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Come on, y'all! You are turning into humorless curmudgeons! Once upon a time, a young apprentice pirate signed on as crew aboard the Black Pearl. His job was assisting the cook in the galley, so he went below to meet his new boss. The cook was as fearsome as any pirate who had ever lived...

Fair winds and following seas, Waterdog.

Big progress today!! Raz helped me with the final installation of the sheer strakes. They are now wrestled, glued, and screwed in place. Two old guys deep in thought. Wife likes to photograph my bald head. The West System Six 10 was difficult to squeeze out of the caulking gun. Partly...

I'm bringing an old thread back from the grave, but......FWIW the CalTopo website can show an optional map layer for cell phone coverage for Verizon, AT&T, and/or T-Mobile. I would take this information with a large grain of salt, because CalTopo shows coverage at my house, where the signal is...

We can't read canoe books all the time. Ralph H. Blum and Mark Scholz, MD. Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers: No more unnecessary biopsies, radical treatment, or loss of sexual potency. New York: Other Press (2010) Derek J. Lomas, MD and Paras H. Shah, MD. Mayo Clinic on Prostate Health...

3a. Because the insurance company paid "replacement value" to buy brand new canoes when the old ones were lost in a fire.

Al, tell us more about your ice hook. The head looks like it was hand forged -- did you make it? I don't have much use for one here in Virginia, especially this winter, but I have been fascinated with the idea of canoe travel on ice ever since I read Garrett Conover's Beyond the Paddle.

I am without a dog now, after 24 years with the pack. We took one canoe camping trip with the two labs at Little Tupper, just paddled out to the first site on Round Lake. The dogs were excited and we thought they were going to capsize the canoe. When we broke camp, I paddle wife and dogs back...

You don't need a monitor. Just take your carotid pulse, count beats for 15 seconds, and multiply by 4. It's easier for me using a non-digital watch with a sweep second hand. That's what I did on that ill-fated night of square dancing in West Virginia to determine the 160 BPM.

Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to confess that I misunderstood the standings displayed on the fancy video exercise bike. I was only in the middle of the pack in the 20 or so riders shown on the display. I rode again today and was #1308 nationally; out of how many I have no...

I'm a wimp compared to you triathalon runners, but I do have a workout that improves my paddling fitness. I had an incident 6 or 7 years ago that shocked me into an exercise routine. Six or seven years ago we went to a square dance in W.Va. I whooped it up and got my heart rate up to 160...

Seeker, one of the few shortcomings of the wonderful place where I live is the lack of salt water. So there are no crabs here, and I have to go to Chesapeake Bay to find them, a 3-4 hour drive. Mostly I will sail on small local lakes, 50-100 acres. There is a big lake (2500 acres) in the...

Here you can see the curve in the sheer strake after two episodes of steaming: Extra persuasion with a ratchet strap and a pipe clamp was still required to bring the plank into position: You can never have too many clamps. Harbor Freight was the source for 10 deep reach C-clamps. Then...

HERE is a PDF reprint of 1960s Boys Life articles, from the days when people actually made stuff. "Hickory" tarp tent, Explorer tent, reflector oven, backpack, cook kit from thrift store pans, (heavy and bulky) sleeping bags ["Get your Dad or his hunting friends to save down for you on their...

My Wife the Nurse reminds all canoeists to get the patient and the rescuers out of the water before administering AED!

This is a sideline, but just to spread the word, the FDA has begun proceedings to approve the use of Narcan as an OTC medication. I found this info on the Psychiatric Times website. To encourage sponsor application for over-the counter naloxone, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...

Al, the Virginia Good Samaritan law protects "any person." It does not require training to render volunteer assistance in an emergency. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title8.01/chapter3/section8.01-225/ Paid professionals are held to a higher standard. There are specific provisions in...

ppine, I am glad you made it through your ordeal and are "back in the saddle again." (Couldn't resist some goofy humor.) You raise an excellent point: in addition to first aid skills and supplies, communication is vital. Even in settled areas, there are places without cell phone service...

Thanks, everybody. I received pretty consistent comments across three forums. Online training is better than nothing, but there is no substitute for hands-on. I think I will take the online class just as a refresher, and to report back to the safety committee. Maybe the safety committee...