Friday, March 02, 2007

Flat Water, Extra Stability

I awoke today after a nightshift, I was going to go back to bed until I looked out of the window.

I got the gear on and trollied the boat down to the water, lovely.

The boat felt very different today. I am getting used to the narrow beam of it (52cm) and today I tried a wee trick that I picked up from one of Douglas's reviews.

Instead of my usual coast hugging I headed straight out into the firth to a spar, I meant to mark it on the GPS but I forgot. I suppose it's a third the way across the firth, about 1.5Km. The boat was cruising along at around 7kph. Later I sprinted and pulled 10.4kph out of her.

I then turned west and headed for the end of the 'Admirality Pier' and took a photo of the village I had just come from.



The scene changes when heading into Invergordon which is a base for oil rig repairs, although you can see the snow covered Ben Wyvis in the back ground.



I sat about quite a bit today admiring the view and thinking about my newly aquired greater stability. Was it the flat water or the wee trick ?

Time will tell.

Oh I forgot to tell you what the wee trick was.



Readily available at all good stony beaches.

2 comments:

Owen said...

Muzz
Please, if your going to weight your boat use something soft but heavy, old climbing rope is good, that way if you do roll you wont smash your boat.
Owen.

Unknown said...

Owen, I agree. The stones were a spur of the moment thing. In the future any pre planned ballast will be of a softer type.