March 3, 2001

A Third Maiden Voyage

4 Feb 2001

10.8 miles

MAP

How many boats does it take to have a fleet? Shopping for a folding kayak to take with me to Japan, I find myself with Bill, Phil, and Joan on a Sunday morning at Ft Belvoir.

While everyone got ready I played in the Feathercraft K1 by leaning, doing bow rudders and hanging draws. Lets see if I can do a sculling brace.

I'm upside down as the boat rolls over hard and I'm unable to support myself with the sculling brace. Set up for a pawlatta roll. This should be easy. The strong paddle sweep pulls me to the surface but doesn't rotate the boat. I've pulled myself out in my attempt to roll up.

After bringing the boat back to shore and dumping the water from the sea sock, I get back in and begin to analyze what went wrong. With the sea sock in, I have little (no) grip on the coaming for the hip snap. The sock is so slippery that without anything to grip I simply pulled myself out of the cockpit.

The others are ready and eyeing my antics in the cold water. We head out to the Potomac from Gunston Bay, it is a bit breezy and I notice the boat wants to turn into the wind. It is easy to correct for by leaning and sweep strokes, and I pay it little mind.

Around Hallowing Point the wind is quite strong and the waves much choppier. I take a route next to a sea wall where the waves are confused. If it had been dark I would not of known I was paddling in such confused water. The K1 handled this water perfectly while I noticed my paddling partners had to focus on their paddling in these waters.

With the increased wind on this exposed portion of the river I'm spending a lot of time with sweep strokes. I drop the rudder and the boat immediately changes its personality. Without the need to constantly sweep, and the boats ease of handling the confused waves, I find I'm easily outdistancing my companions.

Out of the confused waves we look for a place to have lunch and find a spot just outside of Mason Neck Wildlife refuge. I mention during lunch I'm impressed enough with the boat to buy it.

For the return trip we paddle further from shore to avoid the confused waves.

After saying our goodbyes I head over to Atlantic Kayak to pay for the kayak. At the same time I order the optional thigh braces and the cart for wheeling the backpack across hard ground.

Once home I try my first disassembly of the boat. One hour flat. And I wonder how long it will take to assemble it.

9 Feb, 2001

Friday after work I took the backpack containing the K1 and set it down on the front walkway. A quick glance at my watch as I unzip the bag and begin to lay out the contents on the front lawn. An hour and a half later the kayak is strapped down to the truck and ready for the morning.

The next Sunday at Ft Belvoir, a familiar crowd. The wind is calmer this weekend and a trip out to the Potomac and North around Whetstone point and into Dogue creek and back. No special rolling attempts today, but Ralph Diaz suggested I also buy the inflatable hip pads for the K1. I place the order on my way home. 7 miles.

After I get home I disassemble the kayak in about 45 minutes.

16 Feb, 2001

I assemble the kayak after work again. It takes me a good solid hour. About 20 minutes I spend trying to get the frame centered in the skin. I never managed to get motivated to take the kayak out this weekend, so on Sunday I break it down again. Down to almost 30 minutes for the take down.

23 Feb, 2001

Again I assemble the kayak after work. Again I spend too much time fighting with the skin. It still takes me an hour. I know I could get it down another 15-20 minutes if I didn't have to fight the skin and frame twisting off center. . I need a better way, and this weekend I post a message to Paddlewise asking for help. The email with suggestions flow in for ideas to try out. Next Friday I will take my time and try to understand the reason why I can't get things lined up.

2 Mar, 2001

Another Friday - another attempt to get the kayak together. I decide to go slow, with the goal to get the boat together correctly, and not try and reduce my time. It is important I understand what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it.

One of the suggestions I received in email was to slide the frame halves loosely into the skin and attach the Velcro keel strips. I then sit in the cockpit and lean back to have an excellent view of the keel and deck bars. I push the frame the rest of the way in with my feet. After pushing in the bow and stern halves in this manner, the frame is lined up perfectly.

Total assembly time is 45 minutes, but a good five minutes of that was caused because I forgot to put the seat sling in until after I had installed all the expansion bars.

3 Mar, 2001

13.8 Miles

MAP

I was meeting Joan at 9:00, and was surprised when Bill, Phil and Mark also showed up. I guess I shouldn't be surprised as the forcast for Sunday was horrible, so it only made sense everyone should try to sneak a paddle in on Saturday.

Mark had his new strip-built boat. A model from Laughing Loon. It's maiden voyage.

Joan and I had planned to paddle to Pomonkey Creek, across the Potomac from Hallowing Point. Bill and crew was planning to paddle south of Hallowing Point so we headed out together. A nice, but a little breezy morning, the K1 let me know early it wanted to turn into the wind. After a few miles of sweep strokes I dropped the rudder.

At Hallowing Point Bill and crew decided to turn around so Joan and I bid farewell as we headed out across the river. We had paddled a bit south of Pomonkey on the western side of the river because the current through here can reach 1.5 knots or more during max flood, which we were close to. Crossing a bit south allowed us to drift back north and into the mouth of the creek after first paddling out to the green channel marker.

Pomonkey is a special creek to me. Usually filled with waterfowl as I have only been over here in the winter. From the mouth of the creek it looks like a small bay. Near the back of the bay is a narrow spot that opens back up into the creek. If you don't go all the way in and look, you would think no creek exists there at all.

Lined with duck blinds, it is clear that the duck hunters know this place well also. But there are no hunters today and each twist and turn takes us in their face as ducks continuously take flight.

The creek turns out to be not as long as I remember. Poking in nooks and crannies to try and find a way deep in, we give up and turn to leave. A short stop for lunch and more conversation and we head back out to the river.

Crossing at slack tide we take a more direct route back to Ft Belvoir. At mid river a lone Bald Eagle flies directly overhead. The water has turned calm and glassy.

From a distance it looks like several jet skis are playing near the launch. But as we get close the jet skis turn into military high performance boats painted camouflage colors. As we land, the boats are loading up onto the back of huge diesel trucks.

We load our boats and finish our conversation as I head off to Atlantic Kayak to pick up my new thigh braces and hip pads. We'll soon know if they make a difference.