Row, row, row your boat

Finally got the kayak on the water for the first time this morning. Had a nice little test run of an hour or so down in one of the small port towns in the area. Test runs are good since it's the new boat I picked up and I've never paddled it before, and you learn things like, "I really need to shorten up the foot braces since they're still set to the height of the 6'6" guy that I bought the boat from" and "hey, I can't take the clip off the rudder with my paddle like I could on my old kayak, so I need to not forget to take it off before I get in the water if I actually want to use the rudder."

I don't think kayakers are a common site here in Naples. I put in at a tiny little boat ramp in a large public parking lot on the main strip of aforementioned small port town. Got a lot of funny looks from the old Italian men fishing off the pier. When I actually put the boat in the water and was putting on my spray skirt and life vest, three or four of them wandered over and just stared unabashedly as I got into the boat and paddled off. Gorgeous day for paddling, too--bright and sunny, and about 60 degrees. Didn't take any pictures because I don't have a decent dry bag for my camera yet. Next time, though.

Oh, turns out if you're wearing a wet suit and you happen to have scraped up your knee four days previously and have a nice scab on it, your sweat inside the wet suit will cause the scab to melt and stick to the inside of the wet suit when you take it off (since it is, after all, basically rubber). I was going to take a picture and post it here, but since I almost vomited myself when I saw what it looked like, I decided to spare you, gentle reader.