Wenonah Prospector 16 (Kevlar Flexcore): 2 week mini-review

Damn, this is one fine canoe. I have never paddled a boat which made me feel so at home so fast. I had it out for 3 hours or so on the weekend, solo, and it was great. Paddling mostly from the bow seat facing the stern it handled like a dream (I did add 30 L of aqueous ballast right up front). I could heel it right over to the gunwale and it still felt supper stable. On my last trip out with it I even stood up in it and paddled into shore; those of you familiar with my balance skills understand how forgiving this boat must actually be! I could even keep up with my friend paddling a sea kayak for short periods.

I am really looking forward to a solo trip this spring; maybe Massassauga for a few days, or Kevin Callan's newly published route?

I will post some pics tomorrow of all the new scratches I added ;-)

Steve Fisher's "Ultimate Ride" Trailer

Zambezi whitewater at it's best. The production quality of this looks amazing!

Ultimate Ride trailer

Bad day at the paddle factory?

I have had my Werner Ikelos for a year, and love it. A huge blade, but surprisingly not tiring, and simply amazing to brace with.

We were on the east coast this summer, and I got out for a nice 2 hour paddle along the coast of the Northumberland Strait one morning. Just as I was returning to camp, I noticed the feather was wrong on the left blade. Odd, I thought, and checked the ferrule. Everything was ok there, so I grabbed the blade to see what was up. It turns out I had purchased a Friday Afternoon Paddle- it had been assembled without any epoxy between the shaft and the blade. All that had held it on for over a year was the shiny cuff that goes over the joint to make it look pretty.

It has now been sent back to be repaired (I figured if I did it I would get the feather wrong); I hope I get it back soon, as I miss my baby ;-).

Progress!

Finally making some progress around here. I got my new sprayskirt ordered (an akuilisaq from Scott at Bug Head, and it is the mail already) and got a replacement drysuit ordered from another company; I will do an entry on both of those when I can post some pics. The backrest for the kayak is finally coming along, and I have the electric bilge pump about half installed. By the time everything comes together we should have some open water to play in!

Fantastic Greenland Photos (circa 1936)

Jette Bang was a Danish photographer who documented the Thule region of Greenland in almost 12000 photos. These have all been made available online here.



Thanks to Thomas Armstrong over at 70.8% for the heads up!