I've had my canoe for 2 weeks past on Thursday but was without my car last week as it was getting serviced so had no way of transporting the canoe, then I had to work my shift so it wasn't until Wednesday that I managed to eventually get out.
I intended to just take it to the small river that runs past my Mums house so gathered together a few bits and pieces and loaded the canoe onto the car and set off. I had a bit of trouble getting the canoe on the roof rack but managed eventually with a bit of a struggle.
The 1st thing I noticed was that the Prospector has less initial stability than my old plywood canoe but it's been a while since I've used a canoe so part of that might just be unfamiliarity, certainly it felt fine after a few minutes. I didn't go very far to be honest, probably just over 5 miles as I stopped quite a bit. There was still a bit of a flood running and so forward motion didn't take much effort but i did have some difficulty keeping a straight line, with the Prospector on dry land it has quite a bit of rocker and I haven't yet found the best paddling position to keep it trimmed, of course my J Stroke needs a fair bit of work too.
I only went as far as a small fir tree plantation before deciding to stop for something to eat and as I'd taken the MSR Reactor it didn't take long to get something warm. I wore the Paramo VAL which worked well, in fact the VAL was primarily bought for canoe use in preference to a
Pertex/Pile smock.
One thing I need to do when solo paddling is find a way to mount my camera so that I can use it quickly. I had a few good opportunities when water hens and a Heron took off in front of me.
The paddle back took a bit more effort, especially where the water was shallow and faster flowing, I couldn't get the paddle deep enough to get a steering stroke in so it might be an idea to carry a canoe pole.
The next thing is to get the buoyancy fitted, I wanted blocks rather than inflatable bags but in the end bought the bags as they were a fraction of the price. I need to sort out the fittings for that yet. Once that's been sorted I'll arrange to get it out again with a mate to see how it performs 2 up.
No comments:
Post a Comment