• From: Chillicothe, Ohio
  • Registered: 2010-08-16
  • Posts: 1,013

Topic: Murphy would have been proud

Sometimes plans just fall apart. For months some friends and I planned a float trip on the John Day river in Oregon.  With drought conditions and water levels falling quickly on the JD, we went to a back-up plan and floated the Buffalo River in Arkansas last week. We knew the water level would be a little low and temps would be hot but planned do a week-long float, only covering about 5-6 miles each day while fishing, make an early camp and supper, then play music around a campfire until the early hours.

The first day went as planned, the temp was about 96 deg F, too hot to build a fire, but after supper I played guitar and one of my paddling buddies (John K Victor - local artist and musician) wailed on his harmonicas.  The next day changed everything - water was so clear I couldn't tell if rocks were 2 inches or 6 inches under the water.   I banged into a subsurface rock, knocked a hole in my kayak and took in about a gallon of water every ten minutes for the rest of the day, having to stop every half hour to empty water out of my SOT (sit-on-top kayak). When we finally stopped to camp, I made temporary repairs to my boat with shoe goop, we ate supper and settled in for a little river-side music. Again it was too hot to build a fire.  But the biggest surprise came when I pulled my guitar out of a dry bag and opened up the case - the intense heat had loosened the glue and string tension popped off the saddle.  In all my river trips that never happened before!  The rest of the week was spent fishing, bailing, and trying to endure the heat, but no music playing. sad

DE

I want to read my own water, choose my own path, write my own songs
  • From: Almancil, Algarve, Portugal
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Re: Murphy would have been proud

That is a bummer. I bet your buddies were disappointed with no music from the minstrel after day one.

Roger

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3 Reply by bluejeep (edited by bluejeep 2018-07-16 19:28:25)

  • From: Scott County, Virginia, U.S.A.
  • Registered: 2008-03-19
  • Posts: 794

Re: Murphy would have been proud

Yes DE, I do indeed think Murphy would have been proud!  Hope ya caught a mess of smallies to makeup for the hole in the boat and a busted guitar. I used to take a guitar with me on some of my Susquehanna floats and but never busted up a guitar, fortunately.  I've seen some carbon fiber guitars but haven't played one yet, thats something to think about for your next trip. I always carried some fibeglass cloth and a couple of tubes of 5 minute epoxy along with some trusty old duct tape for the occasional rock damage on my old canoe. I can't do those kind of trips anymore, but I've got a ton of great memories to look back on.

Live in the "now" - a contentment of the moment - the past is gone - the future doesn't exist - all we ever really have is now and it's always "now".
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Re: Murphy would have been proud

I'm disappointed that you didn't carry a portable fine sander and hide glue and a mess of clamps to fix that saddle. 

I'd have been pretty upset about that too - but perhaps you did some a capella. One of my favorite riverside memories was you, Bo, Billy, and Alvin singing Beulah Land a capella, even if Al couldn't remember the second verse and Billy had to feed him the words quickly under his breath before each line.

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
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  • From: Western Oregon,US
  • Registered: 2008-07-22
  • Posts: 2,498

Re: Murphy would have been proud

Sorry you had such bad luck, and that you had to bag your Oregon trip.  The Summer is turning into a hot one 104.5 on my back porch just the other day and we are on the "cool" side of the Cascades. Headin over to the other side in a day or so for a week of consulting and am sure hoping that the trend towards cooler persists.  Generators and campfires are seriously curtailed, so you might have had to eat your Bass raw or sun dried...... YUM !!

On a brighter note, at least your guitar is easily repairable and not on the bottom of the river.   smile

"what is this quintessence of dust?"  - Shakespeare
  • From: Nova Scotia, Canada
  • Registered: 2013-01-20
  • Posts: 4,083

Re: Murphy would have been proud

That's certainly one bad thing leading to another, DE ... so sorry to hear about your damaged 'yak and guitar. A double whammy like that, plus having to endure the heat, makes this trip a week to forget. Hopefully better trips are ahead, and that your guitar is repairable.

I've often thought about a SOT, because I've got a couple of SITs that I'm finding harder to get in and out of with each passing year (Perception Prodigy 12' and a Wilderness Systems Pungo 12'). They're a drier ride in the cold water of April, but wearing my waders while paddling would solve that. If you don't mind me asking, what do you use for a SOT?

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Re: Murphy would have been proud

Well that kinda sucks Dirty Ed sad    Hmmm brought to mind this old song *There`s A Hole In My Bucket*

There`s a hole in my kayak, hey John, hey John
There`s a hole in my kayak, hey John, hey John!
Well fix it Dirty Ed, Dirty Ed
Well fix it Dirty Ed, Dirty Ed go fix it!

With what shall I fix it, hey John, hey John?
With what shall I fix it?, hey John, hey John!

hmmm you get the picture smile

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Re: Murphy would have been proud

Jandle

This is so weird..... I was driving my car yesterday and listening to Outlaw Country on the Radio and heard that song (*There`s A Hole In My Bucket* ) for the first time ever.
I haD a similar thing happen to me the first time I went sailing on a Sunfish two person sailboat.   Keel hit a rock - I reached through the whole and held on to it while my buddy got us to shore.

Ed - this definitely goes under the category of " you can't make this stuff up!"

Thanks for sharing

Jim

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Make your life count, and the world will be a better place because you tried.

"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except only the the best." - Henry Van Dyke
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Re: Murphy would have been proud

Tenement Funster wrote:

That's certainly one bad thing leading to another, DE ... so sorry to hear about your damaged 'yak and guitar. A double whammy like that, plus having to endure the heat, makes this trip a week to forget. Hopefully better trips are ahead, and that your guitar is repairable.

