Second time out. The harbour was pretty busy, with both sailing and motor craft inside the harbour and boats coming in and out of the harbour mouth and the water at the slipway.
There was substantial swell outside the harbour. I went out a few times and did a wide loop back in. The current took me out quite quickly. I really enjoyed the big sea, but I felt that I was taking a bit of a silly risk doing that without having the confidence of practised capsizing. I’d rather know that getting knocked out of the boat won’t faze me if I’m going to go out in rougher water.
The rudder is great, though I need to adjust it a bit better. At the moment it’s a bit loose, so pushing to the furthest extent doesn’t give enough support to my foot. Without the rudder the boat doesn’t seem to track very well, though that must be due to my lack of practice as well.
I spent about an hour in the water. The wind was quite strong – enough to notice it pushing against the paddle when heading into it – and the forays outside the harbour were somewhat strenuous. Surprisingly I started to notice some discomfort in my wrists, which was what made me decide to get out. After packing up I got a coffee, and when I was heading back to the car after that I was seriously tempted to get back in, but I had other things I wanted to do.
Notes
Lessons Learned:
- Don’t forget phone
- Retract wing mirror before loading and unloading the kayak
- Restrain loose straps before loading
- Don’t forget to release rudder before entry
- Don’t forget to retract rudder when exiting
- Waves/wind pushed me around side-on to the slipway when exiting which caused the rudder to hit the bottom.
- Getting turned sideways on exit also meant I nearly hit other people on the slipway
- Don’t try to load the kayak if the car is on a lateral slope. I was on the low side and combined with the wind, this made it almost impossible to load
Conditions
Dry, mild, some sun, windy. Large swell