: I didn't want to steal Scott's thunder, try to compete ('cause I
: can't... those pics are beautiful!), or take his thread
: off-topic and run with it. It just ain't polite, so here's
: another thread.

: The day started out with my driving the wife and her running
: buddies over to Utica NY for the Boilermaker 15K run. She didn't
: PR (running slang for Personal Record), but she ran all 15K, so
: I'm proud of her. Besides, the Saranac Brewing company handed
: out free beer after the race. Few of the runners in our little
: group actually drink beer, so I got to have most of it. A man
: ought to celebrate and support his friends, so I took one for
: the team and drank the beer for them. Such sacrifices a man has
: to make... *grin*

: So when we got home this afternoon, the wife was pretty tuckered.
: She napped. I loaded the kayak on top of the Tribeca, ensuring
: that the coaming sat securely on the roof rack without cracking
: my keelson *shameless grin*. I recently discovered a put-in on
: the Mohawk river that's quite a bit closer to my house than the
: Lock 7 launch... oddly enough, there's a paddle/boating shop
: right next door called the "Boat House". For a such a
: built-up location, it was pretty quiet for a Sunday afternoon.

: I paddled three miles out, three miles back! There's my PR for the
: day. My arms, shoulders, and back are all a little achy. Not so
: sore that I don't want to move, no sharp specific pains, but a
: nice general ache. I take that to mean I'm at least getting in
: the right direction with my forward stroke, engaging more
: muscles than just my arms.

: Had one guy in a plastic rec boat with a EP ask about my GPs (one
: in my hands, one on the fore deck as a spare) on the way out. I
: told him they were Greenland paddles: carved from 2x4s, the most
: expensive blank was $30, and took a day or two to carve. That
: peaked his interest, so I told him to Google "Make your own
: Greenland paddle". If that doesn't get the bug biting him,
: I don't know what will.

: On my way back, he was still paddling with his significant other
: (wife/girlfriend/etc), just relaxing with the current. He
: mentioned that I was making pretty good progress with "that
: little stick". One comment led to another, and I was
: pointing out my home made kayak and giving out references to
: YostWerks.com and these forums. I'm starting to think we need
: more GPs and home built kayaks in the area... the more common
: they are, the less questions will be asked, and the less time I
: have to account for when the wife wants to know why I'm late
: paddling back.

: Beyond that, I've also learned that power boaters on the weekend
: like to make wakes. They'll follow those "No Wake"
: signs when going past a marina, but not so much when passing the
: "dock for muscle powered boats" (as the Niskayuna Crew
: sign refers to them). They don't care too much about slowing
: down when they're passing out on the river, either. On a
: weekday, it seems the more regular water borne folk are out who
: have a little more respect for the paddlers. Those weekend
: boaters come out, and all they wanna do is have fun, regardless
: of someone else's hassle. I won't even talk about the jet skier
: who'd go up and down the river, making S turns whenever he
: passed by me like I didn't notice... not that his lack of
: tonnage made any significant wake, anyway.

: So I got in plenty of practice dealing with boat wakes. It doesn't
: seem like much to worry about from a safety standpoint. I can
: point the 'yak into the wave and ride it out with minimal
: disturbance, or I can simply stop paddling and rock my hips back
: and forth while the wave passes broadside. Not a big deal.

: Not so much when I try to keep paddling, though. I hope ocean waves
: are different than boat wakes, in that the wavelength/period is
: much longer in the ocean waves. With the boat waves, I found it
: annoying trying to paddle while the wave was passing under the
: boat. Not really difficult, but annoying, and more a matter of
: timing the stroke right and managing the paddle so the wave
: didn't leave my blade out of the water.

: On my way back, though, I found ran into some waves hitting the
: rear quarter of my kayak... those weren't fun, really. They'd
: push the stern one way, raise the boat a second or two later,
: then drop me and pass by the bow, sucking it in another
: direction. I tried to compensate, just for the next wave to hit
: the stern as I was trying to compensate for the movement of the
: bow. It felt like the boat would just settle in and wallow when
: the wake hit. I'm glad only a few waves "in the set"
: would be generated by the passing boat's wake. They'd hit
: quickly enough that it was just a pain to try to paddle... much
: easier to simply sit back and watch them go by while I rocked
: the boat in time with them.

: Assuming this general ache doesn't turn into a "I don't wanna
: move, make the world go away" soreness tomorrow, I can't
: wait to hit the water again! I suppose all of the above might
: just be a general paddle on the water, but it was fun for this
: neophyte.

Quartering waves off the stern quarter make all boats behave bad, not just kayaks, nature of the beast.

Bill H.