The Blackburn Challenge is the longest open-water race on the East Coast, a 20+ mile marathon circumnavigating Cape Ann. And I did it, in my ultra skinny, skin-on-frame kayak that Dave Isbell designed and built for me, which I have since named the Isabella. I have to admit I had my reservations about whether I could even finish the race. I had only done one long open water practice run in the Isabella and I was having problems at the end of the day with the beam waves. With a 14" waterline beam the Isabella is very tippy. So the last two weeks before the race I spent most of my time fine tuning the seat and learning how to roll it. I started out as a whitewater paddler so I have a pretty good C to C roll. I just needed to modify the roll to include a layback finish on the back deck. Monday night, a week before the race, I was still practicing my roll in the Chesapeake Bay. And Wednesday night, the night before I was to drive up to Boston, I was cutting and carving out a new foam seat back to match the seat Huki had built for me.

To say that I was nervous and feeling a little unprepared for the race would be an understatement. I knew that the Blackburn was a serious kayak race and all the best kayak racers and surfski racers on the East Coast would be there. As it turns out this year's Blackburn attracted more than 250 rowers. The racing kayak division had the largest turnout ever with over 45 entries. Even Greg Barton, two time Olympic Gold medal kayaker, entered the race in an Epic 18, finishing first among a sea of longer and supposedly faster surfskis. There were four women in the women's racing kayak division. And I had assigned myself last place even before the race began. But none of that mattered. I just wanted to finish and I was hoping to do the course in under four hours.

I arrived in Boston Thursday night and settled in at my cousin's house in Needham, MA about an hour south of Gloucester. Linda and Seth had graciously offered to let me stay the weekend with them. Friday morning I left Needham around 10 am to drive to Cape Ann and scope out othe course. I drove first to Gloucester High School which is the registration and start of the course. In the parking lot I ran into some of the surfski racers. I was hoping to get some first-hand accounts of the course but all of these racers were first timers for the Blackburn. They did warn me that the worse part of the course was the southern tip of the island, the last seven miles. A few of them were putting in and paddling out to the southern tip but I decided to drive around the island and scope out bailout points along the shore. That may sound a little pessimistic but I had read the warnings about the course. The organizers of the Blackburn are very direct that participants should not enter the race unless they have "solid experience in difficult conditions in the boat plan to use."

So I drove around the island stopping whenever I could see a beach and a clear view of the ocean, making notes on my map as to whether the shoreline was rocky or sandy. Most of the coastline around Cape Ann is rocky and inhospitable to kayaks. My last stop was at Niles Beach, just north of Dog Bar Breakwater, the entrance to Gloucester Harbor. The water looked pretty placid and I was tempted to launch the Isabella into the harbor and check out the last section beyond the breakwater. I'm actually glad that I didn't. Because if Friday's surf swells were anything like the swells we had on Saturday I never would have done the course. It was the last section that was beyond anything I had kayaked before. It was probably better that I went into it blind.

I drove back to Needham that afternoon and met Seth at the house. Seth works from home when he's not at his office at National Geographic in DC. The hydration system still needed some work so Seth helped me move the Isabella off the car and onto the front lawn. I had two hydration bladders and I was still trying to decide which one to use and whether to place it forward of the feet or behind the cockpit. The problem with the area behind the cockbit is that it's very small and crowded. Dave Isbell had installed an electric bilge pump back there. So there was the bilge pump and the waterproof casing for the battery. I wasn't sure I could get the larger hydration bladder stuffed back there as well. Seth listened to me explain all the design and planning of the Isabella then he left me to figure out the hydration system alone.

Once Linda returned home the three of us had a quiet dinner of pasta and chicken and I mapped out my strategy for the race. Seth wanted to know how long it would take since they weren't planning to come to the start. They wanted to time it so they met me at the finish. I told him to expect me four hours after the launch of the racing kayaks which was scheduled for 8:20. As it would turn out I hit the time almost perfectly. Linda and Seth were waiting for me at the beach past the "greasy pole" finish around noon and Seth was saying to LInda, "She said she'd be here by now." And almost as soon as he said it Linda said they caught a glimpse of my kayak in the distance. I was right on time!

