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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. 
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Yesterday evening I borrowed Henks's Cetus as a preparation for a tour at sea on Saturday: just to get a bit used to her.
I paddled out of the harbour to the Alkmaardermeer and in the protected waters of the harbour the Cetus felt very manoeuvrable; the bow even yawning a bit at every paddlestroke. Dropping the skeg partially compensated for this.
Strange enough I did not recognise this the first time a paddled the Cetus for 15 minutes because I than concluded that the Cetus was only manoeuvrable when edged. That's how it is with testing: sometimes you have to change opinion though.
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Last week I paddled the Greenlander in my weekly trip to the club on wednesday-evening.
I was a bit surprised on that occasion because I got the impression she was fast and effortless paddled.
Ofcourse, after a holiday of 2 weeks paddling at sea, it could be that I was in good shape. But as our holiday-paddling-pace was rather relaxed, it could well be that it is not in my shape but all in the Greenlander herself.
So yesterday I took the Greenlader again with me, but now I was accompanied by a GPS for measuring speed.
There was almost no wind, no waves and I started with about 8,5 km/h on shallow water.
Entering deeper water, while reaching the Zaan, this increased a bit and I ended up paddling between 9,0-9,5 km/h.
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Tiny en ik gaan in de zomervakantie al jaren naar Noorwegen. Door de jaren heen is het zo gegroeid dat we tegenwoordig met een rugzak de bergen ingaan voor een trektocht van zo'n 15 dagen en dan voldoende eten meenemen voor de hele tocht. Alles wat we nodig hebben dragen we op onze rug en water scheppen we uit een beekje, zodat we de hele tocht ver weg van de bewoonde wereld kunnen en willen blijven. Heerlijk vinden we dat: om weer voor een jaar bij te tanken.
Dit jaar zijn we weer naar Noorwegen geweest: uiteraard met voor 15 dagen eten mee, maar dit keer met zeekajaks.
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Wednesday evening I paddled a short tour with the Cetus on the Alkmaardermeer: for a first impression.
Because I may (Henk and Leo were so kind to offer me the use of their kayaks) test the Cetus, such an impression is important for me to know if it is necessary to do some customising in the cockpit.
My first thoughts are:
- Stability is outstanding: the primary- and secondary stability feel very secure.
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Although I got the impression of the Silhouette being quite fast, I did not look in detail yet to the speed-aspect of the kayak.
Last week, being in the mood for a workout, I took her along on Wednesday-evening for a trip to the club planning to paddle 18 km's.
Being fresh, I started my warming up and measured 9- 9,5km/h; being easy. I tried also to paddle at 7- and 8 km/h but that was difficult to maintain, as this was too slow for me at that moment.
Being "on steam" after 4 km's, I started varying my speed:
- Paddling 8,5 km/h felt as a very natural speed in this kayak: being a speed that I could just maintain forever.
- A good exercise-speed was 9,5-10km/h: Creating sweat on my head. But I must say that the 10km/h is not something I could go on with for longer periods.
- Going for a full sprint I reached 11,8km/h with the first attempt. But this was something I could not reach again with the second and third attempt; it stopped than at 10,5km/h.
- Paddling on the lake against a 3Bft-wind I reached, as exercise pace, an 8,5/km/h, sometimes increasing to 9km/h.