Thursday, February 03, 2011

A Relaxing Day at Home

Sweetwater Rv Park - Zephyrhills, Florida

There was a chance of rain yesterday, so we decided to hang around the house so that we could be there to see if our slides would leak or not.  It was cloudy most all the day but very nice with the temperature hitting 80 for a while.  We never did get any rain, so we still don't know if the new slide out covers will stop the leak.

The other day Al noticed that one of our neighbors had aSea Eagle inflatable kayak.  He had just bought it and was going our for his maiden voyage that same day.  Yesterday, the neighbor Dean and his wife Shirley came over to give us a report on the kayak.  It was his first ever kayak trip so he didn’t have anything to compare it to.  We spent the afternoon visiting with Dean and Shirley and getting to know them.  They are fulltimers from Iowa.  They spend the summers in Iowa to be near family.

Al and I are considering trading in our Wilderness Tarpon 120 hard kayaks, for a Sea Eagle inflatable.

This is like we have now.

Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120 Kayak - Austin Kayak - Product Details 

This is what we are considering.  It’s a Sea Eagle Fast Track 385.

Sea Eagle FastTrack Inflatable Kayaks

The reason we’re considering the inflatable is because of the weight and ease of hauling.  Our kayaks weigh 70 pounds each.  It seems the older we get, the heavier they feel!

The inflatable Sea Eagle Fast Track boats weight 35 pounds.  The Fast Track is one of their newer boats and it has a hard rubber bottom.  The other models don’t have that and we felt it was very important feature, since we frequently hit rocks, oyster beds, branches,  and alligators :)   It’s  supposed to be designed differently than the older style and will track straight.  The last thing you want is your boat to go right and left when you paddle instead of straight.  We need a boat that paddles easily because we usually paddle up  river, so that we can always have enough energy to get back!   We sure would like to try one out before we buy one to make sure this is correct.  Unfortunately the model Dean has is not the one we’re looking at.

The other reason we are considering inflatable boats is for ease of carrying.  We currently carry our hard kayaks in the back of our pick up truck and they take up all the room in the truck bed.  Al is getting a new topper for the truck and if we had the inflatable boats, we would put them in the bed and still have room for more stuff!

We are wanting to try out this boat before we take the plunge and are hoping to find someone with the same boat that will let us try it out!   They are a bit expensive to buy and then find out it’s not quite what you expected, so I guess we’ll consider it a while longer.

We enjoyed our afternoon with our new friends yesterday and are planning on getting together soon for a kayak trip.  We’re having a cold front today and it’s only supposed to get to 68 degrees :)Tomorrow it’s back to the mid 70’s though!

We may go back to Brooksville today for the FMCA rally, but are not sure if we’d even be able to attend the seminars if they are full.    Unfortunately I don’t know how to find out without actually having to drive there, so we’re still up in the air on our plans for today.  We will miss Mac the Fire Guy because his seminar today starts at 9:15 and that is the last day he will be there according to the schedule.   I wonder how many people were at his seminar on Tuesday when we tried to go?  I’ll bet he would prefer having a full house rather than just a few attendees!  We tried to get there Mac!

5 comments:

  1. That inflatable kayak looks like the real answer. Only if it has a rock hard, alligator proof bottom though!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We recently got the 370. Not the new kind but we really enjoyed taking it out. Not by water right now but looking forward to using it more. Like the people you met, we don't have anything to compare it to, it is our first Kayak. By the way tell you r friends hi from 2 more Iowans out on the road full time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. **I accidently deleted this comment from the OTHER Karen and Al, so I had to copy and paste.

    Al and Karen has left a new comment on your post "A Relaxing Day at Home":

    Hi Karen, from another Karen and Al :-). We are starting out on our full-time adventure in March. We have a Sea Eagle boat, not a kayak but the Sprt Runabout, and we love it. It has the rigid floorboard bottom. We selected this one as we needed an option that would allow our dogs to go boating with us. It's a little tight, but not bad, and the boat is super easy to inflate and deflate. I was worried about the dog's nails puncturing it, but it is not a problem at all, so these things are tough! Good luck :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. yeah, that weight gets you after awhile! Even our 49 pounder's were too heavy, and now the new 34 pounds of wonder are amazing. We can carry them on top of the car and put them up with ease and we are old ladies! I'm not sure we could manage an inflatable. Have you tried a sit in kayak?

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to leave comments. We love to read them! To contact me directly you can send e-mail to rvtravels2@yahoo.com