Race day started early for me. I was up at 4:30 am and on the road by 5 am. It was about an hour drive to Gloucester. I got to the parking lot a little before 6 and saw Kathy Kenley's van parked at the start. Kathy is another kayak racer I met last year and she had left a message on my cell phone late Friday evening to look for her at the race. I knew she would be asleep in her van so I tapped on the window and saw her roll over on her makeshift bed in the back. I probably got a good seven hours sleep the night before. Kathy was probably lucky if she got five. Some racers are tougher than others.

We helped each other unload our kayaks onto the grassy area at the start. Then around 7 we joined the other racers in the cafeteria for the "captain's meeting." I had been under the impression that there wouldn't be any chase boats for the course but I found out at the meeting that there would be five chase boats. There was also a cell phone to call if we got into trouble. Why they didn't give us a VHF frequency I don't know. Cell phones aren't much use if you're drifting out to sea.

The kayaks are grouped by class and the Isabella is classified as a racing kayak because she has a beam of less than 20". The Isabella is fast but because the frame is flexible it doesn't have the top speed of the kevlar and carbon kayaks. The Isabella is a traditional skin-on-frame kayak, or SOF, and it's construction includes a wood skeletal frame covered by nylon fabric. The construction of the kayak is called "traditional" because it mimics the construction techniques used by the original Inuit kayakers in the 1600's. The main difference is they used seal skin for the cover and not nylon fabric, which had yet to be invented. The design and construction of the Isabella is thoroughly documented in the blog so I won't repeat it all here. I will say that in designing the Isabella we had this particular race in mind. I knew I couldn't do it in the surfski. The Huki S1-A is fast, faster than the Isabella. But it's really unstable and I don't have the skills yet to take it out in open water. So the Isabella was designed as a racing kayak which could be rolled.

The course started in the Annisquam River at the railroad bridge. The first three miles are in the river before you dump out into the Atlantic. My strategy for the race was to get into a good rhythm and stay with it for the course. I had two Garmin GPS units on the front deck. The Garmin 305 was programmed with the GPS coordinates of the course. And the Garmin 301 was set up to show speed and elapsed time. I was aiming for 5 mph overall ... which is slow for racing kayaks. But given the nature of the course and my limited experience in ocean waves and current I thought it was a reasonable goal for a first Blackburn.

For the first three miles I averaged about 5.7 mph. But once I hit the open water I drifted down to my original goal of 5 mph. The sea kayaks had started a few minutes behind me and for the rest of the race I saw the faster men kayak past me one by one. My one consolation was the Dories which had launched almost a full hour before the racing kayaks. Dories are two man fishing boats that were lowered over the side of the schooner when the fishing grounds were reached. And it was a dory that Howard Blackburn was rowing in 1883 when he became lost at sea. So the Dory has special significance to the Blackburn Challenge and despite it's particularly slow speed will always be a staple at the race. But what made the Dories fun for me was it was one boat I would be catching and passing throughout the race. I started to think of them as Pac Dories ... like Pac Man. I would look for the Dory in the distance and aim for it. And there were lots of Dories.

Around mile 10, I passed through the channel between the shore and Straitsmouth Island. This was a designated checkpoint. I waved to the boat moored in the channel and passed through. It was around this time that I started to feel the effects of fatigue and low blood sugar. I knew I hadn't been drinking enough for the first 10 miles of the course and now I was hungry and feeling stupid. I knew I needed more carbs but all my snacks were still in wrappers and the the water was starting to get choppy. To grab a power bar or gel pack meant stopping, if only briefly, and balancing in a tippy kayak while I tore open a snack. Easier said than done. I did get one power snack open and laid out on my spray deck but after a few braces into the surf I lost it all in the ocean. Oh well. I had mixed a stronger than normal mixture of Cytomax in the hydration system. I would need to get my power from that.

