Lake Michigan

At Holland Harbor channel

iPhone post

Test post from the iPhone

Some pictures...

I can't believe what a busy summer it has been!  But... despite that I have been able to do some paddling in the SeaTour and sailing in the XCR.  Some pictures:


Sea Tour skin removal:

starting to come out of the skin for the first time

skin off!

skin rolled

First test of the sail:

no wind... but the sail looks nice!

beautiful sunset over Lake Macatawa

...and some sailing in the XCR:

loving the new Balough 5M sail

Sara up front where she loves watching for waves

Sea Tour 17 EXP

I've been falling behind with my blog posts, so I'll start by catching you up with my progress on my folding kayak.  I would gauge my progress at about 90% complete.  The frame and skin are complete, and I have had the boat out paddling a couple of times.  But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself...

The cockpit coaming:
The coaming rim is made of two sections of 1/2" aluminum, the left and right halves.  The rim is set above the skin, which is trimmed to match the inside of the rim.  Next, multiple strips of PVC are glued to the skin and wrapped around the rim.  This continues all the way around the rim with the front and back left unglued.  Here is a pic of the progress part of the way through:

The openings at front and back are to enable the removal of the skin for folding.  

That brings me to the next stage of construction, the deck zippers.  I plan to install a full length zipper in the rear deck and a partial zipper on the front deck.  These will allow removal of the skin as well as access to gear that is stored beyond my reach.


My final addition will be a Feathercraft K1 rudder.  The rudder and foot controls will be installed after I put in the deck zippers so that I have access to the interior of the boat.

In the meantime... here are some pictures of the boat in use:

Halfwhacker 2011

This past weekend, I participated in the "Halfwhacker" paddling event.  This event is the first half of the 150 mile Bushwhacker, and annual event sponsored by the Verlen Kruger Memorial.  The event begins in Lumberjack Park near Riverdale, MI on the Pine River.  Many of the paddlers, including myself, camped by the river on Friday night before the race.  We sat around a campfire swatting mosquitoes and telling paddling stories before finally heading to our tents.  On Saturday morning, we all enjoyed an excellent pancake (and sausage, ham, egg, etc...) breakfast provided by Lumberjack Park, what a great way to start the day!

After breakfast, I finished packing up my stuff and got the boat in the water to prepare for the start.  A new addition to the event this year was the Backwhacker, which is the Bushwhacker in reverse.  We had a great idea to start the Backwhackers downstream of the Bushwhackers, which meant we would have to pass each other after the gun went off.

 

It sounds confusing, but it was a lot of fun!  The first few miles went by quickly and the paddlers spread out.  We encountered the first deadfalls fairly soon.  The first few I could go over or under, but before long, I had to get out of the boat and drag around some large downed trees.  This pattern continued for about 30 miles, until the backwaters of the Alma Dam.

 

The first portage is around the Alma Dam:

The put-in on the other side of the dam was not very boat friendly:

 

Fortunately, a friend of a fellow paddler was nearby and helped me carry the boat down to the water.  The next few miles to the St Louis Dam were uneventful, I was very thankful that the deadfalls were finally gone!  The only "obstacles" were some fairly low bridges which required me to lean all the way back when passing beneath them.

I portaged around the St Louis dam quickly and continued downstream.  With the slightly greater current and lack of deadfalls, my speed was quite a bit faster than in the first half; I was able to keep the boat moving at about 5 to 6 mph for most of the duration.  A highlight was Carl Cole greeting me from the Magrudder Rd bridge.  Carl paddled the full Bushwhacker last year, but was only able to do the 10 mile Sprint this year.  He let me know where some of the other paddlers were and offered some encouragement.  A few miles later, I started to feel tired and was losing my energy.  I ate and drank something, but what really kicked me into gear was a Starbucks Doubleshot.  This provided the kick I needed to finish the push to the finish.  Finally at about 9:30, I stopped and turned on my headlight, a 2 D-cell LED Maglite, which worked very well.  I also had topo maps programmed into my GPS so I could anticipate the turns of the river, then pick them out with the light.  I only hit a couple of rocks...  Finally, at about 11:30pm I passed the Chippewa Nature Center River Overlook building.  I was really close!

The "finish line" was the canoe launch, which I knew was a little ways past the confluence of the Pine and Chippewa Rivers.  I picked my way very slowly down the right bank, but still almost missed it.  I pulled the boat up and took a picture of the final stats:

The next surprise was when my phone rang, it was Emily.  She had been watching my SPOT and decided to stay up and watch me finish.  We chatted for a while while, then decided it was time to sleep.  I set up my tent, turned over the boat and went to sleep after a long, exciting day.

Paddling in Holland

After becoming involved with the planning of the Verlen Kruger Memorial paddling events, I decided to participate in the "Halfwhacker" which is the first 75 downstream miles of the 150 mile Bushwhacker Challenge.  At first, I planned to paddle my SOF folding kayak, but Mark P. of Kruger Canoes very generously offered to let me borrow his Sea Wind for the trip.  I brought the Sea Wind home after last weeks Hugh Heward event, and I have been paddling it as often as possible since then.  My first trip out was a night-time paddle; I chased the sun to the west and got a couple of shots of De Zwaan before the sun went down:

 

I paddled back in the dark, which was fine except for the fish that kept swimming into the boat.  I could see them swimming just below the surface, and a few of them actually swam into the boat; weird.

I got out again this morning for a little while in Lake Macatawa.  It was nice paddling in the daylight, and also nice experiencing some wind and waves (well, boat wakes...) I paddled with my friend Dan who was paddling his SOF Sea Ranger.

It was a great outing on a beautiful day.  I can't wait to get out again!

Oh yeah... and I have not forgotten about my folding kayak.  I have the deck completed and I'll be working on the cockpit coaming next.

Hugh Heward Speed Profile