Kayak Calamities: What Now?

Early morning put in was amazing. The air was a little cooler than the water creating that light mist on top of the river, just absolutely breathtaking! The water was a little high so the river pushed along the misty rolling current at a pace faster than anticipated. The sun had yet to peak over the mountain. However, it was soon to come as I anticipated the warmth of the sun's radiating beams against my skin.

(Video By: William Pennington)

It felt amazing and it was an epic trip that ended in the loss of one kayak, credit cards, a driver's licence, two cell phones, a 2 year fishing license (That is a

 lot of fish) and a really cool hat. We searched the entire river without any luck. We went home a little banged up with our heads hanging low for the cost of this trip. 

The next night at family dinner the trip was the topic of conversation and it was my fortune that my son and his wife were there. After dinner my son, Lucky T, says to me, "we are going to go and find the kayak tomorrow". If anybody else would have said that to me I would have wished them good luck while my heart was telling me "no way Jose".  However, I have seen Lucky T find car keys on a massive frozen lake under the ice. What? no really, he has a gift. 

My hope of finding the kayak was rekindled. Infact, I knew we were going to find the kayak. I set my alarm early the next morning as instructed by T for an early start. T picked me up and we drove up the mountain were we last saw the kayak in the video. T stepped out of his truck and jumped up on a rock and said "there it is". William (my son in-law) quickly slides down a large slope where T said it was. I followed behind him. There it was stuck on some rocks.

The whole time we were searching below the find spot. But there it was, as plain as day, 2 days later. Lucky T is da man!

I could see that the back hatch was open and items were missing. I was still so positive from the find that it didn't matter. This trip just became less expensive. I got in the swift river put some hooks on the kayak. With a little lift to dislodge it William and T pulled it right out of the white water.

 The kayak had a huge dent in the back and at first glance it looked like the bay was empty. As I took a closer look I spotted what looked like a yellow dry bag being cinched in by the huge dent in the back of the kayak. It was true. It really was the dry bag. We pried it out, opened it and I took these pics with my lost and found cell phone:

With the kayak and many lost items recovered this is where we get to the "Now What" of this blog. A large hole in one kayak, a product of many river bottom scrapings, and the other beaten up by the river in many different ways. 

Now what?

Fixing the dent in that kayak was the easiest fix of all. I put it down in the back yard thinking I need some heat. I came back an hour later and the sun fixed it. It was back into the original shape. Thanks Mr. Sun! What the what? Yep, it was that easy. Even a dummy can fix it on accident. I then repaired all the hatches except one because I plan to customize it soon. I might as well upgrade while I am fixing.

Ready for the next adventure.

I have never fixed a hole in a kayak before so I had to turn to the world library (internet) for help. Over time rocks and gravel at the bottom of rivers seem to have worn a hole on the keel of my kayak. This trip was just the straw that broke the camels back.

 My first thought was to use some kind of resin to fill the hole. However youtube took me a different rout. I found these to be helpful:

I liked this video because I already had everything necessary to fix the hole.

More than one way to skin a cat.

I was surprised to find how well this worked and I was very happy that I already had everything I needed to fix the hole.

My trusty torch

I used more of the bucket lid than I thought I would. This is all that was left.

Ta dah!

 River ready.

Here is the trip video: