBoat School, I got a chance to head up to Blue Hill for some play time. There is a reversing falls that has a nice play wave popular with the whitewater crowd. I took my Petrel in for a little surfing action:

I've been playing around with taking video using a Pentax Optio W10 that I have strapped to a helmet. The quality of the video is not great, but the results are kind of fun. The first is one is from a couple days paddling the reefs of Watch Hill, Rhode Island and the Race and the second is an afternoon surfing off Napatree Point.

In both videos, the boat I am paddling is the Petrel.

I hope you enjoy the action.

He said, "I was out there and the waves must have been 6 feet." Funny, I was out there at the same time and didn't see anything bigger than 18 inches. What is going on? Estimating wave height is very difficult. Sitting down in a kayak, low to the water, waves look pretty big.

It is usually OK to be inaccurate in your estimation of wave height, after all it is you who is out there, and if it a wave looks big to you it probably is big for you. But there are good reasons why you may want accuracy. For example, if you are planning to go out and check the forecast and it predicts "3 foot waves" you want to know if their 3 feet is the same as your 3 feet.