paddle paddle SAIL!!

Well been kicking around in all my boats this past month; I have a rule that if they don't get out at least once a year they should go. I hate that rule as I ended up selling two Bell canoes I had that I will not be able to replace any time soon.
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WaterTribe has a lot of action on its website with all the new small boats being built for the up-coming UFC EC and UM events in March. Initially it had me thinking of entering in my 9'10' Pennant pictured above; It's more of a tender, sails high and dry and only max's out at about 4 knots - I rowed around with the GPS to take a look at what things might look like if I had to be on the oars for a couple of days. 1.5 knots ---yikes.
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I took the Sea Wind out last weekend, blowing stink, cold water, bundled up like a newborn... Out of control sailing with the paddling rudder on and the 1.5 PAS that got to be a tangled mess under the starboard aka and ama - which then released the pin that holds the aka to the main tube. Whew, got it back in with out incident; definitely did not want to tip and go for a swim; amateur hour almost making the evening news. So it just made sense at that point to...
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Throw my name in the hopper for the EC; finances, kids vacation, work and other particulars come in to play - like getting there in my jeep with 260,000 miles on the ticker. Anyway we will see what happens, till then keep your nose to the wind and your head in the clouds, dream big ~ stay thirsty my friends.

Pennant vs. the Sea Wind (Pennant 0 / Sea Wind 1)
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The Capt'n

America's Cup World Series

Back on the water

Good weather brought on an opportunity to get out and do some paddling; Headed out on the Oconomowoc River, felt good after 6 weeks of recovery. What a great day. This picture is right before Koa rolled in something; I have a dog why?

Tucked in on a small river is a great choice when the wind is blowing; I picked the right river as the wind was never an issue.

Today was a day that I re-booted an old Garmin 12 GPS; some how I have mis-placed my Lowrance H2O GPS and my Fugi waterproof camera. So I set waypoints as I went up the river formatting a route. I then turned around and with out looking up made my way back just following the GPS. It worked well on big sections of the river but was dicey on tight sections where it was really twisty.

When I got off the river, I decided to take the Sea Wind out on Rock Lake for what might be the last paddle on the Lake for me before the ice comes in. We'll see, I plan on doing some paddling next week over the long holiday weekend, most likely stay local, I don't think we will have ice that quickly.

Need to pick your paddling outdoor destinations carefully next couple of weeks, as there will be plenty of hunters in the woods with shiny new bullets.

Waterwalker

Posted this before; worth another look...again and again.

Decisions

Decisions decisions ~

The Capt'n

I hear banjo music and bells

Click pic to enlarge

The Santa Fe River is a 75-mile river in northern Florida. There is a convenient Outpost to do shuttles and stock supplies; this is a perfect river for my re-entry into paddle sport since being down and out with a ventral hernia repair.

The Santa Fe is one crazy river, in that it completely disappears, drops into a large sinkhole in O' Leno State Park and magically reappears 3 miles down stream in the River Rise Preserve State Park. Glad they are putting in south of that.

There have been black bear, panthers, bobcats , manatees, whales (Bill) and even a Toby or two sighted in them there parts.

Southern Boys ( Stan, Toby, Bill, Doug, Jeff ) are pulling together a river trip on the Santa Fe. I put some feelers out to see if I could invite myself along; nobody called foul so I may just mosey on down and get a little more of the Southern experience... (21 hour 1150 mile drive one way)

Toby, I just finished off the last of the Beverly's Southern Pecan Pie ~ It was the bomb!!

Looking further into the trip I came across this:

Canoe Outpost is dog friendly. However, the majority of public and private springs do not allow dogs. (this is not good for the Capt'n) Lily Springs allows dogs but requires them to be on a leash at all times. This is a concern for me as I love paddling with Koa; leaving her behind, more to think about.

The Capt'n