As I mentioned in a previous post, the weather was lousy on Friday so I spent most of the afternoon and evening food shopping and cooking - we were having four friends round for dinner on Saturday night, so I did a lot of the prep while it was raining.
Saturday however, was a different story. The sun was shining and it must have been 26 degrees - another scorcher! I did a few jobs in the morning and then lashed the banana boat to the land rover's roof at about midday.
Twenty minutes later, I was lowering her into the Grand Union at Bridge number 37 - I knew I'd remember the number in the end!
Oh okay.....so I got the bridge number in the photo! :-)
Getting into the Mirage wasn't as bad as I had first imagined - I'd had a number of practice runs on my lawn (my neighbours must think I'm one sandwich short of a picnic) and I'd soon worked out that you can't just sit down and then push your feet into the foot well to find the foot-pegs as you do with the Drama Queen - the keyhole cockpit is just too small for that. What you have to do is swing your feet into the boat either side of the ethafoam in front of the seat, then sit on the stern deck behind the cockpit, then place your hands behind you firmly on the deck and kind of push yourself down, keeping your legs straight as they go further down the bow, until your backside finally reaches the seat - probably sounds more complicated than it actually is and the whole movement takes only a few seconds. So, armed with this pre-rehearsed insider knowledge, I sat on the edge of the canal and cracked straight on with it.
I nearly fell into the canal.
Hmmmm. Maybe not quite as straightforward then. But, with a little perseverance and a lot of grunting, I was in. And, I have to say that the seat in the Mirage is much more comfortable than it looks - it's quite snug in the cockpit - certainly compared with the Kiwi, but it really felt comfortable and secure in there. I fastened the spray deck to the rim of the cockpit, grabbed my paddle and I was off, heading south in the shimmering hot sunshine. The birds were tweeting and there wasn't a sole around. It was beautiful.
The Mirage spun round and all of a sudden I was looking at Bridge 37 again.
Oh....I thought. What happened there? Shrugging my shoulders, I plunged my paddle into the calm water of the Grand Union and paddled off again - the birds tweeting as I went.
The Mirage spun round and I was looking at Bridge 37 again - albeit I was probably 5 yards further south than the last time. Hmmmm. This is becoming a little testy. And so it was for the next hour. Literally it took me an hour of strength-sapping, sweat-inducing, grunt accompanied paddling to tame (actually I never tamed her, it took me an hour just to get the hang of paddling in a straight line) the beast!! Wow! Now I know what all the fuss on the forums was about. All the Mirage wants to do, naturally, is turn her head and spin! It really was hard work for that first hour.
After that though, I have to say, it was great fun - the speed that the Mirage gets up to (effortlessly) compared to the Drama Queen was breathtaking and great, great fun. I quickly learnt that my paddle strokes didn't need to be as powerful and exaggerated as they do paddling the Kiwi, my posture needed to be slightly more forward leaning than in the Kiwi and it was obvious that the movement of the bow was about two strokes behind my actual paddling. It was all very weird but a great lesson in kayaking - I'd recommend it to anyone. Here's a few shots of the day:
I spent two and a half hours in total (not much I know, but that first hour was thoroughly knackering) paddling the canal on what was the hottest day of the year so far - it was a lovely experience. The Mirage cut effortlessly through the still waters and at times I let her accelerate to speeds which, frankly, I wasn't able to cope with - on a couple of occasions I realised too late that I was going much too fast only to lose control and spin like a top on the waters surface - the last time almost capsizing, but still leant over enough to take on a lot of water! It was brilliant fun, if a little scary at times, but nevertheless one which I can't wait to experience again. The last hour, I was able to control her pretty well and we ate up the miles in comparative ease and in a straight line!
Although I bought and kitted out the Drama Queen to take touring and on extended camping trips, there is no doubt that the Mirage is probably better suited to the job in my opinion. She eats miles and the paddling, once you are able to keep her in a straight line - is effortless compared to powering the Kiwi. I understand that, back in the late 80's and early 90's the Mirage and her close cousin the GyroMax were the expedition boats of their day. Here's a page from the Perception Catalogue from 1990:
The photograph of the older gentleman at the bottom of the page was taken at Moscow train station (I think he must have been an engine driver) whilst the Mirage and Gyromax in the background were en-route to Siberia as part of an expedition. Cool.
There's certainly plenty of room (I'd estimate about 30 litres) inside the hull, behind the cockpit, even with the ethafoam floatation and you could easily bungee a 40 litre dry bag on the stern deck too, so a perfectly capable tourer in my view. My only niggle is that I would need to lose a few pounds off my backside to really be comfortable in the Mirage's cockpit!
So that's my first experience in the Mirage - a beast of a boat initially, but one which is great fun, travels through the water quickly and effortlessly once the paddler gets a grip of her, a real utility boat - one for fun and touring and one which I would highly recommend.
This was her at the end of our first outing - my gear drying out whilst I chilled with a bottle of water and watched the damsel flies dart just above the waters surface.
I'm back to work tomorrow, but off to Cambridge for the Bank Holiday weekend and can't wait to go kayaking up the river Cam. I'll keep you posted.
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