An ode to the horseshoe crab

FliesWithKiwiBird and I first visited North Carolina for a fortnight’s summer holiday in 2004. (Little did we know that just over a year later we would be moving there, lock, stock and kayak from San Diego and living, it seems, somewhat permanently.) On that holiday, we made a visit to the state’s Outer Banks. From Hatteras Island we hopped aboard a small water taxi and shot across Pamlico Sound. Dropped off on the inside shore of Shackelford Island, we were left free to wander for a good few hours.

I remember being astounded by the warmth of the Atlantic Ocean – in which I just had to skinny dip – the magnificent unspoiled dunes, wild horses, and the shells we gathered as we wandered.

And then a treasure find of all treasures. On the way back to our pick-up point, I found a large, prehistoric-looking, brown, curve-backed shell creature with a long pointy tail. It was obviously just the shell, as no body resided beneath. I’d never seen anything like it in all my life! Clutching it to me, insistent that it come back with us on the plane, I asked our water taxi captain what on earth it was. “‘Orseshoe crab,” he smiled. “As old as the ‘ills, and ‘undreds of ‘em ‘round ‘ere. Though that’s a ‘tic’ly big ‘un.” And back it did go home with me.

Now that I’ve kayaked the shallow warm waters of Pamlico Sound where they congregate like mussels on a rock, and wandered Shackelford’s beach many a time, I’ve found lots of dead horseshoe crab shells, of all sizes (but none as big as my first treasure). And I’ve sometimes found them alive, in the water’s shallows, trying to upright themselves in the surf – always glad to tip them over with my toes and help them on their way again.

So a week or so ago, I was all ears when National Geographic News reported that a newfound fossil species of horseshoe crab (left photo above) dates back at least 455 million years - roughly a hundred million years earlier than horseshoe crabs were previously thought to exist.

The ancient animal is remarkably similar to modern horseshoe crabs (right), according to the team that found the fossils in Manitoba, Canada.

Photograph courtesy G. Young, the Manitoba Museum (left); D. Rudkin, Royal Ontario Museum (right)

Messin' about

There's something about watching a boat being built - no matter what size - from keelson to tuck (something my dad used to say) - from actual reality, seeing something grow, to even watching the efforts of others online.

Keeping an eye on SOS and DancesWithSandyBottom building their Core Sound 20 is a real delight. But over the last few years, I've also been watching another boat. Every time I've driven to or returned from the put in at Ebeneezer at Lake Jordan, I've kept an eye out on a cruising launch being built out in someone's yard. Being a yachtie myself, I can still admire the sleek lines and very racey bow flare. And I had to smile, when the grandchild appeared beside it one day.

So this last weekend, I actually stopped and took some photos.

Water weekend

A beautiful weekend here, with temperatures near C20 (mid 60sF), thus what could be better than both Saturday and Sunday paddling out on the lake. It all felt as though it was coming together nicely for the upcoming Everglades Challenge, though I'll start loading the boat up/down with weight for the rest of this month's paddling.

I don't remember seeing so many normally coastal birds this time of the year, so far inland. There were definitely more shags (cormorants) than normal; and hundreds of what I took to be Forster's Tern, with its nearly all-white plumage and forked tail. In the absolute still of the lake, with not a breath of wind for mostly both days, their soft plummage littered the water.

I even bumped into SandyBottom on Sunday, out in the middle of the lake. In her Kruger, she has a very distinctive silhouette. With all the training she's being doing, she's lost a fair bit of weight and is looking quite hot! I'll never forget first meeting her on the beach at Lake Jordan a few years ago, and marvelling at this canoe/kayak thing she was paddling, training for then the Everglades Challenge and Ultimate Florida Challenge. Either will FliesWithKiwiBird...

We talked about the logistics of getting bodies, boats and gear down to Tampa Bay at the end of the month, and then picking up the van and trailer for SOS and DancesWithSandyBottom's yet-to-be-finished Core Sound 20. This year, FliesWithKiwiBird is going to fly down, with the wee one, pick up the van and trailer and take a couple of days to drive everything down to the finish line at Key Largo. It will be quite a family affair!

And I finally got the SPOT satellite tracker sussed. But more on that tomorrow.

Someplace hidden

A few entries ago I recommended keeping an eye on Barbara and Wally's Web site, a Canadian couple cycling recliners around New Zealand.

Their photos and experiences keep getting better and better, but what tickled me in their most recent entry (p12), is that during their tour around Stewart Island, NZ's "third island", they bumped into Tom Hennessy.

Tom, of course, is famous for his Hennessy Hammocks, loved by kayakers (and others) around the world. I have a yellow one - to match my boat - great for emergency purposes if waved about; probably not so hot for stealth camping.

An American transplant to Canada, Tom now lives half the time on Stewart Island during the southern hemisphere's summer and cold, wintry months of British Columbia, and heads back to BC for the northern hemisphere summer.

It's a small world.

Rowing naked

Writing yesterday’s blog entry brought back a few memories. It’s 1996, and I’ve recently taken up a new position at University College London as deputy director of the development office. Surfing the Internet, I see that Sir Chay Blythe is setting up a new trans-Atlantic rowing challenge, in two-person, set-design boats. A bit more research and I find out that there’s a Kiwi entry on the books, and the chap’s looking for a team-mate. I send this Rob Hamill an e-mail, and a few days later he calls me back from Hamilton, NZ, with me in London, UK. It’s a done deal, and I just have to get a few months off…

Having just started this new position, my boss goes to UCL’s provost to discuss the proposal. She comes back with a negative, but a new, better contract, and a conviction that they really are trying to save my life.

