Weekend Escape

We hadn't had an over night stay out of the kayaks for a while so a call was put out and we ended up with enough for a quorum for a boys weekend somewhere close to home where we could get out for a surf, or just chill.

With a longer trip coming up later in the year, it was a good chance to sort out my camping gear to see if it would fit in the boat with all the additional bits and pieces I have been stockpiling over time.

The day started out a little foreboding with stormy skies and the occasional storm cell trying to form, but it ended clearing up and getting hot - far too hot for this time of year so most of the team took to trying out new sleeping devices, complaining that the early morning start required sleeping the day away.

Whilst the hammock boys chilled at the campsite some of us went surfing and exploring the local coast line, checking out a fresh water creek and some local sand blows.

After a hard day in the hammock, the boys were a little keen to start sun downers early.  It was good to see Craig emerge once the shadows started to lengthen, though I have it on good authority that the boys did walk around to see what was happening on the bar when we went for a surf.

We had a late arrival with another local paddler dropping through for the evening frivolity, bringing a new type of dry bag that has been setup as an esky full of ice cold beer (apparently Rosco sells these in some different sizes).

Sunset turned into evening as the lads swapped stories over drinks.  Normal bloke stuff and we should get together and do it more often.

Thanks to Graham for putting the following short video together:

Smarter Not Harder from Graham Dredge on Vimeo.

Foot Peg Torture Device

I think somebody with a malicious streak in them came up with the foot peg system that came out standard with the pace 17 tour.  I paddle in bare feet so it could be argued that it is my own fault they are so uncomfortable, but I like to be able to feel the contact I have with my boat for when conditions get interesting.

I made the existing foot pegs a little more comfortable by adding a layer of Sikaflex and some thin closed cell foam, but after 6 months of paddling, that was starting to wear out whilst I was looking for an alternative solution that didn't mean major work on the kayak to install.

One of my friends spent a lot of time coming up with a ski type solution given there wasn't any options around at the time.  After some prototypes he ended up fitting a modified carbon Stella footplate to his Pace 17 which looks fantastic, and is light and strong.  My only issue with this is that I would need to put together the parts I need and do the modifications myself, and being a bit challenged in that area I was looking for an easier option.

Rob Mercer at Expedition Kayaks had been working on a similar solution to the same problem and has just released the resultant "Big Foot" foot plate to market (available from the Expedition Kayaks Online Store).  This was the easier option I was looking for.  The benefits for me was next day delivery of the footplate system and that it was a straight replacement with no modifications.

Installation was very simple and I had the new footplate installed within 20 minutes.  I took the opportunity to replace the wire cables with some braided Dyneema cord which all took less than an hour to achieve with zero modifications to the boat, as the rail attachment points were the same as the original setup.

To enable the footplate to fit different width boats, there are four screws on the foot plate itself which you need to loosen off.  These allow the attachment points to slide out to the required width so all you need to do is center the footplate and tighten the screws - installation done!

Note that the kit doesn't come with the nuts and bolts required to attach the rails, I assume the thought is that you will use the existing ones you are replacing - if you are updating your Pace 17 Tour, you will need to purchase the nuts as these are built into the rails you are replacing.  You can use the existing bolts.

So the whole exercise started on Thursday afternoon with phoning Expedition Kayaks and placing an order which turned up on Friday.  I installed them on Saturday morning and was on the water by lunch time for a 20 km cross/down wind paddle in 25-29 knots to give the new footplate a workout.

Even without additional padding, the footplate is very comfortable and you get as good as leg drive as you can in a Sea Kayak.  There is no comparison with the existing torture devices that come out standard with the Pace 17 so I am very happy with the result.

St Helena Island Dugong Encounter

I took off early for a solo paddle out to St Helena Island with a view to capturing some images in the morning light before catching up with some fellow paddlers out on Green Island for our yearly "Green needs a clean" day out.

It was an uneventful paddle over and the sun was moving quicker than I was so I shot a few images on the north side of the island before heading off towards the prisoner cemetery.

I noticed a "rock" in an unusual place as I was walking past the picnic area.  After further investigation, the rock turned out to be the back of a dugong browsing along the foreshore.  I got some shots of him from shore doing some crocodile impersonations.

By this time I was running a little late so ignored the myriad of birds on the south side of the island including the Rainbow Bee-eater colony and took some quick shots of the cemetery and the lime kiln before jumping in the kayak and heading off to Green Island to lend a hand in the clean up.

Dugongs in Moreton Bay are usually very shy, and though we see them on the water, we rarely capture images of them apart from a splash and resultant swirl of water as they dive away to hide from prying eyes.  This dugong came to check me out as soon as I launched the kayak and was happy to continue swimming around the kayak allowing me to get some images as well as some hand held video.

So guys, the dugong was my excuse for being late to the clean up!