As I noted in the previous post, this summer was a great learning experience for me, and my three months of paddling taught me a lot, including about gear. A distillation of my thoughts here:
The Kayak
Way back in April I posted a bit about my paddling gear (here) along with a description of my trip plans. I talked about my kit-built Chesapeake Light Craft kayak, model "North Bay," which is no longer manufactured, and my homemade paddles, which included a full-sized Greenland paddle and a storm paddle.
Before this summer, I would have described the long, narrow (18' 6" x 20") North Bay as a low-volume, cruising boat, and I expressed some concern that the boat might not be well suited to my long paddle. However, with this summer's experience behind me, I would revise that assessment. Overall, I was very happy with the kayak, which is quite fast when the wind is down, and which handled challenging conditions--chop and swell--on the outer coast well. It also carried more than enough gear and food for the longest stretches of my trip. My one gripe is that the boat's length, coupled with relatively little rocker, does mean that it tends to get bogged down in short, steep chop in tailwinds on the inside passage's narrow channels. I often wondered if a more heavily rocketed hull would serve me better under these conditions, which were really the only time I wasn't in front, when paddling with partners, but the hull's shape no doubt has other advantages, including better tracking and better performance when the waves are smaller or larger.
Paddling a wooden boat was great. Always nice to have a light load to carry up and down the beach in the evening, and it's fun to get questions from passers-by. "Did you make that?" However, the keel line of the boat really took a beating on some stretches of BC's rocky coast, and I needed to carry out field repairs, to toughen the bottom of the boat, more than once. In the future, I plan to install double or maybe triple layers of fiberglass tape soaked in epoxy thickened with graphite along the keel, which would solve most of these problems without too much of a weight penalty.
I had some negative experiences with CLC's low-tech skeg system early on in the trip. The skeg, made out of a rigid plastic, would bend out of shape over the course of a day in such a way that it would pop out of the skeg box, and I would find myself mysteriously weathercocking when I thought the skeg was down. I eventually figured out how to make the system work (and found it to be more foolproof than most skeg systems I've used). In the future, though, I would shy away from this system, which makes re-entry from the stern of the kayak--like cowboy scramble re-entry--more difficult by placing a large obstruction in the way of a cowboy re-entry or other, similar technique (the top of the skeg projects out of the deck). The next kayak I build will use a different system.
The good news is that cowboy scrambles would be very unlikely, since I found rolling the fully loaded kayak to be exceptionally easy. I was initially a little concerned about capsizes and rolling with a loaded boat, due mostly to cautionary statements from more experienced paddlers: "Sure you can roll, but have you ever tried to roll a loaded kayak? It's hard!" I found the opposite to be true. Indeed, rolling the loaded boat was a breeze, and a nice easy way to cool off on hot days.
Paddles
I carried three (!) paddles with me on the trip. The first was a Werner Shuna (carbon), which is a high-angle touring blade that I've been using for years. The second was a full-sized Greenland paddle that I made myself, and the third was a Greenland "storm paddle," a short paddle for high winds that some modern Greenland-style paddlers use as a spare.
At the beginning of the trip, I treated the Greenland paddle as a bit of a novelty, and spent most of my time paddling with the Werner. Through much of the BC section, though, I paddled exclusively with the full-sized Greenland paddle, and really fell in love with it. It's possible that it's a bit slower than the Werner (hard to say for sure), and is definitely a bit heaver (cedar, not carbon, after all). However, over time, I found myself feeling more secure with the Greenland blade in chop and swell, because I found it easier to roll with, and also because the shape of the loom and blades makes it much easier to intuitively understand the position of the blade relative to the water, leading to a much lower probability of a missed stroke. Towards the end of the trip, I would tend to use the Werner when conditions were calm and switch to the Greenland blade when conditions were rough, or when I was doing long crossings. Unfortunately, due to an error I made in the construction process, I broke the Greenland paddle shortly after I crossed into Alaska (actually, the day I arrived in Ketchikan). I missed it for the remainder of the trip and have just finished building a replacement, which I plan to use this summer.
Interestingly, by the end of the trip, I found that my paddling style had changed a bit, from a relatively high-angle stroke to a lower-angle stroke better suited to the Greenland blade.
