Thursday, July 3, 2008

Kayaks I own

I currently have a Dagger Charleston 14' kayak with a skeg. I like the skeg but in high beam winds you still have to edge to go in a straight line. I usually have the skeg retracted and just edge the boat or lean if I am ready to use the paddle to catch myself from a flip. I like the skegs better than rudders that most prefer.

I also have two rec boats that I like to use for just a lazy drift down a fast moving river. They are wider and if you get pinned against a tree it is easier to lean into the tree or rock. It is not a whitewater boat but seems to work on rivers ok. If you have to paddle much it is back to the Dagger.

Everything fits on a nice trailer I have that will carry up to 10 or so kayaks. It is just hook it up and go. It is set for the truck now but I am adding a hitch to the Civic so I can save those gas $$ and be green too. The whole outfit loaded weighs in about 500# with a hitch weight of 50-75 #.

This spring was a active kayak season but since the sailboat is in the water on Lake Michigan it has occupied most of my time. The weather has not been that great this season. I like to kayak in the spring when the water is up and fall and winter just for the solitude. Winter is best but can be risky because of hypothermia if you fall in the water 10 miles from civilization and a few hours away from help - wear a proper dry suit from kolkatat or NTS.

The Start

I have several blogs now that I host on my own Wordpress server but thought I would try this for fun.

Water Water Everywhere will be about kayaking and probably be pretty boring. However, kayaking MI, IN, OH waters summer, spring, winter and fall is my cool thing to do. I also Geocache quite a bit too so there may be some of that in here if the cache is along the water way.

I have several kayaks and am looking for a Wilderness Systems Tsunami 140. I think this is just about the nicest feeling kayak that I have ever sat in. Thant lead me to this blog that I created because I had a wanted posted on Craigslist. Some kind person pointed me to eBay and low and behold there was aWST140 for about the $ I was willing to pay. Thanks Steffane.