I always wipe the cockpit dry after paddling as well as the entire outside of the boat. My boats are always stored indoors, so the hatches are always removed. The best thing I’ve found for getting all the moisture possible off and out of the boat is a shamwow (synthetic chamois). It beats a sponge and works for a bunch of other things. I have also used it to bail the cockpit when needed (quicker than a hand pump).
You must have a crappy hand pump! 
nope… don’t wipe it clean and dry. It is hot today and practiced dunking and swimming… Its clean of pine pollen now and drip drying… We are not used to 88 degrees.
@magooch said:
I always wipe the cockpit dry after paddling as well as the entire outside of the boat. My boats are always stored indoors, so the hatches are always removed. The best thing I’ve found for getting all the moisture possible off and out of the boat is a shamwow (synthetic chamois). It beats a sponge and works for a bunch of other things. I have also used it to bail the cockpit when needed (quicker than a hand pump).
@kayamedic said:
nope… don’t wipe it clean and dry. It is hot today and practiced dunking and swimming… Its clean of pine pollen now and drip drying… We are not used to 88 degrees.
@bnystrom said:
You must have a crappy hand pump!
I have a fine hand pump, but it’s just one more item that I never bring along and never have needed it. I 've only had a couple of times when there was more than a few ounces of water in any of my boats. Not advocating anything–it’s just how I roll. Whoops–I mean it’s just how I am.
Synthetic chamois cloths (the thick, rough-textured ones) absorb a tremendous amount of water, and they wring out fast, too. I also prefer using one of them over pumping. But mine is past due for replacement, thinned and holey.
The only time I’ve needed my pump was helping another kayaker pump out a canoe that had broached on a rock in the French Broad River.
Why the question? Have I lost my mind in answering such inane query? I wash the salt water off with a hose, scoop out the water with any scoop at hand (usually a cardboard coffee cup from the trash in my truck), then I sponge the rest, or ignore the rest if lazy or got something more important or fun to do. Any left over water evaporates, must be magic.
Having done a lot of rescue practice over the years, I would never consider leaving my bilge pump at home. I’ve also used it many times while out paddling, including in emergency situations. A chamois or sponge is absolutely no substitute for a pump when you really need one, such as when emptying a swamped cockpit. This is doubly true in real conditions, rather than on flat water.
Agree, the two things I don’t leave home without when I am kayaking are my PFD and my bilge
pump with the large discharge and the discharge on both push and pull strokes.
Agreed, the double-action pumps are the way to go. I don’t paddle without a PFD, either.
I think a problem with the H20 vapor density question is whether H20 displaces the same number of N2 or O2 molecules in a kayak hull and whether there is hydrogen bonding ocurring in the gas phase, and if the air is at the dew point (saturation) or lower. I know hydrogen bonding does occur in the gas phase from experiments when I was un undergraduate studying cloud seeding techniques. But I would not want to bet on whether a slightly wet kayak dries faster cockpit side up or upside down I dry mine upside down and they do just fine. Driving home with the cockpit open but not on top usually dries them out …
I’ve had many pumps over the years but none that remove water on both the down and up stroke. Who makes one of those? I’m interested.