2015: Post 28 – Happy people

Today was the annual Father's Day club paddle in Cape Broyle.  Twenty six  paddlers showed up ranging from the novice to the highly skilled, but all with an equal amount of enthusiasm.

I don't get to all the club paddles.  I admit that sometimes I just don't make the effort, sometimes I pass them up for a non-club paddle, and sometimes my non-kayaking life gets in the way.  Truthfully though, I have to say that I do enjoy a good club paddle. They tend to be relaxed, fun events... people are always smiling and laughing, poking fun at each other and themselves.  Put a bunch of people in kayaks on the salt water, with clear skies and a light wind, and you've got yourself a lot of happy people to take pictures of..  

So here's a bunch of happy people in kayaks that I took a bunch of pictures of today...

And I took one little video of Neil, who was the last one through one of the caves in the area...

As you can tell, Mother Nature  decided to give us a warm and sunny first day of summer for our paddle.  Thanks Mama Nature, and thanks to all the happy paddlers who shared the day.

2015: Post 27 – Maintaining North Cape Jenny

In my Nordkapp, where the fibreglass bulkhead behind the seat contacts the hull, there are cracks that have developed over time.  The cracks are not in the hull itself, but in the resin of the bulkhead where it is glassed onto the hull.  I suspect it is caused from the hull buckling a little from sitting on too many rocks when the water sucks out from under the kayak!  

I have also noticed a couple wear spots in the fibreglass where the heels of my boots contact the floor of the hull.  The resin has actually been worn away and the cloth is frayed.

A few paddles ago I noticed some water in my day-hatch.  I had a look at things and sure enough, one of those cracks had opened up. 

It was time to do some maintenance, so this morning I took Jenny out of the shed, removed my foam seat, and vacuumed her out.

First, I repaired the spot worn down by my heels. I was going to just build up some resin over the spots but decided to glass in a piece of fibreglass cloth.  I figured my heels would eventually just wear away the resin over time and I'd be down to the original fibreglass cloth again. My heels will now have to wear away the resin and this extra cloth before it gets down to the original material.

Then I glassed over the cracks in the bulkhead.  I didn't see the need to add any cloth to this area... I just needed to fill in the cracks with resin.

I thought about adding a little cloth over the bigger crack, and maybe I should have since I was at it, but I don't believe the integrity of the bulkhead is compromised by this crack.  My intent is to keep water out of the day-hatch, so I figured I would just give it a good coating of extra resin.  If it happens to open up again then I will add some cloth at that time....  

I've scolded Jenny many times about going near the rocks.  She's been listening pretty well lately too, but often she says to me, "Hey bud, we're not out here just for Sunday paddles... we gotta have a little fun."

2015: Post 26 – Whitewater Weekend

Brian proposed we go to the Ruins at the Terra Nova River this weekend for some variety in our kayaking lives. He had a kayak to loan Tony, who had not done any whitewater before, and Tony agreed to give it a try.  He would paddle and camp with us on his way to visit his sister; Terra Nova is about the halfway point to where his sister lives, so it broke up the drive for him.  

I had a few introductory lessons, taught by the late Jim Price, on the Terra Nova river a few years back, but beyond that the extent of my whitewater endeavors have been taking my Pyranha InaZone 232 to the pool.  Pete and Gary would be going as well, so Tony and I knew we'd be well looked after.  

This weekend was good timing to get on a river.  After I got my Jackson Karma RG earlier this year  I had sold my Inazone and my old whitewater paddle and put the proceeds toward a new Werner Sherpa paddle.  I ordered it from Western Canoeing and Kayaking,  and it showed up on Thursday.  I have to say those guys were excellent to deal with...  Even though they had already put their spring orders in to Werner, they got my order added to it.  The paddle showed up to their store right about when they said it would, and they promptly got it out the door and shipped to me. 

Anyway...  I met Tony and Gary at the TCH Irving Station, and we headed down the road for the three hour drive.  

When we arrived at the campsite we set to work and put up tents and tarps. The forecast was for rain later on and we wanted to have our camp set up before we got on the river...

