First Moken outing

Well the weather and tides came together as had carefully forecast at the end of April. I made my preparations at home and planned for my first outing which would be setting off just after low tide allowing me to get the feel of the yak for a couple of hours and use the last two hours of the rising tide and fading daylight to do a spot of fishing.

I loaded up my car using a soft rack to carry the Moken to my selected spot. The lifting of the yak onto my reasonably low car was not too difficult and it sat right way up and was strapped down. The return journey some five hours later was a different story buy more on that later so keep reading.

I was really excited to get in the water as quickly as possible so I lifted the yak off my car at the chosen launch point and carried it the short journey to the slipway. Laying it just short of the tide I loaded all my other kit onto the boat and after a final check of all my hatches, bung and leashes I sat myself down in the luxurious kingfisher seat of the Moken. It immediately felt just right and I pushed off gently into the inner harbour. I tested moving around in the protection of the small harbour and the yak seemed stable and responsive to my basic input in the still and shallow water. I was a happy man.

I figured I was ready to hit the open water. There was a southerly wind blowing around 18knts which was due to drop a bit later so I headed up wind and across the bay which was about a mile stretch. My paddle was set at 220cm with no feather. There was little swell or tide at this point and I got the yak up to a decent speed and found that keeping it going with a low paddle style was only using about 30% power, it felt great and it tracked perfectly straight with little or no correction needed across the open bay. I spent the next couple of hours just paddling around close to shore and a few times out into the more open exposed water. I could not say there was any swell but more just a little choppy as the tide picked up. I positioned the boat in all directions to the swell to check stability and it was great. I do intend to try this in bigger swell and wind along with going through my capsize drills and boarding methods.

More to follow..........