My cell phone happened to work, but that is not always the case. The SPOT sure took a lot of worry about the well being of WaterTribers out of the situation. Combine that with the tracking during the race and it is well worth it.

But KayakVagabond is correct. For actual life saving, nothing beats wearing a PFD, dressing for success, and have a PLB on you.

A PLB is far superior to a SPOT for distress -- not only in terms of reliability and rescue infrastructure, but the transmission frequency and strength was designed from the ground-up for penetrating clouds, weather, trees, etc.  The SPOT frequency and power is very inferior -- it was designed for tracking containers/cargo, not for saving your life. A PLB is actually much cheaper than a SPOT over time, since there are no subscription fees.

IMO, a SPOT is a great "gadget" to have. The SOS feature is much, much better than nothing and the "I'm OK" and tracking features are useful and fun. The SPOT allows us to enjoy watching a challenge unfold on our computer screens. However, should I ever be at sea, far from shore and out of my boat, requiring a rescue to get home alive, I will reach for the PLB. 

IMO it makes perfect sense to have both for a event like Watertribe, they have overlapping but different purposes and goals.

Greg Stamer

j

What surprises me is that they have shared absolutely zero information on what they know. Is his vehicle at a ramp? What color kayak? Any info at all about intended destination or duration. Nada. Would be good info for anyone in the area to keep an eye out.

If all he told his wife was "going kayaking" then that would explain the lack of info. If so then he is either dead, in another state pretending he is dead or he will emerge with a great story. Hopefully it's the great story.

Danito wrote:

Chef Boyardee right out of the can. 

 I'm with you on that mistermoon. Can will not explode. and they do give you a better comfort food feeling.

spidennis- I'm  in class 3.  On the move its mostly ensure,gatorade,water,jerky,slim jim's and honey nut bars. I only eat my canned food when I stop for the day.

One trick I've learned is to just plop the whole unopened can into boiling water for a few minutes. Then all you need to do is fish it out, wait a minute or so, then open it and eat right out of the can. No, the can will not explode even if you leave it in the boiling water for too long. There are good physical reasons for this that I don' have the time to explain, but trust me it will not explode.

Apple slices with peanut butter, beef jerky for my crew and vegetarian seitan jerky for me, along with Arts Pro Bars (raw bars, no cooked ingredients), bananas, a few veggie MRE entrees in case we want something hot, grapes, and a little bit of chocoloate do it for us.  This year, we'll probably not fix anything hot for breakfast other than coffee, although we'll have some oatmeal packets with us just in case.  I will also be experimenting with varius dried fruits and veggies made at home.  FRS as a good energy drink that is vitamin B loadeds, without all the calories of gatorade or the caffeine of a Red Bull (4 sugar free Red Bulls will be aboard, as they make a great booster 1/2 hour before shooting a tight channel at night with no moon or sleep!)  Also, high fructose corn syrup is definitely off the menu, and aspartame will be liited to the 4 red bulls, as I'd prefer our metabolisms operate they way nature, and not pharmaceutical companies, intended.

One thing to consider is, well, output.  High fiber diets are very important, but, as the military knows, weeklong missions are often best supported with a low residue diet!

spidennis wrote:

I wish y'all would identify if you were sailing or paddling,  eating out of a kayak is way different than eating on a cruise ship!

I was sailing & rowing (Class 4, single). somewhere in between the kayak and the cruise ship

Breakfast: Cliff bar or 2, two cups yerba mate

Lunch (under way): Dried home made whole-grain bread & individually wrapped cheese sticks

home made jerky, dried fruit, trail mix, water & gatorade throughout the day as needed

Dinner: Ramen noodles, rehydrated jerky & rehydrated veggies. GNC's Amplified Muscle Meal (recovery drink)

1 Mountain House meal in the middle as a treat.

skipped dinner & went right to bed after long days a couple times, but made up for it next day.

I probably lost 5-10 lbs, but had plenty of energy and did not go hungry

None of the above went bad and did not add a lot of weight

I might add some canned stuff next time for variety

He won't shoot a manatee.

After that I'm too far ahead in my kayak so I have to rely on Perpeteum for the day time augmented with dried mango, nuts and other snacks. If a trying day I do like a hot meal in the form of a deydrated ready to rock something or other.

I think my food choices are influenced to a large extent by my normal diet.  For the most part I eat a paleo diet.  I don't completely cut out dairy like the hard core paleo folks do, but the processed carbs and sugar are out.

The only time I drink Gatorade is during a long event (like a challenge) for the carbs and electrolytes.  I mix it weak (about half of what the directions call for) because I don't want the sugar content of the full mixture.  Sugar is quick energy, but if simple sugars are the bulk of your carb intake, you are asking to bonk.  You might be able to get away with it on the NCC, but something longer like the EC.......?  Accelerade is good to and also has a little protein in it, but is expensive when you start mixing it in the amount we need for a race.

