After our first backcountry style canoe trip on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage and our first canoe trip where portaging was necessary at Bittersweet Lakes State Natural Area, we heard from some good friends of ours that Living Adventure, a well-known outfitter up in the Apostle Islands, was selling some of their older fiberglass/kevlar tandem sea kayaks. This was the summer of 2017 when our girls were three.
Sarah and I talked it over and it seemed that we could get out sea kayaking with the girls earlier than we thought with a pair of tandems. Sarah would paddle one tandem with one of the twins and I would paddle a tandem with the other.
There was no way we could afford two new fiberglass tandem sea kayaks at around $3,000 – $5,000 each, but Living Adventure had a few boats listed at right around $1,000 each and a quick phone call letting Gail and Grant at Living Adventure know we might buy three tandems (two for us and one for our friends) had them tell us they could give us an even better deal.
We joined our friends at their cabin on Madeline Island, spent the night and then went over to look at some used tandem sea kayaks the next morning.
We paddled Seaward Kayaks Passat G3’s, a Necky Nootka Outfitter and a Necky Nootka Plus. The Passats were narrower, faster and some of them were in better condition than the Nootkas. But, they were also more expensive and there were just several somethings about the Necky’s that appealed to me.
The Nootka Plus was the first tandem that Sarah and I had paddled together for an article I wrote about paddling Duluth Harbor for Canoe & Kayak Magazine years ago. The Nootka Outfitter has a MASSIVE center hatch that was perfect for gear and food hauling on extended trips (I was already planning 110% ahead). And the Necky’s matched: White hull, yellow deck with a black seam, which was good for Sarah’s (and mine I suppose) OCD.
Plus, I knew I could repair all the small issues with the Necky’s to make them perfect for our needs.
We bought the two Necky Nootkas and quickly took them on a trip to Buckhorn State Park on Castle Rock Flowage. This Wisconsin State Park has great campsites you can reach by kayak or canoe. It’s not far from our home/shop and was a fantastic place to introduce the girls to sea kayak camping. The only drawback is that the water can be a little green in the summer.
During our October trip to Buckhorn we discovered all the little things that were wrong with our Necky tandems, we also discovered the things we loved about the behemoths. Thus began our love-hate relationship with tandem sea kayaks. I noted all of the problems with the kayaks and spent the late fall and early winter of 2017 making all of the necessary fixes. I prepped the tandems for the following summer.
Thus we introduced the girls to sea kayak camping…remember when I said that we…err, actually… I was already planning some extended kayak camping trips (on big water)? The following summer (2018) was going to be a big year for the girls and paddling!
To be continued…