The next few miles I remember as variously calm and choppy. The wind was coming from the starboard side and the swells were coming from the port side. Around mile 12 the wind picked up considerably. The sky darkened and I could see storm clouds off in the distance. The wind attacked in squalls. I had to lower the angle of my kayak paddle down to where it was almost parallel to the water to avoid being flipped by the squalls. Around this time I saw the first of the upside kayaks. Some people wouldn't make it past this section. In the distance I saw a pair of kayaks turn around and head for shore. I briefly contemplated my options. The shoreline I had just passed was sandy but the shoreline ahead I knew to be rocky. If I continued on and the storm moved in I would have to surf land on rocks. I continued forward.

Around mile 13, I ran into David Moore, a fellow kayaker out of Annapolis who was running the course in a friend's Thunderbolt. David was in the water beside the racing kayak bailing water out of the cockpit. I slowed down and paddled closer. Over the roar of the wind and the blasting of my IPOD (essential racing gear) I yelled over to him and asked him if he was ok. He said he was fine but he couldn't reenter his kayak. Unfortunately the Isabella is only stable when she's moving and particularly unstable in swells. I paddled towards him and around him but I couldn't risk stopping. Looking back I saw some sea kayaks coming towards us. I knew the stable sea kayaks could do an assisted rescue so I paddled on. Later I passed more sea kayaks heading out to greet the racers from a local kayak club and I sent them back in his direction. And for those who are wondering ... he did finish the race.

As the surfski racers had warned me it was the last seven miles which would be the worst. The wind kept squalling on the beam and the swells seem to grow with each mile. As I came upon Dog Bar Breakwater, which protects the harbor, the swells were at least four feet. I had never been in swells that high. A few times my legs started shaking and my paddle strokes deteriorated into what I call bracing strokes. It's when I'm not really paddling but hitting the water with my paddle. KT Tunstall was playing on the IPOD. I had programmed my music selection to end the race with happy upbeat tunes. It helped calm me down. I also knew that as soon as I passed into the harbor the swells would subside. So I paddled hard to get past Dog Bar.

As I paddled into Gloucester Harbor the swells subsided but the last two miles were straight into the wind. My pace slowed to a terminally slow 3.7 mph. I could barely get the Isabella over 4 mph. I still couldn't see the finish and wasn't sure which way to go. There was a double sea kayak in front so I asked if we were close. They said to head for the white building in front and look for the greasy pole. As I got nearer I saw it ... the greasy pole and the time boat moored at the finish. I scanned the beach for Seth and Linda. I spotted Ivy, their huge Bernese Mountain Dog, before I saw them. As Linda held the dog Seth ran out in the water to stabilize my kayak so I could slide out of the cockpit. I had finished my first Blackburn in four hours and seven minutes. And as we walked up the beach they congratulated me ... for getting there "right on time."

-Susanita

Saturday KIOCC had it's first "Quit while you're ahead" race. This was a purely fun race although it had all the trappings of a real race. There were three races: women's, men's and mixed. And within each race there were three race lengths: 2 miles, 4 miles, and 6 miles. The race teams didn't have to preannounce their race length. The team just had to show up at the finish line for whenever they'd chosen to quit and signal to the time keepers that they were through. It was a great format. Most of the participants (myself included) were first time racers in an OC6. KIOCC has a large group of novice women who joined from a neighborhood on Kent Island called Mallard Run. So they call them the Mallard Run girls. It's a great group of women, all mothers with small children. So the fun race was a great way to introduce the novices to racing in a more relaxed environment. After the race, Terry (the official KIOCC grillmaster) fired up the grill and served hamburgers, hotdogs and kabobs. My friend Shannon came along and paddled in her Anas Acutas and took lots of photos from the water. To see the entire photo album, click here.

-Susanita

Last Saturday was another Kent Island Practice Paddle. Last year I did most of the series of practice paddles around Kent Island and then did the final circumnavigation with Susan Williams. This year Marshall is leading the same series of challenge paddles around Kent Island with mostly new paddlers. I don't know if I'll do the circumnavigation again but the practice paddles are good workouts. On Saturday we put-in at Matapeake Park and paddled around Kent Point past Parson's Island to the take-out at Kent Narrows. Total distance was 22 miles.



