Did someone forget to turn back the thermostat? Enough already, 90-plus is fine if you live in Arizona or New Mexico, but up here we’ve got thicker blood! Besides, by turning it back to the 80s we’ll save some energy, won’t we?

When it gets this hot, paddling a kayak is down the list a bit of my most favorite things to do, and that’s going some for me to have to say that. But strapping on a couple of inches of insulation and exercising vigorously just isn’t inviting, no? Sitting in a breeze and sipping on a cold drink is much more attractive in this oppressiveness.

But I’ve found the answer to my Aquarius leanings that satisfies the need to get out on the water and beat the heat at the same time, thanks to Doug Oliver at the Ski Rack in Bangor.

Oliver called last week to entice me to try a sailing rig on a kayak.

Perfect, I thought, not much energy expended, movement across the water and from the cockpit of a kayak. What more could I ask for? I had to wait until Thursday to take him up on the offer. We met at Gould Landing, Pushaw Lake. We had the place to ourselves – along with about 40 others seeking relief from the heat.

There are numerous sailing rigs offered in the kayak aftermarket, and I’ll admit I have eyed them with a degree of curiosity tempered with a little skepticism. After all, it doesn’t take much more than a wink to flip a kayak if you’re not paying attention. So putting a 12-foot mast amidships, affixing a sail and heading out on the water would seem to be akin to Russian roulette, wouldn’t it?

A little less risky, I figured, are those smaller sailing rigs that allow you to run with the wind. They’re pretty small and something you could drop quickly in the event of a sudden blow. But you’d need a rudder on your kayak, and I’ve got a skeg, so they’ve been only a curiosity.

Enter Oliver and his Hobie Mirage Adventure Island kayak. It’s essentially a 16-foot sit-on-top kayak equipped with Hobi’s Mirage drive – a pedal- powered set of flippers under the boat that flap just like penguin wings do underwater. If you’ve ever watched these critters, say at the New England Aquarium, you know they can motor under water. Hobie designers must have been paying close attention, too, because they devised the leg-powered drive system that will out-power a kayak paddle (actually one person can out pull two traditional paddlers in a tug of war). The flippers/wings will fold up close against the hull for shallow water or beach landings.

And what’s really neat about this drive system is that it can be installed through a slot in the hull in seconds, or removed equally as fast. The Mirage Drive fins fold up next to the hull for beaching and in shallow water by simply putting one foot forward.

Hobie has several models of sit-on-top kayaks with this drive system, but none with a mast and sail – until now. Oliver said he saw the new offering at a trade show last fall, and immediately decided against ordering one, figuring no one in the Bangor area would be interested. Wrong. He had two requests from customers, filled those orders, and has moved more since.

But I’m a little ahead of myself. The Adventure Island designers drew on their extensive experience with Hobie catamarans, long known for their speed and prowess on the water. They started with a sit-on-top kayak, designed a neat fold-back centerboard and scupper hole in which to install it, bent up some aluminum tubing to fasten two roto-molded outriggers to the main hull and designed the system so it would fold back against the hull for easy transport to the water.

A mast step was molded into the hull that allows the sail to be furled by rotating the mast with a line. The sail simply rolls up around the mast, or unrolls when you pull the main sheet. A jam cleat holds the sheet to ease control under way.

The rudder is operated with a small lever at your left hand. Turn it left and the boat goes left – right and the boat goes right (the opposite of a tiller and it did get me mixed up a little). And another lever, behind your right hip, operates the rudder lift you use when you’re landing.

Oliver, with some minimal help from me, rigged the boat for the water in about 10 minutes (maybe a few more with my interruptions). A set of wheels that have two vertical posts pop into the hull from the bottom to make moving the fully rigged boat a snap. The wheels float, by the way, so should you forget to take them out after launching, they’ll be right under the boat, not on the lake bottom. You have to reach under and remove them.

After asking a sunbathing young lady if we could run over her claimed spot, we hit the water. Once afloat in knee-deep water, the wheels come off and you’re ready to sail. (If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed I haven’t mentioned a paddle yet. And I’m not going to, because it’s practically unnecessary (unless you want to go backward). The drive system is there for the lulls in the wind.

I sort of expected Oliver to hop on and give me a little demonstration on the agilities and abilities of this new beast, but no, he motioned for me to get aboard and give it a try! Mentally, I was a wee bit unprepared. This was a kayak with a sailing rig, after all.

I zipped up my life jacket, fully expecting this would be the day to need it. I adjusted the pedals to my leg length (a snap), fiddled a bit with the rudder and sheet to get familiar with the layout and before I could turn back I was headed down wind and toward deep water.

Despite my trepidation, the boat gave me a break. I experimented with the rudder, yanked in on the sheet, pushed one of the pedals forward to fold up the propulsion wings under the hull and set a course to tack. I picked up speed – or what seemed like speed at that minute.

I jibed and headed down wind, came about and got into a starboard tack. By now I was far enough out in the cove that the wind was more active. I pulled in a bit more on the sheet and the starboard pontoon lifted free of the water and I began to get some splash coming back over the bow. Now things were getting interesting. That’s when I got my ruddering mixed up. I headed downwind too much and lost my burst of speed.

That happened one way or another several more times. I don’t think I’d be invited to join the America’s Cup, but with a little more practice (an hour isn’t enough), I’d have been flying around that lake. What I found great about sailing the Adventure Island with the propulsion system was the ease of coming about. The boat will lose speed quickly because it is so light – there’s no mass to keep your momentum up. Never fear. Just pedal a bit while you’re fishing for the wind on the opposite tack and you hardly miss a beat.

As a matter of fact, if you really feel the need for speed, you can pedal while under way when the wind is light. But that, for me, goes against the concept of trying to keep cool on a hot day. Better to sit back, relax and let the breezes do their thing. If and when the wind does stop, you could roll up the sail and pedal for home, making better time than you would under traditional paddle power.

Back on shore it took us around 10 minutes to disassemble the craft and strap it into two sets of J-craddles. I figured the hull alone is a bit more cumbersome and heavier than a traditional kayak, but Oliver said that with a little practice and grabbing the molded-in handles, loading can be accomplished by a single person.

Now, let’s see, where did I hide that three grand? I’m thinking I need to add another boat to my fleet….

Jeff Strout’s column on outdoor recreation is published each Saturday. He can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net