Although I still use it as a spare, I never really felt comfortable with the storm paddle in rough conditions; because of the way the paddle is used (exclusively with a sliding stroke), I would sometimes find myself wanting to brace on the right side (for example) while holding the right blade in my hand, requiring me to switch hands to brace on that side. A few times, I was caught off guard by reflecting and/or refracting waves and was unable to brace as quickly as I would have liked. I never capsized, but I found myself shying away from the storm paddle in sketchy conditions, generally preferring the full-sized Greenland paddle. Odd, since the storm paddle is supposedly intended for windy conditions. I will continue to use the storm paddle on short paddles (maybe half-heartedly) but may leave it behind on my next big trip.
Wetsuits and Drysuits
Until this summer, I was exclusively a devotee of wetsuits for paddling. I own several, including a heavy, 6mm wetsuit for winter paddling in Juneau, a farmer john, and a neoprene two-piece dealy that I used for a good stretch this summer. The reason I preferred wetsuits is, first, that I've found drysuit latex gaskets to be very uncomfortable on my skin (especially my neck) and almost unbearably painful after several days, and second, that I've found drysuits to be much less reliable, because gaskets and fabric tend to fail and often are not completely waterproof, making them less effective (sometimes completely ineffective). By contrast, a wetsuit would require a really significant failure to make it ineffective, and I've generally found that wetsuits keep me warm under even the coldest conditions here in Alaska.
This summer, unfortunately, I had some very negative experiences with my wetsuit arrangement. After a week or two of paddling, I found that my wetsuit top was wearing holes on my skin around the back of my shoulders and upper arms, and in the crook of my right arm (just the right arm, for some reason). It probably goes without saying that having large, open sores in the salt water environment was pretty uncomfortable. In Prince Rupert, I transitioned to a drysuit (actually, dry bibs and a dry top). I found that system much more comfortable, and I was able to keep my issues with the dry top neck gasket at bay by using K-Y Jelly on the inside of the neck gasket. The two piece arrangement was very convenient in camp, where I used the dry bibs as rain pants and often wore them from dawn to dusk. The bib/drytop setup also kept me completely dry while rolling. However, it does allow some water in at the waist while swimming, making it somewhat less safe than a full-body drysuit. I intend to buy such a drysuit before my next trip on the outer coast, but I'm quite comfortable with the two piece system in less exposed places.
Other Paddling Gear
I had trouble with paddling gloves all summer. I very quickly destroyed a pair of NRS paddling gloves (though a heavy-weight pair of paddling mittens I own has been going strong for years), and had trouble finding replacements, destroying at least two more pairs of gloves over the course of the summer. For some reason, every conceivable retail operation sells neoprene gloves in Alaska, but not in coastal BC or Washington State. In the end, my favorite paddling gloves for most conditions were inexpensive neoprene gloves I bought at the local auto parts store in Juneau.
I've been using a pair of NRS paddling booties for several years. They work great. I found that they got much less stinky when I transitioned to the dry bibs and wasn't wearing them with bare feet all day every day. Weirdly, kind of missed the constant neoprene smell on my skin, though.
On my head in cold weather, I wore a neoprene paddling cap with earflaps and a short brim, also from NRS. It was an absolute impulse purchase, but was wonderful--great in the rain and wind. I also carried a neoprene hood to match to my wetsuit, but sent it home after the first few weeks, because I never wore it and found that the water was warm enough by mid-June that it wasn't necessary for rolling practice. My sun hat was an old crushable cowboy/gardening hat with a wide brim.
I picked my PFD (life jacket, not Permanent Fund Dividend) because it was comfortable and had pockets for safety gear, including a radio pocket. It's from Kokatat. I started the trip with a Cobra handheld VHF that I held in that pocket, but it got damaged North of Victoria, and I replaced it with a Standard Horizon model in Port Hardy (the guy at the marine electronics store said, "I sell this one to loggers.") In my PFD pockets, I also carried a few flares, a personal locator beacon, a whistle, dive knife, and swim goggles and earplugs for practicing my rolling. Towards the end of the trip, I realized I wasn't taking many pictures, so I started carrying my camera in my PFD pocket instead of my swim goggles.
Other standard paddling gear included a bilge pump, sponge, and inflatable paddle float. I carried snacks, my coffee thermos, water, and sunglasses in a waterproof deck bag from MEC. That thing was a revelation--the only really waterproof deck bag I've ever used, closed with a screw-in Beckson hatch. I also installed a compass on deck before the trip and found it to be quite useful for navigating labyrinthine channels in the San Juans and some parts of Southeast Alaska.
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