It’s a huge pain in the ass to bring kayaks on a boat. Jason and I are lucky that we have a catamaran and we have room for “real” kayaks. Most monohull sailors have shitty inflatable boats, origami boats, paddleboards or just go without. Erin and Kara found what looked to be the perfect solution! Full size kayaks that break into pieces and nest inside each other so they take up way less space but you still have a full length hard and efficient paddling boat!

Since we’re in Shroud and this place is, as previously mentioned, magnificent we wanted to kayak as much as possible before the winds kick up again and drive us away. However when we got in the boats this morning the wind was stronger than anticipated and the choppy waves made it a rather unpleasant paddle to the start of the river. We all made it eventually (poor Jason is the slowest in his pedal-boat) and headed up the river. It was going well until Erin exclaimed “I think I’m sinking!”  That’s not good! We all quickly parked on a sand bar and verified that, yes, the tail of Erin’s boat was full of water. Half of the latches that hold the pieces together had broken, making the boat not repairable. Our options were to have someone paddle back to the boats and get the dinghy for rescue or to just carry on. We figured it would be easier to just go on with our plan. Erin packed his broken boat away and towed it with Kara’s kayak. Kara climbed onto the back of Jasons pickup truck of a kayak and we slowly made our way through the river.

Jason and I made it back to True North after a hellacious upwind paddle to get our dinghy and rescue Erin and Kara.  Everyone made it back to their respective boats safe and sound. I don’t know what Erin is going to do with his boat now that it’s broken and they’re headed to Panama where it will be hard to get replacement parts shipped in. At least I got some good pictures of Vela at sunset!