The Tao of Walking Ridge

On a recent walkabout I came across a bead shop. The selection was really overwhelming. You can find beads for just about any theme you might want and assembly your own jewelry. Very easy, and very personalized, very cool.

I find very little jewelry with a sophisticated mariner’s theme.  Sure, you can find the anchor pendant, or the shark’s tooth.  But that is about it.  After wandering the store for a while, I found a string of black coral beads and finally I found some glass trade beads that made a nice contrast with the black coral.  Millefiori patterns with blues and greens were more common, but got lost against the black coral.  When I came across these yellow trade beads, their size and color worked perfectly with the 6 x 10 mm black coral beads.  After stringing them up a handful of times to check the spacing and overall length, I finally crimped the clasp on and I had my very own very unique jewelry with a sailors theme.

Sometimes you hear a quote that is cute.  Sometimes you hear a quote that makes you think.  Sometimes you hear a quote that stops you in your tracks.  Dr. Wayne Dyer on PBS had such a quote.  He suggested, referencing the Tao Te Ching, to “identify your greatest fear and become curious about it”.

Now that is a strategy.  How many times has a stressful event been worse than the dread of it?  Fear of an event causes negative feelings for a long time, even if the event is short.  Sometimes the event never happens, and then all you have is the pain of fear.  It is much harder to not do something.  Redirecting the fear to curiosity is a powerful approach for doing something about it.

I’ve always liked the colors I chose for the painting “The Club”. I chose them intuitively, by trial and error, and mixed the acrylics on the fly. Having recently discovered the color analysis tool in Gimp, I thought I’d analyze my own painting to see what it was I liked about the painting. The analysis was a bit of a surprise.

I thought the background was a shade of green, but in fact was a desaturated yellow. Thus, 80% of the painting was made up of yellow or orange hues, with some variation in intensity and value. Intensity is how much of the hue is in the mix, and value is how dark/light. A dark value with no intensity is black. A light value with no intensity is white. Maximum intensity is the most intense color, whether it is light or dark depends upon the hue. This creates a triangular description of the hues that is well represented by the Gimp color tool.

The blue-green in the lower left of the painting turned out to be 1/3 of the way around the color wheel from the dominant color in the painting.  This is a common approach to color selection in web site design.  The dark half desaturated value of the blue green also proved some contrast with the brighter orange.

Note how the tool allows for easy selection of thirds.  The orange color plot shows that upper left is a blue green at the point of the triangle.  The blue-green plot shows the variety of colors available for that hue.  The most intense color would have too much of a neon feel for what I wanted in this painting.

Understanding what worked can greatly help plan and try new things in your color palette.  Gimp is a great tool to assist in this.  And another reason to use Linux.

Magenta is a color that is a bit rare in nature.  That may be why it is especially captivating when we see it.  Sunsets with a mix of reds and magentas and oranges create as powerful a mood as any painting can. So I decided to use this color mix with a simple silhouette to inspire the imagination of the viewer.

This painting is also an example of how versatile acrylics are in recovering from mistakes.  This canvas originally held a painting that I didn’t like at all.  So I sanded it down, and recovered with gesso.  Then I laid a sunset theme that I liked, but hated the first silhouette.  So I painted over that image and tried this one of the island.

The silhouette is not black, it is a dark desaturated third from to the dominant.  In this case, a dark desaturated green to better compliment the light reds, orange-reds, and magentas.

Sunset Isle - Brian Kelly, 2008, acrylic on canvas board 14″ x 18″

The weather was great again today, so I decided to take the Kiawah out for its second voyage.  There is a 65 acre lake in a park just down the road for me and my hope was the Kiawah would be easy enough to be an impulse boat for short trips like this.

I decided to see just how long it would take to actually hit the water.  Assembly times vary wildly among manufacturers.  They all seem a bit optimistic.  They also vary because it depends when you start and stop the clock. So I pulled into the park at 11:41 and wanted to see how long before I actually shoved off.

