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Sea Kayak Trips Bulletin Board
From Beginning Kayaker to Beginning Teacher
Posted By: Robert Woodard
Date: Monday, 5 July 1999, at 8:33 p.m.
3 July 1999
8.5 miles
It started out simple enough. I insisted a friend try out a few kayaks before buying one. Little did I know then that I'd be driving to Rockville Maryland on a Friday afternoon to pick up the rental.
I picked up Pat early Saturday morning and after unloading the kayaks and spending some time going over self and assisted rescues, we were off on our adventure. Several things about the Atlantis Dagger that I immediately didn't like:
1) The control cable that unlocks the integrated rudder didn't. There also wasn't an adjustable connection for the cable either. We would later shove a stick in to the handle to unlock the rudder.
2) The rear rubber hatch looked like it would get blown off if hit by a wave of any size. It certainly wasn't watertight. The front hatch cover seemed a bit tighter.
This was just the beginning, and there were a thing or two more that I should have noticed before going out but didn't.
Pat is a big guy. At 6' and 250 pounds he was too big for this boat even though he told the folks at Spring River how big he was before they suggested the Atlantis. More than that, the boat wasn't deep enough and with Pat sitting in it, it was obviously top heavy. But he said he was comfortable so we started out slow and I gave him a few paddling tips after he collided with the railroad bridge that ran across the creek.
Everything was sort of uneventful for a while until we got about 3/4 of a mile from the launch site and I looked over to see that unmistakable look of someone about to go over. I was already pointed in his direction when he went over. I should have shown him bracing but didn't think about it since the water was like glass. We performed a "T" rescue and I was a little surprised how much water was still in his boat when he got back in. After pumping out the kayak Pat mentioned that it still felt unstable. It wasn't till we landed that we found out why: The rear bulkhead had such a huge gap in it that water could run freely from the cockpit to the stern.
For the rest of the trip Pat continued to have problems going straight. At the lunch break I jammed a stick into the rudder release handle so Pat would have use of it. I also took the boat out myself to see how well it tracked and it tracked very well. Maybe because my kayak tracks so poorly did it seem that way, but it seemed to track straight as an arrow. Just for grins I even rolled it and found it rolled easier than my boat. I think the extra weight gave more momentum to my hip snap since I felt the paddle provided very little leverage.
After lunch Pat started to have a lot of problems with his back. The low back rest provided no support and Pat needed to stop frequently to give his back a rest. He turned down the offer for a tow several times. I eventually wedged the paddlefloat between him and the rear coaming and this helped a lot. We had to leave the spray skirt unattached but I felt this was pretty low risk since the water had remained flat all day.
Unlocking the rudder had helped him go a little straighter, but not much. I think the sliding foot rails were a big pain for him to use.
Back at the launch site while Pat walked off his cramped back I tried several self rescue techniques. The big one I had read about and wanted to try was "paddling" with the paddle to try and catch up to my boat. In the conditions at the launch site I found swimming with one hand on the paddle that I could not keep up with my boat being blown away and carried by the current.
Turning loose of the paddle I could then "swim" fast enough to catch my boat. Giving up my paddle didn't bother me because I knew the spare was on the rear deck.
Paddling with the paddle was somewhere between swimming with one hand and swimming without the paddle. I seemed to keep pace with my kayak but never quite caught up to it. It required a lot of effort as well. I'll practice this a few more times to give it a fair shot, but giving up the paddle to swim after the kayak may be my best bet, assuming there is a paddle on the rear deck when I get there. In any case, choosing between the paddle and the boat I think I'll choose the boat first since it can get away much faster than the paddle.
I also tried a re-entry and roll. I got close, but need a little more practice I think and need to slow down and not hurry so much.
I was afraid that Pat would have gotten discouraged from this first day of kayaking. Instead I found him more than eager when I talked to him Sunday. But now he was convinced he had to paddle more boats to find the right one...
Woody
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