06.12.2012
Yesterday it was terrible weather: windy and snow. Tomorrow it will be even worse with 8bft winds and 15 cm snow predicted.
BUT today it was a quiet, sunny day. Ideal to go paddling.
For testing I like wind and at least some waves and therefor paddling at sea in the Voordelta-area would have been perfect as the swell from yesterday could arrange interesting conditions over there.
Due to the predicted traffic-infarct, caused by the snow of last night, we changed plans and went to Lemmer, a lot more to the north.
Today's weather was pleasant because it was not so very cold. But I also thought that this weather and place were a pity for testing. But I was wrong: also today I collected useful information about the Pilgrim.
Let's follow our tour. The first leg followed the coast till Oudemirdum against a 1-2 bft NW-wind. I was a bit surprised to see that the Pilgrim produced quit a lot a spray at the spot next to the front-hatch. So it is clearly not a boat to cut the waves because she has a lot of volume in the bow; necessary for the heavy waters she is designed for. Of course you can paddle her on flat water but this kayak loves more rough conditions. I can add to this that the spray as produced could be less (I expect) when loaded. In the unloaded kayak I paddled today, the bow floats high and when the kayak is loaded the sharpest end of the bow in more submerged in de water which could improve. I will try to simulate this later.
Besides this I noticed on this first leg that the Pilgrim is very maneuverable.
Another issue was the foot-pegs: In contrary to the two earlier test-sessions I did not use them and put my feet against the bulkhead on a plate of foam. This was much better because my feet were now NOT cramped in one position anymore. Using the foot-pegs before I could not move my feet for 1 mm.
After a break we started our second leg: a crossing of 6km to the "Rotterdamse hoek". I was happy to see that the wind increased to 3 bft. and created at this spot a lively sea. The Pilgrim awoke and she almost danced over the waves. Very nice, I came in a flow and we paddled almost 8 km/h. It was also interesting to see that this kayak, having a rather flat bottom, more or less followed the waves coming from aside. Not a bad characteristic but one you have to get familiar with.
The Pilgrim weathercocks slightly which I could control without using the retractable skeg. Being lazy today I trimmed the kayak with the skeg and could keep course easily. Now and than, when a wave pushed me in another direction, it was easy to come back on the original course because the kayak responds very well to edging, leaning and sweepstrokes.
Arriving a bit north from Rotterdamse Hoek, we turned north following the dike. In this third leg we had a following sea and wind building up surfable waves at this spot.
On a nice wave I could bring the Pilgrim with a few power strokes to surf the wave. On some waves more paddling was required, but this kayak likes surfing and kept course rather good (retractable skeg dropped maximal).
This kayak does not surf spontaneously on these waves today and so I could choose not to surf, just paddling and being pushed by a wave now and than. I could keep course well doing so.
Almost at the end of this leg, at "Friese hoek", we took a little break and I was surprised that I was much more stable, while eating something, than in the second test-session. Even when floating parallel to the waves while the waves were at least as high now. At first I could not understand this, but it is quite logical: the testsession before I sat in the cockpit with my feet completely fixed on the small footpegs with my knees and legs in a strange twist to get the knees in the correct position. This was a totally cramped position. But today, with my feet and knees having much more freedom, I was sitting very relaxed in the cockpit. Thus I was able to use my hips for keeping balance. Before the hips were blocked by the wrong position in the cockpit. So the lesson for potential future Pilgrim-paddlers is to judge if their feet fit in the cockpit.
Another advantage of my more relaxed leg-position was that my knees were not so stiff anymore at the end of our 26km trip. So I learned another lesson today: my knees being stiff after a kayak-trip in whatever kayak, are an indication to look at the sit-position and to try to improve that.