Skipped the walk this morning and took the kayak down to the river. Coming off high tide, so we had plenty of water. The Tolomato is pretty much a tidal river, current depends on the tide. Temperature and humidity were much improved over yesterday.
Beautiful morning. I took the little Olympus Tough TG-6 with me, because I didn't know how much water would get in the kayak. Turns out it's not a lot, but I'll probably still have to do something to keep a bigger camera dry.
We paddled north a little bit, and into some grasses. Didn't want to go too far into them, because I was afraid they'd turn into a maze and we'd have trouble finding our way back out. Boat handled pretty well. I don't have a lot of experience to compare it with, but it felt no different than any other kayak I'd been in. Mitzi liked it.
We decided to head back after about 20 minutes paddling around. We weren't necessarily planning on getting out, but we wanted to be nearer to where we put in. We were pretty close to the shore and the grass, and I'd just pointed out some foam on the bank near the launch point when I heard a loud splash to my right and turned in time to see a large hump of water heading for the kayak.
It moved incredibly fast and went right under the kayak and lifted us as it did so. My first thought was a gator, but it didn't turn around. It surprised the hell out of us, and we decided that was just about enough excitement for our first time.
After we'd landed, we met an older gent named Tom who was unfolding an Oru kayak, getting ready to get on the water. I described what had happened and he said we'd startled a manatee, which made a lot of sense. The sound I heard was the slap of the tail. I didn't know they could move that fast, and Tom assured me they could.
Learned a little bit about inflating the boat. I think I'll get one of those gardener's knee pads and throw that in the bag. Bending at the waste to use the electric pump was hard on my back. The electric pump won't put out enough pressure to get the two cells of the hull to the proper inflation, so I finished using the foot pump.
I realized I'd read the little transparent ruler inflation gauge incorrectly when I test inflated it in the garage; and rather than over-inflating it, I'd under-inflated it. Today it was correctly inflated, and it's pretty rigid.
The seats are very comfortable, though I think I may have put the forward seat too far back. My legs were pretty tight. If I go by myself, it'll be fine.
We'll keep an eye on the tide next week and try it again. Weekends are too busy on the river, too much traffic going too fast. So far, I think it's a winner. I'm thinking about buying another one and leaving it up in New York so we can go out on a lake. We'll see.
Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:52 Friday, 16 August 2024