Day 26: Fixed!

8/1/2015

The smell of pancakes rousted me from bed. Mmmmm! After a nice breakfast, and going down in the basement to see Jim’s “cabin” (a room he made to look like a one-room log cabin—very cool!), we headed up to Mountain Iron where we went to Chuck’s Spring Creek Outfitters shop. The instant we walked in, the smell of fiberglass brought me back to the boatyard where we bought Feather, the sailboat I lived on as a child. Chuck, a large man with an easy laugh and smile to match, welcomed us, and seemed as consternated as we were as to how or why my boat was taking on water. We put the boat up on saw horse slings and filled the back hatch with water. A small leak was noticed going from the hatch to the cockpit (I knew of this), but nothing from the outside of the boat. I told Chuck that I often feel it first on my right leg. He said, “Oh, that just means you lean to that side. Most people do tend to lean to one side or the other.” I felt sheepish. We tried filling the cockpit with water, and it wasn’t really leaking either. But wait! As Chuck went around, looking for spilling drips of water, he noticed that one of the screws that attaches the rudder pegs inside the starboard side of the boat was spinning, it was so loose. “That’s it! The screws are under the waterline, so it would definitely take on water over time. It even explains why you get wet on the right side first!” “I can’t believe we didn’t think to check the screws first! We checked everything else!” In the merriment of finding the solution, another Spring Creek worker came in, helped re-caulk the rear bulkhead. Chuck said my neoprene hatch covers were in great shape, but he added some rubber gasket stripping to the underside of the hatches for extra tight closures to be sure no water was getting in from topside. I was so delighted to learn that my Spirit was not broken but that I just had a loose screw (Yes, the metaphor is thick).

Enormous thank you to Chuck and Spring Creek! If you’re ever in Minnesota and need any boat work done, or have any questions about kayaks and canoes, Chuck is your man. He’s got 2 barns full of boats, an amazing workshop, and as a 2nd generation paddling outfitter, he knows his stuff! He showed me a kayak he’d rigged for a one-legged paddler (so cool!). Totally worth the extra drive, if that’s a concern. I put one of their stickers on my back hatch with my other sponsors’ logos because he seriously saved me from worrying about sinking!

Jim and I headed back down to Trommald Landing (nearly 3 hrs away! Jim is a godsend of a River Angel to have helped me out so much with this debacle, driving so far and keeping me in good company). By the time I got packed back up and set out it was 2:30pm, my latest start yet. But hey, I think I had a pretty good excuse this time. In fact, I was surprised that this whole thing didn’t have much effect on my planned river mileage. I still made 12 miles (CHECK), despite the wind against me and the late start. And my boat stayed dry!

I stealth-camped tonight at a spot where I could see there was a rock landing (instead of mud). The approach from the boat to a grassy knoll was straight up a hillside—very steep. But once on top of the hill, I had a dreamy view of the river, a breezy spot with fewer bugs, and got to watch the sun set through the pines.

My sister made fun of me for telling her the same story about Levi from earlier this week, “It’s the only conversation you’ve had with another person! Ha hahahah! ‘oh, did I tell you about the peanut butter?’ Hahahahahaa!”