What To Wear In The Rain

I was sitting outside in a downpour and 50 degree temperatures all day today, while the sailors drifted through slow races in winds of 3 to 5 knots, interspersed with long periods of no wind whatsoever.  It's a glamour profession, coaching sailing.  Here's what gear I wore, and how it performed.

I wore LL Bean wool & cotton long johns under a pair of fuzzy sweatpants and my Gore-Tex shell pants.  Those Gore-Tex shell pants are a few years old now, and are absolutely terrific.  The long johns are perhaps 10 years old.  Starting to get a little bit saggy, but they work great.  My legs were dry and warm all day. 

I wore Smartwool socks and my street shoes (similar, but not identical, to these).  The Smartwools are great, but I discovered that if I wear my waterproof rubber booties, my feet are dry but cold, and the Smartwools don't help when the circulation starts to slow down in my feet.  So today I chose my sheepskin-lined Uggs, even though they're not waterproof.  This I came to regret by the end of the day.  The waterlogged shoes were probably warmer than any other footwear would have been when this wet, but I need to treat them with waterproofing material, or get a different kind of boot for being in the motorboat on cold, wet days like today.   Or maybe Gore-Tex socks.  Hmmm.

I wore a wifebeater tank top under a lightweight silk thermal undershirt, under a new insulated fleecey top that I got on sale at the LL Bean outlet store.  I was afraid I might be too hot, but nope.  On top of that I wore a Patagonia spraytop, designed for kayaking, with a neoprene seal around the neck that leaked steadily.  My shoulders and chest were pretty damp after an hour or so out there.  I think the layers were the right combination, except for the leaky top.   

On my head I wore a windblocking, water resistant fleece hat.  It worked great; my head was warm all day.  When I came in and pulled it off the hair on my head was dry.  I was pretty impressed; I hadn't believed that fleece could really be water resistant. 

On my hands I wore fleece gloves.  They were sopping wet after the first hour or so, and I would make my hands into fists and squeeze the water out of the gloves as though I were wringing out a wet washcloth.  Not sure if there was a net gain from wearing them, but I think so.

When I got in on shore I put on a lightweight synthetic down jacket that I'd considered wearing out on the water (and perhaps will tomorrow).  It was just the ticket: light and soft and cozy, and I warmed up quickly once I got it on.

In conclusion: I'm pretty well set for a long, cold day outside in the rain, but could use a better footwear solution and a really good waterproof jacket.  Now, in the hotel room, my shoes and tops are draped over the heater.  I hope they'll dry by tomorrow.

Comments

Unrelated. I thought you'd find this piece about Hobart & William Smith College's sailing team of interest:

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051016/SPORTS0104/510160350/1007/SPORTS

Is this supposed to be a "note to self," or are readers actually supposed to be interested in reading about what you wear in the rain? Is your next post going to be on how to wash your hands thoroughly and efficiently?

[Scheherazade]

My anonymous friend 1: thanks for the article. H/WS is a top sailing team, for sure, and Scott Ikle has done a great job building it.

My anonymous friend 2: If I stopped to think about what might make you happy, or be titillating or fascinating to the widest audience, my writing would be forced and self-conscious. It's all I can do not to be that way anyway, when I'm writing what is already in my head.

Essentially, everything I write (except maybe the All Requests) is a "note to self." You're seeing on this weblog the places my attention goes. Sometimes it's on pretty banal stuff. But if I didn't let myself write what I was thinking about and instead worried about being exciting all the time, or coming across as a particular kind of person, well, I'd either never write or a lot of it would be dreck. I know you think a lot of it is dreck now. There would be even more dreck, is what I'm saying.

Your comments always make me doubt myself, which is good for me. But I'm trying to be honest here about my ordinary daily life. If you want honesty, I ask you to accept the fact that sometimes what I'm thinking about won't interest you. Maybe that makes me inconsiderate, but only if the premise is that I'm selecting everything I say here with the purpose of fascinating a particular kind of reader. I'm not.

(You have an open invitation to spend a weekend with me on a motorboat, though, and I suspect after a day like yesterday, with a forecast for a day like today, you might have read the post with greater attention.)

[bill]

A fascinating post, Scheherazade. I fish and climb in cold rain quite a bit, and footwear is always an issue. I know I'm well dressed on bad days when, afterwards, I realize that I haven't thought about being cold or wet. Many thanks.

[bridgeovertroubledwater]

It seems that anonymous #2 is telling us as much about themselves with a comment such as posted.

Obviously that person does not deal with challenging outside conditions or their interest would certainly have been piqued.

I found myself clicking through to check out the gear that you described. Much of it is very familiar from watching sailors over the years and doing some outside winter sports. But the way any of it is combined is always an inexact science of trial and error....as you have articulated.

After the last tooo many days of this rainy weather, it's surprising it's not relevant to all!

[PG]

I don't even deal with challenging outdoor conditions, at least not on a voluntary basis, and I still found this interesting. The rain in New York has stopped for now, but the wind is still sneaking through the various chinks in the building and its windows, and I know that the rain will be back. With that in mind, it's good to know about the relative virtues of warmer wet feet versus cooler dry ones.

What do you recommend for normal (not on a boat) footwear that will be waterproof? It seems like every other female in NY wears plasticky boots in bright colors, which I'd be happy to wear if I knew they worked.

[Tillerman]

Fascinating post. Maybe only other sailors, or participants in other wet, cold outdoor activities, would understand how we all obsess about what to wear in any given weather conditions. And, of course, the more we accumulate different clothes, boots, gloves for various combinations of temperature, wind and wetness the more difficult it is to choose what we will need each day.

The commenter who grumbled is failing to appreciate your gift for making the commonplace interesting. From sandpaper to blazer buttons to bugs, you have that gift.

Keep it coming.

[bill]

Why not bean boots for the boat? For above-freezing rainy activities where I'm not moving around much, I wear mine with a felt insole that has a good arch support, and bulky synthetic sox (like wool hiking sox but I think the synthetic wears better). The rubber bottom/leather top combo works well.

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