Cruising in California
June 3-12, 2005

I took a road trip to southern California in early June, taking along my Cadence. On the way I met with some folks in Folsom, Long Beach, Newport Beach, San Diego and Alameda. Here is a log of the trip.

After driving all day Thursday and half of Friday, taking wrong turns several times I finally arrived at Lake Natoma near Folsom, CA. There I met two people who were awaiting my arrival in the 90+ degree heat. Bill and his wife greeted me and helped unload the Cadence near the boat launch.

Shortly afterwards we made our way to the water.

Bill preparing to board Bill heading out

Bill got into the Cadence and, after a slightly unsteady start, pedaled off into the lake.

There was a kayak class happening nearby. Bill pedaled alongside, made some adjustments to the drive tower position, and pedaled around a point of land and out of sight.

Five or ten minutes passed with no sign of Bill. His wife and I decided we should go looking for him. Just after reaching the parking lot where we could almost see the water on the other side of the point we saw Bill pedaling at a moderate pace back towards the boat launch.

Bill returning

We reached the dock about the same time. Bill was a little wet. Apparently he decided to test the stability of the Cadence, and ended up capsizing it. He was able to get back in and continued on his journey, just a little wet for the attempt.

At the dock he decided to make a wet exit rather than fumble around on the hot aluminum decking. It must have felt good!

The boat was removed from the water and placed back on the roof of the car. In a few short minutes everything that had been in the water dried in the hot sun, well, almost everything. The PFD was still a little damp along the seams.

Bill and his wife then went on a bike ride and I continued on my journey to southern California.


Naples Lagoon One of Sid's boats Daggerboard drive

The next day, Saturday, I had a wonderful time pedaling my Cadence around the Naples area of Southern California. I met with Bill Gaines (HPVA record keeper) and Sid Shutt (builder of the Hydroped hydrofoils). We went for a cruise around Naples, starting at Sid's beachfront house. Sid and Bill used a pair of Sid's older pedal powered boats, which were monohulls with flying amas, somewhat like Bob Stuart's Kawak. They had dagger board drives, too, but instead of a twisted chain they used a bike chain and cranks to drive a right angle gear box and U-joints to deliver the power to the propeller.

Sid in his boat Bill in a boat

The water was pretty flat, which was good considering there had been some sort of sewage overflow that morning and the waters were closed to swimmers. There were plenty of paddlers, sailers and other boats out on the water, however, so we decided to join them and try not to get too wet - and washed off well after returning to shore.

Naples canal Waterbliss Barracuda

Anyway, the canals were very pleasant to pedal through. The houses lining the sides were gorgeous, and every spot along the canal walls was lined with boats. Most of the human powered boats we saw there were of the rotomolded kayak variety, with quite a few Hobie's (Mirage and otherwise), a couple of Hydrobikes and a pair of Waterbliss Barracuda water bike X-trainers (the BK100 model).

Mike in Cadence on lagoon Bill and Sid Sid's beach house Bill in Cadence

We checked out the Marine Stadium, passed some folks practicing in a dragon boat and returned to Sid's. There Sid, Bill and Paul Gracey (who arrived too late to cruise with us) tried out the Cadence, taking it for a quick spin.

Electro hydro ped drive Hydro ped foil Electro hydro ped boat

Afterwards we sat around the table, talking about boats, HPV's and Sid's newest creation - an electrically assisted hydrofoil. The idea was that Sid would once again be able to fly his boat even though his legs were no longer fully up to the task.

Thanks, Sid, for a wonderful afternoon at your place!

Cute car (front view) Cute car (rear view)

On Sunday afternoon I went for a cruise at Newport Beach's Balboa Island. I followed some folks with a kayak on the rooftop of their car through a myriad of streets, back alleys and over several bridges, finally arriving at a street that ended at a path along one of the beaches. There they helped carry my boat over the concrete retaining wall to the shore. They went off in their boat and soon after off I went as well.

The Balboa area is a water playground. Thousands of boats are anchored to floating buoys, tied up at docks or are cruising up and down the channels. The folks who sell the Duffy electric cruisers must have made a fortune as they could be found everywhere, and there were plenty of them cruising up and down the canals and larger channels.

After a pit stop across the channel at the waterside arcade (complete with Ferris Wheel, arcade games, food booths, etc.) I cruised on down to beyond the jetty to the open ocean. There I found some fairly good sized swells coming from several directions. With the boat traffic now going faster than the 5-6 mph speed limit of the harbor and with the potential for one of them, beer and/or wine in hand, not seeing me in time as I disappeared in a trough I decided it would be best to return to the harbor. If I had been accompanied by another Cadence or two it would have been fun to have ventured further!