I've often thought about a SOT, because I've got a couple of SITs that I'm finding harder to get in and out of with each passing year (Perception Prodigy 12' and a Wilderness Systems Pungo 12'). They're a drier ride in the cold water of April, but wearing my waders while paddling would solve that. If you don't mind me asking, what do you use for a SOT?

Just jumping in on that SOT question. I've had several (there's three on my rack right now) but thus far my favorite one has been a Jackson Coosa. It's 12' long and faster than you'd expect. It's very heavy, but it's not too heavy for putting into the bed of my truck. When I have to put it on a roof rack at the end of the day, that's a bit tough on my arthritic shoulders. But I really like the amount of space on it. It feels unsinkable (though I know nothing is). And it's an overall delight to paddle. I haven't taken it through rough stuff yet, so a bumpy trip may have me changing my mind.

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude
  • From: Chillicothe, Ohio
  • Registered: 2010-08-16
  • Posts: 1,013

Re: Murphy would have been proud

I actually own more kayaks than guitars TF.

The SOT I took on the float was a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 12, a gift from my co-workers when I retired 6 years ago.  I built my first kayak (skin-on-wood frame) back in 1969 and at last count have owned 28 different kayaks over the years. Like you, as I got older and my bad knees made it harder to get in and out of my SIKs, I switched to SOTs about 10 years ago.  I still have two SIKs hanging from my garage ceiling (Perception Acadias) that my wife and I used to paddle.  My first SOT was a 12' Native Watercraft that had good storage capacity and a good paddler, but I wanted a shorter boat for some of the tight,rocky streams I fish so I bought a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 10.  I liked the boat but it had those annoying "ankle biter" foot braces.  A couple years later my local boat shop (owned by one of my paddling buddies) offered me a deal on the newer Tarpon 10 with adjustable braces so I bought one.  When I received the Tarpon 12 as a retirement gift I now had two 12' and two 10'  SOTs  so I gave a couple to my son and his wife. With the birth of a son a couple years ago they never get the chance to get out and paddle and really don't have storage space so recently he asked if I minded taking them back.

Sooo...... I now have 2 rec SIK, 1 WW SIK and 4 SOTs hanging from the garage ceiling, along with a 16' river canoe, 17' lake canoe and two rafts. big_smile

Choosing a yak is like choosing a vehicle - everyone has different opinions.  However, from my experience SOTs are a lot more comfortable to paddle and fish from (easy to enter/exit, sit side-ways and hang your feet over the side, access your cooler and gear easier, etc) but they are much heavier and if you run the steep, shallow, rocky streams I tend to float, rocks will eventually damage the area around the scupper holes, especially in the area under the seat where most of the weight is concentrated.

At least once a year I put new kevlar patches on the hull cracks but since kayak hulls flex more than canoes, the patches eventually fail or crack from hard impacts with rocks. On my recent float I took shoe goop, contact cement and some flexible hypalon (raft material) patches for emergency repairs.  Besides the kayak damage and guitar bridge failing I also needed to repair a cracked paddle blade and my Keen wading sandals. The goop and glue did a pretty good job.

PS - The guitar was on old beater "river guitar", but I should have it playable again by the end of the week.

DE

I want to read my own water, choose my own path, write my own songs
  • From: Nova Scotia, Canada
  • Registered: 2013-01-20
  • Posts: 4,083

Re: Murphy would have been proud

Thanks, DE ... lots of great info in your post. My preliminary scouting for a SOT has me looking at something like this Cabela's unit. I like the ability to stand when being used on a lake, because I fly fish 90% of the time. I like the Perception I have mainly because it has a deep hull compared to most. With size 14 feet, I need that so I can sit comfortably inside, and operate the rudder properly. I'll probably continue to use a SIK for rivers, because they're more nimble in Class 2 and 3 water.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V-TMs71xeRw/maxresdefault.jpg

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Re: Murphy would have been proud

For a strictly lake boat, that looks like a nice set up.  I'd want a minimum of 12' for a strictly flatwater boat, and longer if reasonably priced.

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude
  • From: Chillicothe, Ohio
  • Registered: 2010-08-16
  • Posts: 1,013

Re: Murphy would have been proud

Re-glued the bridge on my river guitar (Recording King- copy of a Martin) after carefully checking the dimensions against my real Martin 12 fret 000 size acoustic.  I found an epoxy which claims to hold at temps from 10 degrees F to 180 degrees F,  so it should hold up in any future camping/fishing adventures. Played it for about an hour, seems to be good as new.  Also used it to repair my paddle  and now need to make a better repair on my SOT.

DE

I want to read my own water, choose my own path, write my own songs
  • From: Nova Scotia, Canada
  • Registered: 2013-01-20
  • Posts: 4,083

Re: Murphy would have been proud

Glad your guitar is back in service, DE ... nicely done. As you have said, fixing a hole in a polyethylene 'yak isn't easy, because nothing really sticks to it. I don't know if you've ever tried welding PET, but it's not difficult. Here's one of many vids on YouTube about it. If you just get a piece from a laundry soap jug that's the same color and a heat gun, it actually does a very good job ... the narrator sounds like Kermit the Frog: lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-he1A_PnHe8

  • From: Chillicothe, Ohio
  • Registered: 2010-08-16
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Re: Murphy would have been proud

Thanks for the youtube link TF.  I've tried plastic welding with some success but since the damage occurs at an impact area, it tends to crack again.  There was an associated video that showed the use of wire screen to strengthen the area.  I've never thought of trying that - it might just work!

DE

I want to read my own water, choose my own path, write my own songs