Quite a bit happening with both the wife and little one sick. Bronchitis barely takes a step out of the little one, but the wife suffers from man-flu. (Gets sick, lies down and thinks she's dying. :) ) Granted it is much tougher for her to get sick now since the little one is always asking for mama to do things.
Seeing as I have a bit of time to plan things out and do a bit of thinking I've made a bit of a change of strategy. While the Hobies are unquestionably excellent kayaks, they are a significant investment. I'm thinking I should consider going with something that is a bit more "entry level" in terms of budget. The other considerations with the Hobies is that they are quite a bit heavier than other offerings, which I need to take into consideration since I'd be loading and unloading these by myself.
I've done a lot of reading over the last week and I've decided to go with a smaller, lighter, traditional yak as a first. Something like the Viking Espri is looking like a good, inexpensive option. They have another model, the Tempo which looks like a better fishing platform, but it's pretty heavy, and the shape of it is quite bulky. (7kg heavier than the Espri.) Then there is also a longer fishing-specific model called a Profish. It's a well rated yak, but quite long and about as heavy as the Hobie's. However it's less than 1/2 the price. The wife is actually warming up to the idea of the Profish though, since it has a large front and rear cargo area where I can easily sit the little one on to go have a paddle. The Espri only has a rear cargo area and we'd both prefer if the little one was sitting up front if she goes out with me. I'm not going to complain if it's also the better fishing platform, since the Espri would require quite a bit of creativity to set up well for fishing. Still, it will look mighty odd on top of a Honda Jazz (Fit) as the car is 3.9m while the kayak is 4.35m long.
Viking looks to have quite a good reputation as a kayak manufacturer, and they make all of their yaks up in the Sunshine Coast, plus offer a 10 year warranty. (Compared to a 2 year warranty from Hobie) Now I just need the go-ahead to put on a roof rack once the Mrs. approves the cap-ex. :)
