On the water this week!

A flooded coalfield

Saturday 21st March 2009

For a while now I have been gagging to get out on the water with the touring boat, and do some more extensive 'testing'.

We (my Dad and myself) decided to take a trip to Rother Valley Country Park, its only 20mins from home and is big enough for a good test paddle without getting bored.

Rother Valley opened in 1983 having cost over 4 million to convert after the coal extraction work had finished The lake is lined with a metre thickness of compacted stone and filled with clean water pumped in from the Moss Brook 2.5 km away.

Having called into the watersports centre and paid our fee of £4.20 each, we quickly got changed and moved to the waters edge. I always wonder if a specific routine of warming up should be followed prior to paddling, and I've come to the conclusion; by the time you have got the boats off the car/van, got into all the dry gear, and carried the boat to the water you warm enough!

So we got in and had a little paddle up and down. There was a gusting wind from the North which was picking up crested wavelets on the water surface.

The Venture Easky kayak seemed to gluide through them nicely with no noticable spray.

I had set the GPS unit on the deck as we set out, mainly to try and get and idea of a comfortable cruising speed that suited us both.

It seemed that we could sustain 4.1 miles /hour comfortably, so now we can plan our proposed canal trips.

We paddle to the Northern end of the lake, and found it to be crowded on the lakeside, the kids playground was busy and there were plenty of people sat around enjoying the sunshine.

I suddenly noticed a bloke on the beach, waving in what looked like my direction, I checked behind me, and again all around, but couldn't make out who he was waving at. He then shouted, and made a large circular shape with his arms definately in my direction.

I had no-idea what he was on about so I paddle over, he shouted to me, 'can you get our football from the water?'

Apart from the annoyance of having to get close to the edge to play ball by, it did make me realise how difficult it is to see a head sized shape floating in the water! In the sea Kayak Safety DVD I purchased recently, the RNLI stated: 'Anything you can do to increase your visability in the water will aid us if we have to come to rescue you', imagine trying to pick out a head from a helicopter in the middle of a vast rough sea, particulary at night.

We paddled back where we had been resting, and had a rest, the guy shouted again, this time after passing back the ball, we moved on, and went down to the other end of the lake.

Here with that northerly wind blowing freely the full length of the water, the chop was significantly bigger, so i had a little play just testing the kayaks manoverability to see how it handled. now when paddling straight at the waves, there was some spray from the bow, made worse as the wind caught it and blew it my way.

One thing I have just thought about is the paddle, this was the first time I had used it properly, and with its cranked shaft it was all new. I didn't find it to be good or bad, and seemed to be quite 'fluent' in use. It did I think, make me concious of my hand position, and will probably make my grip from left to right more even.

Another thing that I noticed (perhaps more significantly) was there was little or no water run off blowing back into my face even when heading into the wind.

I now decided to have a go at towing Dad! I have towed once before, but though it would be good to try the new tow line. I had altered the standard Palm 'river tow' by reducing the diameter of the rope, I could increase the length from 3metres to 6metres, allowing me to tow others with my 15' boat with out them being too close to me.

I towed Dad firstly in a straight line, and then around some bouys to see if I could turn correctly, it seemed fairly straight forwards, but with a following wind, Dad had to use a stern rudder every now & then to keep track. I tested the quick release on the tow belt, and put it all away, happy that I can tow on flat water anyway!

I now decided that I would have a go at some self rescues, Dad didn't have a dry suit, of any kind, so I was in on my own this time. I had already done a couple of rolls earlier on. This had been with spare paddle on the back deck, and with the deck bag in front of the cockpit. I rolled no problem, but found it to be a slow and deliberate action, I think due to the drag of the extra gear strapped onto the deck!

So....time to get wet, I rolled over and popped the deck, gently eased my self out and broke the surface, now I waited, waited for the slow creep of the cold water to work its way throughout my body. It didn't happen! Don't get me wrong here, it was cold! But the new dry trousers and the excellant Yak dry cag Ive been using for a couple of seasons now really worked well.

So, on with the self rescue, I had been concerned with my positioning of my spare paddle on the back deck for a while now, and my concern was justified! I swam around to the bow, with the boat still up-turned, and whilst kicking hard with my legs pushed the Bow up and out of the water, and then as it dropped back down, rolled it around so it landed the correct we up. This is much harder to carry out than it looks on the safety DVD!

Having got the boat empty, I swam around to the stern, and passing the cockpit checked to see how much water remained inside.... quite a lot!

Any way I grabbed the deck lines and hoisted my self on to my chest and strated to work my way along the back deck. I got stuck1 The spray deck was stuck on the spare paddle. It was then Dad reminded me to put the deck in my teeth before strating. so I had another go, I managed to get right up to the deck this time, but was very conscious of not tearing the new dry trousers on the spare paddle, (if this is going to be on my mind when doing these re-entries then maybe I'll have to move the paddle to the fore deck).

Now having got as far as the cockpit, all i needed was to get my legs in, I dropped my bum in to the seat and started to get my legs into the cockpit, it was now I remebered that I should have leaned right back to keep the centre of gravity low, in I went!

When I surfaced, the Rother valley rescue boat appeared to check all was well. I told him I was practicing, but he said he had to wait to make sure I was OK.

So with and audience I got out the paddle float. I pondered about where to keep this usefull item. After some thought, I decided to roll it up and tuck it just behend the seat back rest under the spray deck. My thoughts were; if I need it, I'll be out of the boat, so I'll be able to get to it, the drawback is if someone else needs to use it, then it means taking off my deck.

I slipped it over the paddle blade, and inflated the 2 chambers, with the paddle trapped on the back deck behind the cockpit, under my arm I hokked my left leg over it whilst facing the cockpit on the right side of the kayak. There is a moulded in channel that is supposedly for this purpose on the deck, but if I use it, and put the paddle under the deck lines to secure it, I fear that I would not get it out easily in a hurry, and in a lively sea I might end up back in in the resultant struggle.

I clambered up the paddle on to the deck and facing the stern, put first my right foot, and then the left into the cockpit whilst still leaning all my weight towards the paddle float. Now with both feet in, I just spun around so I faced forwards, and I was in! Now I needed to paddle to shore to sort my paddle float out, NOT easy, and if there was a swell of any sinificance I would be struggling.

Thoughts on the paddle float? I reckon, definately should carry it, but only use it if I cant climb back in, or there is no one to assist. Packing it away/storing it wouldnt be too bad but getting it off the paddle blade is not a fast job, needs practice!

So we got out, packed the boats onto the roof rack. When I got changed there was a small amount, ( about a cupfull )in the bottom of the dry trousers, I think this is due to the waist band, and better layering might help next time.

Dad had paddled very well in his Tsunami 120, it cruises very well, and to be honest appearto handle and turn very well, it cuts through the water well and the smile on Dads face says it all. I'm sure we will have some great days out in these boats!

Conclusions:

Well I definately need to get the boat into the sea, I want to know how it handles in a swell, in the surf, and just to know if I can keep a good pace.

My rescues need more practice, and when the waters are a bit warmer, we need to practice X rescues so we know we can both get back in.

As for the position of my spare paddle....I like it on the back deck, its out of sight, keeping the fore deck less cluttered, I spent time getting it si I could reach it and get it assembled easily whilst in the boat. so just putting it on the front will take some thought, I'll try getting back in again before I make a decision.

Were off to Angelsey for Easter, so will get some sea paddling in, weather permmitting!