Canadians

Took the Canadians - people not boats - for a trip down the Straits in calm and very warm conditions. Tony who is an experienced seakayaker from Salt Spring Island (near Vancouver Island, BC) used an Anglesey Stick for the first time and was an instant convert. 

Susan and Tony were both good a finding fossils wherever we stopped, and were impressed by the 'history' emailing this comment once they were back home:

We really enjoyed the paddling trip, we were out of shape, but paddling alongside such history and pageantry is so beyond our scope here that I think of it constantly.  Here there is  NO history, there it is ALL history. Loved it.

Shots from the trip to visit Nelson (about 20k paddle, but riding the tide, so equivalent to about a 12k trip).

Low key paddling

Tim only had a couple of hours to spare, but the weather on Saturday was warm with light winds, so we had to get on the water. A trip round Llanddwyn beckoned. Rich and I paddled the double (still in sea trials really), and Tim his Capella on the way out, with Rich and Tim in the double on the way back. Why am I boring you with this detail? - speed versus effort. Without us really noticing until we talked about it later, the doubles pair were gentle cruising most of the time while whoever was in the single was paddling hard to keep up.


Sausages served on 'the plate' and very strong tea courtesy of Tim's trangia, and too many tea-bags. The very observant will notice that the picture is actually from another trip - nobody managed a camera........
Lots of wildlife to look at, particularly seals, though we gave them a wide berth as it is the season for their own wide births.

The stealth boat

I have been cheering up the 'teach yourself boat-building boat' which looked rather sorry for itself in comparison to the double.
The boat is built from plans for the Chesapeake 16 LT (Light Tourer) from Fyne Boat Kits, very cheap ply, and various scraps of wood that were laying around.
After the first round of construction it looked like this.
Once Catherine paddled it on a reasonable trip (20k), it deserved a make-over, and now looks a little better, if somewhat fishy. Note the sophisticated deck hatch made from a BDH bottle embedded in foam, improved cockpit rim, footrests, etc.





The question now is - what to build next?
and who for?

Anglesey Stick Boat

One of the minor problems of making Anglesey Sticks has been what to do with all the offcuts of Red Cedar. The answer came in the form of a double seakayak with strip cedar decking.


I will post some pics about its construction, and maybe some arty farty shots of the woodwork on the Anglesey Stick site under features.

Novice paddler

I am not always that keen to go paddling with a complete beginner - my days as an outdoor pursuits instructor are long gone, but as I have been nagging Tim to get his daughter out paddling, I could hardly refuse. In the event, it was a very pleasant trip along the Menai Strait. Elin used a shortish Anglesey Stick to paddle a 'WildOne' from Wild Things. If you don't know the boat, it is about as close as you can get to a general purpose kayak, but still on the large size for a 9 year old.
Very interesting to watch someone with no paddling experience take so quickly to propelling a plastic kayak so efficiently with a piece of wood - basically, she just got on with it, managing about 4k with a little help from the tide.

Boat Maintenance

The skeg wire on the red Capella was well and truly bent, and the one on Tim's had not been well for sometime.

Found an article on Repairing a Skeg by Mick Buckley that was very helpful, and included a supplier for the replacement wire. Mostly followed Mick's article, but found that cheap bolt cutters worked fine for cutting the new wire to length.

Next job is replacing the deck elastics which have become tired and emotional.

A lazy week

Just put some of the Cornwall trip info on SeaKayaker - a few nice pictures, and a bit of text from me about the trips.

One of the trips raised an issue that seems to recur in sea kayaking - how to judge the seriousness of the outing. We were planning a trip from the Camel estuary (near Rock) round Pentire Head, through the Mouls channel to Smugglers' Cove. Looking at South West Sea Kayaking byMark Rainsley, we can see the Camel estuary bit as 'Grade A', and the rest as 'Grade B'. Despite good weather and neap tides, it felt like a 'Grade C' trip - why?

Most of the trip is exposed to the Atlantic swell. This can make the lumpy bit of Pentire head and The Rumps, lumpier still, but more importantly it severely limits the escape routes - particularly the leeward safety net that would otherwise be provided by Polzeath. I suppose if conditions had deteriorated, we would have headed for Port Quin - safe enough, but a painful carry at low tide.

As it was, the weather remained favourable, and it was a very good trip.

I think I have my next 'commando kayaking' trip worked out - though not quite sure how the trolley will handle the sand dunes..........