Subject: [baidarka] Weather which formed the Baidarka
From: Juan Ochoa (jochoa@ll.mit.edu)
Date: Fri Oct 12 2001 - 16:10:55 EDT
Greetings,
Since it's Friday afternoon, I thought I would check out the Boston Harbor buoy data for paddling
tomorrow. While checking out the site, I found this article which gives a glimpse about just how
bad the weather can get.
To get a better idea of just how rough the Bearing Straits are check out this article
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Seaworthy/2001/capsize.shtml
This was written by The National Data Buoy Center about the capsize of a weather buoy tethered in
the Bearing Straits during a winter storm last Feb. The buoy is a 12m (40') diameter disc hull
designed for pretty rough water. The winds it recorded before turning over were sustained 56 mph
and the waves were 47' tall, every 17 seconds. This is absolutely fearsome weather.
Yet, this was the region from which the baidarka design evolved. Probably no one ever went out in
seas this large and survived, but I can easily imagine many native paddlers had to go hunt or
travel in towering seas. Under these conditions, the best boat designs were easy to identify:
their occupants returned from the sea.
______________________________________
Juan Ochoa
Quantum Electronics Group
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
jochoa@ll.mit.edu
(781) 981-0657
(781) 981-0602 FAX
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