Windy and Muddy Russian River

Wednesday April 2, 2014 Jenner, CA.

And a blog reader stops by

The weather was looking good when I got up this morning so I was off to kayak Jenner,…again.

I saw John’s truck in the parking lot as I entered the visitor center, but he was no where in sight. I put my boat in the water and went on down to the west end of Penny Island to see if I could see John anywhere? No John, but an osprey had a fish on the perch at the end of the island. The two seagulls are hoping for the osprey to drop some pieces to eat. But it didn’t seem to be eating it and I went on up the river towards eagle’s landing.

The wind was picking up a bit as I paddled on up. Across from eagle’s landing is Paddy’s rock where there has been two or three hundred cormorants resting on the gravel as I’ve reported, but today, again, there was only a dozen or so of them. The water is too muddy for them to do any good fishing in the estuary. That goose on the rock is still there if you can see it?

From there I crossed back over the river and put ashore at eagle’s landing where I was taking it easy when this guy comes up in his kayak. It turned out to be blog reader Ken. We shot the bull for a good while before getting back in our boats and heading down the river towards the river’s mouth.

The wind had picked up some more, but Ken was ok with it, being an ol sailor type.

This is the view as we headed down the river of the town of Jenner. Nice clear day.

As we approached the mouth area, the wind picked up some more and the waves got a bit bigger too. It was high tide, which meant the water wasn’t going out the mouth much so Ken paddled into it. That’s him out there in that little boat. The ocean is real rough too.

We spent a bit of time down there and then worked our way back towards the boat ramp take out. The waves were fairly good size on the way and one of them came over my side, getting me a bit on the wet side as in wet pants, which was a bit on the cool side. But it missed my camera and I was just a bit wet.

I dropped Ken at the ramp and he pulled out for the day and I went on up the river just a little.

A pair of merganser ducks were on the shore, just above the ramp. Interesting how hard it is to get the male’s eyes to show up in it’s dark head?

I paddled out in the wind and waves for a bit just to do it and then went on over to the little channel on the east end of Penny Island where I spent some time.

As I was there, I noticed this car go by and stop for a bit on the highway. It’s a Google street view car taking street view pictures.

Time to tackle the old roof leak

Eventually, I went on in for the day and went on home. I got something to eat, then decided I’d better tackle the roof leak I’ve been trying to find or about the past five years or so and it’s been getting worse.

So, I got the ladder out and some silicone and tools to take the big piece of steel roofing that I suspected was leaking off. Of course, there were some very hard to get screws up under the eve that kept holding it on. After much work messing with that and some dirt and blood it finally came off. I picked it up and looked for day light through it. Sure enough, there were two big holes that had rusted through it.

I looked in my scrap metal roofing pile and found two pieces of metal that should fix this up and installed them. Of course, the new pieces got stuck on something under the eve, so I had to fight with that for a bit, before I finally won.

It still needs a few screws which I was too beat to take care of at the time, but I think that old leak is fixed?

Surprising how that little bit of work kicked my butt so much. But all the weird positions I had to get into to do the job really put my older body through it’s paces.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll get the screws in it?

Had a nice day and it’s always good to accomplish something too.