Yesterday the winter begun. This didn't stop me to think about paddling. Also Rob and Annet liked the idea and joined me.
We had hoped for some kind and friendly weather because the predictions went that way. Although the weather was quite nice with an easterly 2 Bft wind and a temperature of 5°C, we never saw the tiniest part of the sun.
We started at the coast near Bakkum in NoordHolland and headed for Egmond aan Zee; paddling along the coast.
We paddled the gentle sea on the ripples, made by the easterly wind blowing into the sea. It is strange, Rob said, to compensate for weathercocking in the direction of the beach.
Today I took a PH Baidarka with me; a kayak I bought some years ago to investigate further the influence of outfitting the kayak on the characteristics of a kayak.
As the Baidarka has the name being little obstinate under certain conditions this seemed a perfect testobject to me. Besides that, i liked the feeling the kayak gave in waves while it will rise gentle over them.
Having paddled in a Skim Distance for the last months I had a kind of a little shock when starting our little trip:" whow, is the Baidarka that instable? Never noticed this before. And what a lively boat."
This is of course the influence of the Skim-kayak, being very stable and being not very manouevrable. About the stability I concluded that I must have become lazy in the hips in it. But after a short period I was used to the Baidarka again. Not that I think it wil be easy to shoot pictures from it in a rough sea. But I have respect for Jos, having paddled a Baidarka in conditions with waves up to 2 meter, a few months ago.
That the stiff tracking of the Skim Distance would make me ever think of the Baidarka as a lively kayak, surprises me even yet. Until now I thought about the Baidarka as a kind of "oceansteamer" under the kayaks.
That the stability differs that much between both kayaks is interesting because they differ not very much on width. Apart from the totaly different model of the hull, it could well be that the longer length of teh Skim Distance also adds to the secundairy stabily because a longer length of the hull is submerged when edged, giving more counterpressure doing so.
Arrived in Egmond we carried the kayaks to the floodline and started for a walk to the restaurant of Leo, a clubmember. We were totaly disappointed when we discovered the restaurant being closed for holiday.
Fortunately there are more restaurants in Egmond.
After a good lunch, the idea of Rob being someone always enjoying the good things of life, we headed back to our kayaks.
It looked that we had the current with us this time. May be it is because the tide rises, but we saw quit a lot of birds fouraging when we came by. It turned out they were Parelduikers (Gavia Artica) being a winterguest. There were quit a lot them flying in big circles above our heads. Beautifull were they.
Last but not least we met a lonely seal who looked at us while we were landing on the beach; probably disappointed because we were not the companions he migth be looking for.
Walking the kayaks to the car we solved the problem for groups of uneven kayakers. Normaly you carry 2 kayaks with 2 persons. For the third kayak you have to walk again.
But: with 3 persons there are 6 hands and there are 6 kayak-ends. So that's what we did: we formed a big circle with the three kayaks and we all carried two kayak-ends. Yes it looks a bit odd; and yes we use the whole width of the path; but it was fun and we only had to walk once. Yes! 