Okay Craig, maybe it was a bit weird more than cool - 4 weeks straight now completely flat out at two jobs where I'm averaging 35% higher production than anyone else leaves me a bit spaced at nights for any 5 minute poetry. I'm worse when I kayak though in my Nordy - just relentlessness until I cramp up in the afternoon gales, though that only slows me down a bit. Well, Matt is a way cool guy. But where's that Melissa when we need her for some real cool prose? Anyway, maybe something will happen yet with Mariner. I'd like to try an Elan out in the southern V. Island area sometime if anyone knows where I can try one out that is, before I hunt down a used one to buy. I'm sure one of my two daughters would love one if I bought one anyway, even if I didn't for myself; we'd use it for family touring as we gear up to replace our family summer canoe trips with kayaks. I am more open to the idea of a Mariner kayak than in the past, as far as an Elan for myself goes. Matt thinks I'm in the news too much to be in one of his kayaks, though. :-) But it's hard to test a kayak out for real these days. You almost need to rent one for a week, test how sensitive the design is to gear related placement issues in different winds and waves, all-day comfort levels, happiness with stability levels, etc, etc. Anything else is a cold one night stand. Symposia testing just doesn't cut it for me, though it does rule out kayaks that are too small to fit into and kayaks with too high a rear deck and kayaks that are too stable. As for Mariner kayaks and those Broze brothers, this world would have been so much more different without them. Big wet suit booties to fill there for sure. For now, I'll stick to singing Van's original song while I'm out paddling. I'm hoping to get out in a couple more weekends over to the WCP weekend on Pender coming up. I'll actually be paddling for other reasons than simply the pure joy of being in my Nordkapp this time, in the Forager. I remember one year, very late at night, sitting in my freshly painted/modified Nordkapp (Air Canada aircraft-paint red over white it was then) having just finished up the new deck lines and a better seat, sitting in the cockpit up on sawhorses for over an hour, just sitting there snug as a bug, listening to Enya cranked ("Sailawaysailawaysailawy"), dreaming of a west coast adventure about a week hence, all excited and not wanting to go to sleep - too pumped for bed. Those were the days Craig. Just big kids really, right? No retrograde horizon. I was already in the Mystic by the time I punched through the shorebreak I think. Doug L Craig said: Never discount the Broze brothers. Maybe their next boat will be the Mariner Mystic; a playboat for Doug Lloyd. Cool work, Doug. :) Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 11:46 PM, Doug Lloyd <douglloyd_at_shaw.ca> wrote: Sorry gang, I cut and pasted the wrong version after spell check; corrected below. Ya gotta know a bit about Mariners to catch it. For Matt: Into The Mystic - by Doug Lloyd An ocean cradles my slender craft Not as a mother her own But life cradling the journey. The Mystery, the Profoundness of All Transcendence found in undulations Rising, falling. Floating above. Ere, my bonnie boat glides Fleeting spindrift. Wind-thrown away And the moments? Accounted for! So few really knew It rocked the gypsy soul Born before wind and waves. Hull. Water. Apart and one. Free of encumberances Magnificently. Visionary. A Legacy of friends. Into the Mystic all must go. The Mariner. There is no fear. Doug Lloyd Victoria BC (with appologies to Van Morrison) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Apr 08 2008 - 04:35:55 PDT
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