Marken is an island in the Markermeer (=the southern part of the IJsselmeer). Or to be more exact: it's a peninsula, since Marken is nowadays connected to the mainland with a causeway. Paddling around an island is fascinating, and because Marken is not to far from Woerden and can easily be circumnavigated by kayak in one day, the "rondje Marken" scores high on my list of favourite kayak-trips. Despite its high score, it's a long time ago I paddled this trip for the last time. The last blog-entry on
Kajakwoerden.blogspot.com about Marken dates from 5 years ago! Today it was "Marken revisited", together with Govert.
We enjoyed a sunny day on the water. It is cold for the time of the year (12 degrees Celsius). But with the sun shining and the wind blowing 4-5 Bft NE, it was comfortable in the drysuit. Actually I did sweat. Probably I did because I had to work extra to compensate the weathercocking of my Tahe Greenland kayak. Or perhaps it was because I had to keep up with Govert?
(About weathercocking: Normally the tendency of a kayak to weathercock can simply be compensated by deploying the variable skeg, but the skeg of my Tahe needs a repair. Now I had to keep the kayak on track with correcting strokes and by edging the kayak. More info about weathercocking, skegs and paddling? Greg Stamer recently published
an extensive article about weathercocking and Greenland kayaks).
Distance paddled: 19 km. Wind 4-5 Bft NE, Temp 12 degrees Celsius, Watertemp 12,2 degrees Celsius. Start at the beginning of the causeway, coffee break in the touristical hot-spot Volendam, lunch stop near the lighthouse "Het paard van Marken".
More information about Marken in the blogpost of 2007.
