Charleston Harbor

May 12th I went to Charleston and did a circumnavigation of the harbor.  A great day of kayaking!  

From Remly Boat Launch

 

 

the first stop is the USS Yorktown

 

 

 

 

Then the USS Laffy a WWII destroyer.  

 

Then the submarine 

On South to Shem Creek

 

Then the bird sanctuary. You can see other kayakers out watching the birds.  

Fort Moultrie where some of the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

 

The Atlantic is beyond the nose of the boat…

 

Here we are crossing the mouth of the Harbor.

To where we were going to eat lunch beyond the tourist boat on Morris Island.

 

Then across to Fort Sumter

 

For a short tour.  We had the fort all to ourselves.  

Little ole me…

 

Inside the fort.  Charleston in the background. Tour boat coming.  Soon the fort will be filled with people.  

 

This is where one of our kayak group succumb to the sirens song of Fleet street landing bar and grill.  

Past the Bounty…

To Drum Island for a beer.

 

 

Final crossing back to Remly’s point!  17.37 miles of kayaking.  Whew!  Under the bridge and to the right of the cranes.

 

 

New Look

Removed the Red paint from the sides and refinished the entire boat this winter.  Finally getting around to posting!

 

The boat on the first outing.

Refinish bottom

After sanding the imperfections, scratches and other dings I am ready to roll on another coat of epoxy carbon.

It was a bit cold today, right at that 55 degree limit.

Let the sanding begin

After removing all of the deck rigging, I started sanding off the top layer of varnish. I an just sanding enough to remove scratches and imperfections in the finish that occurred while I was rushing to finish it last spring.

A little adult beverage helps pass the time.

I am also going to redo the seat. I found that after hours of paddling sitting in the cockpit was painful. You can see here I have ripped out the seat. I have been looking at different seat designs and I haven’t decided what I am going to do yet. I have also sanded the combing down to the bare wood. I am going to restain it.

Refinishing

Well, now that the kayaking season is over it is time to refinish the Wraith. It was a great Summer and Fall of kayaking. I did not baby the Wraith one bit and she held up well. She carries many minor scars from the adventures of the year. It is time to (re)finish her right.

I will be sanding off the top layers of varnish, smoothing and recoating the hull and repainting the sides. I have several other modifications in store.

First thing: hatches

New Paddle

On a trip to Charleston I found a great deal on a used Werner Carbon Fiber paddle.

 

 

 

Werner on the top. The Force is now the backup.

Falls Lake

This is  beautiful small lake near Badin NC.  It is formed by a dam called Falls Dam.  Above Falls like is Badin Dam forming Badin lake.  These dams were built by Alcoa to generate electricity when they had a aluminum smelter near by.  Now, Alcoa sells the electricity back to Duke energy.  The weather was better than awesome.  75 degrees and completely cloudless.

 

The lake in front

Cliff

Below Badin Dam

Falls Dam

Congaree Blue Trail

Labor Day weekend 2011… I went on a 54 mile trip down the Catawba. It is called the Congaree down in these parts, because it runs past the Congaree National Forest.

Starting out at Columbia South Carolina

 

A rock garden for the first couple of miles.

 

The bridge at Columbia SC

 

Ray with Jackson going along for the ride.Going through and old lock system.

 

Lake Norman Sunset

Every Tuesday a Meetup group goes kayaking. This time was on Lake Norman.

 

 

Paddle to Paw Creek

Paddled to Paw Creek with my meetup group.

Rail road tunnel

Loaned the Wraith to someone else.

 

The group