After yesterday's shake-down cruise off Ambleside, with Barbie, it was time to take the tandem Amaruk solo. I had purchased 48, 500ml bottles of water to use as dead weight, in the forward cockpit, in lieu of an actual paddler. I wanted to see how the kayak would respond to just one paddler in the aft cockpit. For this initial attempt, I wanted a location where wind, currents and tides would not be an issue. I chose Buntzen Lake just north of Port Moody for this trip. To be precise, the Buntzen Lake BC Hydro Reservoir.

The lake is 4.8 km long and covers an area of 182 hectares.

I left home at 8:15 with some light clouds in the sky and the weather forecast promising nothing but blue sky later in the morning.