Above is the group photo which consisted of Pat, Bob, Peter, Yvonne, Jay, me (Susanita), Frank, Marshall, Eric, Debbie, and Mark. None of my photos from the day turned out well so all the photos in the blog were compliments of Peter. Thanks Peter! To view his complete album on flickr .. click here. He also created that photo collage at the top of the post. It makes it look like a surreal paddle.

Some of my trip reports from last year's Kent Island paddles were pretty long. This one will be short. Mostly because I'm sort of time. After the Kent Island paddle I've been focusing on perfecting my roll. And outfitting the Isabella better. The 22 mile paddle was a great learning experience for me and it showed me some my weaknesses.

It was a pretty calm day on the water but there were some sections with waves and wind. The Isabella slices through waves and I barely notice them when I'm alert and hydrated. But towards the end of the day ... when I was tired and probably a little dehydrated ... I felt every ripple. And without a good kayak roll I was timid in my paddling ... preferring to brace in waves when I should have paddled straight through. So after the paddle on Saturday I went out with David Shames again at Black HIlls Lake and worked on a modified C to C roll. Because I use a wing paddle in the SOF the sweep roll doesn't always work well for me. The modified C to C involves setting up like in a traditional C to C but finishing with a layback on the back deck. I had a pretty bomb-proof C to C roll from whitewater kayaking ... so this is just a modification of that roll.

The other issue that came up on the Kent Island paddle was the need to be properly hydrated throughout the paddle. I brought a lot of water in one of those hydration systems but Dave Isbell hadn't put in the hydration hole on the back deck so I could store the water in the kayak instead of on top of the kayak. Because there was so much water it would have caused the tippy Isabella to be even more tippier if stored on the back deck so I gave the water bladder to Bob to store in his kayak and carried a bottle of water on my front deck. The problem was that I was less likely to drink the water from the bottle than from a hydration system because it generally means stopping. It was such a long paddle that we didn't stop much. So I got dehydrated on the longest portion of the paddle ... the 8 mile open water paddle from Kent Point to Parson's Island. Several others in the group complained of feeling dehydrated as well.

Marshall came to the rescue with ice cold water and a wet bandana. While I rested in the shade of a tree he poured water over my head and back. At Parson's Island I would say there was a stark contrast between those of us who were in the early stages of heat exhaustion and those that weren't. Because I'm still hoping to do the Blackburn Challenge in a week this was a crucial learning experience for me. Drink fluids!

After Parson's Island we had about a 6 mile paddle to the take-out. Fortunately the current was in our favor and we got a favorable push through Kent Narrows. A small group of us gathered at a local restaurant after the paddle for soup and beer. This weekend is my final weekend for preparation for the Blackburn. Dave is installing the electric bilge pump and the hydration system hole on the back deck ... yes! I've been carving out the foam seat I got from Huki to make it more comfortable. The perma-rest pads I was using for a seat just didn't work well. They're too slippery and when I'm tired I feel like I'm balancing on a beach ball. I also added a strip of foam to the front deck where my thigh hits the wood beam. The foam will provide more friction for rolling. This weekend I hope to do some more paddling on the bay to work out the feel in the waves and swells and practice more rolls. The last thing I want to do is wet exit this kayak.

-Susanita

Shannon and I finally made it to the annual CPA 4th of July fireworks paddle on the Potomac. Shannon had tried to make this paddle two years in a row and never made it down. And last year she and I had plans to carpool down to Jack's boathouse when a huge storm hit DC. Unable to paddle we made dinner at my house with plans to watch a movie. But the electricity went out. We ended up eating dinner by kerosene lantern and staying up late into the night talking. I think that was to be our first kayaking "adventure" ... the one that never happened. So this year we were both determined to make the fireworks paddle.



I decided to bring my new SOF kayak ... the one we've named the SS Isabella. I had been calling her the "Mystery" after the kayak we used for inspiration. But Dave told me we needed a new name. The "Mystery" belongs to Nick Schade. And while our SOF was "inspired" by the Mystery it's really not the same design. Shannon wanted to name her after an inuit name meaning something like arrow, because she thinks the kayak looks like an arrow. But we couldn't find a name with less than 4 syllables. It needed to be simple and easy to remember. So I just started calling her the Isabel. And it fits.

