Paddling a kayak in wind is something I do more often then not. It’s a rare day when the wind is not blowing here.
But my experience may not add anything of real value because I am an inland paddler and the largest factor I need to deal with is waves made by the wind. If the wind gets strong enough the idea of going where I want to go disappears and you just get blown in the direction of that wind. I never have lost 100% of the “voting rights” to a wind, but loosing 90% of them is expected when the wind gets over 40MPH and I have been blown to shore 3 times now when I just had to tuck-tail and run. So I just don’t try it very often if the wind is at 30 MPH or more.
But in lake paddling, the wind fetch is very noteworthy because if the wind had only a short distance on the water the wind itself can blow you around, but the waves don’t have time to build much so I have been defeated by wind alone a few times and had the waves only be about 14-18 inches tall. I have learned that if I get a few miles of open water in a wind of about 25 MPH the waves will be far higher then those I deal with in a 35-40 MPH wind but the waves having only 150 yards to build. In such cases the challenge is to not get blown into the middle of a lake where the wind is just as strong but the waves have a few miles to gain size.
Most western lakes are not as large as eastern lakes. (not all, but most) So keeping the wind fetch under 1 miles is often possible if you plan correctly.
In the oceans the waves can be made by weather systems so far from you that you can’t even see them. In my time in the Marines I learned about tides and waves, doing boat drills in California, Oregon and Alaska. But those were IBS’s. (Inflatable Boat-Small) And with a combat load and 7 Marines on board, it took the full efforts of all Marines aboard to control them in big surf and waves in the Pacific Ocean. It could be pretty intense and even frightening at times. But the drills and training were re-scheduled when the Navy would tell command what was coming. We’d get a warning usually several hours before the biggest waves would get to our position. Today, inland, I have no such resources, other then the weather forecasts, which are none to reliable in the mountains.
I read many posts on various threads about the majority of paddlers here in the USA and in other places in the world and about 95% of them are in oceans. I find them interesting---- bordering on riveting. I hope to someday go back to Alaska and paddle the shores there, and also the great lakes too. In a month I am going out for 9-10 days on Ft Peck Lake in Montana which is a very large lake by Western standards.
I think back to my military days and can see how the conditions were produced, and how wind, tides and currents played into our plans and movements in those IBSs. Now days, in a kayak, the natural factors are the same, but the “mission” is totally different and the way I can move in a kayak is as different as the movement of a construction truck is from motorcycle. So I didn’t come into kayaking totally blind, but the amount of good I retained in my ability to paddle a water craft was so different as to be nearly worthless. (trying to blend it into kayaking.) What USMC training did do for me which helps me now was to make me aware of the power of water and wind, and teach me the way to read a beach or shoreline. Often the prettiest places with their magnificent rocks and cliffs are also the most dangerous places you can be if the wind comes up in a way that is not to your liking. As with my days in the military, I try to always obey the adage “don’t get into water you can’t get out of”.
The ability to paddle a kayak is simply NOT the same as paddling an inflatable raft. ESPECIALLY a raft in wind. And being alone is way different if things get bad then it was to have teams of 7 or 14 Marines to all pull together. I suspect a canoe is somewhere in-between a raft and a kayak. I now also have a 16 foot canoe and I use it ONLY on calmer waters, and mostly when I want to take friends or my dogs with me. But I only take the canoe out on pretty calm days, or on the rivers where the wind is not so dangerous and waves are not built up.
