All Fired Up to Kayak and No Where to Go….Sea Eagle Woes

Sparky thought she would kayak the Braden River this weekend.  Nice temps, not too hot, so down to the landing she went, Jiggs Landing, about a half mile from her house. Normally, it takes about 8 minutes to inflate the kayak, fasten the seat in, throw in the necessary supplies and set out on the water.

But something wasn't quite right…Sparky was distracted, (no surprise there, laughs E.) and after inflating one side of the kayak and then the other, she went to the car to get the rest of her stuff---food, water, paddle, etc. She came back and darned if one side of the kayak wasn't inflated. Hm-m-mmm…must have forgotten to push the valve stem up so it would hold air or something like that. She pumped it up again. Went to pick up her paddle, which was laying on the ground, looked back at the kayak, and the one side was deflated again.

What the heck??!!!!!  Sparky examined the kayak closely. Pumped it up again, and this time, watched the side chamber slowly deflate again. She couldn't hear any air leaking, so examined the sides very closely…..

AHA! One of the side seams had a portion of the seam completely open.  There was at least a six inch seam opening. WEIRD! The glue looked like it had completely dissolved in the one section. The rest of the seam was firmly and solidly attached. Sparky has pushed up the kayak skin so the gap can be REALLY seen!

Sparky was VERY upset!!! But at least the opening was easily seen NOW and discovered BEFORE getting out on the river, which has alligators in it, aggressive ones this time of year.  Sparky COULD have gone kayaking with a SLO-O-W leak, and lost air out on the water. Could have been much worse…..

Back home she went…She decided to call Inflatable Boats 4 Less, which is a company that is a distributor for Sea Eagle, and the company she had purchased the kayak from two years ago. Sparky had a blog about sitting on the porch at the RV park in the keys, waiting for her kayak to come back then. That boat has seen a LOT of action since then, but not so much since we settled in Bradenton. No matter….Tim and Crystal, the owners of Inflatable Boats 4 Less, were very surprised that the seam opened up, they said that was very unusual. They asked for photos to be sent, and they researched the purchase date. Sparky was very happy to find out that the boat was still under warranty! By the way, Sea Eagles have a THREE year warranty, folks! Woo hoo!

After sending some photos of the seam opening, Tim quickly got back to Sparky, said he had called Sea Eagle, sent them the photos and they were going to send out a brand new hull with a new, updated design at no charge. All Sparky had to do was cut out the DES label with the boat's registration number on it, rendering the kayak useless to repair so she wouldn't get a second boat out of the deal. AWESOME! In less than a few days, Sparky's new 2014 Sea Eagle 385 kayak hull arrived….YAY! There's one year left on the warranty on the new hull, so that's good.

Awesome service from Tim and Crystal…Thanks, guys! Sparky is back out on the river!

Followup note: The next time Sparky went out on the river in the new hull, before embarking, a fisherman came up to her, looked at her boat and said, "Just want you to know, ma'am, that three VERY aggressive male alligators are fighting over there (and he pointed in the direction towards the dam at Jigg's Landing) and you might want to make sure you don't go over in that direction."  Sparky was thinking, "Well of COURSE I want to go over there and see if I can get some photos of some gators duking it out!" But Eldy was with her, helping her unload, and SOME sense prevailed as Sparky resisted the urge to head in that direction after Eldy left the parking lot.  She looked to see if he was watching, and then decided, "Ya know….maybe it isn't such a good idea to go gator hunting in a rubber boat."  Sea Eagle says you can take a claw hammer to the boat and it won't rip the fabric but gator teeth might be another story.  Dang, I wish I had a hard shell kayak! says Sparky.

The Braden River is a beautiful paddle---some old houses along the river banks, some long stretches without any houses to be seen, and some nice wildlife along the way--today, juvenile great blue herons, a BIG turtle in the water…..

Some pretty leaves coming out on the trees…You would have laughed to see Sparky trying to angle her kayak in and around this tree to get a shot of this one overhanging branch. The wind kept blowing the Sea Eagle around, that thing turns on a dime. She'd position herself, the wind would come up, blow the kayak out of range and Sparky would maneuver herself back into position…Only to be blown out again and the camera couldn't focus. By the fifth time maneuvering, Sparky was cussing up a storm. Gotta get that shot! Bound and determined…Finally….

Now, it doesn't look all that special, especially with a camera phone…Oh, well…Sparky just loves taking photos of just about anything and everything….Time to go looking for some photo pops! See ya later…..

How to Get Yourself a New Phone the Hard Way

Sparky has been waiting for MONTHS for her upgrade to hurry up and get here for her iPhone….Officially, it was April, but Sparky, impatient as she is, couldn't wait that long. First things first….Let's check out kayaking on the Braden River with good pickle ball friends from Sun 'n' Fun, Larry and Suzette Kurfis….

