Commencement Bay, and Whales!

It was a great day for kayaking - sunny but a little cold. I hadn't been out on the water since I left for Japan, almost 2 weeks ago. Last year I discovered that kayaking is a great antidote for the Christmas season. I spent last evening at Best Buy, Suncoast, and Target and didn't buy anything. Yesterday morning I had gone to Toys R Us and didn't buy anything either. It's all the same old junk -- nothing original. It's not worth the time to go out shopping when you could be out kayaking instead. It's better to just buy everything over the Internet!

Today I made sure to take my neoprene mitts. I went out to the Tacoma waterfront from Thea's Park and ended up in the middle of an Orca pod in Commencement Bay! There were at least 7 of them - about 5 clustered together, and 2 or 3 scattered around to the west. They headed south into the Bay and close to the industrial area, then back out toward the north and Vashon Island. I was the only kayaker out there, and there were a couple powerboats and a sailboat. I got about 20 yards from one of them in the middle of the Bay. There was nothing but the sound of the water and the whales blowing. Such strength and power!

Sorry - no pictures.   I like to travel light these days.

Here is the report from the Orca Network from November 2005.

Corey Freedman's Skin-On-Frame Baidarka at the 2005 West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium

Here is a pic of Corey Freedman's skin-on-frame baidarka on display at the 2005 Port Townsend West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium.  It's on a scale hanging under a bamboo tripod. That's Corey in the back with the orange shorts and blue hat.

Early in the day the scale read 18 lbs, but it must have started to stretch and later on it read somewhere between 23-24 lbs.  Still pretty light!

Now for mine: I went over the hull with a scraper and scraped down the high spots and got rid of all the areas of dried glue.  I shaped the bow piece a little bit with a crooked knife.  Next I need to fill in some holes with wood slivers and wood filler.  That's a good place to stop before I leave for Japan, because the next step is sanding, which is going to make a real mess.

Note the insulation I put on the garage door.

Cedar Strip Kayak Building: A Diamond in the Rough

After less than a month I have the hull entirely stripped.  Now the temporary strip stapled along the sheer will be removed and replaced with a permanent strip glued to the rest of the hull. I'll use a scraper to round down the high spots between strips and then sand the hull down prior to applying fiberglass and epoxy.

The picture below shows insertion of the last strip in the hull.

Weather at Dash Point today: Mostly cloudy with showers. Wind from the SW at 8 knots. Wind waves 1 ft or less.  Water was cold.  Tried norsamik masikkut but still couldn't figure out how I did it last time.

Cedar Strip Kayak Building: Looks like a boat!

Hey -- it's starting to take shape!  I'm still using red duct tape (3M brand). It doesn't leave the sticky residue unless you keep in on a long time (I remove it the next day). It sticks to the wood better than clear packing tape (which really only sticks to itself). Plus I can tear duct tape with my fingers. It also has a little stretch to it, so overall it's the better choice.

After putting on four strips today I'm left with a little headache -- either from working too close to the wood or from the kerosene heater exhaust. I better find some batteries for that CO monitor I used to keep in the garage!

Cedar Strip Kayak Building: Using Duct Tape for Stapleless Stripping on the Shooting Star Baidarka

Ran out of clear packing tape so I used red duct tape today. Duct tape generally should be avoided because it leaves more adhesive residue that is difficult to remove. I would have gone to the ACE Hardware down the street but I already had the glue on the strips.