Outdoors.org Listings for Narragansett Chapter Sea Kayaking

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View Photo Album for Chapter Sea Kayaking Trips

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Paddle Tidbits

A Reason to Learn Self Rescue -- This YouTube video gives humor to a situation that could be a problem other than next to a dock. See new YouTube section below for proper techniques.

Sea kayaking in Baja in November 2009 -- Enjoy warm turquoise waters and pristine beaches while exploring islands off of Loreto, Mexico. Moderate level kayaking in the mornings and afternoons to relax, snorkel or hike. Kayak to different campsites. Fully supported by local outfitting company. Hotel first and last nights, most meals included. Kayaking experience required. Trip fee $1880 plus estimated airfare of $700-$1000. Registration required by Aug 1 for leader to secure the trip. See the pdf brochure.
Dates: November 6, 2009 to Nov 13, 2009
Leader: Andrea Deaton, 267-738-8048 or andrea.deaton@gmail.com
(Andrea is a member of the InterChapter Paddling Committee)

Treacherous Brenton Reef and no life preservers -- June 17, 2009, Newport, RI -- Two police officers saved a South Carolina man from drowning after the man's motorboat overturned off treacherous Brenton Reef Friday morning. A passerby on Ocean Drive called for help just after 7:30 a.m. after spotting the capsized Grady-White boat floating about 150 yards off Brenton Point. Read the Providence Journal article.

Chapters and Clubs Sea Kayaking Weekend – Knubble Bay Camp, Georgetown, Maine September 11- 13, 2009 -- A special weekend for Chapters and Clubs is being offered by the Knubble Bay group. Come as a group from your AMC Chapter, or independent kayak club, or come on your own, and meet some other paddling groups. Lodging at Knubble Bay Camp. Knubble Bay Committee will serve Sat. supper and two breakfasts and lead you on a paddle or your group may choose your own destination to paddle in mid-coast Maine. Great island day paddle destinations. Also, a special Beginner’s session will be offered for those new to sea kayaking if there is enough interest. Ask at sign up. $80 per person or $90 non-member covers lodging and meals. Here is a link to the Knubble Bay website: www.amckbc.org If you have any interest contact Michael Krabach. The Narragansett Chapter has been there before. Several of our trips are seen in the Photo Album.

‘Shooting the tubes’ becomes tragic adventure -- A 17 year old teen and his father decided to “shoot the tubes” with their canoe through the stone archways at the Pratt Dam on Sunday Nov. 9, 2008. The teen was tethered to the craft by a 4-foot mooring line that had become tangled around his ankle. The canoe overturned before going through the tube and was jammed against debris in the culver. The current pushed the canoe down far enough to pull the young man under the surface. Read the Providence Journal article.

Blue Trail Dedication at Weaver Cove -- Dedication of the new Blue Trail on Aquidnick Island occured on August 22, 2008. It was a beautiful day with many dignitaries attending and having a good paddle after the speeches. Your paddle subchair was on hand to document the event and to assist any wayward kayakers (yes, a few). With a contingent of Portsmouth Police, Coast Guard boat and Navy, and maybe Secret Service (who knows?) everything was under control.View photos and (non-secret) reports.

Tired of JUST kayaking? -- Try something new. How about a folding boat, one that really folds up? How about ordering a historical submarine from Dubai? Want a more cute submarine? Got a lot of friends that like to row? Then you should investigate a Greek Trireme which unfortunately can be quite expensive. Cheaper, smaller and easier to build is the concrete canoe. Get all the proper info at the Concrete Magazine. Maybe you could use a boat for bottom sightseeing. A tranparent canoe or maybe a tranparent kayak? If you want to stand up in your kayak to stretch your legs or to cast a fly, try the Freedom Hawk.

New Canoe and Kayak Launch in Ninigret Wildlife Refuge -- A new access to Ninigret Pond is available near the refuge’s east entrance. From the parking lot, a paddler can drive through a gravel-covered loop, drop off a boat and drive back to the parking lot. The launching area is sandy with a bench overlooking Ninigret Pond.

