: Seeking the advice and solutions from those who've been paddling longer than
: I (about a year,) on stowing and carrying assorted small items (water,
: food, binocs, camera, knife, bug stuff, sunblock, etc..)

: I'm thinking about outfitting the boat at the same time as I am making other
: purchases -- PDF, semi-drytop

Good time to think about it ! Think about _when_ you will need these things
(eg. when stopped at a beach, rafted up, on the water, _in_ the water).
Some things you will want for emergencies like after a wet exit (personal
flare, knife, strobe light, whistle) and these _must_ be accessible on
your person, not on the boat. Other things like sunblock, bug stuff are
small enough that they are easier in dry-top pockets than in a fiddly
bag at arms length. Bigger stuff you want when on the water may be best
in a deck bag (I made my own - it contains three flares and my VHF radio).
Charts and a GPS need to be where you can see them - under bungies on the
deck if you have an Ocean style cockpit, or on top of the spraydeck if you
have a big keyhole and can't read small print that far away.

You probably don't need access to a pump with your deck on, unless you are
happy rescuing other people, in which case you probably _don't_ want to
pop your spraydeck off to help someone else in conditions that have
capsised them !

And the rest is probably personal taste. I used to carry my camera on the
deck, tied to the boat, but I find that the lens stays dry in most
conditions if it lives in a PFD pocket (front left). I have a litre of
water in the back pocket of my PFD, with a tube and bite-valve clipped to
the shoulder strap so I can drink without letting go the paddle. Right
PFD pocket contains a strobe light, hand compass, whistle, knife, Mars
bar (or other snack) and nylon pogies. If I paddled in cold enough
conditions to need neoprene pogies, they wouldn't fit, but sea paddling
is mostly a three-season sport here, so nylon ones have always been good
enough.

If you use a knee tube, its possible to fit an access hatch into your
spray deck - enough to get your hand under the deck without the risks of
taking the deck off the coaming.

None of this is so convenient if you may paddle with a Tuilik over the
top of your spraydeck and PFD ... You may need a different set of things
on your person if you may paddle in twilight or at night. There are things
some people carry that others don't, like an EPIRB, and so on. If we are
exploring sea-caves, I wear a helmet, so I can have a caving headlamp on
it. But mostly I just wear a soft hat which has a small pocket inside.

The important thing is to think about it first and get a good approximation
to how you will carry things, and then go try it. If the changes you need
are only minor, they are easily made. A lot depends on where and how you
will paddle, the size of your cockpit, and whether the boat has a day hatch
(and whether you paddle in conditions where it would be safe to open it
on the water). It all ends up very personal to you, your boat, and your
paddling style and associated hobbies. Will you need to change batteries
in your camera in places where you can't land ? Does your boat have a
compass, or will you need to use a hand-held ? Do you use GPS ? Do you
even need a map ?

And remember to allow for some evolution - you may not do any navigating
now if you paddle with an experienced group, but one day you will want to
be in control of your own destiny, so you'll want to start using map/chart
and compass/gps at some stage, preferably soon enough to know what you're
doing before the trips depends on it. You might not be happy parking your
paddle and taking photos in rough water yet, but you might want to think
about how to make this easier when you do want it, and so on ...

Oh! you mentioned binocs - I used to have a pair of "waterproof" ones.
Indeed, they were supposedly gas tight and "nitrogen-filled" and intended
for watersports. Beware - the front deck of a sea kayak is an incredibly
testing environment for things deemed to be "waterproof" whcih are also
rigid. First, things sit in the sun for a few minutes, then a wave of
cold water breaks over the deck. Even the tiniest leak means that gas
escapes when the binoculars heat up, and when that cold water swamps
them, the internal pressure can drop 10%. Even a tiny amount of salt
water inside is enough to leave salt patches on lenses inaccessible to
any cleaning. Mine lasted about three trips :-( I destroyed my first
GPS the same way, so now the new one lives inside an additional (flexible)
waterproof case.

Andy