For the last week, September 14 through 20, Jan and I engaged in multiple paddle logistics activities. After one and a half years in New Bern and trading five boats, I have settled on a 15-foot solo/tandem canoe; and a 16.5-foot ocean-going kayak. Both can carry enough gear for multi-day and over nights trips. I can’t remember buying a piece of outdoor equipment, or taking it on a trip, whether paddling, backpacking or whatever, that did not need some kind of renovation or repair. Last week started with my kayak.
Due to my enduring 12 straight months of pain and disability from hip arthritis, hip replacement surgery, pulled back muscles, many months of recuperation and now narrowed discs with a pinched nerve and sciatica down my right leg, I have let my body atrophy and my equipment deteriorate. To give my back more support, I glued a thick foam rubber yoga block [yes, Paul, I finally got some permanent use from this gear] to the back of the kayak seat. It was a tedious job with multiple measurements and many jumps into and out of the boat to test the fit. Besides supporting my back, I found the foam pad pushed my body forward in the cockpit, which makes my feet and thighs flit better in the cockpit and locks me into the boat for better security and stability., I still need have to another inch or so of foam block glued into the forward bulkhead to make my feet fit even tighter. My paddling and outfitting friend Bill Webb, who sold me this sleek boat, will hopefully help me with this project.
Next, I had a Dagger canoe for about 25 years which suited me perfectly. It had three seats for solo and tandem paddling. I had put years of effort into adding outfitting, including painters (bow and stern ropes) exactly measured to tie onto the top of my vehicle; about a dozen D-rings glued to the bottom to tie in gear, two float bags, two waterproof storage bags, and more. It had beautiful wooden decks, handles, gunnels, thwarts and seats. The hull was made of old-style Royalex material, which is tough as nails, but somewhat heavy.
In recognition of my ever-weakening 71-year-old body, and in an effort to save weight, last year I sold the Dagger to a friend in Wilmington I met on Blue Ridge Outings. I replaced it with an identical size Esquif canoe from Canada, made with newer plastic hull material that was 10 pounds lighter. After a year I started suffering from seller’s remorse. The new boat was efficient but lacked character. It did not have a center solo seat, lacked wood fixtures and looked “too new” to suit my character on the river. So, last week I bought back my old Dagger canoe. I am just going to put up with the extra 10 pounds. Now I have the newer, lighter, Esquif canoe for sale at a discount price.
I set about renovating the Dagger outfitting. I added parachute cord to the bow and stern gunnels to help hold in the floatation bags. The cord was uncooperative in that the sheath was not attached to the core so it would not push through the tiny holes I had drilled in the hull below the gunnels. I had to use a lot of my prior outfitting experience to melt the cord ends just enough to fuse the components, but not too much, and make a “mushroom” shaped top that was too large to fit through the holes. Each cord end had to be cut, melted three times, and whipped around in the air between each melting to narrow and sharpen the end.
Then I retrofitted four straps on my kayak deck bag so it could be attached and removed as needed. The deck back was badly designed at the factory so that when it is attached to a boat, it cannot be removed. I needed to remove it while carrying the boat on my roof racks, and when storing it in my shed.
After that project, I retrofitted three straps on my canoe thwart bag so a water bilge pump can be attached and carried while paddling. The thwart bag was badly designed at the factory so that the buckles were attached backward.
Over several days Jan and I took four trips to the large Craven County Martin Marietta park with a lake, a creek and multiple paddle boat launch sites with ramps, rollers and docks. We paddled once the week before with both of us in the canoe, with which she was not comfortable. This week she brought her own kayak and went paddling with her dog Gracie paddling along beside several times in the lake.
The picture of the two kayak paddles shows on the left a European-style blade, which most Americans use. On the right is a Greenland (Eskimo) slype blade, which many of the older and more experienced paddlers in New Bern use. The Greenland paddle enters, flows through and exits the water more smoothly. It feels less jerky and more stable. I recently obtained the Greenland paddle from Bill, and I prefer it.
Finally, during one of these trips, the glue from two D-rings in my 25-year-old Dagger canoe gave up the ghost and pulled free. Now I have another project to glue those rings back in.
