Ever since I began sea kayaking, I've carried an anemometer. First one was the simple Dwyer with the little bouncing pith ball in the tube--worked great for probably 15 years until leaking deet (potent stuff!) ate it away. Now I have a Kestral 1000 hanging on a cord around my neck, inside my PFD, when I'm out on the water. It's important to know, really, how hard the wind is blowing. I remember a Message Board dialog with someone who had just returned from paddling on Lake Champlain, off Burlington VT (a lee shore) in "35 mph" winds, and it had been great! I inquired how he knew that the wind was 35 mph--did he take a reading with an anemometer? No, he hadn't, but the radio news that day had said that the winds had been 35 mph, so it was blowing 35. Now a 35 mph wind is high-end Beaufort Force 7, Moderate Gale. In Sea Canoeing, Derek Hutchinson writes,"Very Difficult--You MUST be strong and experienced; your equipment should be good. Seas are big. (Kayaks) difficult to turn. Very difficult to make headway. Wind catches at paddle blades. Foam is blown off in long white streaks, lots of spray. Communication very difficult."

My point here is that, without knowing what the wind speed actually was where and when he was paddling, the Lake Champlain kayaker still felt able to state that he had been out in 35 mph winds and it was no problem. And others might therefore conclude, Hey--Whatzit was out the other day in 35 mph winds, and it was no big deal. It may have actually been blowing 35 mph at some time that day on some anemometer high atop a building in Burlington, but maybe no more than 15 or 20 down at water level on the lake, but, without an actual reading in the boat, down on the water, who knows? My own experience is that it is best to form one's own opinions about what strength winds to paddle in comfortably and safely by actually taking the readings and comparing them with the conditions around you. Most people will find that the effect of the wind on you at any stated velocity is greater than you think it "ought" to be, based on reports supplied about wind speed that are hearsay or guesswork.

I have to agree that estimating wind speed isn't all that easy and if the fella who was kayaking on Lake Champlain was in an area that had any fetch in a 35 mph wind and he thought it was great--well the guy has my respect.

My experience is that when wind-speeds reach that velocity, it is usually gusty and that compounds the difficulty. When I was involved with sailing, a 35 mph wind would call for some very serious reefing and sail changing. In large bodies of water the waves will be breaking and will be very, very large.

http://www.zetnet.co.uk/sigs/weather/Met_Codes/beaufort.htm

You could try this method but (and isn't there always one)
you have to take into account any currents that may be running and the fetch (distance wind has to travel over the water where you happen to be bobbing up and down). There is also the wind shadow from hills the difference in local conditions within a few miles of each other. etc etc. Having a wind guage on hand would be the only way you could accurately report the wind strength in your area but I don't think it's something I would be carrying in my pfd. It may give you bragging rights at the pub but........



Cheers
Bill

Bill, I'm not sure I fully understand your reply. Here's my guess as to the points you were making; correct me if I'm wrong: 1) a kayaker should consider memorizing the Beaufort Scale, especially the descriptions of sea state, and taking into account issues of fetch, current, etc., and thus determine the wind strength, and 2) an anemometer is not something that a kayaker (you) would consider carrying on a cord around your neck. tucked into your PFD. I'm especially interested in the "bragging rights at the local pub, but...." part of your reply. What comes after the but....?

As for 1): I use David Burch's rough guide in Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation--scattered "popcorn" equals about 10 knots; "popcorn" everywhere equals about 20 knots; spray blown off tops of waves, and streaks of foam equals 30 plus knots.

As for 2), I just think it's better to know what the wind strength is, rather than just to guess what it is. The Kestral 1000 is approx. 45mm x 115mm x 20mm and weighs almost nothing--a triumph of modern engineering. Plenty of room inside my PFD for it. Try it; you'll like it!

StrangeMagic,

You don't seem to have understood my message at all.

I suggested people have a look at the Beafort scale but with the understanding that there are other factors which will affect the observation. It is however a legitimate tool that can be used to guage wind strength and has been for several hundred years.

I also said using a guage would be the only accurate way of measuring wind strength.

No I would never wear one on a cord around my neck. You and anyone else can if they wish.

Bragging rights. I may have been on the wrong track here and apologise if I offended you. I initially thought it was to tell people what strong winds you had been out in. After I reread your initial thread I realised it was not the case.

However (this is a bit of Aussie humour if you don't get it please take offense)I live in a town where most of my friends are fishermen either amateur or professional if I was to go to the pub armed with only "factual" data about the conditions of my last paddle I would stand no chance against the fishermans epic tale about the one that got away.


