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Sea Kayak Trips Bulletin Board
Everett Harbor
Posted By: Shawn Baker / Pete Rudie
Date: Friday, 30 July 1999, at 2:02 p.m.
Shawn drove from Missoula, Montana all evening, and part of Saturday morning; drove into Issaquah, WA at 8:15am and called Pete. We went out for a cup of coffee and visited for an hour or so, and then we went to his home to pick up his Guillemot kayak, Shawn got to meet his family, and then we hit the road for Seattle. We stopped at the Northwest Outdoor Center and then went to Mariner Kayaks and met Matt Broze and chatted a bit about boat design. Then on to a chandlery to pick up some charts and West Marine for Shawn to buy a new compass. (which ended up not working quite right-but more on that later) We made a quick stop at Eagle Hardware for mounting screws for the compass. By this time, it was already nearing 3:00 in the afternoon, and we still hadn't gotten our boats wet. We were to make one last stop at Seattle Fabrics to check out all the cool stuff there. As we were leaving, a guy was standing there checking out our boats on my roof rack.
Well, we thought, nothing new, a lot of people like to look at wood kayaks-as it turned out, though, the guy was building a Guillemot Expedition Single, and introduced himself as Ed Valley! We had both already met him through the KBbbs, so it was fun to meet another builder and put yet another face with a name. He showed us his scrapbook-his boat is coming along beautifully! After visiting for a half-hour or so, he excused himself as he had to get to a place before it closed-turned out that Seattle Sports, manufacturer of drybags, was having a clearance sale. So, rather than bidding Ed adieu, he led us over to the site of the great sale, and we loaded up on clear drybags and chart cases for $5.00 each! We also bought 9 NRS rope throwbags for $0.50 each! Then, we decided that we really ought to dip a paddle in the water.
We drove up to Everett, WA, and parked at the public launch there. It took about 20 minutes to mount the compass and ensure that the card reading was parallel to Shawn's hand compass. It was about 50* and drizzling, but we were dressed for the weather and paddled off-by this time it was 5:30 pm. We paddled south around Jetty Island and out into the middle of the harbor. I (Shawn) looked down and my compass said that we were paddling due North! I figured I'd over-compensated the adjusting screws, but it turned out that the card was, in fact really 180* off-I was glad I wasn't in a really unfamiliar area out of sight of land or in thick fog!! We saw some huge construction barges and some gigantic barges filled with wood chips. These barges happened to have Denny Washington's logo on them. I thought, "wow, not only does this guy own half of Montana, he's starting to buy up the state of Washington!" We had a lot of fun playing on the boat wakes--and even surfed a couple. Little did Shawn know that he would be seeing a lot more before my weekend was over. We paddled out past the barges and about 2 miles out into the harbor. By this time, it was nearing 6:30, and Shawn still had to take Pete back home to Renton and then drive back north all the way to Bellingham, so we turned around and had an uneventful paddle back in. We got back to the dock and I asked Pete if I could try out his Guillemot. I was really excited to see how I fit the Guillemot as I've heard very good things about them, but I had real concerns about fitting my size 13.5 feet under its relatively low foredeck. I got in and found that it was a bit low, but with some minor modifications, I could build one that would fit just fine.
I decided to give rolling it a shot: I was _very_ impressed by how easily I could roll it. Pete was just plain impressed with the fact that I could roll, but I was too busy enamoring about how easy the _boat_ can be rolled. It is the first sea kayak I have ever been able to handroll! It was a pretty interesting situation--the local "county mounty" was out patrolling the public launch and watched with some interest as I did an onside and then an offside screw roll. Luckily, he wasn't watching a bit later--I did 2 solid handrolls, and then tried an offside handroll and failed that; set up again, failed; and set up a third time onside and missed it too. The cop probably would have called out the Coast Guard for fear I was drowning! The boat saved me from a wet exit, though, as it has so much less volume next to my butt that I was able to just lie still on the surface of the water, and wait for Pete to paddle up to me and do an Eskimo rescue. (I forget how unmaneuverable my Ches 17 is until I'm waiting for it to come pull me out of the water!! I think Pete found it surprisingly less maneuverable than his Guillemot too!) Once I was righted, we paddled out around the docks and back in. Pete added a small integral skeg to the stern of his boat, and it really made the Guillemot track nicely while still allowing for a lot of maneuverability. We loaded the boats without further ado and left for Renton.
Est. Distance: 6.0 miles Time: 1.75 hrs.
I (Shawn) left Pete's after wolfing down 2 bowls of some great stew that his wife made, and took off for Bellingham. I hit my friends' house at 11:15 and promptly crashed on the floor exhausted.
More to come! Shawn (and Pete)
Click the link in a couple of days for the story with photos: (It won't work right away)
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