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Vorig jaar was onze eerste trektocht langs de Noors kust ons goed bevallen. Hadden we vorig jaar een veel minder beschutte kust; dit jaar kozen we voor de oostkust van Noorwegen. Wel meer bewoond maar ook mooi. Begin augustus was het nog net geen vakantieperiode zodat het in onze eerste weken niet heel erg druk op het water was. Later zag je vooral veel bootjes.
We hadden wel heel mooi weer waardoor we veel harder opschoten en we ook vaker op de open zee konden blijven. Later trok de wind wat aan, maar achter de eilanden was het goed te doen op een enkele oversteek van een baai na.
KLIK hier om verder te lezen en de grotere kaart te bekijken
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Wednesday-evening a week ago the wind was blowing NE at 5-6BFT: a perfect condition to try the paddle on my weekly 19km-trip tot the kayak-club.
Nice about this trip is that I have the wind from all directions on the different stretches.
So let me summarise my trip
1. Getting used to
Probably that has something to do with my own kinetik wing because I noticed that I was paddling the Greenland paddle in the same way. Of course with the tilting of the blade while pulling.
It was also interesting to notice that I did not have to think one second about NOT turning the paddle-shaft: All my paddling life I used a right-twisted shaft and you could expect that this deeply anchored habit is difficult to change. But no: It all felt very natural.
When paddling in wind coming from aside you develop over the years the habit of leaning into the wind when you feel a sudden gust of wind.
This evening there were certainly gust of winds and after a few gust a realised It was not necessary to lean into the wind anymore as the wind did not have any grip on the pushed blade in the air.
This felt very safe indeed because very strong gusts can capsize even an experienced paddle in a second of unawareness.
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Some time ago Ed wrote on my weblog the question: "What's going on, why no new tests on your website?"
I mailed back that I was just starting up again after the winter-period. May-be a weak excuse because I could also write in winter time: reviews about f.i. AnasAcuta and Nordkapp as I have these kayaks in my fleet.
Anyhow, after exchanging some mails Ed asked if I was interested in testing a Greenland paddle; he made 3 paddles himself and offered one of those for testing
Ed
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Last Saturday I planned to test the Xplore (Tiderace).
I could borrow Wiegers' and planned to use it on a crossing of the IJsselmeer from Stavoren to Andijk vv.
A distance of about 2x15 km .
Thx Wieger.
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After my experiences with the Cetus in the second half of 2009, it's about time now to describe some technical details about her before finishing my testperiod with the Cetus.
The hull
The Cetus has a rather rounded underwatership with flat midsection and a sharp bow. Furthermore the hull is given a swedeform shape which helps making it a fast kayak.
Deck layout
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Today I attended a tour, organized by Hans Heupink for the Dutch Kayak Association. Due to the expected 7Beaufort-winds the planned surf-session was canceled and instead we made a nice tour in the Voordelta; to say hallo to a lonely seal. 
I did not take a testkayak with me today, but paddled Willem's Breeze (a clone from Plasmors' Ligue de Bretagne) a trustworthy kayak I did not use frequently yet. Given the wind 5-6Bft, I felt very secure in the stable kayak giving me plenty of opportunities to watch my companions.
Thus I noticed that Govert paddles his new Cetus. Having tested the Cetus myself, this was an opportunity for me to interview him and to record his experiences.
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Today I played in the surf near Bakkum at the Dutch coast. We were there with club-members of the KVU and two guests: Axel and Hans.
During the day the westerly wind increased to 6 Bft, offering good conditions with waves up to 1,5 meter for kayaking in surf. The only drawback was that the tide was going down at the time that the wind was OK. The low tide produces, in combination with the wind, steep and powerful dumping waves which made it a challenge to break through them in order to reach surf-able waves.
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Today I paddled the Cetus on the IJsselmeer in a 6-7Bft SW-wind.(gusts up to 8Bft)
A perfect area for testing in the conditions of today was the "Hoornse Hop". We choose to start at Wijdenes and paddle against the wind in the direction of Edam. Doing so we could plan our trip better. As you never know how fast you can go in these winds, you can always turn back once time is over. With this crossing we challenged the heaviest part of the area.
As said, our first leg was against the wind and the second the same way backwards promising some nice surfing.
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Yesterday, on Wednesday-evening, I paddled the Greenlander from home to the club in a 5 Bft wind including a longer course on the Alkmaardermeer.
Until now I paddled her in less or no wind. But now it was becoming more serious and I think it gave me much more confidence for using her at sea later.
Until now I did not yet work on the customising of the cockpit, except that I removed the knee-tube which did not fit me at all and also made entering the cockpit a dangerous exercise for my knees.
Customising will be very important as the deck is quite high and gives no grip for my knees at all at the moment.
So, I was paddling in 5Bft with no hip-contact and no knee-contact with my knee-position in the middle of the cockpit.
Nevertheless I was very happy as the Greenlander could be steered perfectly with hip-movements. Stability was also good under the conditions with waves up to 40cm. Which is quite good, taking into account that I had no contact in the cockpit at all.
The only moment a missed knee-contact was when steering around a little headland away from the wind, where edging was necessary to turn the kayak more professionally.
While running for the wind and waves, with the skeg down , the Greenlander behaved quite course-stable.
The Greenlander weathercocks a little bit, but this was perfectly trimmed with the variable skeg.
Paddling against the waves made a wet ride is the bow splices the waves. Comparing with the Explorer, paddling next to me, learned me that the Explorer had a complete dry ride under these conditions.
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When I asked Henk if I could borrow his Cetus, he asked me what I was going to do. After unfolding my plan to paddle on 12 Sept. towards our club members, who were paddling back from their instruction-camp on Vlieland, he was enthusiastic and liked to go with me.
That is nice, I thought, but now I can't paddle the Cetus. Fortunately Leo, also a Cetus owner, offers to use his Cetus.
So now we were a nice pair: both in a Cetus. 