I did pre assemble the frame back to the first crossmember.  This probably saved at most five minutes, but is easy to do if you have 5 feet of storage in your truck, SUV, or station wagon.  The frame was ready to insert into the skin in 15 minutes (11:56).

It took 10 minutes to put the fame in the skin, make sure it was aligned, snug the thumbwheel, zip, velcro, and inflate the sponsons.  Full loaded and ready to go, I shoved off at 12:14.  I was paddling in under 35 minutes from the time I pulled into the parking lot.  This was great time for only the second assembly in the field.  By comparison, it took me just over an hour with my Feathercraft Kahuna.  I’ve read that some skins are more snug than others, and this could affect assembly times of the Kahuna.  Part of the beauty of the Folbot design is that all of the boats should assemble in 20 to 25 honest minutes once you get the hang of it.  And as important, there are no knuckle busting steps and no cursing required.

I did add some knee pads by unclipping the aft end of the foot peg bars and slipping the knee pads on.  this made bracing a bit more comfortable.

I found the overall comfort of the boat to be good.  The cockpit is roomy, which is nice for these kinds of fair weather trips with cameras in hand and calm water.  The seat did become a bit uncomfortable after an hour.  A bit of padding might help.  The seat is much more comfortable than the early seats in the Cooper, but isn’t quite as comfortable as the Kahuna.  The Kahuna seat is, I think, one of the most comfortable kayak seats.  The Kahuna seat is a sling design.  It would be more of an issue if you plan on regular 6 hour paddles without exiting the boat.  But for short paddles, the Kiawah was quite comfortable, and the foot pegs did not fall down as they do in the Kahuna.

The boat did handle very well.  I paddled for a little while at full speed sprint, and the boat tracked perfectly.  There was no tendency to spin out.  But the boat really excels at leisurely paddling about.  A light breeze seems to have no effect on the boat at all.  I paddled around the lake for nearly two hours, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Once I was settled in to my old Kahuna, I always felt very secure.  The boat is listed as one inch wider than the Kiawah, and was quite stable.  The Kahuna comes with a sea sock as well, which is a nice accessory for rougher water as it prevents the boat from taking on much water.  The Kahuna was a very dry boat, even in conditions where waves were breaking over the bow.  Sometimes I regret selling the Kahuna.  However, the Kiawah is a great leisure boat.  The narrower beam lets it get up to hull speed easily.  I would love to find some data to compare the hull speeds.  I suspect the boats are about the same speed, but the Kahuna requires a little more energy to keep it going.  And I make few “big” trips any more, where the hour+ investment in assembly is worth the while.  The Kiawah was in the water in 35 minutes, and dissassembled in 15 minutes.  Thus, I was able to go for a 2 hour paddle and spend more time paddling than assembling.

Every boat is a compromise.  The Kiawah is eerily easy to paddle.  I think I may have figured out some reasons why.  The Kiawah is an inch narrower, therefore, it cuts the water and also you need not reach out quite so far to get to the water with your paddle.  Perhaps where the paddle reaches for the water, the difference in width is a bit more than an inch, as the Kahuna may carry its beam further forward.

The Kiawah is listed as 1/2 inch lower than the Kahuna.  This should not be enough to notice, but since it is such a low volume boat I’d say it sits an inch lower in the water.  Add this to the seating position (you sit right on the bottom tube, probably an inch lower than the Kahuna) and the water might be an inch or two closer.  There is no reaching, you can paddle with more of a side to side motion of your sternum with your hands held at a comfortable height.

The tradeoff is seaworthiness in bigger waves.  The Kiawah will go through waves that the Kahuna would pop over.  The Kiawah can take on some water as the top is zippered and velcroed.  But since it is lower, the Kiawah is less affected by wind.

Overall, the Kiawah is a great value for the occasional paddler on small water.