Brian and Pete showed up shortly after we arrived and they set up their accommodations by the old building just up the path from us...

We had a quick lunch and geared up.  It was a short carry to where we would put in.  My RG is a heavier boat so I simply dragged it behind me up the trail.  The water level was low since we had not had much rain in the last while...

Although it was Tony's first time on the river, if he had any qualms about it it did not show... he looks pretty stoked for his first launch here on the Terra Nova....

... and here is is up ahead of Pete and Gary surfing on a little wave...

... and here he is heading down river...

I took a little video of da boys.... 

After a while we moved down river a ways and we practiced peeling into and out of eddies.  I remembered my instruction from before and had less trouble with it, but it was fun watching Tony trying to get it right.  Here's a clip of one of his better entries into an eddy....

We moved on down and got out of our kayaks to size up the water flowing through the pillers of an old bridge.  The water was low but we decided to run through the middle opening...  It wasn't anything spectacular, but I do wish I would have stayed on shore to get a few pics or a video of the guys as they came through...  

We picked our way down the rest of the river, stopping here and there to play a little...

When we reached the end of the line we pulled out kayaks up onto the grass and Tony, Gary and I walked back to get the cars while Brian and Pete stayed with the kayaks...

Back at camp it was time to get some supper on the go...

Then we had a few drinks and had a few laughs under Big Yellow, and lit a campfire as it got a little darker... 

There was talk about Jim Price as well, who had suddenly passed away very recently . In our neck of the woods, Jim was well known in our paddling world.  If it involved a canoe, or a sea or whitewater kayak, he seemed to be able to do it all, and he seemed to enjoy teaching his knowledge and skills  to anybody who was willing to learn.  I would say that almost all paddlers around here knew Jim to varying degrees, and I think Jim taught most of us some kayaking at one time or another.  

I told my story about when I was a newbie paddler and kept capsizing on a pond during my Level 1 Sea Kayaking course with Jim... After about the third time Jim put me back in my kayak he asked me "... has anyone showed you the Eskimo rescue?"  It wasn't part of the course but he taught me the rescue right then.  I think I was slowing things down, having to be rescued each time.  I did not pass the course then, but obtained my certificate about eight months later... that's a funny story involving Jim but I'll leave it for campfires... 

Pete told us about when he did a river course with Jim some years back...  Jim had passed him.  Then the next year Pete decided to do the course again just because he had enjoyed it.  Jim failed him that time around....  We had a good laugh at that...

I think most everybody who knew Jim Price can probably tell a good yarn about the man...  During our reminiscing Tony suggested we all raise our drinks in a toast to 'ol Jim...

The next morning we had breakfast and broke camp, packing all our gear into the cars...

Tony had planned to paddle again with us Sunday morning but his hip was bothering him,  and so he decided he would head off down the road to his sister's.  Then Pete decided he wasn't going to paddle this morning.  We were down two men, but Brian, Gary, and I geared up and headed up the path again.  

We all seemed a little slow this morning.  It had rained a good bit during the night and nobody slept particularly well.  The water level was up a little from the rain.  As we paddled and played a little we started to perk up a bit..

Here's a clip of Gary having a little fun... 

Further down the river there is a spot where the water recirculates over a rock... Brian told me it was a spot Jim often used to teach when doing courses at The Ruins... I watched Brian for a while...

... and we took turns having a go at it.  Then Gary came over and we spent a bit of time there, taking turns.  Gary took my camera and shot a four minute video but it is too large to be accepted to put onto this blog... So I figured out how to upload it to Youtube... click HERE; Gary added a bit of funny commentary... 

From there we carried on down the river...  

... and made our way to the take-out and then walked back for the cars...

I have to say I enjoyed another trip to The Ruins on Terra Nova River.  It was fun practicing and relearning the things I was taught a few years back.  Playing on the river in a whitewater kayak serves to help us sea kayakers learn better boat control; there's a lot of edging involved, and you learn how to be better at reading the water... it's all good stuff.  But I have to caution that, like the ocean, it is a dangerous place.  

