Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall.
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go.
It’s the freakiest show.
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy.
Oh man!
Wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s in the best selling show.
Is there life on Mars?
- bowie

When Cassini-Huygens sent back the first pictures of Saturn’s Moon, Titan, it was somewhat shocking.  There in grainy black and white images were mountains, coastlines, lakes, rivers and oceans. The first time humans had seen such “earth-like” features on another world. Of course Titan is not a vacation spot.  It’s average temperature is around -289F (-178c) and it’s lakes are filled with liquid hydrocarbons. Titan is not the next paddling Mecca.

Veni, vidi, veci
Veni, vidi, veci
(The moon above was yellow)
Music all around her
In my arms I found her
(I was a lucky fellow)
- the gaylords

There is a nice video piece on Freya Hoffmeister on TV3 New Zealand.  You can read the article and watch the video here.  The guy in the clip above of course is Paul Caffyn who was the first to circumnavigate the South Island by sea kayak.  One little bit of interest is how the clips on the stern of her NDK Explorer broke on a hard landing recently.  In fact she lost a paddle that day as well.  You may remember I had a similar situation with my Rockpool when I was dropped on to a rock shelf.  Luckily I was able to fiddle a repair.  Freya’s answer was to just glass the stern right onto the center section. Of course it’s not often that those clips face these sorts of landings, (mine was akin to dropping off a truck) but it’s probobly worth looking at those clips a bit more.  For my part I will always carry spare latches & screws in any future long trips. Anyway, Go Freya!

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

So when is a kayak not a kayak and “not a kayak” well, not a kayak?

Kayak.com announced they grabbed $196 million dollars in venture capital to acquire rival company SideStep.   By the way, Kayak.com is a travel site similar to Expedia and actually has very little to do with Kayaking, unless of course you use them to book your hotels and car rentals.  And no, they don’t offer discounts to kayakers.  Hmmmmm. . . .

Taking it all into consideration
Love’s a game I never win.
I’ve been in very simil’r situations,
Again and again and again.
- macca

 Attempting to hold a video camera while sledding in a kayak leaves few variables.   Dropping the camera, or careening out of control being the most likely options.

But no matter what weird things you try on a snow covered hill in December, there is one certainty.  If you want to try it again it means starting the long trek back up.

Well I woke up this morning
With the cold water
With the cold water
With the cold water
Woke up this morning
With the cold water
With the cold water
With the cold
- waits

So here’s a quick look at 7am.  Here the poor kid has to wait until family shows up before he can open his presents.  He does of course get to dig through his stocking to tide him over. .   Now the waiting has begun. . .

My day begins as soon as I can get this bloody bottle of Stolis open!  Cheers!