After my KAP flight, I walked along Water Street on the east side of the river that runs through Bay City Michigan.  The Espresso Express Coffee House is a great smoke free coffee house with wi-fi and  wide variety of coffee drinks.   They also have a bit to eat if you get hungry.  The interior is an eclectically decorated space that is cool to hang out in.  Their expresso is the largest I’ve ever been served, and I enjoyed walking about downtown as I finished it.  If you are every in Bay City, drop by for a cup-a-joe.

It was a great day with great winds for a lifting a camera with a kite.  The wind was 10 to 15 mph, so I went up to Bay City to the Middle Grounds and was able to get three flights in there.  I’m still plagued with cameras that stop taking pictures mid flight, so only one pic really caught my eye from this group.  The red building is the Bay City Rowing Club, and downtown Bay City is upper right.

But after the flights I went downtown.  The park on the east side of the river was nearly empty and the wind was from the north, creating rare and perfect conditions for a flight in the park downtown.  My soft kite was especially suited to this flying in the rather tight space and it performed flawlessly.  I was able to get two great pics out of these flights.

Chromes (slides) capture images in fine detail, but can add a tint.  I came across this slide, which is more than 20 years old.  The colors are vivid, and the image is crisp.  But it scanned with a distinct blue tint.  So I decided to use that for effect.  I opened it up with Gimp (Linux photo editor) and altered the curve on the blue channel, leaving the highlights more blue (sky) and lowering the midtones and shadows (primarioly sand).  The result is a pleasing image, if not one that captures the colors with perfect accuracy.

A kayak is one of the simplest, yet one of the most seaworthy of vessels.  I used to paddle a Feathercraft Kahuna.  The Kahuna is a great boat once you get it assembled, but mine was difficult to assemble so I tended not to use it.

A friend had a Folbot Cooper.  At half the cost, I was very impressed with the boat.  Very easy to assemble, and quite fast.  A cooper really tends to glide.  It favors tracking to turning however, and could take some strength to turn in tight quarters.  It also flexed a lot.  Perhaps it made the boat faster, but I prefer a stiff boat.

So when I discovered that Folbot came out with a shorter version of the Cooper I decided to get one.  Longer boats have better top speed, but may actually take more effort to paddle at slower speeds.  I was looking for a day boat to carry little gear, be lightweight, easy to assemble, and paddle with low effort at typical cruising speed.

ASSEMBLY:  The Kiawah, like its sister, is assembled by completing the frame outside of the skin, then slipping it into the skin.  This is a very intuitive and easy way to assemble the kayak.  It avoids knuckle busting and cursing while you reach inside a hull to slip in pieces.  I assembled it once in my living room and was able to assemble it at the launch site easily without referring to instructions.  Only once did I have to undo insertion of a frame, and I realized it needed to be reversed before going on.  Total assembly time was a very leisurely 40 minutes.  Outstanding for essentially a first time.

Once the frame is slipped into the skin, the thumb wheel at the back provides tension for the skin fore aft.  Bladders are inflated to complete the skin tensioning, providing tension laterally.  This thumbwheel is a very easy system and it works great.  Much easier than the Kahuna lever method.

Once fully assembled it was nice and stiff for a folding kayak.  Easy to pickup and carry to the water.  Not only light, but since it is only around 13 feet long, it is easy to maneuver.  The new seats are much more comfortable than the original Cooper seat, though the Kahuna seat wins for comfort.

TRIM:  Off I go.  Initially, the bow is a bit low, plowing a bit of water, but I make it across the North Channel of Lake St. Clair to some cabins on tiny islands across the way.  Then I remembered reading that because it is such a low volume boat that it is sensitive to ballast.  So I move my small camera/gear dry bag (about 3 lbs) aft to the stern.  This is much easier done before shoving off, but I got it done and the boat was much better trimmed.  The boat definitely is sensitive to ballast trim.

But the reward for this sensitivity is a narrow boat for its length.  Since the boat is low in the water, it is affected very little by wind.  A boat meant to carry more must be loaded or it will sit up in the wind.