I get carbs from fruit (bannanas, apples, oranges) and Accel Gels.  Energy bars (high carb, little protein, low fat and fiber.  Speaking of fiber.....I would bet that this is the cause of stomach issues some of you have mentioned.  Think about it for a second.   Anxiety level is elevated (this alone can screw up your stomach) especially if conditions are bad, and you dump a lot of high fiber stuff like granola on your stomach.  LOOK OUT!

I like jerky, recovery drinks, and freeze dried meals for protein and recovery at the end of the day.  Try to get the bulk of your protein and fat during recovery times when your body can make the most of it.  Chief's article (can't remember the title) is a good guideline to start with. 

There are some general guidelines we should all try to live by, but the exact recipe is going to differ from person to person.  Our body chemistries are different.  I will say that I disagree with the concept of eating your race chow for several days leading up to the race.  If your race chow requires you to "prep your system", it probably needs some tweaking.  I spend the days before the race on active rest and carb loading.  I wouldn't stand in the freazer for an hour to prep my system for going out into the cold.

By the way (I say this because in the paddling world I am a complete cherry)..... Yes, I have only done one challenge.  And yes, I have not done an EC yet.  But I have spent the better part of my life putting my body through the ringer, so I feel qualified to chime in here.

I will stop rambling (living up to my tribe name).  Will post again after I get to sit down with the nutritionist. 

my newest idea is sparked by what I heard a ufc competitor was eating, two packages of pre cooked bacon a day?  So I took that idea and made a two bagel bacon sandwiches out of one bacon pack and that's my new favorite Breakfast!  I find that real food in the morning is fuel that sticks with me for quite a while. 

During the day I find it tough to eat real food until I've had a chance to cool down and let my stomach rest a bit so I need liquid food and have found the PERFECT all day thing, it's called Spiz, it's a protein shake, I mix it really thick so I have 3-4 hours of fuel in one bottle.  mark lines for each hour you take a slug of it.  I mix the vanilla and chocolate together equally.  I could live off this stuff!

I use vast quantities of Gatoraid, (all the time really),  and gels and chews as I need them later in the day.  Like others, I like a hot meal at the end of the day.  Mountain House works good for me.  All this talk of food is making me hungry!

Per

(nonWatertribe-ish content follows) But I must say one of my pet peeves is having these nice stoves in the States, and then not being able to carry fuel for them on the airline and being unable to find a dealer who sold cartrigdes .....can't tell you how this has plagued mybike camping trips in Ireland/UK. Did bring an MSR stove once, but watching it engulf itself in flames to preheat was not my favorite evening. --Wade

For breakfast, nutela or peanut butter and jelly with bread or bagels, and coffee or mocha with hot choco.

Fig bars or dried figs are good for snacking, but we try to avoid too much sweet stuff.

I'm still tuning my food, but it gets better every trip.  I've found that I really don't like a lot of sweet stuff, I lose my appetite for it pretty quickly.  During my last trip I ate a lot of Combos (Pizza and Pretzel Pizza) and these were great.  They have the added benefit of lots of salt, which is important to keeping your electrolytes in balance.  I also bring cookies, snack crackers, pitas / flatbread, a squeeze tube of jelly, a sqeeze tube of Nutella, almonds and some dried fruit.

For "dinner" I really like something hot.  I recently discovered Coleman brand backpacker meals, the "Max Patch Mac n Cheese" is far and away my favorite.  I also like the Knorr pasta / rice / asian sides.

Breakfast has usually been oatmeal and coffee, but Emily recently found Quaker Oatmeal To Go: compact, full of calories and they taste good too :)  I still make my coffee too though (Starbucks Via); it goes in a thermos for me to sip on the go.

At one point, I tried to only boil water once per day, but I didn't want to give up morning coffee and a hot meal at the end of a long paddling day really hits the spot.  Besides, boiling water only takes a few minutes...

I tend to prefer "real" food as opposed to energy bars / gels.  In fact, I'm not taking gels on long trips any more after one came back up immediatly after consumption in Florida Bay this year... ugh...

For the sake of reference, my food selection is influenced by my choice of craft: SeaWind (tons of room, easy to eat on the move) or XCR canoe (even more room...)

Macatawa

Yea I know both situations can get very scary quick. So what is good quick stuff you do for food.  

What is your recovery meal when you stop to eat or sleep? Ya got any food or treats you will not go without?

GORP and power bars are a norm so none of these unless modified. If you race on this stuff oh well! Mountain House I can live with if you only use it for a short event and only do once in a while. Then again some have done very well on just this.

 I dehydrate, bake, and buy most of my food at a super market.

So what is your Magic food?

toby  

http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/wooden-sailboat-kits/proa/madness-31-foot-pacific-proa.html  - madness

Very interesting material worth further study. Above are the links for the boats mentioned with photos.

Roger