What kayak is best for sea touring multiple days ?

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Robert B

I have been looking at the WS tsunami 170 pro. A transistional touring boat. But there are so many choices out there.I'm looking to paddle Glacier and Resurection Bay in Alaska for 2 - 4 weeks.And am also interested in a trip to Isle Royal in Lake Superior.I live in the Pacific North West and of course will want a good weekender.I am 5' 8" and 200 lbs. 10 inch shoe and with mediocre kayak paddling skills.This is a one time one boat purchase and I dont want to have to keep upgrading like I have with backpacking equipment. Much of the reviews on the internet are simply plugs for certain brands or fishing trips for reviews.Someone out there has taken the trips I'm aiming for. Please help !! I've tried some at local retailers but feel I'm always being fitted for there selection only.And I dont believe you can really know a boat in a few hours. Thanx

Answer
I would highly recommend looking at the NDK (Sea Kayaking UK) Explorer. I've paddled one extensively in Northern California, Alaska, and the UK, both day trips and 1-2 week self-supported trips. Others have used this model for expeditions all over the world: Iceland, Anarctica, Madagascar, Tasmania. It's reasonably fast (not racing boat fast, but fast enough), and it's extremely well-behaved in wind and rough water. For me at least, it's very comfortable to sit in all day. Some people don't care for the small 10" round hatches, but I've been able to stuff my full-sized Thermarest and other car-camping gear inside. While it's a great expedition boat, it also works fine as a day touring boat for someone my size (210 lbs.).

If you don't care for the Explorer, you may also want to try the Valley Aquanaut. It is a somewhat similar design but is perhaps more user friendly at the expense of a little bit of performance.

If you've been paddling mostly transitional touring kayaks, these might seem a little awkward at first. Give it about 1/2 a day on reasonably calm water, and you'll settle into them pretty quickly. Since you're planning to do some longer trips, it's going to be important to be able cover some miles in a day. I think if you end up getting a Tsunami or other transitional boat, you'll quickly outgrow it and you'll be wishing you had a faster boat.

Since you're in the Pacific Northwest, I'd recommend calling Body Boat Blade on Orcas Island to check it out, along with the other boats they sell. They're honest enough that they won't push anything that clearly isn't a good match for you. Since you describe your skills as "mediocre", you might also want to consider taking some classes from BBB. Maybe make a weekend out of it. It's one of the best sea kayaking schools in North America.

South Sound Kayak in Olympia also has NDK boats but not Valley. You could contact them for a demo too.

Another: Am I analyzing a movie to the extreme?

Oh So

SPOILER ALERT:

When I watch movies I tend to concentrate on the actors and the story. And consider the role each plays in the film. Here is another E.g

I love The Descent; it is probably my favorite horror movie of the last decade, and one of my favorites of all time. The entire plot is kicked off by one character arrogantly jumping (and dragging 5 friends with her) into the unknown.
The movie is about six women who go on a spelunking trip. Because caves can be dangerous things, spelunkers are supposed to take a map of the cave they are exploring and also register their expedition with the local park officials. That way park officials will know something is wrong if they donât hear back at the end of the day.
Since there wouldnât be a movie without some stupidity, we find out that the woman setting up the trip takes the group to a new, unexplored cave, without registering their expedition and without letting them know what she was up to. As fate would have it, there is a cave-in that prevents them from going out the way they came in. Since they didnât register their trip, no one knows they are there and they canât just sit tight and wait for help. They have no choice but to descend deeper into the cave (hey, I wonder if thatâs where they got the name fromâ¦?), and this is of course where they meet with some serious creepy crawlies that like to eat themâ¦
âleap before you look,â I am all about embracing uncertainty and moving into the unknown. But there is a difference between calculated risks and stupid risks!
Exploring an unknown cave with no back up safety plan is dumb.

Last one; *Hardy-har-har,

This list has some of my favorite movies on it (Jaws and The Descent). Hostel is not one of them. Hostel may very well be the worst film I have ever seen. However, the stupidity of the characters does illustrate the lesson I am trying to make here.
The macabre events in Hostel manage to take place because three guys who are backpacking across Europe on vacation bump into some random stranger who tells them about a Hostel (hey, I wonder if thatâs where they got the name fromâ¦?) in some small town where lots of beautiful women like to have sex with American guys. Armed with this completely unverified bit of info, they go to the hostel and bad, bad things ensue.
I donât know about you, but I donât think I would alter my plans and go visit a random hostel in a random town because one random dude said it was good. This is 2012! We have Google! And the Internet! And phones with which we can call people to ask their opinions! This whole fiasco could have been avoided if the guys had just read the Hostelâs Yelp review: âQuaint town, nice accommodations with beautiful women, but there is a 99.9% chance you will wake up chained to a chair while some guy tortures you with a chainsaw and blowtorch. 4 stars for ambiance, 1 star for experience.â
Trust is a wonderful thing. I like to take people at face value and believe in the good of everyone. But I am not an idiot. If someone wants to partner with me, I am going to learn as much about them as I can. If someone wants me to spend money on something, I am going to do a lot of research on what I am buying. Even if itâs not a matter of trust, thereâs always the matter of opinion and taste. Just because one random guy likes a quaint European village doesnât mean itâs going to appeal to my tastes. A little due diligence is very important.

Okay, now I'm finished.

Answer
I don't think you are being extreme, just picky about films and because you have seen so many, are a good judge of what's good and not. In fact, I agree with your opinions here.

I love the Descent series. What made them so unique and different (despite other films such as The Cave, The Cavern etc trying to mimic it and hoping for the same success) was that it wasn't stupid. The characters and their situation was realistic and it could hap

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