I have a 16' penobscot that I have only paddled tandem until recently.  In the past few weeks, I took it out a few times playing around paddling solo (from bow seat).  I found it awkward as hell and woke up the next with a very sore wrist.  The added width and angle of the boat made doing a J'stroke very awkward.

I suspect much of my difficulties lie with  the type of canoe and/or my inexperience with this type of paddling.  But I thought it might be a useful counter-point to the comments above.  Perhaps it is wise to have a significant test day of paddling solo in a tandem before committing to an extended trip.