Sailing a Tin Can

My first time sailing a canoe: the naïve approach

It has been almost 40 years since I first sailed a canoe, and now is the time to share the experience. I’ll ask the reader to do the same when the time is right, especially if it’s a good story.

I was with my Boy Scout troop out of Miami. We went for a canoe trip into the 10,000 Islands area of Florida, a place where the land and sea fight for preeminence over the very southern tip of the state.

We paddled a mélange of canoes out to an island, maybe just a couple three miles or so. We made camp on ground barely above the high water mark, scattered with coral and transient soil. Plants consisted mostly of sea grape and whatever weedy stuff grows in such inhospitable conditions good only for crabs, mosquitoes and the ubiquitous sand fleas.

By that age I had pretty much reached the point where I was too independent to be a Scout anymore and this would prove to be my last trip hanging off the umbilical of a Scout Master, especially one who (in my youthfully arrogant thinking) was better off sitting in front of the tube watching a Dolphins game than trying to lead a hardened outdoorsman like myself. I had already spent many days in the Everglades and practically lived in the drained-swamp pine barrens surrounding our southern Dade County home by then. (Within a couple years of this trip I would find myself held by the foot by trap in alligator-infested, chest-deep water in the Big Cypress Swamp; but that’s another story.)

Canoe Sailing Magazine Celebrates Its First Year

Great support makes it possible, and fun (sorta)

After retiring from the military and attending journalism school, I glommed onto the idea of publishing a magazine once I moved home to Florida. At first, it was to be a print fly fishing publication, but further study made me all too aware of the extraordinary cost of such a venture; it was put on hold. A few months later I researched the possibility of doing an online version, but found little support (okay—no support) for my concept. It seems a fly fishing magazine was not in the cards, though something else was, even though I didn’t know it then.

Back in October of 2007 I was trying to decide whether to restore my reproduction E.M. White sailing canoe, or build a new one. I posted the thread “Time for a new sailing canoe…” in the Woodenboat Forum to pick the collective brains of my fellow WB “Forumites.” Well! After an untold number of responses, various and sundry insights and a lot of brotherly (and sisterly) suggestions, it occurred to me that there was a great potential for a magazine, a canoe sailing magazine. An online canoe sailing magazine.

With the invaluable help of my friend (and ‘IT Department’) Bernadette McCarthy, not a little amount of lost sleep and a whole lot of training and patience on Bern’s part, we went online with Canoe Sailing Magazine January 20, 2008.

During this year, Canoe Sailing Magazine has published about a hundred articles and has been read by more than 27,000 individuals on every continent, save Antarctica, for a total of more than 297,000 pages read and more than 41Gb of data transferred. As far as I can tell, it’s not too shabby for a pastime that’s so unknown to many people. So far.

Read more here

It’s a Global Canoe Crew

A world-wide community coming together

I’m sitting here at my desk on Saturday, March 29 trying to figure out what I should say to my readers other than “Thanks.” This, our third issue, has been made possible by the moral support of a lot of readers from all sorts of canoe and kayaking types, and the contributions of quite a few of you, too. So: “Thank you!”

To date, we have readers in more than 52 countries. If you look at the map I have on the bottom, right of the page, and click on it, you’ll see we are joined by fellow canoe and kayak sailors on every continent, save Antarctica. Readers–fellow sailors–range from New Zealand, to China, South Africa, and Micronesia, to Portugal, Germany, Great Britain and Sweden, to Columbia, Paraguay, Canada and the United States. We are–this community–a pretty big and diverse crew.

Selecting a Fly Reel

A simple guide to selecting a reel that won’t make you broke 

If you’re like me, you get your Orvis or LL Bean catalog or some other “wish book” in the mail and drool over the vast array of fly reels they have to offer. Modern reels are made from various grades of aluminum to high-grade plastic, and alloys unheard of before this century. Regardless of cost or material, there is one attribute they all have in common that you need to keep in mind:

 

Basically, a fly reel is nothing more than a place to keep your line. Period.

Seven Rules Guide to Buying a Fly Rod

Buying right the first time will save money and frustration

Buying a fly rod can be easy. Doing it right takes some doing. Here are seven rules of buying right the first time.
1)    There is no “all condition rod,” just as there is no “one size fits all.” When selecting a rod, buy one that will serve the purpose you will mostly likely and most often use it for. If you will fish small streams most of the time, and only fish lakes occasionally, opt for a small stream rod. You will get the most satisfaction out of it the majority of the time.

Never Buy a Fly Rod Without a Warrantee

Buying right the first time pays in the long run.

“A quality fly rod can set you back a pretty penny.” A true statement that many fly fishers already know. Another statement many would also agree with is “A rod with a lifetime warrantee costs a lot.” And, that, my friends, would be wrong. As a matter of fact, except in only a few circumstances, unwarranted rods actually cost more than warranted ones.

Breaking the Rules

Fly fishermen have a standard of conduct of their very own. When approaching one another on a stream, two anglers will try to avoid crowding each other. If the area appeals to both, one will usually wait his turn and the other will avoid dallying in the spot. He will fish it, but not turn it into a drawn-out affair, thus giving the waiting angler a chance to fish it in short order.