Full moon over Whiskey...

Moonlight Madness kayaking on Whiskeytown

Finally, got on the water again thanks to SIL & BIL's invite to go kayaking with them for their church group Moonlight Madness on the Lake.

The people in the group were all strangers to me, but all were very nice and friendly.  

I need to work on my skillset, and take my fishing rod, but had no problems with my cheapo kayak.  I do need to get another PFD.  In my excitement when getting the kayak, I also got a new $$$ PFD. Thing is, it's a guy's PFD and if I cinch it down enough to keep it from choking me, it is way too tight across the chest. If your look'n for a great PFD for a guy, or a flat chested woman (I won't tell) I can make you a heck of a deal.

I like being prepared, so I had packed all my gear in color keyed dry sacks that fit perfectly in the rear well of my kayak.  My SIL teasingly said, "Geez B, you've got enough stuff in there to stay a week. We are only going to be out on the lake for three or four hours."  

"Yep I do, I learned the hard way long ago." 

Later, as we waited for the moon to come up we stopped on a remote island to put our headlights on. That's when one of the ladies slipped getting out of her kayak and took a dip in the lake.  She is diabetic, and was rapidly getting chilled.  Out comes my dry sack with a full change of dry clothes. She changes and we are on our way again.

I wish I had gotten a pic of the full moon rising over the water, it was spectacular, but alas, I couldn't remember which color the dry sack with my phone in it was in time... sigh 

Every Single Minute...

A recap ...of sorts...

Ol Swampy (Dad) has finished refurbishing his fishing boat.  New carpet, rod holders, tie downs for the gas tanks, a new driver's seat, and a new receiver, license, registration, and tags.  He was getting ansey to hit the water and fish, I asked him to holdup a bit...  as I planned to add a couple of little things: like a new quick coupler for the fuel line, a fire extinguisher, and a first aide kit. With those added, I put the Lone Wolf tee shirt over the new seat to give it a bit of character, and he was ready. 

 He and his cronie took the boat out and had a good day on the water. No fish were caught, but they ran into the F&G marine biologist and he gave them the low down on where the fish were for next time.  I hope to work it so I can go to.  I need to come up with a fitting name for that boat.

I've been saving up for a long time to get a kayak, and finally got to a budget point that it felt doable.  Nothing fancy, just something to get me on the water. 

Got the whole kit, and the kind man at the sporting goods store helped me put the kayak on my little suv's roof rack, tied it down and I was good to go. I stopped once on the way home to check the tiedowns,  but there were no problems at freeway speeds with a strong cross wind.  

Thing was, two of us put it up there and I want to be able to do it all by myself.  So when I got home I went to take it off the roof rack and that damn thing is slippery as snot.  I did get it off, and we won't say much about the mirror I knocked cattywampis nor the screw that I knocked off the kayak.  There is the thought that my tire sensors just haven't found that screw, yet.  

My sister-in-law called to say they were kayaking the river the next day.  YeeHaw, I'm all in!  Thing is, I'm still bound and determined to load and unload the kayak by myself. So again we won't say much about my struggle to get it up on the roof racks and in doing so busting off my antenna. Ah heck, the radio still works and I'm not big on satellite tracking anyway! Next day we kayaked the river for about ten+ miles with a strong head wind, shot some rapids, dodged some big boulders, did the spin in a couple of whirlpools, and saw a lot of critters, fish, and birds.  

 The river is low, cold, and clear, which will make you sick if you look down thru the water to the bottom while moving at speed, who knew.   I managed to ask so many questions of my BIL, that he finally said, "I Don't Know how many knots the river is running at, the water temp, or ...!" I like him, he's a good man. After we came thru a dicey set of rapids, my SIL paddled over to me, took a look at my face with the ear to ear grin and said, "OMG, there is totally no fear in your eyes!"  Why would there be, I loved every single minute of it.

Whiskey & Water...

You just never know when your going to meet someone special.  Sunday's kayaking trip to Whiskeytown was a good example of that. 

 I was on a floating break with the gals, trying to get my bag of twigs and berries out of my dry sack, when a  handsome young Canadian flyboy befriended me. He hung on my every whispered word... in no time I had him eating out of my hand... til I ran out of Craisins.  As he flew off to pursue another,  I  swear he winked and called, "you'll be back ol water woman, see ya around".  

I'm tak'n my jetpack broom along next time, he's in for a surprise.

 

Swapping my broom for a paddle...

The little knife is engraved LA-200, this is not a reference to a LA kinda whimp race, it was given for most use of oxytetracycline cow medicine in one go round. I pack it cause it has a great save your life cork screw. 


It's a paddling... kind of day.

  YeeHaw...Off kayaking at Whiskeytown. 
 
Have a blessed Sunday.