Kayaking the maritimes

Posted by Adam Bolonsky on Sep 7, 2004

Book review: A Guide to Sea Kayaking in Newfoundland & Labrador; Kevin Redmond and Dan Murphy; Nimbus Publishing; Halifax, Nova Scotia (ISBN 1-55109-434-7); paperback; 277 pages, color; $21.95

I�ve been drawn to the idea of kayaking Newfoundland and Labrador ever since Outdoor Learning Adventures� John O�Halloran�s badly-written if hauntingly-photographed account of the trip he took there several years ago. The story appeared in a regional magazine, mentioned grumpy old men and things gone wrong: bad food, worse weather, caches torn open, polar bears and wolves. O�Halloran gave a distressing account of imported fold-up kayaks lost by the regional air carrier, of getting therefore marooned in some one-horse town where the last horse finally took off after the local restaurant tried to use it for hamburger. O�Halloran�s account read like an adventure nonetheless: he and crew also brought alpine gear along to attempt first ascents of the provinces� highest summits. Most compelling were the black-and-white photos: tree-shorn landscapes, low basins, soaring summits, abandoned fishing villages, achingly-remote grave yards. Here was the greater mystery Rockwell Kent wrote of when he travelled to Greenland to make lithographs of the Inuit, and here is where I have wanted to paddle since if not before I read either account, despite warnings about blackflies and mosquitoes and Yvonne Rosmarin�s cogent assessment of the provinces: �Fried fish, fries potatoes, canned peas with vinegar.� Moreover, get hurt fishing Flemish Cap, the Gloucester waterfront story goes, and once you get airlifted to a Newfie hospital your problems begin.

Fine coincidences, then, that Tom Casey and others are planning an expedition to Newfoundland next year and that an old copy of WaveLength I have at home mentioned Redmond�s helpful if in many ways flawed guidebook. Casey and company will want to buy Redmond�s book, and so will others, but more on that later.

Redmond divides his book in half: an overview which describes the provinces� geology, geography, flora and fauna, and how to view whales. Subsequent chapters describe ocean hazards and so on, but in such generic terms that they fail to describe paddling in Newfoundland and Labrador beyond how to approach their bergy bits (with caution) and icebergs (never), or what the difference is between katabatic and anabatic winds. One brief chapter, �Preparations�, also too generic, offers one pithy caveat: Labrador and Newfoundland paddlers need pack enough to survive three weather systems, possibly two seasons. One paddles the provinces, then, equipped with both sun and winter hats, quick-dry pants short AND long, dry top AND drysuit. And bugs: you�ll want a mosquito-netting hat, although, unfortunately, there�s nothing sillier-looking than a mosquito-netting hat, unless it�s a sprayskirt worn on land. To wit the bugs: �There is no escaping the bugs. The only break will be brought by winds or cold weather.� Finally one notices that Canadian Coast Guard regs require paddlers to carry 50-foot floating rescue ropes. The generic intro sections have a rushed-to-press quality and perfunctory tone likely a result of this and other publishers� desires to get their kayaking where-to and how-to books into the hands of a still largely inexperienced public as quickly as possible.

The book�s heart, however, are its fifty-five two- and four-page descriptions of routes. The routes range from Newfoundland�s northern peninsula to its west, south, northeast and Avalon coasts, and Labrador. Here the book emerges from its fog, even if it reads sometimes as harried and rushed.

Each route's description begins with a small map showing the waypoints of a 6 to 40 kilometer route. While each map dots the starts and ends of the routes as well as the coastline�s location within the province, the maps don�t include access highway and roads names or numbers. Thus one reads of an enticing-sounding trip without being about to check what its road is known as, or whether it is made of dirt or asphalt or is 4-wheel --- a drawback for visitors unfamiliar with the Canadian maritime provinces� roads.

There are also �Water notes�: viz.: �Very strong tidal currents are associated with the Strait of Belle Isle.� Yet one does not learn those tides� directions nor the effect on them of any prevailing winds. Paddling distances, given in km. and miles, oddly do not give nautical mile distances; sometimes the book�s distance conversions from kilomters to miles are incredibly inaccurate.

�Special features� mention fauna (minke whales, polar bears) and areas of particular beauty, mystery, or historical significance. Where to land and not, and which ferry to catch, when relevant, are mentioned, if cursorily. One learns what happens along particular routes when the weather turns (breaking waves, fog, inapproachable shorebreak etc.). Finally each route�s �Logistics� mentions the location of a put-in. (Because the author has written an overview and not a definitive guidebook, you�ll need local road maps to find most if not all of them.) Trip durations range from a few hours to fifteen days and more.

This is a helpful book for anyone who plans to paddle Labrador or Newfoundland, even if its narrative�s cursory approach and oddly unevocative story-telling style, do not, in either an in-the-bookstore thumb-through or close bed-read, give the reader an immediate or lasting sense of what it feels and looks like to paddle the northeasternmost maritime provinces. This is a queerly disappointing effect, given that the book�s glossy paper, happy-paddler photos, and full-color landscape shots were obviously meant to entice and appeal to both detail and quick look-throughers.

By contrast Nimbus�s companion book, �Paddling the Tobeatic: Canoe Routes of Southwestern Nova Scotia," by Andrew L. Smith, with its ragstock paper, only occasional black-and-white photos, and wise mixture of topo, highway, and hand-drawn maps, draws the reader in, full and quick, even if the book is 100 pages longer, covers a far smaller region, and is that much more dense with text. A final jarring issue with the guide is how marred it is by spelling errors and careless copy edits (fine words, coming from this writer), as well the botching of some simple facts --- annoying missteps in a $22 book. Finally, the book lists neither nautical charts nor local tide table sources. Instead, Redmond lists the related Canadian geological survey maps. A fine idea, to a point. Yet his rubric for his choice is on the one hand bizarre and wrongheaded ---- �Although marine charts contain more information on coastal waters, they are not as relevant to sea kayakers.' On the other, his choice of topo maps over charts runs at direct crosspurposes to his stated warning that no-one should paddle these waters without making a detailed study of charts AND maps first. But buy the book if you want a basic, quick overview of where to paddle in remote eastern Canada�s waters. Yet, as the author himself points out, don�t use the guide as your only source of reference. Problem is (and one would not expect this from so pricey a book), the guilde's closing page of reference texts lists only one relevant alternative resource, and without subjective comment: Joe Dicks� �Make Every Trip a Return Trip: Sea Kayaking in Newfoundland and Labrador�, published by the Office of Boating Safety, Newfoundland. That guide too is probably worth a look. ##

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