Providence Industrial Waterfront, September, 30, 2009

A kayak tour around the Providence waterfront. Starting at the Bold Boint fishing access, we paddle up to Providence Waterplace Park and then back down the Providence River, along the Port of Providence to examine and try to identify all the industial facilities on the waterfront. We end up by Save the Bay for lunch and continue as far south as Pautuxet Cove. We then cross the Bay and view the natural and unnatural features as we paddle back to the launch point. An interesting paddle, different from others. The full photo set is in the Photo Album.

Kayaking Helmet Cam Fun
Level 3 rough water fun. Round trip from Goddard Park, June 29, 2008, heading to Prudence Island. Then over Prudence and down the east side to the Potter Cove crossover, through the estuary channel, and back up to Patience Island for the crossing. Video shows the heavy traffic coming from the Quonset Point Air show when crossing back to Warwick Neck. Second video July 13, 2008, trip was round trip from Conimicut Point, north to the Pawtuxet Cove and back. When returning, the wind was southernly 20 knots, gusting to 25 knots, with whitecaps on the waves. Click image to play video. (A single click on a runnng video will open YouTube for full size version.) Note: The latest Adobe Flash Player may be needed if you get a black or blank screen and no video.

Paddle Training Session in 2008

Paddle training was held at Grosvenor Camp in North Kingston. -- View photos of one of our training sessions. Some photos demonstrate the standard assisted rescue called the "T" rescue, where the kayak is overturned to empty out the water, and then the paddler is assisted in getting back in their kayak.

This new training page is an ongoing project to familiarize sea kayakers with rescue techniques. All the videos (so far) are linked to YouTube. The first section demonstrates the Cowboy Rescue, my favorite, with more techniques added as I sort them out. YouTube tends to be the lowest common denominator for aspiring video producers.

Sea Kakaks for AMC rental
The Chapter has available two fully equiped sea kayaks for rental. These are personally owned kayaks being loaned to the Narragansett Chapter and should be treated as such. The rental rates are currently $10/day. The rentals are cheap because the purpose is to get members hooked on paddling so they will buy their own sea kayak. After all, we are the Ocean State, and Narragansett Bay is probably the best day paddling location in the United States. If you have rented our recreational kayaks and think that you are ready to try out a sea kayak, now you have a chance to expand your capabilities and experience a faster smoother paddle. For members who have paddled sea kayaks but don't have their own kayak yet, now you can join our paddles.

You should contact Mike Krabach (333-5350) in Cumberland or Linda Pease (351-2234) in Providence about renting. The kayaks are for use on AMC sponsored events where a qualified leader is present. For open water paddles the renter will need to have the same qualifications as any other sea kayaker. Having performed a wet exit with a spray skirt is one of the requirements. For flatwater paddles involving lakes, ponds or river activities, the skirt will not be used and the wet exit requirement can be waived at the discetion the paddle leader. The kayaks are a polycarbonate 16' Eddyline Nighthawk and a polyethylene 16'6" P&H Capella. Both kayaks have skegs. Since these are full size kayaks the renter will have to arrange transportaion to the launch site with a car that has a top rack. These do not need to be full kayak cradles and rollers, but two cross bar racks are required. Custom foam pads are available for seating the kayaks on the bar racks. We will supply tie down straps, and fore and rear safety ropes. Currently the kayaks are stored in Cumberland. Hopefully storage will be available nearer the Bay in the future.

Information for Planning Your Paddle

For a more extensive listing of the following topics, the viewer is refered to the Local Coastal Access Information page. Additional information is given for the New England States for kayak public access, aerial photos and additional oceanographic information.