We got to Jack's boathouse around 4 but it took us another hour to get the boats off the car and into the water. I had to talk to anyone who would listen about the SOF and she gets a lot of attention. We saw a lot of the regular Pirates of Georgetown (POG) paddlers: Todd, Bob, Frank, Yvonne, Jen ... but lots of new faces. And I finally got to meet Page who had sent me this neat software that integrates your photos with the maps from the GPS. It's hard to explain, so I suggest you check out his webpage at http://letsgo2sea.com.


The group started launching for the kayak over to Memorial Bridge around eight. My initial plan was to meet up with my friend Gordon who would paddle over from Roosevelt Island from the Virginia side of the Potomac. But he wanted to paddle his canoe, not a kayak and the gunnels on his canoe were old and rotted. So he had been working all afternoon trying to repair the gunnels. But halfway through the repair the battery ran out on the cordless drill and the recharger was at his other house. Some people have so much stuff they have two houses! So he ended up driving to Rosslyn and running down to Jack's ... just in time to see us launch. Then he ran from Jack's to the bridge at Roosevelt Island just in time to see us pass through. So he didn't get to paddle with me but we had several Gordon "sightings". Shannon also caught a glimpse of him on one of the beaches on Roosevelt Island. So that was fun!

After we lost sight of Gordon, Shannon and I continued our herding duties with the kayakers. The primo spot for an on water view of the fireworks is just south of the Memorial Bridge. Being the paparazzi that we are ... we spent most of the time taking photos of each other in silhouette with the fireworks or getting the group in silhouette with the fireworks ... trying to get that great fireworks photo. It never happened. I saw the photo Page posted on the forum and it was definitely better than anything we took. But check it out for yourself. There is a larger than normal photo gallery page for this event because I also included photos from the Isabella first Potomac voyage. Check it out here.

Tomorrow I'm meeting David Shames at Black Hills again to work on rolling and fix the rudder. He wants to move the rudder housing up higher and attach it more securely. Dave Isbell is also working on an electric pump that operates without a switch. It's a very interesting pump. Supposedly it turns on every once in a while and checks for water. If it finds water it pumps, and if it doesn't it shuts itself off. After I told Dave that racers often have to pee in the boat during a long race he told me I needed to get this pump.

-Susanita

People have been asking me ... where's the maiden voyage video and where is the Taiwan trip report. Well my "photographer" has been deathly ill with a sinus infection so the video did not happen. And I'm still editing the photos from Taiwan. Good things come to those who wait patiently!

Saturday Dave installed the rudder, the deck bungees, a compass, and a back band. I'm having trouble with the foam seat I got from huki. It fits well but I tend to ride too high in the kayak ... sacrificing what little primary stability I have ... and the back is too low. I may modify it by adding another block of foam to the back and filing down the front a little but in the interim we decided to install an old fashioned back band. For a "seat" I cut up a foam pad sleeping pad and added one of those permarest seat pads. It doesn't have the same snug as a bug in a rug feel as the foam seat but it will have to do for now.



So today I took the new SOF out on some rougher water. I put-in at Galesville and paddled up almost to Carr's Warf. People that know me well know that I'm not one to mince words. I'm pretty blunt. So I'll skip the mystery and tell it upfront. The day sucked. See the photo above. That's me covered in mud. I was having problems with the rudder and pulled into a secluded cove to do the needed adjustments. The wind was about 15 knots and the kayak was weather cocking or lee cocking. The waves were a little higher than normal ... maybe two feet but it was the wind which was killing me. It kept trying to push me to shore and the shoreline was nothing but rocks. So I paddled hard to get into the safety of a cove when I realized one problem was the rudder cable. I wasn't able to move the rudder to the right. It seemed to be stuck.

