I just couldn't wait for cooler days in order to try out my recently purchased Gumotex Halibut kayak. So I left home very early yesterday morning so as to be on the shore of Embalse de Negratin soon after sunrise, when it was still nice and cool. I used the same launching place, at the foot of Jabalcón, as my last kayaking trip. Unloading, inflating the kayak and preparing it for the water took less than 45 minutes.
Loaded up ready to go. Bear in mind that the Gumotex Halibut is designed for anglers - so it has plenty of easily accessible stowage space.
Spare paddles and my 'what if' bag stow nicely behind the seat.
Jabalcón, the Los Banos restaurant and the Banos de Züjar (Züjar Baths) adjacent to the restaurant. I have paddled this route before, but this side of the mountain was in deep shade on that occasion. The Baths is a public swimming pool through which natural thermal waters flow - in which to relax and benefit from the water's therapeutic properties - so it is said. The restaurant is also said to be pretty good.
Feet up, anchored in a shallow bay for a coffee break. This, of course, is a 'staged' picture - it was really far too early in the day to have lunch laid out! It's just to demonstrate how useful that 'thwart', which is intended for mounting fishing rod holders and perhaps a fish finder, is going to be for a picnic. Those plastic sandals (Crocs) are also new.
The view ahead of my 'picnic table'.
At anchor. The Halibut has an anchoring system favoured by anglers on their sit-on-top fishing kayaks, it's called an 'anchor trolley'. The anchor warp is attached to a loop in an endless rope that runs through rings at the bow and the stern - thus allowing the kayak to be anchored by the bow or stern, or all points in between, at will. I didn't think I would ever need such a thing, and considered doing away with it, but had to try it out first. When I anchored in the bay, by the bow, a gentle breeze blew me round until the sun, still low in the sky, was shining in my eyes - but a few tugs on that endless rope soon had me anchored by the stern and more comfortable. I'm converted, the 'anchor trolley' stays. Not that I'll be anchoring very often on this reservoir, most of it is far too deep for that.
My anchor. Because Embalse de Negratin is a flooded valley, and who knows what debris and snags lie on the bottom, I decided against a conventional anchor, which was liable to get irretrievably entangled, and settled for a heavy weight. If I ever fail to retrieve this one, and have to cut it loose, I'll only loose a 3 euro, heavy duty plastic, wide necked, screw top container, a bit of sand and cement, a bit of old rope and an hour or so of work.
My 'turn back it's getting uncomfortably warm' point. I passed these rocks on a kayaking trip on June 7th. this year, but on that occasion I didn't look back and notice how sculptural those great big rocks are.
Back at the start. Distance covered on this trial paddle was 3 km. and time on the water was 2 hrs. - but quite a bit of that time was spent experimenting with anchoring.
Verdict: The Halibut is quick and easy to assemble, it's very stable, very comfortable and paddles a lot better than I expected. However, I don't think I would like to paddle it against a fresh headwind for very long. For a bit of quiet, lazy pootling around on sheltered water it is going to be ideal. I now have a kayak for every occasion.
