ACK NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2021

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Soldiers Rock, probably the best known stack on Islay. This area is a paradise for the paddling geographer. Photo by Kevin Mansell.

ACK scours the internet, our reader, and the larger Atlantic Coastal community each month for those news items we feel will be of the greatest interes to our readers.

HEMPSTEAD HARBOR, N.Y., Oct. 26 — The Coast Guard was searching for an overdue kayaker in the vicinity of Hempstead Harbor.

The search for Laurence Broderick, age 45, of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, began around 4 a.m., Tuesday, Oct. 26, when the Village of Mamaroneck police received a call from his mother requesting a wellness check.

What Emergency Communication Device Do You Carry?
By David Eden, Rich Stevens, and Nicole Jennings

It is common sense that a paddler's safety kit should include some sort of communication device, absolutely necessary for safe paddling, even in situations that seem entirely close to home on familiar waters in reasonable conditions. From my own experience, calm conditions and sheltered waters can turn very sketchy if a white or black squall suddenly roars through. (Note to self: Don't forget to check the weather forecast before setting out!) This leads to the further question of what sort of device.

Circumnavigating Scandinavia
By Jim Danielsson Translated from Swedish by Alan Piggott

A Swedish voyager fulfills a life-long dream of paddling around Norway, Denmark, Sweden. and Finland. It took 148 days to cover 3,827 miles.

Coastal Scotland: Celebrating the History, Heritage and Wildlife of Scottish Shores
By Stuart Fisher Reviewed by Paul Caffyn

Stuart Fisher, editor of the monthly British magazine Canoeist for more than 30 years, began, back in March 1989, to include illustrated guides to sections of the British coast that he had paddled and photographed (also sectional guides to the rivers and canals of Britain). Sixty two of those coastal guides, based on what Stuart maintained was the slowest ever (15 years) kayak circumnavigation of Britain, were compiled into a massive 357 page book in 2006, titled Inshore Britain.

Paddling North
By Audrey Sutherland Reviewed by Paul Hayward

"Go Simple, Go Solo, Go Now…"

Good books come in many guises — some make you think, some make you feel, some educate and some just help you sleep. Paddling North made me stop and chuckle and then sit and think, with a smile on my face. Many times.

Ruthless River: Love & Survival by Raft on the Amazon's Relentless Madre de Dios
By Holly FitzGerald Reviewed by Paul Caffyn

This is a story of a round the world honeymoon in 1973 that went off the rails with an aircraft crash in the Peruvian jungle. The book opens with a young newly-wed couple on their last legs after some 26 days on a balsa log raft in a backwater of South American river, the Madre de Dios.

Celebrate Autumn with these new ways to enjoy the water
by Rachel Felver

Chesapeake anglers and paddlers rejoice! In 2020, the Chesapeake Bay Program and its partners added 12 access points where the public can connect to the water. With these additions, the region has met 69 percent of the goal in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement to add 300 new public access sites by 2025. Here's a look at the new offerings.

Circumnavigating Islay
By Kevin Mansell

It was only on my third visit to Islay (pronounced "Eye-lah") that I actually stood on a road or went into a building. Several years ago, whilst paddling around Jura, Islay's wilder neighbour, we spent a night on a remote beach on the east coast. My other visit was even shorter: We nipped across from Jura for lunch on another remote beach before heading back across the Sound of Islay, to camp on Jura.

Those two fleeting glimpses of the coast ensured that when our friend, Janet, said she and Angus were looking at renting a house on the island and did we want to go, the only possible answer was yes.

Paddle at Chesapeake's Mouth Highlight Nature in Flux
by Jeremy Cox

This is where it all ends.

At Wise Point, Va., the mainland of the Delmarva Peninsula culminates in a final exertion of sand and loblollies, concluding its 170-mile journey down the East Coast. There are no more cornfields, which seemed like they would go on forever. No more sporadic little towns, steeped in history: Accomac, Wachapreague, Nassawadox.

But it is also the beginning of something else. This is where the Chesapeake Bay sloshes together with saltwater, eventually giving way to the Atlantic Ocean in all of its briny splendor.

Lake Umbagog
by Tamsin Venn

We arrived at this year's Lake of October, Umbagog, before peak foliage season. The green-tinged ridges around the lake were smudged in orange and red, but the scarlet and yellow flames of maple and birch that line the stony shore had yet to light up this last week in September, possibly because of a warmer than normal summer and early autumn. (See Why Leaves Change Color).

As compensation, we had warm air and water temps, very welcome this far north at September's end and a marked contrast to our shivery trip last year (ACK Vol. 29 #8, Nov-Dec 2020).

Car Camp Kookery
by David Eden

As many people do, we often find ourselves based in a campground on paddling, biking, or hiking trips, and the question of what to eat always comes up. Since our meals come out of the Yeti cooler, we are spared the worry about weight which is the only consideration that will move me to eat freeze-dried.

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