Sea Kayaker: Deep Trouble

I received this book as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago and I knew right away it would be an interesting read. During the evening’s celebrations, I randomly flipped open the book and the first sentence I read was, “Mike watches as a huge great white shark lunges up through the surface, latches it jaws around the kayak, just behind me, and then blasts more than half of its giant bulk out of the water.” Clearly, this is my kind of book!
But seriously, this book by Matt Broze and George Gronseth is based on the accident report feature in Sea Kayaker magazine. Each chapter of the book is organized similarly to the feature in the magazine: an incident report, followed by a “lesson learned” conclusion. This is my favourite section of the magazine -- informative, educational, and even entertaining if your tastes include a touch of schadenfreude -- and the stories culled for the book fit also that description. Apart from the above-mention shark attack, there’s a number of similar themes that run through the stories: weather that unexpectedly turned bad, novice kayakers that get in over their heads in rough conditions (some of them literally), and experienced kayakers under estimating calmer conditions forgoing their usual safety routines and equipment. And not all the stories end happily.
The book also features a large section on kayak safety and numerous sidebars discussing skills, gear and techniques. Highly entertaining and highly recommended.

Lost in Mongolia

Two years after Colin Angus and two buddies descended down the Amazon in a rubber raft, Colin was taking part in another adventure. This time he and his companions were descending the entire length of the the Yenisey River in Russia, one of the last great rivers in the world to be travelled from source to mouth. Using kayaks and a raft, they journeyed from Mongolia through the Siberian outback to the Arctic Ocean battling floods, heat waves and the Russian mob. And along the way, the group gets separated after the raft capsizes and Colin has to survive with supplies or clean water for twelve days. [SPOILER ALERT: Obviously, he survived to write the book, entitled appropriately Lost in Mongolia.]
Another in Angus’s growing collection of true-life travel tales, it’s a solidly written yarn of adventure in a strange land and well-worth checking out.

Amazon Extreme

It’s sounds like a disaster waiting to happen: three young men, thousands of miles of the Amazon River, and one rubber raft. And in Amazon Extreme, Colin Angus’s telling of the tale, many times it nearly was.
Colin and two buddies, Ben Kozel and Scott Borthwick, embarked on an adventure to paddle down the entire length of the Amazon, but to do this they must hike (with all their gear) through the Peruvian Andes mountains to the source of the Amazon. From there, facing mosquitoes, gunmen, and some of the most dangerous rapids on earth, this trio of adventurers embark on a five journey down the mightiest river on earth. Did I mention the rapids?
Angus relates this rollicking tale with wit and enthusiasm. Fans of adventure writing will enjoy this story.

Without a Paddle

Journalist Warren Richey, newly divorced and having a mid-life crisis, decided almost on a whim to enter a kayak race circumnavigating Florida. This would require Richey to paddle at least 65 km a day for 30 straight days, as well as endure a gruelling 100 km portage.
It’s not just a race around Florida, it’s a tour through Richey’s life as he faces the unexpected turns in both the coastline and his life. He begins the journey with an injured shoulder and the ghosts of his failed marriage, and travels almost 2000 km around the state, reliving the highs and low of both his career and his personal life, and as he keeps up a punishing paddling rate of 18 to 20 hours of paddling a day.
Not only does Richey gives us a descriptive and interesting narrative of his race around Florida, he also offers up engaging vignettes from his life as he recalls his adventures in the Middle East and his journalistic career. When he's not thoroughly confused from lack of sleep, he reflects on his life's choices, and a debates another life-altering choice he's considering making when the race is over. Entertaining and heartfelt, Richey's is a journey that is well worth taking with him.

Rowboat in a Hurricane

There’s enough adventure in Colin Angus’s human-powered trip around the world for a second book. And lo, it has appeared in the form of Julie Angus’s memoir of the Atlantic rowboat crossing, Rowboat in a Hurricane. While perhaps a bit of a repetition for someone who has already read Colin’s account, Julie’s version of the story is no less exciting and engaging, and it’s always interesting to get a different perspective on events. If your interest lies with just the rowboat crossing then Julie’s book more than covers that adventure, but for the full story of the circumnavigation adventure, you should read both.

Stepping Stones of Ungava and Labrador

So here's something that I didn't know. The only place in North America where the Nazis landed in WWII was Hutton Peninsula in Labrador. Here, on October 22, 1943, a crew from U-537, a German submarine, landed and constructed a secret automated weather station. Since weather generally moves west to east across the Atlantic, the British received accurate weather forecasts from their Allies in Canada and the United States. Germany wanted the same weather reports and planned to place a series of clandestine automated weather stations along the Labrador coast. (Another was scheduled to by built in 1944, but that U-boat was sunk in the mid-Atlantic en route.) After the war, the station lay undiscovered until 1981 when a German engineer researching a book on the German weather service contacted Canadian authorities who investigated the site and found it undisturbed. The German sailors had even left behind American cigarette packs scattered about to divert suspicion.
All of this has nothing to do with kayaking, but historical anecdotes like this are part of the charm of Nigel Foster's new book Stepping Stones of Ungava and Labrador.
Foster first paddled the area in 1981. He paddled south out of Baffin Island to Resolution Island, hoping to from there to cross Hudson Strait to Labrador and continue south down the east coast, but the trip did not start out well, as traveling delays put him two weeks behind schedule, and at Resolution he decided to cross the strait instead of returning to Baffin. He had a harrowing crossing in rain, wind and fog, and he was forced to abandon his trip soon after. In 2004, he returned with Kristin to complete his voyage along the coast of Labrador.
The fact that bad weather prevented Foster and his paddling partner Kristin Nelson from landing and making the short trek to visit the ancient Nazi curiosity doesn't detract from Foster's engaging storytelling. While going into detail about the planning and the logistics of the trip, he also goes into some historical detail about the terrain he is travelling and the people he is meeting, and tells of encounters with polar bears and breathtaking scenery. A terrific read, and well worth checking out.