SPEED:  I did not judge the speed objectively.  At first, it did not really seem like a fast boat.  Top end I expect is less than the Cooper.  But I went for a two hour paddle, covering about four nautical miles.  That may not sound like much, but I covered at least half a mile in thick reeds, and periodically paused just to look around.  After about an hour, I realized the Kiawah seemed to require less effort than my Kahuna or my Aquaterra Chinook.

I think two things account for this.  It travels at perhaps 2 mph with very little effort.  Not a lot of glide, but not a lot of effort either.  And the narrow boat with low gunnels meant I could hold my arms a bit lower.  My hands might have been only 3 or 4 inches lower, but over a hundred strokes this adds up.  I have not paddled in a while and I am not in shape, but found I paddled until I got somewhere, rested, then paddled to a new place.  I found I was paddling for longer periods without stopping to rest than I expected.  After two hours of paddling I felt refreshed.

The last half mile home had a fairly stiff headwind, and the boat handled this very well.  The wind did not play with the bow, so I wasted no energy keeping it on track.  I was very happy with the performance upwind into a headwind of about 10 to 15 mph.

COMFORT:  This is no Kahuna in the comfort category.  If I was to want a boat to paddle for 10 to 12 hours at a time, the comfort of the Kahuna might outweigh the difficulty in putting it together.  As I recall, I could brace my knees up under the coaming in the Kahuna.  The Kiawah wasn’t really comfortable to brace in.  Eventually, I stretched my legs out flat on the bottom of the Kiawah.  This was very comfortable, but was not a position for hard paddling or rolling.  But I found I was able to paddle well with my legs in this position and did not need to periodically stretch my legs out as I had to in the Kahuna.  Comfort was fine for short trips.  The seat was much better than the original Cooper seat.  If bracing for rolling is important, comfort will likely depend on your size and where your legs hit the frame.  I did bring along some knee pads, and they may have worked if I’d spend time placing them.  Overall, I paddled for two hours and found I was getting more, not less, comfortable.

HANDLING:  The boat tracked well and handled well.  Paddling in the reed fields, you can run down spaces that look like channels but eventually choke out progress.  The Kiawah is perfect for these tight spaces.  But it also crossed a half mile of open water with little effort needed to keep it on track.  This boat does not need a rudder, which keeps it simple and light.  The Cooper frustrated my friend sometimes trying to turn it in tight quarters.  It certainly took all of my strength at times.  This Kiawah is a perfect balance of ease of turning and tracking.

SEAWORTHINESS:  These days I prefer paddling protected flat water for the most part.  I accidently found myself in 3 foot waves when crossing the channel back to my truck.  This presented a situation worthy of respect.  It was in a shipping channel and to cross the channel, I had to take the waves on my beam or at least my quarter.  The lack of bracing made me a little less secure.  The narrow beam probably made the boat a bit less stable than the Kahuna.  But the ability to maneuver the boat made up for it.  After taking waves on the beam, I turned into them a bit and was able to be a bit more stable.  Because the boat handled so well, I could keep a heading across the waves at 45 degrees.  A longer boat could get turned by the waves, continually putting the waves on the beam.  It wouldn’t be my first choice for often going out in heavy waves, but the Kiawah got me home safe and sound.

The Kiawah is a great boat for impulse paddles.  It was perfect for exporing the channels around the island homes in the North Channle area where I found this house on stilts.  Perfect to keep in the trunk when travelling and throw it in the water if a nice patch of water appears.  I might take the Kiawah for a spin on Lake Superior if I was there, but if I planned on paddling in that kind of water all the time, I’d consider another boat.  The Kahuna could take it, but is not as fast as a Cooper.  Probably a K1 or a fiberglass boat is a better choice if you are Type A and want to paddle big water.  But the Kiawah really performs well in moderately sheltered water like Lake St. Clair.  Two hours of paddling in my first time out this year, and my arms did not get tired.  The Kiawah is a pleasure.  And at nearly half the cost of a Kahuna, the Kiawah is a great value.