Dave G., his brother Leslie and daughter Emma and I went for a leisurely paddle around the southern part of Lough Carra today. I was also wearing my new (second-hand) goretex drysuit 🙂
One thing I wasn’t wearing was a spraydeck. I forgot it because of all the messing around I’ve been doing with managing my gear in the new home. I think I’ll leave my old necky spraydeck in the bucket permanently so I always at least have that. Not having a spraydeck was not really an issue on such a flat, calm lake, but it was a bit embarrassing!
The paddle was enjoyable – we stopped on one of the twins and had a bit of a wander around there. Then we went south and stopped again on the headland SSW of the twins, where we had some lunch. Dave gave me a “pork” chop which was delicious but later turned out to be goat; not that I cared!
It was interesting to note that the headland was far dryer than the island. I’m not sure why that was, but it made for a much nicer atmosphere. I picked up some holly with berries there along with a piece of bark that is about 20cm long and almost fully intact all the way around – the timber has rotted out of it, leaving the bark husk. Mildly interesting, as I’ve never seen that before. Makes a good xmas decoration!
On the way back we saw an otter in the water! I’d never seen one outside the zoo before. It was quite a distance away and disappeared quickly. We were too noisy and scared it away, but apparently you can get closer by stopping paddling when they surface and just drift towards them. Anyway, that was very cool. It’s lovely to think of the lake as a home to more exotic creatures like otters.
The drysuit worked out great for the most part. It’s such a luxury to show up wearing normal gear and just don it over that! It’s also very comfortable to paddle in, except for the rear braces connection point. The room in it and not having thick neoprene in direct contact with all of your skin makes it feel very relaxed.
I can certainly see how you could overheat in a drysuit, but having a scoop on deck to pour water over you might fix that. Getting in and out of the kayak is a bit more difficult without the full flexibility of a wetsuit, but not significantly. The socks I wore were probably too thick, but I doubt they made too much difference other than comfort.
The braces’ rear connection point is a bit low and I had problems with the hardware digging into my back, which will need an immediate solution for any kind of distance paddling. I made an adjustment that I hope will work, but I’m not too optimistic. I suspect I will need to cut the elastic at that point and have it extended, so the hardware is moved up further. The suit is a good enough fit that the braces might not even be necessary; though even if not, they are probably still desirable.
A Tiny island Les and Dave Dave Hollow bark
