Bumpy Bits.

Managed to get out with the club again last night ! The tide at Chanonry was on the way out and there was a fresh breeze blowing against it from the east.

We paddled into the wind towards Fort George. Just around the point at Chanonry the tide runs quite fast, it was a nice paddle into the wind. We were pointing into the waves ( which I like ) but the swell was changing direction and coming more and more from the side.

When hillwalking you know that conditions can change rapidly, when sea kayaking the conditions and sea seem to change by the second - it's great !

Up ahead the waves were breaking on the shore just past the fort, we headed there. Neil took the first group in I stayed out and nearly went in with the bigger waves until Neil pointed out a better route to come in on.

That's what's good about paddling with the club, there's a constant flow of helpful info and advice, both theory and practise.

Once ashore I watched as Neil guided in another paddler.



Straighten up now...



There we go..



Once we had been fed and watered or tea'd and coffee'd we were going to go back to the larger waves but they had disappeared.

There was still fun to be had though, on nearing Chanonry the waters got a bit bumpy again. There was a wee section of overfalls ? which was quickly followed by some lumpy stuff like clapotis. We detoured to the right of this and took a shore route in. ( Sorry my descriptions of the water are poor, something to brush up on )

My boat performed much better tonight, even in the lumpy stuff, no problem at all in that sideways swell. I had two bottles of water fitted to the boat. YES fitted.

I wanted to make sure the bottles wouldn't shift if I decided to go upside down so I glassed in some fixings.



Add a strap and then your preferred ballast.



Doesn't look that pretty but it gives me the reassurance that the bottles won't be tumbling about if the sh*t hits the fan. Still working on the best positioning and number of bottles.

Embarrassing Swim

I made it along to the evening club paddle last night. It's at Chanonry point Fortrose which is well known in the area as a good place to spot dolpinins.



It was a wee bit windy and the tide was coming in the same direction. The chart shows overfalls in the area. There was a good turn out, around twenty kayaks. We set off for Fort George into the wind and tide.

When we got there Neil and Rhona split the group. Beginners would carry on up the coast towards Ardersier and the more experienced could do what they wanted at a faster pace. Being armed with a Sirius I opted for the faster trip although I consider myself a beginner ( BCU 3 star river no star sea ! ).

The 'fast' group were to head for the yellow nav buoy to the west of Riff bank.



The paddle was an exposed slog into the wind and tide, but quite enjoyable. It's the roughest conditions I have experienced in the Sirius and she coped well taking the waves wind and swell in her stride as I just took a lot of waves on the chin.

The nav buoy seemed to be slowly drifting away from us, a fellow paddler said it was like a carrot on a stick. The GPS recorded our speed as a lowly 3.5kph.

Two or three paddlers reached the buoy ahead of me and stopped paddling, by the time I reached them they had drifted back a bit. I didn't bother going on to the buoy and just stayed with these paddlers whilst others went past and touched the buoy.

It was now the nice bit, skeg down and free ride home.

I started catching some waves and the speed was now a decent 9.4 kph. Then it happened. I had just been paddling fast with a wave and was slowing to let the next one get me when I felt the boat lean over to the right. I think the next wave had hit at an angle, just when I was putting in a stroke on the left. I tried to put a steadying stroke in on the right but the paddle went too far back and contributed to the rightward motion, at the point of now return my right hand relinquished the grip on the paddle and I went over.

Whilst upside down I realised I had let go of the paddle completely so I had to pull the spraydeck, bugger.

Within seconds Pete was at the scene. I flipped the boat over and as Pete grabbed the cockpit I hooked the leg over and sat back in the boat wearing an embarrassed smile. We were underway again and this time I was paying more attention to what the boat was doing rather than catching waves.

Oh and another thing, what's the point of dry cags and dry trousers ? I was bloody soaked through ! I left my drysuit in the car and put on my Yak touring cag and a pair of Nookie Extreme trousers. Bad choice.



Postscipt.

Big thanks to Pete and the others for their prompt and efficient actions.

Thumbs down for my over confidence and dry tops/ bottoms combo.

From now on it's drysuit unless it's flat calm. If I'm doing wet stuff it will be drysuit or wetsuit.

I think I'll fit some attachments to the inside of the boat so that I can easily attach/detach ballast. The boat was virtually empty and does tend to be a bit tippy like that.

Oh, the dolphins did make an appearance at the end but I only saw a few dorsals and no jumping as I was chatting. My wife will be proud of me :-)

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.

Keel Strip Fitted

I got the boat back on Saturday, it was away getting a keel strip fitted. Neil Gray took three boats down to Edinburgh to have them done by a guy who makes his own kayaks.

First a couple of 'before' shots of the keel.





And here's what it looks like now.



The bow, not just squared off but tapered.



The stern is particularly well done



Around the skeg.



The long shot demonstrates how nicely it fits the boat, as if it always belonged there and was just missing from the original build.
Neil told me that the gadgy commented on how well built the Sirius was and it appears that he replicated the due care and attention in fitting the keel strip. Cheers to you whoever you are and a big thanks to Neil for taking the boat down.

