2014: Post 38 – I thought I was sinking!!!

Last weekend Tony, Brian, and I paddled from St. Philips to Topsail Beach.  It was a lumpy ride with the bit of wind and the swell bouncing off the shoreline.  Long before we reached Topsail Beach I had a good bit of water sloshing back and forth in the cockpit, which caused the kayak to feel tippy in the clapitus water.  When I arrived at Topsail Beach I had at least a couple inches of water in my cockpit. I dumped out the water before we left and by the time I got back to St. Philips I had another couple inches of water again.  At home I put my kayak and gear away with intentions of checking things out before my next paddle to see if something was leaking.  I did have my camera last weekend but just wasn't in a picture taking mood, but Tony has an entry of the paddle if you are interested... just click here. 

On Friday past Tony e-mailed around to see if there was interest in a paddle for Sunday.  I think we were all quite pleased that seven of us showed up...

During this time of year (until about April) nobody bothers
us regarding fees to use the slipway in St. Philips..

Heading off to Topsail Beach

Neville

Brian

Tony

Sean

Clyde

Hazen

Da boys...

When we arrived at Topsail Beach I had another couple inches of water in my cockpit again, same as last weekend... 

A gaggle of kayakers at Topsail Beach

When we left Topsail Beach I had a little bit of water that came aboard when launching and so I pumped the water out. I took my time and made sure my spray skirt was on correctly before getting underway...

Before we were half way back I could really feel the water sloshing around my legs and my kayak was getting to be really tippy again with the sloshing water.  I had to start to really pay attention to the waves and at one point I was taking a few pics and was nearly knocked over, but saved myself with some aggressive bracing.  I did contemplate rafting up with someone to pump out the water but I was thinking I had not practiced paddling with water in the cockpit in a while and we were not that far from St. Philips... But the waves were often sprayed or washed over the back deck, off the port quarter, and the cockpit kept taking on water..  

A couple kilometers from St. Philips and my legs felt like they were floating in the cockpit as the water swished side to side and back and forth. I really started to think I had a hole in the hull below the cockpit and I felt like I was sinking!!  All that water sloshing around got the better of me and I found myself on my side, bracing, trying to right my kayak against the waves.  It wasn't working and so I decided I would let myself go over and set up for a proper roll, which worked out nicely, and I kept on paddling...  

Once I turned into the cove at St. Philips I was sheltered from the wind and the waves and I could really notice how much lower my kayak was sitting in the water.  I moved my legs around to try to guestimate how much water was in the cockpit.... four inches?  Six? Before I got to the slipway  I popped the skirt and was surprised by how much water I had taken on...  The cockpit looked to be nearly half full of water... but of course the depth went down once I got out.  I wish I had taken a picture though... 

A couple of the other guys had taken on some water as well, there was a jammed skeg, and one of us busted a back-band that was tied up with a bit or rope before we left Topsail Beach. It was a fun paddle, just the same... We went to the nearly restaurant and Tony paid for coffee and Brian paid for a big plate of fries for everyone to share.  Thanks again, guys...

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I put my gear away as soon as I arrived home and, instead of procrastinating like I did last week, I immediately began to check things out.  I popped the hatch covers and, other than a few drops of water, all three hatches were dry.  The bolts on each side of the cockpit were tight so water wasn't getting in there.  I even did a visual inspection of the hull to see if there was a little hole there someplace.  Everything looked good, so I figured it had to be the neoprene spray skirt... 

I went into the house and put the wet skirt in the laundry tub.  I started at the front of the skirt, checking the seams and stretching areas of it, working my way down.  When I got to the back of the skirt I found the problem... looks like my tow belt has been rubbing on the skirt and has just about rubbed a couple holes through the material...

  

It's probably been leaking for a while but with the waves last weekend, and more-so again today, continually washing water over the spray skirt I just had not been aware of the problem... but it's nothing a smearing of aquaseal can't take care of.

So whats the morale to this story?  I guess it should be to take some time now and then to check kayak gear before problems occur.  But really it's that kayaking season has not ended.  In fact, I've yet to find a calender that marks the day in spring you take your first paddle and the day in the fall that you put your kayak away.  If you have a drysuit, I suggest you buy some thermals to wear under your suit, get some neoprene mitts and hood, and keep on paddling.  You just might come to the conclusion that cooler weather paddling is much more comfortable than hot weather paddling.  Like Tony says, we're just in Stage Two of the paddling year.  And besides, if you keep on kayaking you'll be in paddling shape next spring when the imaginary kayaking season starts again... 

[Here's a link to Tony's entry on today's paddle.]