Evidently putting a kayak into storage for a month and a half turns a fast tippy boat into a slow stable heavy barge. At least that seems to be what’s happened to my Looksha II while I was paddling my Thunderbolt. I got out the Looksha because for I went out on Wednesday in the Thunderbolt and spent way too much time trying to clear leaves off the bow and rudder. The Looksha has a gently curved bow that doesn’t pick up leaves the way the Thunderbolt does, and the kick up rudder is very easy to clear of leaves when it picks some up. Unfortunately it’s about 0.5 mph slower than the Thunderbolt. I’m also slamming my paddle into the sides a lot because it’s a whole 2 inches wider, and I’m not getting such good rotation because the seat is a tighter fit and not as slick. Oh well, at least I’m not spending all my time clearing leaves off.
The weather has also not been anything to write home about. Today it was in the low 40s, most of the time it was drizzling, but for a few minutes we were getting hailed on instead. It was grim. Not my favourite conditions to paddle in, but it beats sitting around getting fat.