Kayaks ordered!

We have always enjoyed kayaks in our family.  Here we are messing around at beautiful Convict Lake in California's Eastern Sierra, circa 2002. Those boats were 17' long and 70 lbs. Way more boat than I want do deal with these days. 

I have always been enamored with Hobie's "mirage drive" watercraft. You can pedal them! They have adapted this drive to sailboats, SUP's, everything. And this one really caught my eye at the Seattle boat show in late January. 

• Inflatable! It stows in a bag with wheels. So you can take it in the car, use it other places besides on the boat, without having to have a special rack or trailer. And when not in use on the boat it can be stowed away from the elements.  Weight is 40 lbs.
• Super stable. More so than most kayaks.  You can even remove the seat and use it as a Stand Up Paddleboard.
• Great engineering. There's a place for everything, even easy to use clips for the paddle. The seat is kind of like a beach chair. Very adjustable, very comfortable. It comes with the pump, everything fits into the carry bag. (Supposedly takes 10 minutes to pump up.) They make a variety of accessories for fishing, etc. 
• You can pedal - and paddle! I love doing photography from kayaks. Animals just aren't very afraid of you, and you can get much closer than say walking on land. But with a regular kayak, you have to put your paddle down, secure it so you don't lose it, get your camera ready, etc. With this setup I can hold my camera and just approach the subject easily.
• Maneuverability. It has a rudder, and you steer it with a little hand control. And the drive even has reverse! 

The local dealer invited me to come try it out in Lake Union the week after the boat show. Here is the link to this kayak on the Hobie site.

Here is a short video of the pedaling. It was very natural. And I can tell that you can get a workout from it, more so than a regular kayak. This will be a great for us when we are cruising for a few months. One of my friends that cruised the Broughton's last year told us there were so many bears on the beaches that they were often afraid of going to shore. 

The bright yellow didn't do a lot for me though. Luckily they have a more stealthy option, which we ordered.  

In the "Hampton thinks of everything" department, notice this area on each side of the flybridge - perfect for kayaks. Yup, they designed this space to stow water toys!