I've probably watched too much Star Trek over the years and while I'd like to believe that the majority of people out there instantly get the aural imagery of Patrick Stewart's voice as Captain Picard, as I do, whenever they hear a monologue starting with "captain's log...", I have a feeling I'm relegated to the minority of the general populace on that one, but don't mention that to the Trekkies. But hey, the tie-in isn't just there for the Trek fans, a real quick little bit of association, six degrees of separation or whatever you'd like to call it ties things together neatly just the same. I named my kayak the Pequod after the whaling ship in Moby Dick and Patrick Stewart played Ahab in the 1998 TV movie of Moby Dick, which I unfortunately never did get to see.

The Pequod is an Ocean Kayak Prowler 15; the 15 in the title is also the designation of length as she's a 15 foot vessel. While her actual dimensions are an excellent touring length of 15'5", she's a bit on the "portly" side as far as kayaks are concerned at 28.5" wide, but that provides her with excellent overall stability and the ability to carry a massive 450lb overall load with a good deal of available space in both the large rear tankwell and the spacious front hatch. With the large hatch and tankwell, excellent load carrying capacity and stability, all I had to do was toss in a fishing pole and this sit on top was the perfect kayak for me.

Make no mistake, she's no racing skeg by any means, but she is indeed a pretty fast kayak once you've got her going, plus I'm a huge fan of the SOT (Sit On Top) design. I'd gone on a few rafting and canoing trips over the years and as someone who really enjoys getting out and away from the crazy life in the urban sprawl, I had always carried a secret lust for a kayak or canoe of my own for not only day trips, but weekend overnighters and eventually week-long river camping expeditions. As luck would have it, late last year it turned out that the perfect kayak for me was just on the horizon.

As winter approached last season, I happened to be perusing the REI outlet website looking for hiking/camping gear when I stumbled into the water sports section. When I saw the specs and price on the Prowler 15 "seconds" (which turned out to be nothing more than some black scuff marks which I wiped off the day I brought her home) they had listed, I did some research of user reviews and confirmed that it was indeed the ship I had been waiting for. With the price being less than half of the regular cost it and with the ability to not pay shipping by having it trucked to the local REI made this more than just a great deal and the money I saved on the overall price paid for things like a PFD and paddle.

I remember when I first picked her up, what a fiasco that was. I showed up with my Jeep Cherokee with the plan to just throw her on the factory rack upside down and lash her down well with rope. After a lot of pressure and persuading from the local REI staff I purchased some foam blocks to cradle the yak right side up on the roof (still in the cardboard and plastic wrapping), turning out to be a total mistake, which lead to a somewhat eventful ride home that was both unpleasant and unnerving to say the least. I of course found some amusement when it came time to move the yak again to our new house as loading it on the roof of the Cherokee with a couple pool noodles on the crossbars and simply lashing it down proved to be an extremely stable (and essentially free) method of transportation.

With the Cherokee on the way out and the Rover being the new mode of transportation I had to look into commercial carriers and settled on the Thule system. Strong and stable, it carries the yak well, though the overall height does make it a little bit of a challenge to load and unload however I'm working out a system fashioned out of PVC pipes to resolve that issue, so I'll hopefully have more on that topic later.

Finally a warm weekend was in sight while rain clouds were not so it was time to get her out on the water. With wife in hand, we headed for the local lake to get in some boating and fishing time, but alas as we arrived quite early, the kayak rental shop was not yet open. The bait shop however did have canoes and paddle boats for rent and while my recommendation was to go with the canoe, my wife wanted to try a paddle boat. Big, stable and unfortunately insanely slow, she did still have a great time on the water. I'd never actually ridden one of those myself and I knew they were slow, but I had no idea just how slow. Though she was pedaling away and likely going as fast as the boat could take her, a few gentle paddle strokes had me surging 15, then 20 then 30 yards away. I slowed my pace so we could stay near each other and even tried attaching her to my yak so I could tow her for a bit, but that was just too much work. After unhooking I decided to paddle out a ways and see what was ahead, before coming back I hooked up my rod & line so I could troll as I returned. Staying by her side I eyeballed her paddle boat a bit closer and while not the greatest watercraft out there, it certainly looked like it would also be fun. There was a large platform on the back that the dog could sit on and it was designed for two, I'll have to keep that in mind for future play around trips.

While fishing as the day progressed, the Northwesterly winds started to pick up and I realized just how much I was going to need to make some sort of drift anchor. No problem, just added that to the list of things I'd like to add/design/buy for the yak, that and a sail. It sure would have been nice to take advantage of that wind on the return trip to the docks. Make that 10001 things you can do with PVC pipe, design is in progress. Anyway, all in all it was a great day out and I was glad to get a chance to do a little fishing, even if the only thing I actually got was wet. :)