March 18 - Day 4 kayak building and Nehalem river (#16)

Another good day of kayak building. Today was mostly spent tidying up loose ends, fairing off various edges, drilling holes for the deck lines and oiling the frame. Tomorrow should be a long day of “skinning” the kayaks.

We were finished a bit early and I took one of Brian’s West Greenland boats for a test drive in the North Fork Nehalem River. I went the opposite way to yesterday. It was a comfortable ride and the kayak seemed fast. I did not try rolling it yet as I was not sure of the cockpit seal etc. I paddled with my drysuit and an akuilisaq which worked quite nicely.

end of day 4

BTW, as you can see from the photos, it is not warm here in March! Today was also the first dry day!

More photos posted on picasaweb at: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090318_oregon#

10 km, 6 NM, YTD 160 km

March 17th - Kayak course Day 3 and Nehalem Bay (#15)

Another productive day of kayak building – the frames are ready to be cleaned up and oiled.

Pictures posted on my picasaweb site: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090317_oregon#

After “work” I took one of Brian’s F1s to Nehalem and went for a paddle on the estuary. The kayak paddled nicely and it was great to be out on the water. I was able to keep up a nice pace and manouever well.

10 km, 5 NM, YTD 150 km