It’s April on the coast of Maine, and I’m upside-down underwater again. The ocean’s surface is a green gauze curtain swaying in the wind, and I can’t tell sideways from up. Think. I force my numb ...

The kayak’s precise origin story is murky, but sources credit various Indigenous groups of the far north — modern-day Alaska, Greenland and Siberia — with inventing the boat for hunting and fishing.

Roll, roll, roll your boat, gently up the . . . Oh, hi! Excuse me for a moment while I blow this river water out of my nose. The world sure looks funny right-side-up. Have you seen my boat around here ...

There’s a certain queasy feeling that comes from bobbing up and down in three-foot swells while ensconced in a slightly wobbly sea kayak. It’s not quite seasickness, but it’s close enough to make you ...