First weekend of July I put in my Blade kayak at Kasnäs and heading for Halsskär close to Kyrksundet separating two islands, Rosala and Hitis. My first Blade fully loaded paddle and a Norkapp PE on tow. A party tour combined with a kayak delivery. Giving a paddle class and recorded good cruising speed.
I had a huge pile of drybags and gear piled between the kayaks. None of the sunbathers at the beach me included betted against fitting everything in one kayak. But it did. Almost. The Trangia had to go in the Nordkapp hatch.
A few kilometers off the shore I was in a hurry to cross the fairway and away from an approaching ferry. A sailor thought my buddy had gone missing. I paddled even harder and holler back my buddy had gone too sour on me. Towing kayaks is surprisingly easy but there is no big win in pushing for more speed. The full 10-kilometer took
half of the second hour, and not much time was left for a refreshing swim. My aunts’ birthday selebration party was soon to start with a toast. This was the beginning of three days outdoors under blue skies, and warm cliffs under my feet.
End of partytime I rolled out my sleeping mattress and sleepingbag on the rocks. Crawled inside and fell asleep with the blue morning sky above as a roof. Four hours later two Maria and joined me with their sleepingbags waiting for morning breakfast served in fishingsheds on top of clapping water. The Halsskär isle is less than a kilometer across and consitutes mostly of honed rockswith scattered pasture and trees, almost forest, and of course a few cottages. This is paradise on earth.
My aunt selebrating her 50th anniversary got a kayak. She joined me for a kilometer this following morning and left back home as I headed for course 225° to hopefully reach my cousins place south of Rosala. The 10+-kilometer was full of small rocks and skerries mostly of similar size. Tracking them on the map would have slowed me down to at least half speedand double the time. One of the bigger islands should have been recognisable, but as I found out later the eastern wind or magnetic deviation had set me off to the right with one kilometer.
I failed to match the landscape and the map. Fairways were not shown although I crossed a couple. I had to resort to a pitstop and position myself with a GPS. As everything was set for positioning and mapping I heard a familiar boat roar from the distance, behind one of the islands. It was my cousin who geared his boat towards me for a greeting and instructions.
-You navigated quite close. Paddle over to the next island, around the peak and left into our channel.
- I see. Yes thank you. I will pack up and paddle over.
It was the last 0,4 percent of this stretch. Quite som luck I’d admit.
Landed on cousins Lill Alen islet it was time to refill my 1.5 litre bottle with some more sports drink. My last visit here was close to 40 years ago. It had changed. Trees had grown bigger and the west side channel of the camelback shaped island had become shallower from what I remembered. The house is a small bungalow that requires a good sprit when accommodating all 6 people in the extended family. I was served spaghetti with minced meat sause under the parasoll outside. After an extra islet inspection I took farewell for my return paddle. This time heading for open and deeper waters. There was minor swell that occationally gave me surf. Navigation was much easier with less density of island. I could choose distant objects to navigate at and paddled on with a mean speed of 9.5 km/hour recorded on the GPS. Quite a nice speed for tourpaddling. The design of the Blade kayak feels even better. My initial direction was 90° and towards Bengtskär lighthouse, after an unspeciyfied time I turned to 45° and kept it more or less for the next 8 kilometers.
Some excellent shallows for surfing with easterly winds were passed. Today was a calm day. No topnotch surfing. I could maintain the speed for the full stretch and but decided to slow down for the last kilometer when turning outside of Hisskär to go inside the archipelago and the Halsskär island.
As arrived to Halsskär food was ready again and waiting for me. What a luxury. I had a cool down swim and a meal of a viking.
The evening was perfect for installing a rudder on my aunts’ kayak, and next day was “booked” for a kayaking training class. Start at 10 am with an hour of basic lecture on land. Sheduled training kicks you up for a good cause onto the best part of the day.
I raised my Solo tent for mosquito repellant in the shade of the fishing hut. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, salmon, bread and tea. There were lots to cover today and several people would want to have at least some instruction with the one available training kayak. After breakfast eight people were lined up to listen on the patio. All kayak parts and functions were covered. With that many listeners the common memory should be excellent, even any mistakes would be multiplied.
Half past eleven the kayak was ready for a go on bracing for support, steering methods, sideways, backwards and forwards movement and all with a twist of paddle handling and maintaining and being off balance. The short big volume kayak was challenging anough for selfrescue balancing training. Assisted rescue went ok, while a single paddler would need to master the selfrescues. The area has big tempting water bodies, so it’s important to have this type of kayak handling perfected. Paddler, kayak and paddle should be in constant contact. None of them should be blown away. After Michaela had as much training she could get it was time for her husband Petter.
Petter learnt about control hand, lowbrace, hip movement and handling the feathered paddle before going to practice on shallow water. After myself tipping the kayak and him properly righting it we were ready for his lifes first paddle tour of a couple of kilometers. The last 500 meters he speeded the boat successfully. All went well and he had a great experience. He added with a solo tour the next day to the nearby village. What a strong achievement in two days.
Petters training ended and we were served a nice dinner with new potatoes, salad and salmon. With bellies filled up I returned to packing my kayak with an excess of 20 kilos of gear. The Blade kayak has less volume than a Nordkapp even if non ruddered and skegged it allows for more efficient packing. At 8 pm I had the heavy kayak lifted on water and paddled back to Kasnäs. It took me an hour 15 minutes with a bit of headwind. 15 minutes less than it took with the towed kayak.
I use Garmin E-trex GPS for positioning backup. It displayed an average speed of 8.5 km/h for today. 1 km/hour less than with half the load. I felt minimal weathercocking and righting moment (boat balance) in excess for my needs. I could do with less of secondary stability. The design righting curves go slightly below the Nordkapp curves. Higher curves means more righting moment or perceived stability.
Demonstrating selfrescue on Blade was a pleasant experience. The deck has a smooth skinlike feel and the curves are pleasant against my body. Hatches and deckline fittings are recessed; including the cockpit rim. Nothing was stopping me from sliding forward. The low deck gave good balance and access to water on bracing with the paddle. The intended narrow kayak front profile and low rim has a drawback in higher seas. With spraydeck open waves are easily pouring water into the cockpit. I wanted the narrowness to cut through waves and so maintain forward speed against wind and waves. Splashing water gives a feeling of speed and fight with the elements. Another paddler referred to the film “Das Boot U96” and the section where submarine captain Heinrich gets a rush in the tower from the roaring sea with full speed ahead.
The islets Halsskär and Lill-alen are private.
