An Awkward Greeting

so i wasn't feeling very creative this morning and i couldn't come up with any really wicked, sweet designs so i decided to do a simple one that was suggested by a friend of mine. but, as i am beginning to figure out, it doesn't really matter how simple the design is, it is always going to be a little tricky. this one started out a little funky, got better, got worse, but ultimately ended up finishing alright.

it was foggy again this morning. really foggy. i don't know why i always seem surprised by this. it's always foggy. its just that some mornings are a lot foggier than others. this was one of the really, really foggy ones. this was the kind of fog that almost seems like smoke. the kind of fog that, when you are out in the middle of it and take a nice deep breath, you can feel entering your lungs. its cool, moist, and heavy and brings about visions of irish moors. its also damned impossible to see through and that is the reason that the first line of my "H" looks like the hunchback of notre dame. after i made the first turn at the top left corner of the "H" i stopped to snap a couple of pictures of the fog and then started padding again.

the original design called for a capital "H" and a capital "I", but after finishing the top of the "H" i decided that i just didn't have room for the extra lines on the capital "I" and decided to make it lowercase. as i was heading down the right side of the "H" i noticed a fishing boat to my left (where the "i" was supposed to go). it looked like it was slowly moving out into the lake so i wasn't worried about him getting in my way or vice versa. things are never that easy. as i made my turn to start the "i" i realized that the fishing boat was now moving towards shore and right into my path. as i paddled up the "i", i had keep moving over further and further to avoid getting in the way of the boat. eventually i was able to make it around it. unfortunately my "i" ended up looking like the leaning tower of pisa. in hindsight i should have slowed down or stopped, let the boat pass, and then continued on my way. oh well, what are ya gonna do, right?. anyway, for all the improvisation with the "i" i think the whole design still turned out well. and i learned that, when you are trying to paddle it in a kayak, no design is as easy as it seems.

Today's Trip Stats and Map

Algae Update

apparently i wasn't the only one who noticed all the brown and white algae in the water on edinboro lake yesterday. it was called in to authorities as a possible paint spill. the Erie County Haz Mat crew came out and, after sending some samples to the lab, discovered that it was a naturally occurring algae and not paint or oil.

i must admit that when i first saw it floating on the water yesterday morning my first impression was that it looked like thin pieces of latex paint. but after seeing so much of it in so many different areas of the lake i decided that it must be naturally occurring. i thought that it was mold growing on top of the algae. i didn't realize that it was a type of algae. but like i said yesterday i'm no algae expert.

anyway, you can click here to read the whole story as covered by WICU12.

A Nice Leisurely Trip

today on the way to the lake i decided not to try any new designs. i figured that i needed a break. i just wanted to buzz around the lake and look at the scenery. that decision actually worked out well today. when i got to the lake there was someone water skiing so, i couldn't really go out into the middle of the lake anyway.

that doesn't mean it was an uneventful morning. i actually got to see a lot of different things. since i have been hanging around the southern end of the lake i haven't had a chance to see the progression of algae on the northern end of the lake for the last few weeks. no big loose there. it seams as though the green algae has given way to brown algae. now, i'm no expert, but i think that i have heard that brown algae is worse than green algae. i don't know for sure. i could google it and find out, but i haven't had a chance yet. it definitely looks and smells worse. it also looks like it has mold or something growing on top of it. again, not an expert, but yuck.

i did paddle my way through some of the less algae covered areas and was able to see a blue heron. it was near the same place where i have see them before and i am going to assume that it is the same one that i have photographed in the past. i wasn't able to get very close before it flew, but i was able to get up close to some flowers on the bank nearby. i don't think that they were completely in bloom yet, but they were still cool. i'm not sure what kind they are but i'll probably google them latter too.

on my way back across the lake i heard a noise, looked up, and saw three single-engine planes. they were fairly low, but other than that it really wasn't that special. i just didn't expect to see them. i took a couple of pictures but they're not very good. just a big blue picture with three black dots. woopie.

the water skier didn't end up staying out for very long. if i had known that i could have done a design. but, it was nice to just relax and look at the scenery around the lake. it has been several weeks since i have done that and it was a really nice change.