They graciously invite Sparky every Sunday to come over and play pickle ball with them…Recently, they've started asking Sparky if she wants to go kayaking on Wednesdays sometime. Sure! Sparky loves to kayak with them…Only, Sparky has noticed that now, her Sea Eagle 385 is not the fast speed demon she thought it was when she was kayaking alone. Get alongside some other kayaks that are newer in design and structure, and Sparky realizes she's paddling twice as hard to keep up. Phooey!

So we've been looking at kayaks in and out of the water….Sparky and Eldo attended a kayaking demo last weekend at Ackerman Park over by the Celery Fields near Sun 'n' Fun in Sarasota, and Sparky tried out at least five different kayaks---a Tarpon 12 sit upon, a Pungo 120 (12 footer), two different lengths of the Hurricane, and a Wilderness.

Economy Tackle in Sarasota runs kayak demos about once a month so this is a fantastic opportunity to try out a BUNCH of different kayaks. Look who tried one out! After MUCH cajoling and coaxing…ABOUT TIME!

Sparky LOVED the Pungo 120…This 12 footer sits low in the water, is very stable and streamlined and the new ones come with a little storage dashboard that fits over the front part of the cockpit and attaches with a bungee style cord so you can easily take it off or put it on.

The seat system in it has amazing adjustments for thighs and height on the back rest. And Sparky's friends, the Kurfis, have one of them….Here's Suzette with hers….

So-o-o-o-o-o….anyway, off Sparky went to paddle the Braden River today heading out from Jigg's Landing, which is about a half mile outside the back yard of her subdivision…Jiggs has a kayak launch, a boat launch, a beautiful birding boardwalk, and little fishing cabins outfitted to look like the forties fishing cabins that used to be there. You can rent them out….While Sparky was unloading her kayak and inflating it, she saw some birders casting binoculars and powerful cameras toward some big pines at the back of the parking lot at Jiggs' Landing. There was a mother great horned owl in one tree watching over her three babies in a nest in another tree! No photos today, Sparky forgot her camera and the phone just didn't quite cut it! But she did have binoculars in the car, and it was really cool to see the owlets who looked like they will be ready to fly in a couple of days…..

Down the Braden River we went….If you paddle about two and a half hours steadily, you would eventually reach the Linger Lodge, a very famous fishing lodge/campground/restaurant that has a very cool old Florida atmosphere with lots of stuffed "stuff" inside the old restaurant. There's a screen porch on the back for dining in the outdoors without all the mosquitoes, which there are plenty in those old wooded campgrounds on the river. But we decided not to go that far today, the weatherman was predicting rain later…..Instead we had our lunch in our boats in the river….Sparky got really really hungry. Remind her to pack chips, Snickers and more food next time! A half a sandwich and some water didn't quite cut it.

Sparky saw a lady on the river in an orange kayak with a "for sale" sign on it. By gosh, it was a Pungo 120! Woo-hoo! Sparky just had to stop paddling and fire away with questions…"How old is it? How much are you asking for it? How much would you take?" She found out that the woman was selling TWO of them, and her husband was up river a bit, and Sparky would have to ask HIM all those questions, so she did, again!  It turns out that Eldo had been researching Pungo kayaks on Craig's list, and had told Sparky that there were TWO Pungo 120 kayaks being sold in Punta Gorda. IT WAS THE SAME GUY WHO HAD PLACED THE AD! What are the chances of THAT happening? Geesh!

It's a SIGN! We should get these kayaks! Right, Eldy? Eldy? Honey??????  Well…we have to think about it…taxes are coming up…family reunion is coming up, we'd have to buy racks for the car, a paddle for Eldy, another vest…….sigh….a very BIG sigh….we'll see….

It was a great paddle today……But then the skies started getting dark…time to turn back…..

(Uh, Sparky….what's the phone title got to do with paddling the Braden River today????)  I'm getting to that, honey…By the way, Sparky had to use her iPhone 4S for all photos today, they're not so hot, but they will do…..This cormorant let Sparky get within a few FEET of him!

Saw a night heron, lots of turtles….

A beautiful hammock that looked very inviting….

Braden River is a pretty paddle in some spots, and in others, you see a LOT of old Florida--cabins, old cottages, cool waterfront properties, and nothing but big overhanging palms and oaks for much of the way.

So Sparky gets all the way back to the dock, climbs awkwardly out of the Sea Eagle and PLOP! Her phone fell out of her pocket and into the water….arrrrrggggghhhhh! Did she have it in a case? Well, yes….a half shell case, no protection on the front side, not waterproof…Doesn't Sparky have dry bags for kayaking? Well, yes, but she can't find them in the new home yet….She had a plastic zip loc bag, but the camera was in her shorts pocket for faster retrieval…..and faster plopping into the water.

