The Brooklyn based Sebago Canoe Club will be conducting their annual Open House on May 26, 2012. Everyone is welcome to join them for a day of family fun on the water including Kayaking, Sailing, Canoeing, Rowing and Racing.

Event hours run from 10-4 PM      (Rain or Shine)   Download Event Flyer

SEBAGO CANOE CLUB is located in Paerdegat Basin Park in Brooklyn, New York, a short paddle from the 16,000 acre expanse of Jamaica Bay. The Bay is part of Gateway National Recreational Area and has miles of open water with salt marshes, islands, beaches, and a famous wildlife refuge.

Great Horned Owl

North Atlantic Canoe and Kayak had its monthly meeting featuring wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, on April 17, 2012 at Bellport’s South Country Library.

Ann started the meeting with a discussion about the benefits of yoga for preparation in Kayaking.  Ann, assisted by Steve and Renee´, demonstrated some basic Yoga positions.  Ann demonstrated and explained how much more movement one has for paddling, when their muscles are stretched and relaxed.

The attending members agreed with Ann that it would be good to have a yoga session one night complete with movies and members performing the actual exercises at one of our future meetings.

Following a short discussion of various NACK business matters, the focus of tonight’s meeting was set to begin.

Kerri & Opossum

Kerri Dobbs represented the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons, by starting out showing us a very informative Power Point presentation, providing lots of information on how we either could or could not assist various wildlife-in-need, which we may come across while we are kayaking.

We all learned many new things, and we’re all a bit shocked about the “Old Wife’s Tale” about not returning a baby bird which fell out of its nest.  The tale says the parent bird will reject the baby because of the humans smell.  Kerri explained that the theory was not correct, as birds do not have a sense of smell.

The opossum Kerri is holding was actually rescued from the pouch of its dead mother.  If you ever find a dead female opossum, it was suggested to check the pouch for young, and if possible, get the animal to a shelter, as there could be up to 13 babies of the 40 fingernail size births, still alive attached to the mother’s feeding tubes.

Red Tail Hawk

Kerri brought along four animals that the Center had rescued. These animals all had severe injuries, and although are all mainly rehabilitated, none of them could survive in the wild, and can’t be released.

One simple thing we kayakers can do to save the animals, is to pick up and dispose of potential life threatening traps, such as plastic bags, netting, fish hooks and line.  These are all potential accidents waiting to happen.

So if you see an injured turtle (be careful of snapping turtles), bird, rabbit, opossum, amongst others call for help.  If you find a sea bird entangled in fish line, you, could do as Steve one time did, cover the bird with your shirt, which renders the animal harmless, while you remove and dispose of the fishing line.

Screech Owl

Kerri was kind enough to provide us with a listing of other wildlife rescue organizations and rehabilitators in the event one of us should discover an animal in need.  She stressed that time is of the essence and one should not hesitate to call.  While many of these animals may look like they might make good pets this is definitely not the case.  They have special needs and will not fare well in captivity.  Besides that possession of wildlife is strictly regulated by the Department of Environmental  Conservation.   Animal rehabilators need special training and are required to be licensed.

This was a wonderfully educational and enjoyable presentation by Kerri.  From beginning to end, this was another great meeting.

Bob H

Saturday April 28 and Sunday April 29, 2012  the Dinghy Shop in Amityville,  New York, will have all their kayaks available for on water paddling.  This is your chance to get down there and paddle the kayaks you’ve been thinking about.  Demos will run from 10AM until 5 PM each day.  The shop is located at 334 South Bayview Ave in Amityville and the shop number is 631.264.0005.

The eight weeks of two-hour Sunday pool sessions at Suffolk Community College has ended this past Sunday.  Ann did a fantastic job of organizing it.  All the members went out of their way to help one another, including kayak unloading and loading from and to the cars, and carrying them in and out of both the recreation building and the pool area.  Steve brought his short whitewater kayak on several occasions to loan to other members.  Both he & John seemed to take great pride in offering instruction for helping new members -including me-along.  Most members practiced rolling, various types of rescues including the heel hook, getting back into their own kayak with the straddle or cowboy style method , as well as various other stokes, sweeps and carries of a swimmer they “rescued.”  Before the sessions, most members could roll, and just worked on making it more “bomb proof.”  Some members -including me- took a couple of lessons to learn or improve the rolling.  Several members at first practiced rolling with the paddle float and improved to rolling without it.  Dara, Matt, Alex and I finally, all successfully accomplished this somewhat elusive challenge.  Dara could roll before, but only if someone was spotting her.  For us other three, I think it was only in our dreams.  This was peer practice, minus the cold water and jelly fish.  I’m already looking forward to next winter’s sessions.

Bob H

This month’s meeting of North Atlantic Canoe and Kayak (Wednesday 3/7/12 at the Connetquot Library) will focus on kayak trip planning using internet resources.  With the prime paddling season about to begin it’s not too early to begin thinking about where we want to paddle.  Which leads us seek out new places.  But how does one go about planning a trip to somewhere they haven’t been before?  Check out the resources available on the Internet.

The meeting presentation will utilize free internet sources for nautical charts, maps, launch sites, weather, tides and currents.  And since there is nothing like a little “local knowledge” we will also discuss the use of internet message boards to share trip information.

As usual some pre-meeting discussion at 6PM, business at 7 including the election of Club Officers, and the presentation immediately following.

A new forum section has been added to the Members-Only area of the message board to organize and discuss NACK paddling trips for 2012.  Visit NACK Paddling Trips.

Please Note: you will be prompted for the Members Only password. If you are currently a NACK member, and you need the password, please contact webmaster@get-the-nack.org

Complete Message Board Info

Any mild winter’s day that has good weather for walking in the park is also a good day to get on the water in a small boat. The waterways are uncrowded, access is easy, and we get to see things that we don’t see in Summer, such as seals in Long Island Sound and bald eagles on the Connecticut River. The crisp air makes a cup of hot chocolate at the end of the day taste just that much better.

The sneaky hazard, though, is not the weather, but the water temperature. Water conducts heat away 25 times faster than air, and a capsize or accidental dunking in cold, off-season water will quickly induce cold shock and hypothermia. Proper clothing, equipment, and skill, however, can minimize this danger, and making an off season outing safer than a drive on I-95.

The Small Boat Shop will conduct its annual Cold Water Safety Workshop on Saturday, February 18 at its location on the water at 144 Water St in Norwalk, Connecticut. Starting at 10:30 that morning, various experts will discuss hypothermia and cold shock, how to treat them, and most importantly, how to prevent them. Other aspects of off season safety will be discussed, and safety equipment will be on display. Anybody who attends the program, as a finale, has the option of donning a drysuit and jumping into the cold Norwalk River to observe firsthand how effective and comfortably warm the proper equipment truly is.

This event is free. There will be sale pricing on cold water equipment and clothing. Reservations are not required, but the Small Boat shop does appreciate a call in advance so that they can plan seating. For more information, the Small Boat Shop can be reached by phone at 203-854-5223, or by e-mail at info@thesmallboatshop.com