[Paddlewise] Maiden voyage of Meri Kutsuu (Long)

Watch it folks, Mike is being his usual excessively verbose self again!

 I recently purchased a Kajak Sport Viviane, which I promptly named Meri
Kutsuu.  In Finnish (the Viviane's native language) Meri Kutsuu means
"The sea beckons."  I picked up my kayak from my favorite paddling shop
on Monday, July 17.  I was hoping to get the boat in the water the
following weekend, but events conspired against me.  I had to work
overtime.
 During the week, in an email to Kathie, I mentioned my frustration at
not being able to put the boat in the water.  I said that the way I felt
the boat would be on the water on the weekend of the 29th "if I have to
paddle solo in the eye of a hurricane!"   These words would prove
prophetic.
 Saturday morning in southern New Hampshire was hot and muggy.  The
weather report called for possible showers or thunderstorms in the
afternoon.  The idea of waiting out a passing shower while talking to a
good friend like Kathie is actually appealing to me, so the weather
report didn't bother me at all.
 On the road at nine AM.  I was to meet Kathie at twelve thirty, but I
needed to go to my favorite paddling shop first.  Baby needs new toys.
My new kayak needed a new spray skirt.  The old skirt fit, but it wasn't
good enough for Meri.  I needed a new PFD, I was out of pocket space in
the old one.  And I needed new water shoes.  For the first time in years
I was going out in public wearing shorts, high top neoprene boots made
the wrong fashion statement.
 I pulled into the Squam Lakes Association parking area promptly at
noon.  Kathie showed up about fifteen minutes later.  I was hoping that
her boyfriend would be there too, as I haven't met him yet, but Kathie
was alone.  We unloaded our kayaks and put our gear in, then it started
to rain.  No problem, just a passing shower.  We waited it out in my
Blazer, which gave me an opportunity to let Kathie hear an Ozark
Mountain Daredevils CD I have.  For those who are unfamiliar with this
early seventies rockabilly group, their song "Chicken Train" is truly
weird.
 After about twenty minutes the rain let up, so we parked our cars and
headed for Potato Island.  Kathie's grandfather bought this island back
in 1945 and built a cottage on it.  The family still owns the place and
Kathie uses it as a retreat to relax on some weekends.  At least as much
as Kathie eve relaxes, she is a very active person.
 First impressions of the Viviane, now that it is mine.  After the
Caribou it feels a little "loose" in the water.  It isn't unstable, it
just takes a lot less effort to heal the boat on edge quickly.  The hard
chines on the Caribou add a lot of rolling resistance.  I almost felt
that with a bit more power in my hip snap I could make the Viviane do
cartwheels.  After coming up on edge quickly the boat felt solid, with
good secondary stability.  The Viviane almost seemed to be asking you
how long you want to stay on edge.  It doesn't seem to care if you want
to stay on edge ten seconds or ten minutes.
 About a half mile into the trip, halfway to Potato Island, I turned to
Kathie and said "I LIKE this boat!"  A slight look of consternation
passed over her face and she said; "Do you mean that I have been
paddling my heart out and you are over there LOAFING?"  I glanced down
at my GPS; we were doing 4.5 MPH.  Kathie and I have clocked close to 5
MPH for short periods on a fast cruise, so I was a bit taken aback at
the speed that I was "loafing" along at.  After I apologized and backed
down a bit in speed she told me; "I noticed when you paddled the Caribou
that we were pretty evenly matched, but not when you are in that."  A
quick test showed that I could easily push Meri past six MPH, I don't
know yet what my maximum sprint speed is.
 At Potato Island Kathie showed me their house.  Her Grandfather had
selected and cut the trees and taken them to a lumber mill himself.
Then he had a friend plane the boards.  From start to finish this cabin
was a hand-selected labor of love.  It shows in the quality of
construction and details.  Kathie has something to truly be proud of
here, a living legacy from her grandparents.
 While standing in the kitchen we looked out the window to see a wall of
water advancing on us.  Well Kathie, it looks like we have more time to
talk.  Being my usual far too open for my own good self, I probably told
Kathie more about me than she really wanted to know.  Kathie is a nice
person, and a good listener.  She never made me feel like she didn't
want to hear what I had to say.
 About a half an hour later the storm passed.  We went out, pumped about
two inches of water out of the cockpits, and proceeded on our journey.
 For paddlers Squam Lake is the crowning jewel of the New Hampshire
lakes region.  This is the lake that was chosen for the filming of "On
Golden Pond."  Although heavily populated on the shorelines and the
islands, the homes are discrete and most blend well with their
surroundings.  The lake has an almost wild feel to it, although the boat
traffic can get heavy at times.  Like Massabesic Lake (my "home lake"),
Squam can get rocky in places.  This has the effect of giving paddlers
lots of places to go that deeper draft boats have to steer clear of.
 With my lovely native guide by my side we headed through Livermore Cove
to Mooney Point.  The sky continued to be dark and foreboding, and the
rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance.  But our mood was
bright and cheerful, we were having a grand time exploring a beautiful
lake.  The lake is seven miles long at its longest, and five miles at
its widest.  But a quick look at the map will tell you that nowhere on
the lake are you more than a half mile from land.  The lake is said to
have fifty-two islands, one for each week of the year.  Two of the
islands, Loon and Little Loon, have campsites that are highly
recommended by Kathie.  They can be reserved through Rockwood Deephaven,
but you must reserve early, the sites fill fast.
 Meri was performing flawlessly.  If anything I felt more confident
paddling her than I was in my Caribou.  Boat wakes were a truly weird