So I paddled into the cove and tried to make it to shore but the wind kept pushing me into the grass. Since the rudder wasn't working properly I was left trying to steer the boat the old fashioned way ... and it wasn't working. So in desperation I put my paddle down to find out how deep it was. The water was less than two feet deep. So I had this great idea to just get out and walk the boat over to the shore. As soon as I exited the boat I started to sink and sink and sink some more. I got sucked into the mud up to my thighs. At one point I thought for sure I would just be swallowed up by the mud. So there I was in the middle of a secluded cove stuck in mud. Fortunately I had been practicing my reentries earlier in the morning. So I grabbed the back of deck and pulled myself free from the mud, straddled the kayak like a horse and paddled to shore.

But the drama wasn't over. What looked like a sandy beach was not! It was more of the dreaded suck mud. I dismounted the kayak (big mistake) and tried to walk to shore only to find myself sinking again. I didn't sink as far. I was only up to my knees but this mud was suckier than before. I was stuck. Fortunately I was close enough to shore that I could grab onto some of the sea grass and swing myself around so that I was basically sitting on the clump of grass. From there I began the digging. I dug the mud out around my feet and pulled them out. By this time I was almost completely covered in this black stinky mud! But now I just want to get back on the kayak and paddle out of there. But I couldn't walk out to the kayak or I would just sink in the mud again.

So I did a scavenger hunt through the woods. I found some wood planks and few tree limbs and I built a walkway out to the kayak. The width of the boards was just enough to keep me from sinking into the mud. I still hadn't fixed the rudder so I had no steering and I was afraid to try to reenter the kayak. Because it's so tippy I was afraid I would fall into the mud and my whole body would get sucked in. So again I straddled the kayak like a horse and started paddling. It wasn't an easy paddle because of the wind and the weather cocking but I did make it out and found a real firm sandy beach right outside of the cove with the suck mud. I beached the kayak and went for a swim. After my swim I took the seat out of the kayak and dissected the rudder system. The straps were uneven and something had been holding up one of the cables ... after a few minor adjustments the rudder was working properly.

The trip back to the put-in was pretty uneventful. The wind and waves were still an issue but at least with a working rudder I had more control over the boat. I didn't feel pushed into the shore like on the paddle out. I also paddled a little farther away from shore.

Everyone wants to know about speed. This is only the third time I've had her out on the water and the first time with a GPS and the conditions were somewhat harsh. And a sample of size one is not necessarily significant (I'm a statistician so I should know better than to draw conclusions from a single sample) but I did come away with some initial impressions. The SOF is definitely faster than my Mirage sea kayak but not as fast as the surfski ... which is what I expected. On flatwater I can push the surfski over 6 mph and I can do a good race pace at around 5.6 mph. In the Mirage I'm working hard to keep her over 5.3 mph. I found that out when I paddled the Mirage at the Adirondacks last fall. There's just a lot more drag on a a 22 inch beam boat. I pushed the SOF up to 5.8 mph but I couldn't maintain it. It seemed like a good cruising speed was 5.2 - 5.4 mph. And its definitely faster in waves than the surfski just because I don't feel the waves as much and don't need to brace.

But the wind ... killed me. Truly. As soon as I got off the water and back on the road I called my kayaking friend and racing coach, David Shames. He has a kayak of every type and I knew he could diagnose the weather cocking. He said he noticed the same thing in his Custom Kayak surfski on a windy day. The boat is so light it just gets tossed around in the wind. He had some ideas so tomorrow we'll take her out on Blackwater Lake and do some tests. We're also going to work on rolls and reentries. And he has some alternative seats he wanted me to try out. When David used to paddle with us at Pier 7 he used to talk about building the perfect kayak. I've decided there really is no such thing. The SOF has the best secondary stability of any of my boats but we squeezed out the secondary stability by sacrificing some of the primary stability. The lightness is great for speed and the high bow cuts through the surf. But it seems to catch the wind and weather cock a bit. If the seas are rough of the wind is high nothing beats the Mirage. It was designed for the big ocean waves like they have down in Australia. And the Mirage has so much primary stability I could probably stand in the boat and paddle it. But it's not fast.

So the bottom line ... everything is a tradeoff.

-Susanita

Well I'm back from Taiwan. I'm still working on a photo album. I've found that I have only a few days to do the album or it doesn't get done. Basically life just continues to happen and there are more adventures and more to blog about. I hope I have time to write a real blog account of the trip, but I doubt it. There was just so much going on. It seemed like our time was busy from the minute I got off the plane in Taipei.

