I was very tempted to skip the bike ride on Friday. There was some rain falling outside in the morning with more expected later in the day, and my head was deeply immersed in the current project in my woodworking shop. In the end I compromised a little, riding for just an hour rather than the usual 90-minute loop. The Internet radar was showing a dry window a little after 8 AM, so I went out and got it done.
It rained off and on the rest of the day, and I was happy to stay in the shop. My main concern was the woodwork project, but I did find time to patch the crack in the stern of my V10 Sport:
The brown stripe is a strip of Kevlar. There's a layer of fiberglass on top of it, but fiberglass is transparent once it's saturated in resin. It’s an unsightly thing, isn’t it? I've patched my share of boats over the years, but one skill I've never picked up is using gelcoat to match the color of the rest of the boat.
I want my boat to look nice as much as anybody else, I guess, but then again, making a boat look nice doesn't make it faster. Back in 2000, when I was still racing slalom, one of the teams expected to compete for the U.S. Olympic team spot in men's double canoe was Lecky Haller and Matt Taylor, and at the Olympic trials they had to race in a boat that had been badly damaged by the airline during a training trip to Australia, the Olympic host country that year. The boat had a big ugly patch like the one pictured above, except it was across the hull amidships, where it was probably more of a detriment to their boat's performance than the one above is to my boat’s. But Lecky and Matt won the trials anyway, edging out the talented team of David Hepp and Scott McCleskey by the narrowest of margins. I remind myself of this story every time I'm feeling upset over a broken boat.
I was back in the V10L yesterday, paddling for 70 minutes on a river that was a bit choppy with a south breeze blowing. I really am surprised how good I’ve felt the first couple of times back in that boat; I thought for sure it would be a tougher adjustment after paddling something more stable. After all, it's the same boat I could barely handle at all in the Atlantic Ocean during the Blackburn Challenge last summer. While yesterday’s conditions were nothing like that day in the Atlantic, they commanded some attention, but I felt good and relaxed. I paddled a loop out on the river, and on my way back to the harbor I surfed a few little bumps that a downstream-moving barge rig was generating.
When I got to the river this morning the wind was light and conditions were placid. I paddled to the mouth of the harbor and found a barge rig moving upstream, so I ferried out to try some more surfing. I got several decent rides--maybe even a couple of very good ones. But the waves' sweet spots were small, and they were wandering pretty far right and left, so no ride lasted long. I spent maybe five minutes playing around before I decided it was time to move on. I paddled up the Arkansas bank and looped around back to the harbor and back to the dock to complete 60 minutes in the boat.
This past week has been warm but quite pleasant, especially in the mornings and evenings. But today we're knocking on the door of just plain hot. It was 86 degrees Fahrenheit when I finished paddling this morning, and I think it was pushing 90 by the afternoon. The forecast is showing at least one 90-plus day in the coming week.
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