eOceanic, if you google this it will give you details of some anchorage or other and no link to the basic charts. However, scroll down to the chart, make this full screen and you can zoom and navigate your way to any place and scale you like. Various options for screen capture or direct printing. Bu...

I also use a homemade akulisaq (summer skirt) modelled on one I saw in the British Museum using proofed nylon and a bungie waist and deck seal. Getting the S shaped cut to fit the oval ocean cockpit took some iteration, but the waist is easy, a one afternoon project if you have a sewing machine. I'v...

Phoenix do a simple neoprene ocean deck, I've bought them through ASwatersports and they always seem to have them in stock. Probably about £60. This ocean fits an Anas acuta or the slightly rounder Skim cockpit it is quite flexible.

Any reviews of the peak wrap around?

The sea front at Lee on Solent is a good place to launch and safe place to leave a vehicle, free parking. The main thing is to get the tides right, a high coef. makes it easier. Many CKmer paddlers have joined us at Portsmouth Canoe Club. We are in Brittany at Camping Les Sept Iles Trelevern from ab...

Weather cocking is basically good, some popular modern designs that appear perfect in light winds, start lee cocking in stronger winds making them dangerously uncontrollable. We've had several incidents in the Club at F6 and above. People saying 'I never have to use my skeg' is a warning light. My f...

Hard chine boats by their nature are happy on the chine, as the boat tips it become harder and harder to capsize until the chine becomes the hull. Just try some edging and paddling on the chine on flat water and you will see that the apparent instability when you are dead upright is not really insta...

From personal experience over the years AT paddles are very good, but very stiff, makes a roll seem easy, but also easier to pull a muscle in real life, I like a bit more give. Comparing a carbon and bendy wood greenland paddle the bendy one gives back at the end with a little spring if the boat is ...

Looks neat and you feel you are doing your bit for the environment. We believe it does make up to 5mpg difference, driving style and indeed wind direction make more difference. We (Skoda Octavia 1.6 DSG) average about 60mpg south coast to Glasgow without roof load without trying too hard at the lega...

Only one choice at your height and weight -the original and best

http://www.portsmouth-canoe-club.org/kayaks/anas-acuta

Loch Craignish is lovely with scattered islands, launch near the Ardfern village hall, plus the chance for some fun in Dorus Mor if you catch it right. Easy to arrange a one way with shuttle to Croabh Haven and spend some time on Luing, Shuna etc.

You don't have to go far or cover a lot of ground for a longer trip... http://paddleswithananasacuta.blogspot.com/2016/07/two-months-indolent-solitary-paddling.html Although you pass shops more frequently the reality of lone paddling with a loaded boat is that you can only easily shop over low water...

On a long open crossing much of the above discussion holds. However, much of the time you are ducking in and out of the tide or just messing around in and out of the rocks, caves etc, in that case a boat that turns easily will be less tiring over a long day. My Anas acuta is 5.2m overall but with a ...

Southern Waters new system of +/- real time reporting is good, although the ones I'm signed up to are into the sea. I was ill on the Tavy some years ago and logged it with the EA at the time

There still seems an element of subjectivity, rivers change character at sheet boundaries -I don't think so. The cragginess of hillsides the same, but no doubt as the digital master is updated it will become more and more uniform, Pity in a way, I like the subjectivity and even artistic contours mak...

sikaflex is messy to use and slow setting, but seems to stick anything to anything, lasts longer than evostick, but both will eventually fail as water creeps into the foam and junction. sikaflex will last quite a few years of almost constant wet

Handheld VHF can be very quirky, near the cliffs in Scotland sometimes someone 50m away in plain sight is out of range. On the other hand from the top of Butser Hill 270m you can hear the port traffic at Cherbourg 110 miles away. The handhelds have an aerial designed for all round use and not too af...

Loch Eribol might qualify as most scary with a northerly swell rolling in. Wiki has a list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sea_lochs_of_Scotland but I suspect the minimum 1 mile will disqualify many many fine lochs and then there is the definition are we talking fjords or including bay shaped ...

Seen this several times, it doesn't seem to take much, just another compass or speaker VHF or phone. It is frightening how easy it is to reverse them back with a magnet. We always check each others and think about wind direction if in the mountains or waves on the sea.

I've paddled up from the sea near HW around the first few bends without problems, but then found it too shallow to paddle against the flow. Coming back down was easy although the 'V' down into the sea had grown a lot in the time I'd been upstream! Maybe it was just increasing flow rather than it bei...

TVP and kibbled onion are cheap, light and easy to carry, add something for flavour, stock cube, a sun dried tomato, black pepper etc and a dash of olive oil. Cooking is just adding boiling water and waiting a few minutes. If you use instant potato powder, just wait a few minutes, add the potato pow...

The old P&H vela is a really good boat for a small person and surprisingly fast for its length, might still be some around.

I paddled from Vaxholme some years ago, easy to get there by public transport, good kit, good advice, what not to like.

The brass frame seems to keep the lubber line in place, as it can rotate out of the way if you are not careful. You also don't want to restrict the bellows or you will get bubbles.

In the market for a new touring BA to replace my Palm Kaikoura, I notice the Yak Greenburg is massively on sale all over, so I suppose it failed to sell. Very few reviews on the internet. Anyone tried this?

I really like the 'bulldog' plastic clips. The force need to break one would be far above towing forces. Although I might not like to be lowered down a cliff on one I suppose

Seeing the post https://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=129195 on Ulva and toilets that became a discussion on access, I thought I'd resurrect this thread. We had some problems at Ulva recently, a man in a 4wd pick-up more or less told us to go home and not come back, however, ...

Any of the beaches away from the main towns just above HW -best at neaps rather than springs.....

The ocean cockpit is very practical for long journeys being seaworthy and with maps etc handy on the foredeck, but people claim they are harder to get in and out of. How about a cockpit with a sliding section to convert to keyhole for entry and exit and ocean for paddling

They winter out on the continental shelf but come back to the same sheltered inshore waters every year, it seems they may become accustomed to local kayakers and remember them from one year to the next. Once near Cuan sound we had one apparently leaving its young calf with us for safety as the adult...