Life on the Outer Coast

"High on Kayak"

After the thrill of paddling the new kayak, its a bit on the difficult side to remember the more mundane tasks that proceeded the launch. The three tasks that come to mind are attaching a piece of sacrificial wood at the stern along the last 10 inches or so of keel, deck lines and the back brace.

I wondered about attaching a rub piece along the entire keel, but Brian indicated that most of the wear was at the stern.

Attaching the deck lines was was entertaining, if one is easily amused by contortions. Having extendible arms would have been quite useful. We stretched the leather lines by pulling it through successively smaller holes (two to be exact). The holes that were drilled before the skin was attached had to be burned open with a nail heated with a propane torch. I was happy to be responsible for providing adequate light while Jonathon operated the nail and torch. My fingers survived, not sure about all of his.

What follows is the path of deck line attachment; the line was secured with an overhand knot and threaded through one hole from inside to outside, then through one hole on a toggle, across the boat and in through the hole, back out the adjacent hole, over the top, through the next hole in the toggle and in through the hole in the boat and finished off with an overhand knot. Forgetting to thread the toggles is an annoying error, and I'm happy to report that no one in our class fell victim to this bit of irritation. Threading was not to difficult for the deck lines closest to the cockpit, but darn evil on far set. I first tried just tipping the kayak on its side and reaching in, but couldn't quite reach. Next step was to turn the kayak upside down and crawl in. This worked, thanks to Scott for the idea.

Next task was to attach the loops at the bow and stern. The important elements were duct tape, stretched leather, a bamboo skewer and a strong belief in the possibility of success. It took me three attempts to generate an adequate amount of faith.

At some point in the morning, the holes were drilled for the back braces and one was put in Jonathon's boat. The rest of the braces are some place in transit, maybe consorting with the wandering foot pegs.

We cleaned up, loaded the kayaks on the trailer, drove out to Herring cove and in the finest tradition of Sitka events, dithered around waiting for everyone to arrive. This did give me some time to wander up a trail and hope for dippers. I didn't get past the first tiny falls, no dippers, but did see a Hermit thrush next to the creek. In the first part of the trail, found Carex rostrata, Juncus filiformis, Veronica americana, Carex aquatilis var dives, Dactylis glomerata, and Calamagrostis canadensis.

We did finally launch the kayaks, in a not terribly user friendly spot over the guard rail from the road, but it worked. No boots or tennis shoes in the boats since they could get caught on the ribs, so I went bare foot. The fish head and guts in the water was a nice touch. Were instructed to use the paddle as an out rigger behind the cockpit to stabilize the kayak as I gracelessly lowered my rear end into the seat. At first the boat felt quite tippy, and I briefly thought that I had made a huge mistake. This feeling fortunately went away within a few minutes. Brian did an impressive number of rolls that I would like to practice in the pool and hopefully never (or not too often) do in the ocean. I learned from his tool demonstrations that everything takes alot of practice to look that simple. The greenland paddle does seem alot more versatile than the paddles I've used before. I especially liked that I could hold just one end and use the bulk of the paddle to execute a potentially graceful turn. The other nice trick was attaching the paddle through the toggles (one end just across the mid line of the bow) to make an outrigger that allowed a very stable seat.

We paddled out and around the small islands in the cove for a couple of hours and then I reluctantly got out. The boat still seemed light, I could easily carry it upside down on my head to the trailer.

It was a little difficult to loan my new toy for the next three days, especially since I'll be south for the next week after it is returned.

The boat looks beautiful, but lacks a name. I'm kicking myself for not having the class sign their names on the gunnel. We will have to have a reunion trip next year.

Saw one small sandpipper that looked most like a Tattler on the shore under the alders on the island and lots of mew gulls in a tree on the small island.