At Last: First Cruise of 2010: March on Lake Alvin

At last! The warm weather here on the northern plains has created conditions for early paddling this season. My last cruise was December 1, 2009, on an ice-covered Lake Alvin. I skirted around short leads through the ice and realized that the season had passed. This morning, I revisited the same location at the public access area on the northwest shore of Lake Alvin. The temperature was about 50 degrees at 8:00 a.m. today, but there was a brisk wind out of the southwest. The docks have been reinstalled by the Department of Game, Fish, and Parks at both the public access and the recreation area launch points. As normal on a weekday morning, the lake was deserted.

Since there was a stiff wind this morning, I began my cruise crossing the lake and heading southwest into Nine-Mile Creek. The water was calm in the creek, although there was a pretty good current flowing into the lake. The most obvious sound on the water this morning was the calling of birds, both geese and redwing blackbirds. Early on the cruise, a muskrat or beaver crossed in front of me, but that was the only hint of any mammal out along the banks. I didn’t see any jumping fish either.

The landscape is in a transition phase right now. Everything is brown and seems weary of the long winter. Visibility is much clearer with the absence of green leafy trees and plants. Hints of growth appear with green shoots coming up through the clumps of dead grass left over from last summer.

I was conscious of the flow of water and the breeze through the dead plants and leafless trees. It just felt good to be outside, all alone on the water. The sound of wind and water seem to transport me away from any cares or concerns about the routines of home, work, and relationships.

After reaching the end of Nine-Mile Creek, the point where it is just not possible to navigate any further, I turned back and let the current carry me back to the main body of the lake. From that point, I took out my umbrella and sailed from the entrance of the creek back nearly to the other end of the lake, past the recreation area toward the fishing dock. The wind was strong out of the southwest, and the kayak cruised considerably faster than paddling speed. Having a rudder on my kayak makes all the difference when trying to “umbrella sail.” I just hang the big golf umbrella out and manipulate it to catch the wind. My rudder makes it possible for me to just control the position of the umbrella and steer. I can usually sail up to about 45 degrees off the wind with no difficulty.

Coming back to the public access area, however, was a different issue. While the ride down wind was great, paddling back into the wind took a little energy and the use of some neglected muscles. As usual, I found that cruising back close to the shoreline provided me the smoothest ride and allowed me to avoid the worst of the wind and building waves.

So, it has been four months since my last cruise. If conditions are good, we can hope for about eight months of kayaking/canoeing weather in the Sioux Falls area. We had wonderful weather last November, and now I got out in March, the earliest I have been on the water in several years.

I spent about 90 minutes on the water this morning, and that was about right for me at this stage of the paddling season. I decided to leave the kayak on top of the car, though, since tomorrow seems like another great spring day.

Ingenious Exit from Remote River

(Photo by Jarett Bies)
My pal, Jarett Bies, took a three-day self-contained decent of the Cheyenne River in western South Dakota this past spring with a couple of friends. They decided to take out of the river along a bridge that lacked easy access to vehicles and used an ingenious method to hoist out their kayaks. This type of improvisation is characteristic of Jarett’s adventures on area waterways. He recounted this cruise during a presentation at the SDCA winter conference in Sioux Falls in January.

(Photo by Jarett Bies)
For those of you would like to check out the full story of that Cheyenne River cruise, you will find a full illustrated story in three segments on Jarett’s blog for May 21-27, 2009 at http://kayaksodakjarelaura.blogspot.com.

Umbrella Sailing a Rubber Raft

I received a message recently from a reader interested in umbrella sailing, and he shared with me memories of sailing with his dad years ago on a rubber raft affixed with an array of umbrellas and of the fun he had doing many cruises on Lake Washington.

Since most of us are locked into winter for the next three months or so, I thought that I would like to share this memory that Zach Jackson offered of his adventures in umbrella sailing. It may be another example of how nearly all of us can experience the fun of sailing without being wealthy owners of sleek cruising sailboats berthed at the yacht club. The following is a sort of “every man” type of sailing, and I like the story.
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Hi, Jay,

I recently googled "umbrella sailing," curious to see what would come up, and I found your blog entries on umbrella sailing in your kayak. I wanted to share with you my own umbrella sailing experience, though no kayaks are involved.

In the mid-'90s, when I was still in middle school, my late father and I used to like to go for leisurely floats down a few local rivers in an inflatable raft. We'd drop our bikes off downstream, drive up to the put-in, cruise down, and bike back to the car. This was all well and good, but we found the long sections of slow-moving water terribly boring. One somewhat breezy day, we found that the umbrellas we had brought along for shade could be used to move the raft around a bit, could hurry those slow bits along if the conditions were right. After trying this out on a few occasions, we decided we would step up our game and try the experiment not on a river, but on our local Big Body of Water, Lake Washington. Sure enough, as long as the wind held out, we were able to sail across the lake pretty well, as long as we stayed within about 15 degrees of downwind. But we had a problem - sailing across the lake was a bit more tiring on the arms than we'd hoped for, especially when the breeze was particularly brisk. Something had to be done.

"Something" came in the form of a plastic piping superstructure/mast system that could hold three umbrellas and provide a central trampoline for leg-shading and for additional storage capacity. The umbrellas had wooden dowels attached to the ends for easier steering, and could be detached or attached while underway to accommodate changing wind conditions. It was rather ungainly, but all told we could move at a fairly good clip. I'll defer to my father's account of one of our most exciting adventures:

Last summer [1999], a Harbor Patrol boat thought he could cut across my bow because . . . well, it’s only a raft. I shouted for him to get out of the way, but before he could back up, I smacked his craft amidships. No damage was done, but we exchanged words – mine to the effect that I always supposed the Harbor Patrol was supposed to prevent accidents, not precipitate them – and his words of chagrin and apology, “Nothing like that’s ever happened to me before.” Then he added the words that made everything OK, words to warm any sailor’s heart. He said, “I underestimated your speed.”

All told, I think we traversed Lake Washington at least a dozen times, and those days spent on the lake are particularly fond memories. I've attached some photos of our ungainly craft, the See-Worthy. I haven't gone umbrella sailing in at least ten years, but your articles have me thinking of taking a shot at it in a rudder-equipped kayak - it sounds a lot more useful, and you're not so helpless when becalmed!

Cheers, and happy sailing!

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Zach Jackson