Anyway, cruising the canals gawking at the houses and other boats was also a lot of fun. It was even more fun to outpace some of the larger tour boats, listening to their talks about the various sights that they were seeing as they pressed the 6 mph speed limits.

I found five guys in an OC-6 - yes, they were one man short - being paced by another guy in an OC-1 (one man outrigger canoe). Apparently the five guys were being trained in paddling techniques as they cruised among the other boats in the channel. I greeted them - and then left them in my wake. Yee haw!

All good things come to an end, they say, and after going around just about all the channels and backwaters of the area I returned to shore leaving just the Back Bay to explore some other time.

What a great place to pedal!

Mission Bay entrance

On Monday I drove down to San Diego, stopping at a couple of places along the ocean. The first place was Mission Bay.

Mission Bay reminded me of a bunch of canals dug through an area of sandy dunes. While there was some flora, it consisted mostly of low shrubs and isolated trees here and there. Overall, it looked like a relatively boring place to go boating - so I didn't.

Due to some other appointments I didn't have a whole lot of time, otherwise I think I'd have tried boating in Coronado Bay. Between all the marinas, navy vessels and waterfront structures and natural features I think that would have been a fun place to explore. Maybe next time!

La Jolla boat launch La Jolla beach La Jolla cliffs

I did check out the La Jolla area. Here is a picture of one of the public access and, apparently, free boat launches just north of downtown La Jolla. Somehow I don't think my Escapade with its deep keel would have been successfully launched here. It would be exciting enough launching a Cadence in the surf!


After driving back north to the San Francisco Bay area on the following Friday I stayed overnight at the Godshall residence. They were kind and gracious hosts, willing to put up with this wayward traveler.

The next morning we went to a boat ramp on the SF Bay side of the island of Alameda. The tide was way out, with the water barely reaching the bottom of the boat ramp. Just beyond the ramp were large beds of weeds - just the sort of thing that would not be helpful for beginning boaters to traverse.

We decided to go over to the nearby state park instead. Meeting Larry and Jeanne along the way we directed them to follow us to the park.

After Tony paid the nonrefundable $5 state park parking I drove over to a beach side parking lot and took a look.

Oh, no! The low tide shoreline had receded nearly 100 yards from the high tide mark, revealing a vast mucky, sandy bottom. It was apparent that the water continued to be quite shallow far into the bay. This meant that people would have to wade considerably further out into the bay before being able to use the boats.

We headed back to the boat launch. We no other choice, since we had advertised that this was one of the two places where we would be demonstrating. The other possible place was the state park.

Larry's Cadence on dolly Alameda demo Returning to shore

Larry and I unloaded the Cadence boats, and mine was placed in the water.

The first guinea pig, er, um, pedaler was Tony. He soon found out how to use a canoe paddle to pole his way through the weeds. Once past he was able to pedal around the calm, open waters without any problems.

Tony returning

His wife tried it next, followed by a cyclist that came for the demo. The weeds were a nuisance, certainly, but they were able pass through them using the paddle, clearing the propeller once they were through using the weed cutting blade. That is, until I had to replace the blade when it broke off.

I went for a short cruise in Larry's boat along with the cyclist (in my boat). It was pretty warm in the bright sun, but a persistent westerly breeze had started blowing. That helped to keep the temperature down and also started creating a light chop.

All too soon we returned to shore. We rinsed the salt off the boats, stored them on the car tops, and drove off. The demo was over.

Grant Street launch

Larry and I found another boat ramp on the end of Grant Street, located on the southeastern side of the island. This appeared to be more suitable for demonstrations in that the water was devoid of weeds, was deeper near the shore at low tide and somewhat more protected from the winds and waves of the bay. Maybe the next time we came we would have it there instead. C'est la vie!

Thank you, Godshall's, for all your help and accommodations!


Encore demo

From Alameda I drove to Waldport, OR, to meet some folks on the Alsea River. They tried out an Encore boat as well as the Cadence at a little marina/campground along the river not too far from the ocean. In fact, with the tide coming in the river was most definitely flowing upstream at a couple of knots accompanied by a moderate breeze.

The Encore needed some adjustments to one of its drive towers. Somewhere along the way it had been installed with the tension pulley in the drive pulley position, and vice versa. This caused all sorts of loud popping or banging sounds as one pedaled strongly forward. The source of this was the drive belt slipping.

Single rider encore trial

After swapping the two pulleys and adjusting the tension everything was A-OK. The couple went for a short cruise down and up the river, returning to the dock.

The husband tried the Cadence, and managed to pedal it about as far as they pedaled the Encore. However, he decided to get out at the end of the marina dock to let me return it to the boat launch. I got in, pedaled it up and down the river a little checking out the various eddies and currents, and returned to the car.

It was a long drive back home!


Photos I took during the tour can be found here.


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