Not a book, but it is probably worth checking out some of Justine Curgenven film's, not all of her stuff is expeditions, but when it is she tends to go for fairly hardcore ones. She doesn't have a lot of technical content, but plenty to see on the tactical/psychological side of things. https://www.c...

Thanks, very interesting data in there when you download the dataset and start slicing it. And as I expected, when you start looking at categories across the dataset it is very easy to pick out ones from each year where there are 100%-200% increases or decreases. It is just the nature of the type of...

On a related topic, does anyone know where in their website the RNLI publishes their annual stats ? I've seen them refered to on the site, but can't actually find them when I look for them. I found a glossy PDF with some selected stats in, but nothing that shows year over year changes for all the ca...

Looks like some creative analysis of stats going on and some slippery wording. "Volunteer crew members at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) have faced an unprecedented summer* Based on provisional incident reports** from RNLI lifeboat stations around the UK and Ireland, there was a 64% ...

The release from arms under the decklines is simply flinging arms straight and all is released. A push and the rescuer is upright and clear. Decklines in your part of the world must be setup very differently to the typical UK ones. I can count on my fingers the number of boats I've seen that have d...

I have exactly the opposite problem with pogies, my hand get so hot and sweaty after a while. Dunking doesn't seem to help much.

There is no physics-defying magic going on, just plenty of room for lots of air. Air is a much better insulator than water or the material of a glove. And not just a little bit better, air conducts heat 24* time more slowly than water. Even if you are regularly dunking a pogie, the water flows out l...

The general situation around the UK is that the flood tide goes towards the north and west, and the ebb towards the south and east, but local topography can cause streams to run in completely different directions than those. Local ?! For over a third of the Great Britain coastline, from John o' Gro...

Air bags were mentioned a few posts back by Owen.

And yes, I agree they are an extremely good idea. I always keep a large 40 litre one rolled up in my day hatch, along with a roll of extra thick cling film to wrap around the boat to seal it into the hatch opening (thanks Howard Jeffs for that tip).

112. It’s an emergency item hardwired into mobile phones that bypasses all the financial/business stuff to get you out of deep shit without having to give credit card details. I may be wrong but there is always someone to point this out on here :) Ok, I can see the confusion here. When you dial 999...

There is a system on our smart phones to bypass stuff in an emergency that does much the same stuff? Not sure what you're on about there ? Your mobile can: - receive GPS signals to locate itself - talk to a cell tower to communicate with the outside world If you aren't in range of a cell tower your...

I wasn't saying that they were hard to find, they aren't, RS Components carry them for example. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/speciality-size-rechargeable-batteries/8801558/ (they are twice around the price of quality unprotected cells of the same capacity, though still not expensive in the grand s...

18650 cells rarely have protection circuitry

I’ve also run into the mobile deny listing today, for the first time. I’ve been using mobile internet for our home internet for over a year. First time I’ve seen the deny list kick in, I guess there must have been some updates to the list on UK mobile IPs recently.

I know it is the done thing in model aircraft, but you’ll find USB battery packs don’t generally charge the cells separately.

It isn't clear* that that buck converter has any battery protection in it. A standard powerbank doesn't just have a buck converter in it, it also has battery protection circuitry in it to turn off the output when the charge in the batteries gets too low. Without this protection circuitry you will da...

Many VHF radios are limited to lower power transmission when running from the AA adapter. Not sure if that applies to the HX851e. Possibly not an issue, as from what I can tell, most of the time line of site for a kayaker is a lot more relevant than whether you're transmitting at 5 watts vs 1 watt. ...

Our Xtra-HV is a bit of a tighter fit, you'd probably need to move the seat back quite a bit for foot comfort. Our Romany Surf would fit you.

A Xplore-L will certainly fit, though depending on the leg length you might need to move the seat back a touch to get size 11.5 feet in. I'm 6'2", have been 110kg and I fit with size 12 boots (normally wear size 10, but worn 12s for a bit after breaking my ankle).

The outer layer on our Corelite-X is noticeably softer than any of the single layer plastic boats we have. It is also very thin, I’d probably not chose it for a boat I expected to rub against rocks on a regular basic.

The weight differences certainly aren’t massive, our Corelite-X canoe is maybe 15% lighter than the equivalent single layer boat.

It isn’t quite as simple as how much stiffer it is, as boats using triple layer also tend to be thinner, to trade off stiffness against weight. So what you often have is a lighter boat that is a bit stiffer.

One of the handy things about some lead acid batteries is that the terminals are a long way apart:

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/lead-aci ... s/5375450/

Which is a very handy feature if you think you might occasionally be splashing salt water over the setup ;)

A charger pack of similar dimensions also has around the same 24 watt-hour capacity as the above lead acid battery. The lithium cells themselves have a much higher energy density than the lead acid cells. But the packaging of the charger packs adds a lot of extra bulk in physical protection, connect...

Sounds like they were probably paddling playboats, extremely short boats designed for playing waves and doing acrobatic "freestyle" tricks. They get away with being a lot shorter as you tend to have you knees higher in them than normal boats. Even then, I've still only found one playboat that my leg...

While the local clubs aren't open, you might still find local coaches doing social distanced 1-to-1 coaching sessions, which might be a good way to help you get back on the water.

The D75 was the largest of the previous generation Diesel. I've got a Diesel 80, which is the largest of the current generation. The D75 is a little bit smaller than the 80, but should* fit you fine. You never no for sure until you sit in a boat though. * guessing at fit isn't as simple as just look...

The boats you probably want to look at are the so called crossover ones. They have whitewater style hulls, that have been stretched in length to make them more enjoyable for long trips and to add storage. The two obvious examples are the Pyranha Fusion and the Wave Sport Ethos. The Fusion comes in S...

The RescueMe PLB1 provides a GPS test feature to check it can get a GPS fix, which they recommended you use no more than once a year (as it uses a fair amount of battery).

I expect some other PLBs have similar test modes.

These are dirt cheap and keep the water out of my ears.