Back to paddling

As some of you may have noticed I've not been paddling as much as I should these days.  With work, family and friend commitments there has been little time set aside for the important paddling.  This dry season peaked in July.  In the first week of August  family and friends were either better or in a better place, I went paddling and realized I had not paddled for the entire month of July.  This has not happened before in more than a decade so I was quite surprised by the discover.  I also noticed an extreme lack of fitness and capability. In addition I think my boats are now a little to small and the fit is too snug. So snug in fact that breathing deeply is inhibited.  However, I'm at it again and really enjoying it.  I've added and out rigger to my most comfortable boat to help compensate for the lack of balance and I'm having a great time with it.  I think in the future I'll try to keep paddling in in its proper place so that I paddle at least 4 times a month and sometimes 4 times in a week.

As you can see the outrigger is home built. The tough part has been molding the bracket between the Aka and the front deck.  The PVC outrigger has a kink in the top but the bottom is fair and I have a plan to make the next one even better. It's going to be a wonderful fall!

Stretching is OK again

Apparently stretching is once again considered good for you. 

Stretching for Paddling

Rest assured I never actually stopped stretching, because each day I do not perform stretching exercises for  5 - 30 minutes I have reduced range of motion and increased pain.

She gets worse before she gets better.

We just visited the Mother-ship and were glad that she floated and started.  We heard stories of other boats in the area sinking. Their engine cooling water strainers cracked when they froze and the boats sunk when they thawed.  Luckily it appears our heater system worked well with our other winter preparations.  So far so good. She started and ran fine.  We charged the batteries,  removed some more broken electrical, installed a step some other hardware.  So many fun boat chores on a sunny day, and it was so warm for a moment I thought about taking off my outer shirt.

The interesting thing about the Mother-ship is that things often look worse before they get better. 

For Example:

Here is our electrical panel before we bought her.  Clearly the AC power breaker panel on the left if not ready for anything but starting fires and explosions.  And in two years I have gotten to this stage:

So the bad panel is out making a big hole on the left where I can put a new DC panel in and slowly replace the currently working DC panel on the right which works fine but is 41 years old so I think it is time for all new.

I'm not certain this boat will ever see an AC panel.  Occasionally AC devices are run on board with an extension cord and a ground fault interrupt device. 

I think a lot of time is going to be spent kayaking before any time is spent considering AC power on the Mother-ship.  Her purpose after all is to facilitate more coastal and inlet paddling.  And for that she is wonderful.