Thanks to Gary, Pete, and Brian for their guidance and watchfull eyes.  You guys made it a safe and fun experience for both myself and Tony.  Maybe we should make it a yearly trip, if not a couple times a year!

2015: Post 25 – Slow progress on another Greenland paddle

Last September I sized up my pieces of cedar that I had left over from making previous Greenland paddles.  I had enough to make another paddle for myself and just enough to make a second smaller one.  

I went to work and cut the strips, glued and and clamped the two paddles...

I decided I would work on the smaller paddle first.  It would be too small for me but I had a fellow paddler in mind that this small paddle should suit and I wanted to get it done before they went out of town later in the month.  

The smaller paddle was simply made with five pieces of cedar; one full length for the center piece, and two pieces for each of the blades... 

Being a smaller paddle in length, width, thickness, and loom diameter, it didn't take as long to carve it out as one I would make for myself. With plastic tips epoxied in place, and a couple decent sandings, it was ready for a few coats of tung oil...

After the smaller paddle was finished, I started on the paddle I was making for myself. This paddle was made using a full length piece of cedar, and four pieces for each of the paddle blades...

I had ordered a taper jig in early September to use on my table saw, specifically to cut away the bulk of the material from the face of the blades on Greenland paddles.  This jig would reduce the time spent using a plane to taper the faces of the blades.

The jig arrived somewhere between finishing the smaller paddle and starting to work on the larger paddle.  I set the angle of the jig and began to cut away the excess wood off the faces of the blades. Then I got too zealous and tried to take off too much on the face of one of the blades.  I screwed it up by cutting in too deep, past my mark!  Oy vey!  I shut down production and walked away in disgust.   I came back a while later and sized things up.   

I decided I would simply take off an equal amount of materiel on the other blade of the same side, effectively making the blade shoulders and loom less thick.  After doing that I held the roughly shaped paddle in my hands.  I knew this would not be a comfortable paddle for me to use and so I decided I would continue the making of this paddle with one of my paddling buddies in mind... 

I continued to use the jig to remove the excess material, but was extra careful now in not taking off too much wood.  I finished the tapering of the blade faces with a hand plane.  

But that's where the work stopped.  I just didn't make the time to finish the paddle.  Next thing winter was on us and the unfinished paddle has sat in the basement for the last seven or eight months.

On Sunday of last weekend, it was a windy but sunny day.  I was in the basement and eyed the unfinished paddle.  Yep, it was about time I got back at this thing...

I set up my work table outside the shed and spent the afternoon doing the final shaping.  I started cutting the end to receive the plastic tips and broke my last coping saw blade, putting a stop to the work.

I made the effort to pick up some more blades and some epoxy during the week and set to work to saw out the ends, do the rough sanding, and epoxy the tips in place...

So here is the paddle in it's current state...

I started this paddle in September and now it is June!!  All that is left to do is some finer-grit sanding and then get two or three coats of tung oil on it.  I hope to get that done in the next week or so...  but who knows, perhaps it will sit around for another while.  I think this paddle wins the prize for my longest Greenland paddle project so far.


Off topic, but here's a shot of North Cape Jenny and Karmalita when they are at home...

Update:  It's the middle of the week and I have the paddle sanded and just finished putting on the first coat of Corey's Amazing Tung Oil...

The directions say it should be allowed to dry for five hours before the next coat of oil is to be applied...  I generally apply three coats when finishing my paddles.  I'm almost finished!!

Another update:  I got the third coat of tung oil on the paddle last night.  Tonight (Friday) I brought it up to my paddling buddy Clyde, a fellow Greenland paddle enthusiast...

Clyde hopes to paddle tomorrow and will give the new paddle a go.  I'm going out of town this weekend, so I'll have to wait until I get back to get his report on how it paddles for him.  Perhaps he won't be happy with it and we will use it for firewood during our next camping trip...

2015: Post 24 – Bay Bulls

Tony, Hazen, Terry, and I spent a couple hours in Bay Bulls this morning.....

Our paddle was only a couple hours duration, and our distance was not quite ten kilometres, but it was one of those quality over quantity type of paddles... and I don't think poor Old Wobbly's sore back could have taken much more anyway...