John and Jerry Ruby had built a baidarka in the same class with me, but they had not put even one more coat of paint on since the class ended! So John and a friend of his came with plastic sit-on-top boats to accompany us on this trip. They helped me get into my boat, which is a tight fit, and then followed us out.
I was uncomfortable in the boat, and it turns out to be very tippy. Bruce, the instructor in the kayak building class, had us place one of the ribs as a footrest. But mine ended up way too far back and it bends my toes back painfully. I built this boat narrow on purpose because I wanted it to be fast, but I immediately started regretting that as I discovered how difficult it is to keep this boat upright. John watched me and saw the boat rocking back and forth so fast he told me it was vibrating. This means my hips were working overtime to balance the boat and I would get tired quickly.
In a slight swell on a calm day, the bow of the boat often dug into the water and then rose back up shedding water. As I paddled the boat out into the ocean I went over some kelp beds. The tendency of the nose to dip under the water scooped up lines of bull kelp! These floating strands can be up to ten centimeters in diameter and brought the kayak to a halt. Maneuvering out from under them put me at risk to fall over in my tippy boat, so this made me very nervous. I have never had a kayak do this before, and this boat did it three times in a short trip. The third time it scooped up three strands of bull kelp at once. At the time I was close to a rock with surge pushing the boat forward, and it took a lot of work to back out and disentangle myself.
We paddled from Stillwater cove to Stump Beach and landed there for lunch. After lunch I was able to get back into my boat and launch it without assistance. Balancing the boat was wearing me out and I was glad to hurry back to the cove for a landing.