Today's Trip Stats and Map

Sailboat II

6:00am seemed to arrive a little extra early this morning and the alarm clock sounded a lot extra loud. after fumbling for the snooze button and a few minutes of groggy contemplation, i finally decided that kayaking, not bed, was the better of my two morning options.
i toyed with the idea of just going for a leisurely paddle around the lake but instead decided to press forward with another design. one suggestion i received was to do a celtic knot. at first i thought that would be an ideal design. a celtic knot is one continuous line that loops around with a few twists and turns. piece of cake, right? well, after 15 minutes of googling and drawing celtic knots i discovered that, when drawn very large with a thin line they look very unimpressive. they really need to have a nice thick, chunky line to make it look right. i wasn't quite sure how to get that look and i really didn't have any more time this morning to try and figure it out. so, now that i was 10 minutes behind schedule and idea-less, i hit the road hoping that i would think of something on the way.

let me just say that a morning without coffee is definitely not the best time to come up with a new, inspiring idea. as i pulled up to the boat launch i decided to give the new sailboat design a try. it was that or nothing. so, still being 10 minutes behind schedule and starting a design that i was sure would take about 45 minutes to complete, i unloaded as fast as i could and hit the water paddling.

the fog this morning was extra chunky and made the it hard to paddle the straight lines with no on-shore reference points. luckily, at about a quarter of the way through the design, the fog began to thin enough that i could make out shapes on the shore. the lake was empty and calm and i was able to make some pretty good time.

all-in-all i was able to create a 3 mile design in under 45 minutes and the final design turned out a million times better than the first sailboat. there are a few small details that i would like to have done differently but, overall i and very satisfied with the final result. i'm really glad that i revisited this idea with a design that was pre-planned and not spur-of-the-moment.

Today's Trip Stats and Map

Sailboat

let me just start by saying that i'm not satisfied with how this one turned out. it's not horrible, but it is not what i had in mind.

the other day my lovely wife suggested that i do a sailboat shape. i thought that was a great idea and fully intended to come up with a good plan for padding it. obviously this did not happen. my planning period consisted of me sitting in the car at the boat launch scribbling on the back of a walmart receipt with a pen. the result ,as you can see, was less then stellar. I NEED TO PLAN BETTER. i already have a better plan for sailboat 2, but i'll save that for a another day.

it was also very, very foggy on the lake this morning, mostly on the eastern shore. i'm not using that as an excuse for the sailboat, but it did make it more difficult. i had a lot more trouble doing the straight lines without being able to see reference points on shore.and the flag on the top of the sailboat? that was a spur of the moment decision the went awry. i'm not even really sure how it got so drastically messed up. but, that is just another example of why i need to have a plan and stick to it.

i'm not sure what shape to do next, but as always, suggestions are welcome.

Today's Trip Stats and Map

Lake Shark

ok, so today i tried a shark. i think it worked out alright. not great, but alright. i think that i definitely need to plan these things out a little better. i almost had to get out and carry the kayak across the shore to make the dorsal fin because i didn't start far enough out in the lake. it also turned out looking a little upside down. i'll plan the next one a little better and hopefully end up with something cooler. i will say that this one was a lot easier than the first one. since the shark was mostly straight lines i was able to focus on landmarks on shore instead of relying totally on the gps screen. that made it a lot less disorienting.

it looks better rotated on it's side. see?

since the shark only took about a half hour i still had some time to kill. so, i just did a quick 10 minutes out and back. nothing exciting, but that explains the second map and stats.

Today's Trip Stats and Map
Lake Shark
..and the rest

and again, if anyone has a suggestion for another shape, let me know.

So, this was my idea

after looking at the tracks that i uploaded to garmin the other day i wondered how hard and or cool it would be to try to kayak a design. use the kayak as my pen and the gps track as my ink, so to speak. i was really excited to try it out, but i wasn't able to go kayaking until today. that gave me a couple of days to decide what design to try. i wanted to do something simple to start, but also kinda cool. my first thought was a flower. i don't know why. it just sounded good. but then i wondered if doing all the petals would be to difficult for a first try. so i thought about other simple shapes like a fish , or a letter, or something like that.

when i left this morning i had settled on doing a simple letter C. for curtis. i set the gps on my lap so that i could use it for reference and set out. but as i started paddling out into the lake i made a last minute decision to go for the flower. i figured, why not?

the stem and the circle for the center seemed pretty easy. the hardest part of that was deciding how far out into the lake to end the stem and start the center circle. even matching up the end of the circle to the beginning of the circle was easy. then i started on the petals. the first two went well, but as i continued on things got a little more difficult. since i was trying to match up all the track lines on the gps, most of my time was spent looking down at my lap. since i really had no frame of reference on the water for where i had been, that was the only way i could make sure that i was lining everything up properly. the problem was that whenever i DID look up at the scenery i got very disoriented. with all the 360's and loops around to do the petals, i was never in the spot, or facing the direction that i thought i should be. it was very confusing. and by the end, you could tell that my petals had suffered because of it (the last one looks pretty sickly). finishing the stem and staying parallel to the first stem line was a lot easier that i thought it would be, but for some reason the leaf seemed extra hard. i think i was still a little disoriented from the petals. all-in-all i think it turned out pretty well for a first attempt.

it was a lot of fun, a little confusing, very cool, and very satisfying to complete. i don't think that this is something i will be doing every time i kayak, but this is definitely not the last time i will try a shape.

Today's Trip Stats and Map

have a suggestion for my next shape attempt? let me know.