Does Sparky know about putting the phone in rice? Well, yeah…except you are supposed to get the cover off and take the battery out first, she thinks. And you're supposed to leave it in the rice for a couple of days. A COUPLE OF DAYS WITHOUT MY PHONE???? WA-A-A-H-H-N-NH! (That's Sparky wailing, explains E.) Well, besides not being able to do without her phone for that long, on the newer phones, only Apple has the tool for the TEENY TINY microscopic screws that hold the case cover on….or so the phone store says…She didn't have anything to get the screws off, and by the time she got home, the phone was already going wacko, turning itself off and on and the screen disappearing faster than you can say, "iPhone 5S". …..

Which Sparky is now the proud owner of, (and 320.00 later, having used what AT & T calls the crossover upgrade), with a new waterproof LifeProof case, car charger, and iPhone 5S. Eldy was eligible for an upgrade but he didn't want one, so Sparky got to use his. When Sparky is due in April, if Eldy wants to upgrade he can use Sparky's upgrade option in April. Got that?….To which Eldo says…."Are you SURE you didn't drop that phone on purpose?" No-o-o-o-o, she really didn't….It was just one of those things……Sigh…...

Sparky's in the Water!

No-o-o-o-o…she didn't tip over in her kayak! Au contraire!   She paddled her Sea Eagle 385 with a group of fun friends from Sun 'n' Fun this week. After getting an invite to paddle in the Turtle Beach area, Sparky was excited to be back in the water again.  Turtle Beach is at the southern end of Siesta Key. The only way Sparky knows that is because 1) she is looking at this map after the fact, and 2) because Eldo told her. Turtle Beach has a nice little campground which is tough to get into in any way shape or form, and a nice kayak launch site where some of the commercial rental kayak companies send people off for a few hours' paddling. And of course, there's a nice little beach there which fills up fast on a beautiful day…..

Sparky was even more excited to go kayaking in a new place where there were friends to keep her from getting lost in the mangroves….

Sparky did ok with her Sea Eagle 385…although everybody else seemed to be moving along more easily than she was…when she's by herself,  Sparky doesn't notice that her inflatable is  perhaps just a tad bit bogged down, but get her with a bunch of sleek kayaks, THAT'S when she noticed a slight disadvantage….Sparky had to just work a little harder to stay up with a 16 footer touring Epic kayak, for example, haha….The convenience of folding up the boat when done and stuffing it in the back of the car makes up for a little sluggishness out on the water. It still tracks very well….


The Turtle Beach kayak run/paddle doesn't take a lot of time, maybe a couple of hours depending on how much you dilly dally around in the mangroves and out on the open water…depending on where you go of course! We took to the left coming out of the marina area, went to the right around some mangroves, and then, there's a little beach site where you can take a lunch break, and that's what the group did.

Climb the sand dunes, back down a hill, and just over the hill, is the GULF of Mexico!

We sat down for awhile, ate lunch and watched schools of rays pass by in small groups, one right after another. Too hard to get a photo, but it was fun to see! We enjoyed our lunch on the beach. Suzette had a cushion that she had gotten from Sam's Club, and it folded out into a blanket, which came in very handy as the rest of us had brought nothing to sit on.

From the picnic spot to get back to our starting point was about a 15 minute paddle, so we just dilly dallied around and saw some cool stuff! A solo ray covered itself with sand right by Sparky's kayak hoping not to be spotted. "Hey, guys--come see this ray, I think it's dead!" Then off he went just as soon as Sparky got the others' attention and they came up to check it out…

We saw this bird, which reminded Sparky of one of those cartoon birds of an eagle with a mean look…have no idea what kind of bird this was! He was quite big! Although his beak looks curved in the photo, it was straight. And he let us get very close...

Then he got tired of all the attention, and turned his back to us….

Sparky saw an osprey eating a fish on top of a dead tree…

A conch(?) shell with the animal still inside…Back in the water he went…..

And on the way home, a paddling company's truck with all kinds of cool stuff on it which Sparky is going to have to check out….Hard to see the references in this photo, but it was a beautiful truck and it looked interesting. Unfortunately, Sparky didn't see the name of the paddling company….She just thought this was a cool company to be citing all these biblical references…here are a few of the ones that were on it--John 11:35, Timothy 4:1-5, Jude 1:20, Phillipians 4:18 and a few more in case anybody is interested….

A beautiful day spent with friends out on the water….fantastic! Looking forward to doing more of the same….See you later!