A short kayaking overnighter

The short winter is just a memory now and in many ways it starts to feel like spring. We've had a week of sunny weather with day temperatures up to 10C and night temperatures below freezing. The sun and the light are very welcome, but the real spring is in all likelihood still a month away. I've checked out the forest trails for mtb riding, but I've decided to wait a little longer for everything to dry up. However, the forecasted weekend weather was so great that I had to do something and that something turned out to be kayaking. Due to some timetable constraints I decided to leave after work on Friday and be back before lunch on Saturday.


I left from the local paddling club, where I have my kayak, around 17:30. A bystander took a few pictures of me.

The route went through the harbor.

One hour on the way and the sun was about to set. With another hour to my tent spot I didn't have any time to spare.

Selfie. On the back of the Lupine light I had a white light to be visible for boats behind me, not that there were any boats out now.

A very nice evening.

Navigational aids.

The one kilometer crossing of Airisto had never been safer. No wind, no waves and no boats. Of course, falling into the water would be bad, at least without a dry suit, since the water temperature was barely above freezing.

It got darker.

I turned on the head light for the landing, since there are some underwater rocks in that particular place.

After two hours and 14 km I landed and immediately erected the tent. The night was nice and clear.

I went to sleep early and got up in good time before sunrise. It was now colder, around -5C.

Full moon would have been nice, but it didn't happen this time.

Waiting for the sunrise.

Some coffee during the wait.

And there it is.

After more coffee and breakfast I packed the kayak again. This was the first time I had the Aquarius Sea Lion out for a night and I was interested in seeing how much gear it could take, since it is clearly smaller than the Prijon Kodiak I previously had. There was some room to spare, even with though I had some cold weather gear, and there should be no problem packing it for a prolonged weekend. A week long tour should also be possible, but it would need some packing discipline. This is exactly what I wanted from the kayak, since I will at some point get a second bigger and faster kayak.

I started paddling again around eight in the morning. The air temperature was still clearly below freezing, judging from the water freezing on the paddle.

There still was no wind and the paddling was great.

Getting closer to the city, there was some ice in the narrows. I broke ice for almost a kilometer, which was occasionally quite hard, since the ice was up to one centimeter thick.

I was back at the club after two and a half hours and around 16 km of paddling. The paddle suffered a bit from being hit through the ice with force. Fortunately there is a lot of material and length to sand down.

I also had a new camera this time. The Sony RX100 was purchased in February and now I got an underwater housing for it, which should enable me to finally get a satisfactory technical quality from my paddling pictures.

That's it.