Great find! Jacksons are nice boats – my most frequent local paddling buddy has one. Love the colors too. And the paddle was a definite bonus. The Journeys are up to $1600 now so you got an excellent deal.
Consider adding a sprayskirt (more useful in my opinion than a paddle leash). Not just something needed in rough water, but shades your legs in summer, blocks the inevitable paddle drip onto your pants in the cockpit and can double as a cockpit cover when you store the boat to keep out creepy crawlers (I just bunch up the waist tunnel on mine and use one of those elastic bobble ties like you use on tarps to tie off the opening. Can also help prevent the cockpit getting flooded by a big splash (like from power boat wakes or even getting bumped into the shore by strong currents). An adjustable coated nylon one with elastic coaming won’t create any sort of “entrapment” fears.
Congrats on the new boat. I think you made a solid choice that will allow you to do a lot of everything until/unless you find a particular type of paddling you want to get deep into. It looks good too. I wish they still offered that color scheme.
That’s a good point. I have a chartreuse rash guard and bright yellow shell that I wear if I’m in an area with boat traffic, but in more wilderness settings I’m not very hi-viz and might be hard to spot if I had to be rescued.
Congratulations on your new kayak. From what you wrote, that should fit most of your needs and will be a huge upgrade. I see deck lines & hatches that suggest sealed bulkheads. Both of those provide greater safety in bigger water.
I do second finding a spray skirt. I see that Seals shows that as a 1.7 size , so a fair sized cockpit. I would recommend going for a nylon skirt rather than a neoprene one. Nylon skirts tend to be easier to get off & on and will be fine for keeping splash & paddle drippings out. Before you do start using the skirt though I highly recommend practicing without and then with the skirt. These at first should be done with someone standing in the water next to you who can help bring you back up if there are any problems. Being upside down wearing a kayak can be a bit of a shock especially if you aren’t expecting it.
Paddle leashes do scare me on our small Michigan rivers & streams. I can see their point on big open water but the possibility of entanglement is all to high.
Congratulations. You don’t really need a set of nav lights for night paddling. The USCG and most states only require that you have a white light, readily available that you can show to prevent a collision. A waterproof flashlight is sufficient. There are some inexpensive scuba flashlights that serve the purpose. However, for night paddling I suggest that in addition you get one of those LED pedestal lights and always have it on when on the water at night.
While legal, some people feel like a full nav light set misleads people to think that you are a sail or powerboat instead of a smaller manually propelled one.
In my state, PA, non-powered boats are prohibited from displaying any light except a static white light. Flashing light is a distress signal and green and red are reserved for larger vessels. Display of a white light is required after dark.