Category Archives: Adventure

Sea kayaker going into rough surf by rocks

BCU 5 Star Training

Maine Island Kayak Co, Peaks Island, Maine

BCU Coaches: Steve Maynard & Tom Bergh

Participants: Jeff B, Thomas H, Jed L, Ned O, Chris P, Charles P, and Bill Z

I had wondered about BCU 5 Star training since the days of my first sea kayak lessons. You know, we’ve all heard stories about people who have actually passed the 5 Star test and lived to talk about it: mythical paddlers who don’t need food, water or sleep and can live for days in their boats with hardly a concern for the weather. You hear about how they do battle with huge surf and high winds, sea monsters and horrifying races that mere mortals couldn’t possibly handle… you know the stories can’t be true, but somehow…the image stays with you.Continue reading→

kayakers expeditioning in Antarctica

Paddling Antarctica

Back to the Basics: Man in Extreme Conditions

In the year 2000, Nigel Dennis, Stan Chladek, and Tom Bergh successfully circumnavigated Nelson Island in the South Shetland Islands. It was the first unsupported expedition of its kind.

Out on the open Pacific, enormous drifting icebergs freed from the Antarctic ice shelf flowed toward the Drake Passage, dwarfing our sea kayaks. Other worldly shapes and iridescent blues, coupled with the ice’s unusual lumbering movement, lent an eerie quality to the low ceiling clouds. The only sounds were nature at its most rugged. The weather was Antarctic: windy, foggy, damp, and cold. Out here there are no people, no boats, no options. It is just the three of us, making hopefully wise decisions on the sea. Continue reading→

lighthouse in exploding surf

One Small Navigation Mistake

This is said to be a transcript of an ACTUAL radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995. 


Americans: “Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.” 


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