I got the kayak wet Saturday morning. It was a blast! The kayak still isn't
completely finished, but it is definitely seaworthy. Or at least
lakeworthy. It needs a coaming, a permanant seat, and foot rests. I also still need to sand and finish it. But I just couldn't wait any longer. The weather is getting colder, and I just had to get it wet before winter comes.

After eating breakfast, I loaded the kayak onto the roof rack I
built. We drove on the highway for a while, and I must say, the boat didn't
budge on the sturdy rack I built. Thanks goes to John Monfoe for inspiration on the rack. Our destination was Burke Lake, a small lake just outside the DC Beltway. I chose it because it's size meant the waves would be pretty small, and motorboats are not allowed.

The wind was very strong in the parking lot at the boat ramp, and I worried a little that I might be making a mistake. At least it was blowing directly toward the boat ramp, so I figured if I got into trouble, it would blow me to safety. Besides, even though the air has been cooler lately, the water was still pretty warm. I put the kayak in the water at the boat ramp, and got ready to climb in. I realized that I forgot to practice getting in the kayak in the front yard like I had planned. Well, it went fine. I just straddled it and then sat down. My wife took a couple of pictures, and then I was off. The wind was less strong on the water. There were only large ripples on the lake. The kayak handled wonderfully. I know I would have had trouble in a canoe, but the kayak wasn't affected much at all by the wind. At first I told my wife that I would stay in the small bay by the boat ramp, but that didn't last long. So I let her know that I would paddle across the lake and down one of it's arms. I startled lots of birds and some turtles from their rest, I guess I sneaked up on them. It was so much fun to be finally out on the water in a boat I made myself!

I realized that I have no upper body strength because I needed to turn back
after only a half an hour. I guess I need to learn a little paddling
technique. It was hard to paddle slowly. I just wanted to sprint across
the lake, and so I did. It wore me out. The Kayak is so much faster than
the canoes I've paddled. I was really impressed with my speed, and I kept
wanting to go faster. Total trip distance was a little under two miles. Time was roughly a half an hour. Beats me if that was fast, but it felt like it was.

One thing I noticed was that the paddle I built was dripping tons of water into my lap. Maybe it was a little shortsighted of me to build an open cockpit boat. The Greenland paddle could probably also be refined. I quickly made it out of a 2x4 in under two hours using instruction posted by Paul G. Jacobson from a while back. Like he said, it's a little clunky.

Anway, I headed back to my wife and 2 year old daughter waiting for me at the boat ramp. They had fun looking at the geese while I was gone.

I'm afraid that I'm hooked.

-Dan