Hi Folks! My husband John Dixon and I took our new red Feathercraft K-2 double out for it's maiden voyage in San Francisco Bay yesterday. The weather was lovely, in the 60's with little wind in the morning and a bit more of a wind from the west in the afternoon. We joined a group from Bay Area Sea Kayakers and started out from Horseshoe cove, just inland from the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. We had assembled the K-2 at home, a few weeks ago, and just cartopped it to bring it to this paddle. It sure looked great on my red '91 Honda Civic Si (IMHO one of the best cars for kayaking.). Anyway down on the beach I was getting the fit of the front non rudder control seat and footpegs when the left footpeg failed. The toe platform simply broke away from the plastic runner. Uh Oh. Good thing John's a mechanical engineer. He found a piece of driftwood and strapped it in to the cockpit in less than 5 minutes to form a crosspiece type of foot rest. Next we tried a re-entry. I got my feet a little tangled in the seasock, but otherwise it was pretty easy (flatwater, no paddle float). And off we went with the group. We enjoyed the sun, great views of the GG Bridge and the city of SF. A fire boat was spraying a waterfall and the Bay was full of all types of craft, sailboats, freighters, and ferries. Then as we were paddling along the south shore of Angel Island I spotted a whale spout and then the back of a gray whale! We were lucky enough to see it come up twice before it swam off. It was quite a site, a whale spouting with the San Francisco skyline and Alcatraz Island in the same view. There were some good waves sets of Pt. Blunt so John suggested we try surfing the K-2. Sure, why not. Some after some skilled maneuvering on John's part and a little hard paddling there we were, running down a wave with almost three feet of the bow buried by sheeting water. John said we wished there was a bit more rudder to work with. Ralph, does Feathercraft make a surf rudder? After lunch on Angel Island we head back west into a stiffening breezed carried some by a strong ebb current. We tried some more surfing in the waves in Racoon Strait and out by Yellow Bluff, but the rides off Pt. Blunt were the best. I gave Feathercraft a call today and they said they'd mail out a new footpeg right away. I forgot to ask about surf rudders. Anyone else have any Feathercraft surf stories? Barbara in California *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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