Preperations for the upcoming adventure

In the summer of 2026, to celebrate 30 years as a professional kayak builder, Anders Thygesen and 2 friends will do a 1600 km. (1000 miles) kayaking trip around the entire coast of Northern Norway. You can read the beginning of the story here: https://kajakkspesialisten.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-beginning-of-great-adventure.html

There is good reason to put some thought into the kayak you use on a long trip. However, it is of my lesser concerns. For my last long trip (and many other not so long ones) I used an Iqyax or baidarka. An ancient Alaskan or Unangan design that has proven to be fast, well tracking and very seaworthy for an eternity. The first baidarkas seen by outside visitors were reported byVitus Bering in 1642. And they must no doubt have existed for hundreds, maybe thousands of years before that.

Apart from seaworthiness, speed, tracking and good surfing, I like the baidarka for it's spacious inside wich allows me to bring plenty of food, clothes and other gear along. The baidarka I used on my last long trip measured 540 cm. in length and 51 cm. in width. It worked absolutely nicely, but I evaluated later that a shorter, wider kayak might have been even better. A long narrow kayak is generally considered a fast kayak, wich is mostly true. However, a lot of the paddling in the Norway circumnavigation in 2011 was messy choppy seas with wind and waves from different directions (not to mention currents). I guessed then that a shorter, wider kayak with it's easier maneuvering could probably in the 73 days of paddling have given me a better average speed than the "fast" long and narrow kayak, since keeping track in messy conditions also takes some of your energy and average speed. This year's spring and summer I've been paddling a very nice 520/54 baidarka. It could be the kayak I was looking for. It is fast, stable and tracks well. It has a flatter bottom than many baidarkas and I can very easily make  sharp turns with a few strokes of my paddle. It is a nice candidate, but still, I cant stop thinking that it could be just slightly longer and slightly wider. There is still time, and this autumn I began building yet another baidarka frame for testing. This time midway between long/narrow and short/wide. The outside measures are 530/53. It is far from finished, but I already made up my mind.

For navigation, I will do the exact same thing as last time.  Road maps at scale 1:400000 worked just fine for navigating this stretch of coastline. You paddle an average of 40 km. a day. A gereral direction is all you need. In the places you're likely to get lost, a more detailed map won't be much help. A small GPS, however is nice to have for pin-pointing your location. My old GPS will last for a week with all-day paddling on a pair of AA batteries. It will join me on this trip, as well as my old maps and the same compass I used last time.

I will re-use the compass in the picture, and part of the deck rigging from my old kayak. It worked very well back then. It the front compartment I have a large drybag, and I'm thinking of skipping a front hatch and bring this one alone. It holds 60 liters, and I think I could stuff all the gear i'm likely to use in the back and mainly use the front for spare stuff, dried food storage ant the like. The kayak will look prettier without the front hatch.

I also thought I would re-use my old drysuit. I have used it for more than 15 years now and it is still fairly dry. It is very light and has just the simple design that I like. However, I just found a small defect in the zipper. I'll try to repair it tomorrow...

Apart from equipment I try to improve my paddling technique and do a little exercises for core muscle strength and flexibility. I had a back injury that bothered me for years, but exercise has helped and I rarely feel any of that back pain any more. I excercise now to keep it that way.