Santa Yak visited my house; gear questions, drive questions

It was a tough work week in Stockton, but I got to Sacramento early enough to pick up my first kayak: a mango colored Adventure with the fisherman package from Adventure Sports.

As I arrived packages from Hobie were being opened and there were the new enhanced drive and rudder. I took a brief food break and when I returned the new stuff was assembled on the boat and the original rudder and drive fins were packaged as my spares.

The boat was loaded on a soft rack on my Taurus and after a brief shakedown trip and some rope readjustment I hit the freeway home. Carl and the boys took good care of me; thanks guys I made it home safe and sound.

The car with kayak on top fit easily into the garage. I'm beat and just loosened the tie-downs. It just turned dark outside and I am looking at some of the new stuff I brought into the house. If I get my act together I may be able to hit the water tomorrow, but Sunday is more likely.

The boat looks great. Thanks Adventure Sports; thanks Hobie.
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I lasted until about 8:30 pm and then had to crash. It's 1:50 am and I'm back up. Had to go out to the garage to be sure I really brought a mango colored Hobie Adventure home. Yep, still there.

So, it's like Christmas at my house. Apparently Santa Yak brought me some cool loot. Like the Extrasport retroglide PFD: seems to be an adjustable great fit and lots of pockets and gear attachment points.

The Hobie soft cooler is a nice piece of gear. The trunk of the Taurus is enjoying the anchor, Mirage drive, paddle, seat, sports bottle(s), cart - oops, was going to order the upgraded cart.

I asked Carl and the boys at Adventure Sports to get me a yellow sail kit instead of the gray ones they had in stock.

Thinking about the Delta fog and gray days on the ocean, I decided a little more visibility would be a good idea. And the blue and red clashed with mango after all!

Isn't there a little tackle box with the fisherman package? Could it be in the hull? Maybe I'm wrong. Not like I don't have fishing stuff out my ears around here anyway.

Found the warranty. Hmmm, when I go back to get the sail kit I guess I have to ask the dealer to sign the warranty registration card. No biggee.

Wonder if, for the appropriate financial adjustment, I can swap out the unused standard cart for the upgraded cart. Won't hurt to ask.

Look at all the Hobie stuff in the catalogs! Whoa, heat gun and plastic welding material?

Thunderwear cold weather gloves look interesting; wonder if they can be used for diving gloves? Need a paddle leash; hatch bags? Thigh control straps [Crew (aka darn cat): Does this kayak make me look fat?].

Mirage drive a bit scary. Hobie will recycle your kayak? Okay, here's how to fine tune the rudder and put in the Mirage drive. I will have to check the posts again for the "speed" adjustment with the ?thumb knurle?

Missing a scupper plug string? Where's the darn cat!

More later.....

Okay, back into the trunk of the Taurus. Brought the Mirage drive (a fine wicked piece of gear) and the original fins/masts/etc. in to work out this speed adjustment thing.

Carl from Adventure Sports put the upgrade instructions, allen wrench and cotter pins together with the original stuff.

At the bottom of page 2 of 2 of the instruction it says:

"Tuning Your ST Turbo Fins

The ST Turbo fins are equipped with an adjustment knob located in the upper rear corner of each fin to change the tension of the fins."

Okay, there they are, brass thumb screw thingys (a technical term).

"To tighten up the fin, turn the thumb screw clockwise and to loosen the fin turn it in the opposite direction.

By having more tension in the fin, it will become stiffer and faster with more resistance on the pedals.

With having less tension on the fin, it will be more flexible with more torque and less resistance on the pedals."

Hmm. Clockwise seems to mean the brass thumb knurl is pulling the threaded part [clew tension screw?] "down" away from the body of the drive. (Righty tighty , lefty loosey?)

Did I see a parts diagram anywhere?

Page 11 of the 2004/2005 kayak accessories and parts catalog has the 80010 Mirage Drive parts. No clew tension screw. Maybe something new?

Okay, first thing is the thumb screws are not quite the same distance from the body of the drive, that is, there is a different amount of the threaded part [clew tension screw?] showing on each fin.

Wait a minute, looking at the opposite side they look pretty much the same.

I'm going to the loosest setting on both fins because that's pretty much where they seem to be set now and will be the smallest adjustment. Knowing my mechanical aptitude I probably got this all backward, but moving the pedals manually seemed to confirm the drive is "looser."

I wouldn't want to be doing this with wet, cold, water-softened fingers. Maybe those Hobie Thunderwear gloves on page 7 would help. Is there a thumbscrew turning tool other than the Mark One Thumb And Forefinger?

Okay, going to turn the thumbscrews to loosen the tension and reduce the pedaling effort (hey, I'm a newbie, remember?)

More later: it's late I'm getting confused.

Saturday morning

Tired from the week and from getting up early to play with new kayak toys. The plan is to get the boat dirty tomorrow.

First, need to liberate the car from the soft rack system carrying the kayak. Okay. Hmmm.

Remove the bow stern lines from the car and kayak. They have locking pulleys and ¼” poly rope; they could be used to pull the boat up off the car and near the garage rafters. But I‘m thinking the thin poly rope might saw its way into the polyethylene of the boat – not good.

The belly straps that run through the car windows are 1” nylon strapping with their own ratchet system. They look nice and soft. Okay, throw the ratchet buckles over two rafters just about on top of where the kayak is resting.

One sissie throw bounces back, but the next two throws get both straps where they need to be. Tighten them up a bit in the bow and then in the stern – the kayak is suspended now. Tighten some more and back the car out from underneath. Turn the kayak over in the strap slings so the weight is on the cockpit gunwales. Adjust height up to just to clear the open garage door and we’re good to go.

All right. I figure I need a current tide book, would like to get a couple carded traps, and some rope for bow and stern lines. Then some food and drinkable.

Worried about my bare pfd.

Stop at Dolphin Dive Center and pay for a small dive knife with point for fish killing, a mostly serrated edge, and a built-in line cutter – out of stock until next week. Okay I also buy a Storm Whistle in safety orange.

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