New to Me: Folbot Greenland II

So I just purchased Folbot Greenland II. Really stoked to get into expedition kayaking. I really know very little about kayaking except for a couple times renting sit-on-tops. This thing is a skin-on-frame and I would think more like an enclosed canoe than anything else. I'd like to take it up to Ross Lake in Washington for a few days of camping. Gotta learn the ins and outs of yaking first though.

I've watched a lot of videos on Youtube on self-rescue, float bags, etc. This doesn't seem to be the type of kayak that would self-resue in water very easily. Water at Ross Lake is supposedly 40F all year, but we're talking summer weather otherwise. Been thinking about immersion dressing...should I be purchasing neoprene paddle gloves, booties, and some sort of wetsuit or could I get by without? I want to try the sport before I get too heavily invested, but safety is a priority.


I'm going to take the yak out for several day floats around the Puget Sound area first and try out some self-rescue techniques. Since we can't ski, might as well take up a new hobby...

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yer gonna die....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wKx...mp;app=desktop







yep.

Yeah, maybe Puget Sound can wait. My advice is to find a small pond to practice the wet exits. Also helps to have a buddy and a second kayak around.

I'll float nearby in portage bay if you want while you learn. Can keep the beers dry

I heard a pod of orcas outside my house one night and thought it would be a good idea to paddle out by them. I turned on all the outside lights so I could find the house if I drifted too far away and paddled out in an 8' creek boat. I could see their fins in moonlight and hear them thru the plastic of the boat hull and eventually the started coming closer, coming within a few feet of the boat . After about 20 or 30 minutes I figured it wasn't such a good idea when the tops of some of the dorsal fins were above my head.
I couldn't read the black text