Going into the trip I knew only a few people. I knew Bill Freed, who introduced me to dragon boating from the Kent Island Outrigger Canoe club and ... a few people I had met at practices. But it was mostly new faces. Waiting in line for passport inspection I met two of my team members, Rachel who would be my roommate for the entire trip, and John who joined DC Dragons from Philadelphia. Rachel was a great roommate, quiet and polite with occasional bursts of humor. One night in Tainan she spent the evening chasing down a cockroach on steriods in our room in between screaming and jumping to avoid the flying insect. I would have helped but I was exhausted and lying comatose on the bed.

So I won't spoil the blog about Taiwan ... but I will say that we won. DC Dragons placed first in the "International Friends" Division. But even though the race was the purpose of the trip and the culmination of our week it wasn't the only reason we went. As David explained to the Taiwanese press, which gave us great coverage, it was about providing a cultural exchange between Taiwan and the US. To read a press report about our visit, click here.

So I got back late Wednesday night and I was at work early Thursday morning. I was starting to feel like wonder woman ... flying around the world for the dragon boat races, flying back, never stopping to rest properly and rushing right back to work and out to kayak. Thursday night I picked up the now finished SOF from Dave's house and Friday night I was out on Triadelphia Reservoir. The excitement from the trip was still lingering in my mind and now I was excited about the new kayak. I was barely sleeping at night.

I also met a new paddling partner on the trip and we had made plans to kayak that weekend. So Saturday Gordon, resting in the photo above, and I kayaked down the Potomac from Alexandria South to Pohick Bay Park where the NCA outrigger club was hosting an outrigger race. Gordon took my Purple Mirage and I took the surfski. I was hoping to smoke him in the surfski but the Potomac was covered in hydrilla so deep and thick that it wrapped around my rudder to the point where I could barely inch out 3.5 mph ... in a surfski! While I was struggling with the hydrilla Gordon was cruising along smoothly in the Mirage. The Mirage has a rudder but it's sleek and built into the shape of the kayak ... in other words it doesn't suck in hydrilla like the surfski. Singularly focused on paddling Gordon basically cruised a mile ahead while I struggled in the hydrilla. When I finally caught up with him I gave him a little lecture on paddling partner etiquette and we kept pace together for the remainder of the paddle.

By Sunday night the wonder woman feeling was starting to wear off. Basically I hit the wall ... big time. I was so exhausted I skipped outrigger practice tonight. Wednesday night I'm taking the SOF to Pier 7 and Shannon will be filming the "Maiden Voyage". Tonight I adjusted the foot bar and made sure she could fit in it as well. Since she's the greenland rolling queen I thought I'd have her do the rolling test and I'd do the paddling test.

-Susanita

Mystery kayak
Above are pictures Gina took last weekend as Dave Isbell was putting the nylon skin on my "Mystery" SOF kayak. Then I stopped by Dave's house this Saturday to see the newly skinned boat. She's beautiful! Next he'll coat the skin with several coats of thinned clear urethane waterproof paint. I asked him to use a clear coat because I want to be able to see the frame when it's skinned. I have this "Mirage" color changing sparkly paint which I may add as a top coat ... but I don't want to lose the translucent effect the skin currently has when the light hits the boat.

Dave put a lot of work into the design and construction of the kayak ... and I am truly amazed and thankful for his expertise. When we started talking about designing a fast SOF kayak last winter at the pool rolling sessions I never imagined that it would turn out this well. Dave could tell you all about the kayak design software he used to design the hull and deck as well as pinpoint the optimum placement for the cockpit. All I know is it wasn't just a matter of scaling down the design of the Mystery, which was our original inspiration for the kayak. It's truly an awesome kayak.

There are more photos on the Photo Gallery Page ... check it out. For the next few weeks I'll be competing in the Dragonboat Races in Tainan, Taiwan. When I get back there will be photos of the maiden voyage as well as photos from Taiwan. Until then ...

Take care,
Susanita