Project boats

I'm outfitting an old fiberglass river kayak for flat water.  This boat's a lot like the one that I used for a couple of years before I got the Necky Looksha Sport LV, so I didn't have any reservations about adopting it.

The red river kayak

I got this as an almost-bare hull (it had foot pedals) and I added deck bungees fore and aft of the cockpit, a temporary seat made from an old PFD, a temporary strap-in skeg, carry handles at the bow and stern, and shock cord (from a ruined tent fly) to keep the handles from flopping around.

Deck rigging and the temporary seat

Grab handle on the bow

I also added grab lines along the gunnels.  The forward ends are connected with the same bolts that anchor the foot pedals, and the after ends are just tied around the stern.  I plan to eventually replace the lines (which are currently cheap braided plastic rope from Harbor Freight) and add some kind of anchor points for the stern end of the lines.

Stern rigging

There are holes thru the bow and stern ends for lines to use for carrying the boat.  I used some thin cord thru these holes to anchor the carrying handles because I wasn't able to disassemble the handles and run the attached cords thru the holes in the boat.  This arrangement seems to work--for now.  Like everything but the deck bungees this is likely to be temporary.

The kayak before its first sea trial.

The kayak on the Carquinez Strait.

The Tyne folding kayak

I bought a Tyne wooden-frame folding kayak at a garage sale a couple of months ago.  (The boat was made be Tyne Canoes Ltd., or Tyne Folding Boats Ltd.--I don't know which is correct yet.)  The seller mentioned that it needed work, but neglected to mention that one of the bulkheads was missing.  I've managed to replace or repair many of the parts (both wood parts and brass parts; some of the new parts need more work), and because I was sufficiently distracted by the missing or broken things I didn't realize that the center bulkhead was missing altogether.  I can make a replacement bulkhead, but after having done the rest of the repairs, and thinking I was almost done, finding that a major part of the frame was missing has killed my enthusiasm for the project.  If you want to buy a project boat (wood frame and hypalon skin, for what it cost me so far), let me know.

Note, November 2012:  I bought a Folbot Super at another garage sale.  It's similar to the Tyne, but newer, and complete as-is, so that it's not really a project boat.  I'm probably going to sell one or the other of them if I ever finish making parts for the Tyne and get it on the water.

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.