experience.  Meri's bow would rise for the first of the string.  Then,
as the wave moved further back, the stern would start to lift.  By this
time the bow was already on the next wave, so it did not go back down!
The whole boat would rise up a few inches and cruise on the crests of
the waves, slicing through as needed.  These were foot to foot and a
half waves, but no water made it past the sheer line.  Glancing over at
Kathie I would see a scene straight from "Victory at Sea" as the bow of
Kathie's Squall would rise for on wave then plunge into the next.
Kathie was definitely getting the more fun ride, but I enjoyed the
unruffled ride of the Viviane as well.
 We headed northwest, aiming for Carns Cove, past the west side of Sheep
Island.  I swear Sheep Island is the most common island name in New
England!  There are at least three in the Acadia region alone.  This
probably is due to the fact that islands were frequently used for
raising sheep.  The "liquid fence" served to keep the sheep in and
predators out without the need to build anything.
 Rounding the north side of Groton Island, heading into Carns Cove, we
met a mother loon and two chicks.  We drifted to a stop about seventy
five yards away and watched as mom dove to catch small fish and fed them
to the chicks.  After about ten minutes they had swum/drifted out to
about one hundred twenty-five yards from us and we moved on.
 Kathie showed me a house in the cove that has a slide from the peak of
the roof all the way to the water.  A friend of hers knows the owners,
so she was able to try it one day.  She said that it was quite a ride,
but her mother told her that it used to be better.  When her mother was
young the slide ended eight feet above the water!
 Another "house" in the area that Kathie wanted to show me was once a
Speakeasy during the days of Prohibition.  The place was evidently quite
popular with the Hollywood crowd, the fireplace has quite a number of
famous signatures on it.  Unfortunately it is privately owned and
posted.  But I did get to see the outside.
 Heading out of Carns Cove we skirted the north side of Sheep Island and
headed for Cocorua Island.  Also known as Church Island, Cocorua Island
is the site of the first Boy Scout camp in the United States.  There
actually is an active church on the island, holding services every
Sunday during the summer.  It is also frequently used for weddings.
Personally, I find the idea of getting married in a kayak more
appealing.  But if I ever decide to re marry and the lucky woman doesn't
like kayaking (not likely) then an island will do.
 From Church Island we headed around the south end of Merrill Island
then through the channel between Merrill and Kate island.  It was here
that my exclamation from earlier that week would come back to haunt me.
 The little people were working up a really fierce game of ninepin in
the hills to our west.  The updraft from the storm was pulling in a lot
of air, resulting in a really nice wind.  In the course of only five
minutes we went from nearly calm air to winds of close to twenty MPH.
In a case of good news, bad news our trip back to the put in would be an
almost straight down wind shot.  Directly towards the heart of the
storm.  Unknown to us at the time Kathie's mother Ruth, knowing we were
out on the lake, had tuned in the weather channel on TV.  She watched
the radar image in horror as bands of red swept across the lake.
 Meri was still behaving wonderfully.  Even confused seas of one to two
feet were handled with aplomb.  Bracing was not needed, she could be
held stable using body english alone.  The direction the waves were
coming from didn't seem to make much difference either, although waves
coming from the stern quarter did produce and interesting effect.  As
the wave hit the stern there would be a bit of a tendency to broach.
Coming from an angle of close to 45 degrees this is to be expected.  But
when the wave reached the bow it had the opposite effect, pushing the
bow back on course.  After a couple times of this happening I stopped
bothering to fight the broach, I just paddled straight with a bit of bow
swing.
 Kathie handled the turn in the weather the same way that she greets
everything, with unrestrained joy and a zest for life.  She told me that
she loves to go out on the lake when it gets rough.  Although the waves
were rather small Kathie was having fun surfing them.  In an interesting
turn of events I was completely unable to surf a wave, Meri's length
meant that she was always on at least two waves!
 The ride back to Pipers Cove was an interesting one.  There was the
wind whipping up whitecaps on the lake, and the rain was starting to
come down in earnest again.  We alternated between watching the
whitecaps and watching lightning hitting the hills around us.  We
challenged the thunder with laughter and faced the lightning with a
smile.  Crazy?  Perhaps.  But I lie Kathie's attitude towards this, and
shared it out on the lake.  When things go sour you can easily sweeten
them up with a positive attitude and joy in your heart.  Kathie is a
past master at this, she spreads joy wherever she goes.
 While getting out of the kayaks we had lightning strike less than a
quarter of a mile from us.  The thunder followed the flash by less than
a second.  This inspired us to get our feet out of the water rather
quickly.  We may be crazy, but we aren't stupid!
 After our paddle Kathie took me to a handmade ice-cream shop that is
across the street from Little Squam Lake so we could recap the day and
plan our next adventure.  The ice-cream is so good that the shop was
featured in Yankee Magazine.  I can personally vouch for the Black
Cherry Chocolate Chunk.


Mike

--
    Paddling along through fog so thick that only one's thoughts are
visible, your reverie is abruptly shattered by the ancient cry of a
great
blue heron as she lifts uncertainly from the brilliant blue of a
mussel-shell beach witnessed only by the brooding, wet spruce....your
passage home seems as much back through time as it does through space.
Mark H Hunt


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