The Misadventures of Wolf Island

Another day and another adventure to share.  I recently received my first inflatable kayak and took it for an outing on one of the local lakes north of the Dallas area.  I've used the traditional hardshell kayaks and canoes but never an inflatable.  The one I ended up going with is the Sevylor Tahiti hunt/fish.  For what it is and the price point for it (roughly $120) I was pleasantly surprised.  Very stable and tracks relatively well through the water.  However, if there is a slight breeze you'll end up working your arms off to try and keep her straight.  Sevylor does offer a plastic skeg that others have said help with this.  They say that this particular kayak is rated up to ~400lbs and is a two person.  I took it out by myself with an additional 20lbs of gear and had no problems maneuvering though the water and around the shallow areas.

When I set out I had planned on paddling out to an island on the lake commonly referred to as Wolf Island.  My intent was to actually go there Saturday morning, explore the area, and then camp out on the island for the night.  Unfortunately I had other social obligations to attend to earlier in the weekend and didn't get out to the lake until Sunday.

The dashed line is the route I had planned to take to get out to the island.  The green being where I made it to and the red representing the remainder of the route that I didn't get to.  The reason that I had decided to stay relatively close to the shore isn't because I'm a bad swimmer, but because I don't care to swim that far.  The round trip distance would have ended up being almost 5 miles from where I launched from, and seeing as how I decided to sleep in I didn't launch until about 2:30pm.  The wind was blowing pretty regularly and enough to where the lake was white-capping.  At first when the wind kicked up I was slightly concerned with the possibility of capsizing.  However, the inflatable had one benefit over the hardshells by simply riding over the waves instead of cutting through them.

Till next time!