As described in the posts about the Fjord before, she is a high volume kayak.
 

In theory she is too big for me but thanks to her small oceancockpit en the extra padding I applied in the cockpit I can handle her very well.

During the summers of 2009 and 2010 I went, together with Tiny, to Norway for holiday. For us this is quite a standard destination. But what was new this time is that we made a self supported 2-weekly trip along the Norwegian coast with 2 seakayaks.

During the preparations for the first trip I had been thinking for some time about which kayak to take with me. Finally I choose the Fjord for a few reasons, First of course her volume. Second was the fact this kayak has been built very strong which looked like an advantage for the rocky coast. Third was her stability which I thought important for easy photographing and for eventual assisting of Tiny who is less experienced at sea.

Well I did not regret this choice for 1 second. Aa..h yes, only sometimes when we had to haul her out of the water. Then she is very, very heavy thanks to the load plus her own weight.
But further she performed very well.

Starting to paddle you have to push a bit to get the weight moving, but after a few strokes she just glides.
And when sprinting sometimes, to catch up with Tiny after photographing, I was astonished about how well she rode and spliced the waves. With her weight she just bashed through them.

Spoken about photographing; even in a confused sea I had no stability problems. Oh yes, at first I had to get used to the mingle of ocean waves with wind- or reflection-waves from different directions. But after a few days this was normal practice. One of our first days of the trip I even got seasick in such a confused sea above an irregular seabed, just caused by tiredness and some headache, but I could handle this quite well without assistance. Of course you understand I did not make any photographs that day wink

Paddling while wind and waves were pushing us from behind, gave me some problems during the first trip because I had difficulties in keeping a straight course: she wandered too easy away to either side. Afterwards, now after the second trip, I concluded that this was caused by fault in loading the kayak. Probably I had too much load in the front compartment. Anyway, during the second trip the Fjord was very obedient in following waves.

During our trips we paddled in maximal 5 Bft winds and I never had any problem with weather- or leecocking. I could always compensate for weathercocking with the variable skeg and leecocking did not occur.

So you understand that I used the Fjord again for the second trip.
Safety first ! smile