I call Rob back and tell him the sad news.

Next year, Rob Hamill and Phil Stubbs – in Kiwi Challenge – win the inaugural trans-Atlantic rowing race, in 41 days and two hours. Their chalk-and-cheese relationship doesn’t survive the distance.

December 1998 and planning another trans-Atlantic challenge with Steve Westlake, Phil is killed when his light plane nosedives into Karekare beach.

Unbeknownst to me, living in the UK for five years before returning home for the first time to visit my whanau, Phil’s dad, Dave Stubbs, and his wife Sonja, both keen yachties, are two of my parents’ closest friends, living close to each other in Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula. Dave and I chat long about Phil on that visit, and still keep in touch.

Rob publishes The Naked Rower, describing his 1997 trans-Atlantic rowing adventure. It turns out that rowing naked, sitting on NZ sheepskin, keeps away the salt sea boils so often afflicting those in constantly moving, wet, salty conditions.

Life’s its own great story.

Whatever next...

I suppose as long as there are wild open stretches of water and silly buggers wanting to get out and paddle or row across them, there'll be challenges to have us scratching our heads.

Well-known Kiwi rower, Rob Hamill, winner of the inaugural Atlantic Rowing Race in 1997 and campaign manager to the winning 2001 and 2003 Kiwi entries, has launched a rowing race across the Tasman, between the Auckland and Sydney Harbour Bridges, to be called Bridge 2 Bridge.

He's to direct a team of four in the 2250km race across the Tasman early next year and is calling on an Australian team to compete. Other New Zealanders are also being encouraged to enter.

"This is the chance for rowers, surfboaties or just your Joe Average adventurer to have a crack at a unique challenge," Hamill said.

"It could spell the beginning of a biennial competition raced by teams from around the world."

The Web site's still new and crude, but perhaps something worth keeping an eye on.

Of course, given half-a-chance a few years ago, I'd be signing up in a flash.

Kayaking will help us live longer

Jolly well hope so, as I've had the dreaded lurgy for nearly a week now and am feeling pretty darn sorry for myself.

Another new study has hit the papers. As we age, the very DNA in our trillions of cells starts to fray, unravel and disintegrate. But now it appears that exercise (read: kayaking) can delay the inevitable. A study published yesterday hints that fitness buffs appear to have "younger" DNA than the chronically sedentary.

However, we have been cautioned that the old chicken-and-egg question - does exercise preserve healthier DNA, or does healthier DNA enable people to exercise more? - has yet to be answered.

The study's authors examined just the ends of DNA strands. Called telomeres, these act something like the plastic caps on shoelaces (an aglet, my brother tells me), preventing the DNA in chromosomes from unraveling. Previous research has shown that older people have shorter ends than younger folks. Indeed, biologists say they shrink every time a cell divides. This study found that heavy exercisers (those who put in more than three hours a week running, cycling, pumping iron, or other vigorous activity - say, kayaking...) had relatively long telomeres - comparable to those of couch potatoes 10 years younger.

And something that I've known for years was mentioned: "People who choose to exercise are different in so many ways from people who don't." Oh, yeah.

New gear #1

With the 2008 Everglades Challenge looming, I'm reassessing some of my gear - nothing major - and probably primarily to make life a wee bit more comfortable while 'out in the wild.' First up is my sleeping mat. Probably a mixture of age and a slightly dodgy left hip, exasperated by lying on many a hard surface, I traded in last year's REI Lite-Core 1.5 (another trade up from a slightly thinner Thermarest) for the absolute ultimate in decadence - the Exped Downmat 7. While slightly more expensive (okay, a bit more than slightly), nothing can beat a good night's sleep after 14 to 16 or more hours' paddling. And I'm finding the ground's getting harder every time I pitch a tent.

The Exped is pretty awesome - stuffed with 700-fill goose down insulation and 889mm (3.5") thick! It rolls down (sorry, bad pun) to only slightly more than the Lite-Core or Thermarest, and weighs not much more. Inflating it takes only a minute or two - it's not self-inflating. Because of its inner down, you can't inflate it by mouth - quite ingeniously, its stuff bag doubles as a bellows. Clip the bellow end of the stuff bag on to the mat's valve, let the bellows bag fill with air and roll it, forcing air into the mat. Repeat. As there are two valves on the mat, it pays to have the other one closed while inflating ;). The second valve is for running hot air through the mat, if you happen to get moisture inside it.

I've laid my body out on this on the floor at home, and have almost threatened to move out of the family bed - can't wait to try it in the wild!

Little wheels

I get all warm and furry when I see "older" folks doing great things. Gives me hope for when I start "getting that way."

I've just found the Web site of Barbara and Wally, Canadians cycling around New Zealand on recumbants this summer. They're first off traveling around the South Island, and their tales and photos are well worth keeping an eye on.

It's summer somewhere...

Stuck way up here in the wintery Northern Hemisphere I sometimes forget that it's summer downunder, or New Zealand in this case. Everyone's off school for nearly two months for the summer holidays, and most of the country closes down from Christmas Day for a fortnight, to pack up all the whanau and head off to the bach and beach for a good ol' wind down.

The New Zealand Herald has been posting holiday photos from its readers (two lots now, here and here), which are more than enough to bring a sigh to an ex-pat's heart, and encourage those that haven't yet visited Godzone to think seriously about packing their togs and making their own voyage downunder.