Ah what the hell, I'm retro posing this bigger pic, just because I can !

Black Isle Stability Check

Today I was able to have a wee paddle over to the Black Isle.
I set off from the slip, my usual departure site for trips in the firth.



I noticed the difference from lowering the seat immediately, much better stability. I was quite surprised how much better the boat felt.

Paddled under the 'smelter pier'.

This used to have a conveyer belt running from the end right into the Aluminium Smelter. Now wagons roll up and down to load and unload various other cargoes.


I then headed towards the end of the Admiralty pier to make the crossing.


Near the other side I manged to get some shots of the other stuff in the firth, it's usually rigs in for repairs.


Here's the view back to the Admiralty Pier.


On the Black Isle I stopped for a coffee.




Then headed back. On the way into the tide and a wee breeze the GPS reported 6.6 - 6.9 kph. It was now telling me 7.5kph this is similar to what I was getting before the seat lowering. The twitchiness I felt last week seems to have disappeared too. I got some pics on the way back.


You can see Ben Wyvis behind this rig.


I also spotted the object that I hit last week when it was submerged, a big bloody tyre !


And that was it, I am happy with the seat lowering results. No, I am very happy. There seemed to be no movement, the seat is quite frimly pinned hard to the hull against the additional foam. I may still put blocks between the seat and the deck just to be on the safe side.
A nice paddle.

Lowering The Seat On P&H Sirius

After reading Douglas Wilcox' writings about improving stability on the P&H boats fitted with a plastic seat, I decided to give it a go.

The first problem was removing the seat. After removing the securing bolts I was able to slide the seat about so it was not glued to the hull but I simply could not get the thing out. I wonder how P&H ever got the thing in there, maybe it's heated up to make it more pliable ?

Drastic measures were needed, I cut it in half !





I then removed the excess foam from underneath. I bought some more M8 bolts, nylock nuts and washers. The seat was replaced and taped back together.



I then added more foam to the front to stabilise the seat, 'glueing' it to the seat with silicon sealant. I think the front part of the seat is close to what it was originally.



The bolts were put in and in the absence of nylon washers I used PTFE tape to make a seal. I screwed nylocks and washers on the inside to fasten the bolts and then another nylock and washer before passing the bolt through the seat, this was to keep the seat pushed down.If this proves too unstable I may add small blocks of foam or wood.



You can see the gap between the seat and the deck in the above pic. There used to be no gap here with the seat bolted hard up against it.

I fitted one more set of nylocks and washers to the underside of the seat.

A small piece of foam was needed at the back.



Everything was tightened up and the seat pad replaced to hide the tape. My butt now sits 40mm nearer the bottom of the boat.

From Seat Lowering

I couln't get out to see the difference today as the weather is crap again.

On The Second Day

It was less windy.
Wind from the northeast so less wavy too. Not a normal wind for us. Very nippy though.

Set off with an easy beach launch today, after yesterdays debacle it was welcome. The first thing I had to do was get my pogies from the day hatch, I managed to get around enough to tackle the hatch but my hands were so cold it was a struggle getting the hatch off. Got it sorted and oh my what a great product the Suzy 40 belows are, hands were toasty in no time.

suzy

Set off again and checked the GPS, over 6kph not quite into the wind. Found myself edging a wee bit here and there and twitching a bit more.

From On The Second...

Had a couple of wee rain showers but I didn't really notice, having too much fun paddling.

From On The Second...

I paddled to the harbour then turned and paddled back. A quick look at the GPS and I was doing over 7KPH now, I can live with that for normal paddling.

From On The Second...

Well that's it until the weekend, maybe I'll do some bracing and rolling then !

From On The Second...

She Arrived Today

Well I went and picked her up today.

From Boat Arrives

I took her out in the wee window I had before having to go get the kids from school. I shouldn't have bothered. The tide had just turned but was still lapping up onto the sea walls. I had to walk down the slip into thigh deep water then lift the boat down. I tried hopping in but the wind was throwing waves across the boat an it filled with water.

Got it back on terra firma and pumped it out. Had another go on the other side but she kept hitting the rocks that were beginning to appear in the ebbing tide. I think I scraped the poor wee thing.

From Boat Arrives

I finally got her going but it really was quite windy and the waves were rebounding off the wall and were pretty confused, so was I !! It was twitching about and was like someone shaking the back of the boat, quite scary at times but still fun.

I paddled into the wind and it was great going through the chop,I noticed that the bow cut through the waves instead of going over like my last boat, I managed to turn her about and it was OK with waves hitting from the side although a few went over the cockpit looks like this is going to get wetter than my previous one.

From Boat Arrives

I hope the forecast is a bit better for tomorrow as I should get a few hours in her before the nightshift.

From Boat Arrives

New Boat

Should be getting it at the start of December.

P&H Sirius