2011: Post 18 - Not a complete kayaking-bust this weekend

I try to get a paddle in on the weekends.  Usually it happens.  We will choose the better fore-casted day and get out somewhere.  Sometimes we only manage to do a short paddle close to home (often St. Philips) and sometimes we have upwords of an hour drive to the put-in and make a full day of it.  Life being what it is, sometimes things come up and I cannot paddle.

I woke up Thursday morning past with another cold and by the end of the work day I decided I would not be going to the regular Thursday evening practice, hoping that a couple days rest would get me on the water on the weekend.  Friday night I was feeling somewhat better and Tony made an offer to go over to Bell Island and play in the waves for a couple hours.  I thought I might make it, but woke up feeling more miserable.  I cancelled. 

Today, the plan was to paddle from Bay Bulls to Witless Bay.  I had not paddled all of that shoreline before.  I went to bed a little early and was up half the night with cough due to chest congestion.  I woke up almost a full hour past the decided meeting time, still not feeling that well.   Just as well, I suppose; wouldn't want to get out there and end up making myself more sick and end up missing even more paddles...  From the e-mails going around, it looks like there is just Clyde, Tony, and Hazen that are doing this paddle today.  I paddled with these same three guys May 15 from Colliers to Cupids (see previous Post 15).   This pic below is of the three of them from that paddle (I had posted this pic earlier, but could not find a non-posted one of these three together in one shot)....  

I know they'll be taking pics that I will see later today on their blogs (My Newfoundland Kayak Experience and Saltwater Haven) and they'll be saying stuff like "Dean won't be happy about missing this paddle..."  and I'll probably hear about how someone caught a great surf ride, or they seen a whale, or stuff like that... That's what we do when one of our regular paddling partners can't make a paddle.  Like last weekend when Tony had car trouble and couldn't make it... see previous post.

Oh well, all was not lost this weekend.  During Neils GP making sessions this spring I had him saw up my wood (bought it in Nov last year in anticipation...) so I could make a couple more spruce/ceder laminated paddles.  I had glued them at home and they have been sitting waiting for my attention.  As I was home on Thursday past I started planing down the faces of one of them.  I finished planing it and then carved it out yesterday.  All I have left to do is to round the ends and then sand it down and apply Tung oil.  I'll wait for a good day to do the sanding outside.  These will be paddles 7 and 8 since I carved my first one last spring.  The first one was a disaster, the second not too bad, and I took too much wood off the third for my liking.  Paddles 4, 5, and 6 were all laminated (the first 3 were solid) and are the ones I have been using this past year.  Here is a pic of the recent carved out one and its laminated sister....

I also thought I'd show everybody where my kayak lives when it is not going on a paddle....

Yes, that is my rec room in the basement.  My house is a split-entry and the kayak comes straight through the front door, down the half flight of stairs, and sits in the rec-room much to the continual dismay of the other family members.  My WW boat sits with my SK during the pool-session months and then when pool sessions are over it goes out into the storage room.