Good day in the Cetus

We who photograph on the water all know how hard it can be to capture the height of waves. By their nature, camera lenses depress the size of waves when taken from the cockpit of a kayak. You will have to just trust me that (in the pic below) the wind was from the south (your left) and there were Clopadis waves from the reflections off the break wall. Occasionally, these would combine to produce deep troughs and peaks of 3+ feet. As I was alone, there was no one to place in the picture for comparison.

I took the Cetus out there and drove it at every angle to the waves. It was one of the first times I have had an opportunity to do so. The waves were, understandably, variable, but at one point (while beam to the seas) I took green water over the boat. It didn't seem to notice. In fact, I not only never braced but never found a need to even edge into beam waves.

Once again, and to my surprise, it required little skeg going down wind. This seems to be true as long as there is a rough surface for it to "bite" into. Now these waves were close together, and I have only been able to surf them in the past while in my Romany. This time, I accelerated easily and actually caught some of those suckers; and I couldn't believe the acceleration as I used a tad of stern rudder to hold my heading. At times I was moving along well atop a wave as the bow barely tickled the back of the wave in front. I don't get it.

On very smooth surfaces, this boat still likes to weather cock more than most, but rough seas make her much easier to keep on course with less skeg. In any event, the rear hatch remained dry. If nothing else, we've learned that I still know how to do a good end pour.

On another note: Has anyone else noticed that paddlingplanet.com has not been updated since May 5th?

Paddle safe...

DS

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