Ospreys of Mare Island

I have lots of bad shots of nesting birds that I think are ospreys.  The best shots are in my flickr.com photostream.

There are three lighting structures with nests in them, and I think two are shown here.

Photos from the strait

These are a few photos that I didn't feel like posting on flickr.com.

Otters in Suisun Bay.  The photo sucks, but it isn't as bad as most of the wildlife photos I've shot from the kayak.  I have some really lousy pictures of sea lions, a harbor seal, a big group of pelicans, and a few ospreys.

The Eckley wharves

The Mount Fisher at the C&H dock

BTW:  I lost my glasses in the Carquinez Strait near Dillon Point (at the Benicia State Recreation Area) a few days ago.  They had (or should have had) a neoprene strap that might keep them afloat, so they could turn up in Southhampton Bay, Benicia, Glen Cove, Crockett, Port Costa, Mare Island, the Farallons...let me know if you find them.

And:
I found an A's cap in the Strait; let me know if you lost one.

Golf bag kayak cart again

The kayak cart is beginning to look like a small boat trailer.

This is the latest version of the same golf-bag cart that I've been using for a couple of years.  Now it has scrap wood supports made to fit the bottom of the kayak, bike-tire friction pads, wooden cleats, and nylon cord loops to hook bungees onto.  It seems to be easier to use this way, although it's heavier and bulkier than before.

 The long handle is more of a nuisance than a help so I'm going to cut that down next, or modify it so that it doesn't drag on the ground when I'm trying to navigate the hill next to the beach at Eckley.

A stowable kayak cart

This is a kayak cart that can be broken down and stored in the kayak.  Most of the parts are from a junk store (but can be replaced with off-the-shelf hardware, if necessary), and most of the pieces will float (once the internal foam plugs are added).

 The cart was made with common hand tools--a hand drill, a coping saw, a file, scissors, a utility knife, various clamps, and a couple more that I can't think of right now.  The materials are 3/4" and 1" PVC pipe and fittings, inner tubes, a couple of plastic wheels, a fiberglass tent pole, a skinny fiberglass rod, rubber bands, and a few other bits and pieces.

The cart was constructed to fit snugly on either end of my kayak.  The cart's shape was determined in part by the curved PVC conduit pieces that I found at Urban Ore.  I used ¾" PVC tees and 1" tees for most of the rest of it because it turned out that ¾" parts fit snugly into 1" parts.  Some of the parts are skinned with bicycle inner tubes so that the boat won't slide off the cart, and so that the connecting pins are held in place by the inner tubes, and because I thought it looked kinda cool.

In the above image you can see the tent-pole pins that keep two 3/4" tees connected to two 1" tees.  The pins are drilled so that they can be leashed to the cart, and some vinyl tubing was forced onto one end of each pin to make it easier to pull the pins out.  The other connecting pins are pushed under the blue rubber bands for storage.

The cart in a nylon bag.  It fits thru the hatch (on the left) even tho it looks too bulky.

Everything is stored in a nylon ditty-bag when the cart is disassembled, and it all fits under the rear deck--although it takes up more room than I expected, and I might end up lashing the cart's frame to the bow or the stern so that I'll have room in the aft compartment for camping gear.

The cart seen head-on.  The thick part right in the middle is pipe insulation.

The wheels have plastic bushings and plain-steels bolts for axles.  I think the wheels might be improved  by gluing some pipe insulation around the circumference, and then gluing shortened bike tires over that, so that the tires will be wider and get better traction, but I don't know if I'll ever bother to do that.

I'll post more details (although most of them aren't obvious from the photos) when I've got the necessary photos, and if it seems like anyone ever looks at this page

More cheesy DIY gear

I bought a broken Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 camera and repaired it enough that it's useable, and now it's my on-the-water camera (see shots I've taken with it at flickr.com).  The camera's supposed to be waterproof, but it doesn't float, so I made a PFD for it.

The camera's PFD

The float is an inflatable arm band for little kids to swim with.  It has two independently inflatable chambers that can be easily separated at one end, which makes it more versatile for DIY projects.  A pair of these cost 50¢ at Thriftown; the plastic snap was from REI (< $1); the snap is attached to a split ring which is attached to a grommet that came from a salvaged grommet kit.  (The grommet wasn't such a good idea--it's already starting to corrode.)  The snap can be on the camera's leash or on the camera case's leash.

A cheap watertight box

The case is for a Snap Sights 35mm camera, re-purposed to be a simple watertight box.  It keeps the camera from getting knocked around, and keeps the camera from getting any wetter than it has to.  The leash that came with it wasn't long enough to be useful, and was replaced with a nylon boot lace and a spare cord lock.  The Snap Sights case could also be used for the emergency cell phone, snacks, a first aid kit, a small towel, or whatever else needs to be kept handy and dry.

Kayak camping on the delta, and boat-in campsite maps

I've started making a Google map of places to camp in and around the Sacramento--San Joaquin River delta.  The object is to make it easier to plan a multi-day paddling trip thru the delta or down the Sacto River, and like that.  So far I've plotted about four dozen potential campsites (both public and private), but I still have to verify most of them.  Since it seems likely that some have gone out of business, are closed or offer limited services because of budget cuts (e.g. Brannan Island), have stopped catering to the non-RV crowd, or are too far from the water for portage, etc., I suppose the list will become shorter.

Cropped screen capture.  This is the link to the actual map.

The map also includes a few marinas, wrecks, places to stop for a break, grocery and convenience stores, bait shops, and other places that might be of interest to me, and maybe to you.  I haven't included "stealth" campsites--yet--because I don't know where any are, and, of course, I don't want to encourage irresponsible paddlers to camp there.  If you know of a stealth site on the map, let me know (maybe using Google map coordinates) so that I'll be able to warn campers away from them.

A few of the spots ones listed were swiped from Dan Arbuckle's Google map at his Delta Dreamer blog.
To make up for that I'll include a link to Headwaters Kayaks, his shop in Lodi.

Let me know if you can't access the map, or if the icons don't show up, or if I've got some things wrong.  And please let me know if it's useful.

There's a second map for boat-in campsites of northern California.
This one is even less complete than the other map, but it may be of use to someone.

Boat-in campsites

Various delta-bay-kayak-paddling-whatever links:
Petaluma Paddlers
BASK (Bay Area Sea Kayakers)
A Sac Bee article about a project to photograph all of the Sacramento River
Nautical charts for the bay and delta areas --the links you want will be about half-way down the page
The new location for the SF Bay area wind map
Kayak Fishing Magazine's California resource list

Some local paddler's Meetup groups:

the Lodi Paddle Club
Northern California Kayaks - Suisun City
Sacramento Paddle Pushers
Sacramento Sea Kayakers
I'll add more meetups, yahoo groups, etc., if there is any interest.

On the Petaluma River

Mark Twain, Jack London, John Steinbeck--none of them wrote about the Petaluma River, but only because they hadn't gotten around to it.

Petaluma, The City of Industry