Cheers

Bill

i have to agree with bill here.
knowing what the wind strength is all very well, but surely you can look at the water and get feel on your face and get some sort of idea about what kind of wind speed you are dealing with.
if you are working or on a major expedition where you are operating under managment plans then knowing the exact speed can be a good legal tool, i.e knowing when to make the exact call about whether or not to get on/off the water.
however for a general personal day paddle, if you can't work out the conditions with your eyes and ears you should probably consider not going out. if you're ummming and arghing then it's probably best to err on the side of caution. that's what i was always taught anyway.
it's a bit like using a gps as your first navigation tool, I only pull it out when I can't see any features and am concerned about drift.
a wind speed reader would probably be the same with me, it would spend all it's time tucked away and only tell me what i've already deduced myself.
however as i mentioned above i can see where they can come in handy.
as for bill's "but......", it's an aussie piece of slang, it's like a canadian saying "eh", it doesn't really mean anything and there wasn't anything to follow it. and i totally 100% agree about the bragging rights, it sure helps to get the beers and stories flowing when you can tell the local boaties that you were out in 30knotts the other day and pull out some little gadget they can look at that says so!!
happy paddling and good luck
lachie

After having carefully studied the replies of my antipodean friends Bill and Lachlan, I have to conclude that they have no real objection--they cannot have any real objection (who could?)--to the idea of knowing what the wind speed is, really. But they, personally, can live without knowing it, and so could I. But why should I? They choose not to consider carrying an anemometer out on the water with them; I choose to do so. (I have a compass on my boat, too, though I could probably do without it.)

But as I obviously failed to make crystal-clear in my initial post, some paddlers do go out onto water in perfectly ordinary windy conditions thinking that they are paddling in "30- or 40-knot" winds and think they're doing just fine, because the weather report for that day said the winds would be 30 or 40 knots. And so they are led to believe, erroneously, that it's OK for them to consider paddling in 30- or 40-knot winds (and maybe lead others into paddling with them), when the truth may be that an anemometer would have told them that it was REALLY blowing just 15 or 20 knots. That's my point. It's better to know, and it's easy to know, how hard the wind is blowing, really.

StrangeMagic,

I hope that one day we might both be out enjoying a paddle together and if the wind kicks and provides us with a fun paddle home I may just reach across and ask you what the wind is blowing.


Cheers

Bill

Bill, Australia is just about Number One on my list of great places I'd love to visit--I could stay for months checking out the terrain, wildlife, the great paddling opportunities, the awesome astronomy of those southern, dark skies, and the marvelous people of Australia. If I ever make it down there, I'll make sure we get to paddle together, and I'll show you that Kestrel (it shows Beaufort readings, as well as knots, mph, feet per minute, mps, or kilometers per hour, as instantaneous, average, or maximum).

Since I first posted this, I've continued to monitor wind speeds with my anemometer on kayaking trips, and to check out what others say the wind speed was on their outings. My last trip in "strong" winds was in a protected bay, in a measured 16-20 knots of air, paddling both into it and then taking the wind and waves on the beam. it was rough paddling, with us taking 2 hours to cover 4 sea miles, a figure that corresponds well with David Burch's estimated speed chart in his Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation. I also remember well a trip when a nor'easter rapidly overtook us on another protected bay. With the kayak bow thrust into a Phragmites-covered shoreline, the wind was blowing at 25 mph (statute), and, as we took refuge in a fishing/hunting shack on an island, the shack's anemometer atop a pole registered gusts of 45 mph. I know that while we were on the water, the wind threatened us constantly with capsize just from its force alone.

While browsing through the June 2006 SK, I came across Chris Cunningham's "foredeck" account of his day riding the storm waves on Puget Sound, in winds that "seemed to be every bit of 40 miles per hour." I know Chris to be an accomplished paddler, but, without an actual anemometer reading, how hard does he know the wind was blowing, really? I've become increasingly sceptical about ALL paddler-reported wind speeds and wave heights (including my own past reports) that are not registered by anemometer readings or by other objective measure. As I indicated before, the tendency to tell a good story may lead others into believing that they too can safely go out and paddle in "40 mph" winds (Beaufort Force 8!).

Strange magic,

I can see your point with people believing they can achieve a good paddle in winds that have been reported by others which may have been incorrect. For a start I think that every paddler should adopt the international convention of using Knots and nautical miles to report. When I've explained why I didn't go out today becasue the forcast was for 25 knots people look a me with a blank look. I then have to explain that that is approx equal to 46km per hour (we are metric in Oz). The conversion of knot/miles is not too different (29mph)but still errors can compound.

And yes I have thought about buying an anemometer for my personal use to keep an accurate log of my paddles.

Cheers Bill

I agree that amatuer reports of wind speed and wave height are likely to be inaccurate, sometimes wildly so. I am not likely to stow my paddle and hold an anemometer over my head when things get rough.
All my kayaking stories have waves of only three heights; 0ne foot (lapping at the side of my boat), Three foot (the boat plunges over or through the wave), and Six foot (I can't see the paddler in front of me).
Learning the beufort scale to describe wind speed might help, but many of the clues the beufort scale uses (smoke, flags, tree branchs) are irrellavent out on the bay. Perhaps instead of reporting a wave height or windspeed we can't judge we should just report what the wind/waves were really doing.

osprey

There is Beaufort scale specifically for the sea using wave conditions as its basis. In fact this was the original use.

Cheers

Bill

Bill, I couldn't agree more with your notion that sea kayakers should think and express themselves as mariners do: velocities in knots, distances in nautical (sea) miles. With our physical closeness to the water, wind, weather, currents, tides, if anyone ought to think of themselves as mariners, it is the sea kayaking community.

Osprey, I like your idea on reporting wave height. And in the absence of measured speeds and heights, let's just report what we see. David Burch's "scattered popcorn" for approx. 10 knots of wind, "popcorn everywhere" for 20 knots, and "conspicuous spray....and streaks of foam" for 30 knots, seems to work pretty well as a kayaker's version of the Beaufort Scale.

"A kayakers version"
I like that. Good information.