Coastal kayak access maps are available for over 100 locations in the Narragansett Bay region. Rhode Island has the most extensive collection of ocean and Bay public access areas in New England. Not only are the most popular launch sites shown, but there are many alternative sites that are rarely used and offer new locations to explore. This graphical interactive site gives detail information on the general condition of the site, directions to the site, available sanitary facilities, and at least two photographs of each launch area. Aerial photos for an overview of each launch site are also included.

NOAA provides a quick synopsis of the marine weather. The map gives the Southern NE coastal waters forecasts by a colored zone. You click on the zone of interest and get a text listing of the marine weather for the current day and four days in advance. The marine weather includes the wind direction and velocity, wave action, fog conditions, and visibility, but not much more. These links are available for overall weather or radar information.

When planning an offshore or Bay paddle, there are times when you need better weather information than given by the summary on the weather page. Under the Weather link there is a page section titled Additional Forecasts and Information. The item "Forecast Discussion", gives detailed information for the southern New England area, in a semi-technical manner. It included the land, aviation, and marine forecasts. It is what you would expect if your high school science teacher was giving the weather forecast on TV.

This site gives the physical oceanographic Real-Time meteorological conditions for six locations in Narragansett Bay. This includes the wind speed and direction, air temperature and pressure for Providence, Fall River, Conimicut Point, Quonset Point, Potter Cove in Jamestown, and Newport. This site gives the best feel for the current conditions you might experience on the Bay.

This map shows ocean buoy locations and Narragansett Bay stations that you can access to find detailed ocean and weather conditions. Data available includes wind direction and speed, air and water temperature, wave height and period. The Boston Harbor, Buzzards Bay and Montauk Point buoys are identified. WHOI also has a meterological and oceanographic station on Martha's Vineyard, including a realtime video cam of the South Beach.

This is the home site for the Quonset Point Physical Oceanographic and Meteorological Real-Time data. Other Stations in and around the Bay also have the similiar collections. There are quick links to all the nearby stations, and each station has extensive data pages available. Links are available to detailed graphical data for most parameters in a 72 hour window. CO-OPS is consolidating the PORTS® pages into a more universal format as part of an upcoming PORTS® product enhancement. The web address (URL) for a specific PORTS® location will change accordingly when the pages are migrated to this new format. Because Google Maps are used, the site will come up slowly on dialup access.

Rhode Island tidal data in chart form, showing RI Hi/Lo/Sunrise/Sunset predictions for the current month and 5 months ahead, can be found at the MaineHarbors site. Links are available for tides in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire and Maine.

Evening and night paddling can be a very quiet and relaxing paddle. Most late paddles involve the moonlight theme, so the night is not entirely dark. But since visibility is limited, precautions should be taken to minimize any dangers from other boaters or unseen obstructions. The Evening and Night Paddle Equipment page gives an overview of late evening and night paddling, and what to wear and carry in your kayak along with prudent precautions.

Free Marine Coastal Charts, and viewers are available. NOAA has free digital maps that can be downloaded and various companies have free viewers. On-Line raster maps and an 'easy to use' viewer are available from NOAA. A demo site ising Google maps with online mapping software by Geogarage has marine charts of United States coastal areas, including the Gulf Of Mexico and the Great Lakes. Information is available on this page.

Requirements to Participate in Sea Kayaking Trips
All our Sea Kayaking trips are from easy to moderate paddles. We consider our paddles to be a combination of healthy outdoor recreation and social interaction. Any adult should not feel that sea kayaking is beyond their ability. But we do have requirements to provide for the safety of our members and guests, so we require that you be comfortable in the following conditions.

If you wish to participate in one or more of our paddles and have a question with any of the requirements, we encourage you to contact the leader of the paddle. If you feel that you are limited in any of the requirements that would prevent you from joining our paddles, we would like to help you gain the skills. Throughout the summer we offer skill sessions which will be listed in the Gazette, in the AMC on-line database and probably here on this page. We want you to enjoy the opportunity to paddle what we consider one of the premier day paddle areas in the Country.

Requirements to Lead Sea Kayaking Trips