A Paddle, Birds, Seals, John’s Not Well and I Get the Heater Core Out

Monday September 12, 2016 Jenner CA.

Overcast fall day

It was a bit overcast as I put my boat in the water at Jenner this morning. I paddled across to the island and headed on down river which looked like this. Some mallard ducks were feeding along the way.

These mallard ducks were taking it easy in this spot as I passed by them.

There were quite a number of brown pelicans cruising around looking for fish to dive on.

The river’s mouth is sorta closed

And a lot of birds flying around down by the closed river’s mouth.

Just barely closed

You can see the river is closed to the ocean, but just barely. Only high tides and rough seas can get into the river right now, but the sand blocks the river from going to low tide. The sand at this level is like a one way valve. It can let the high tide ocean in, but won’t let the ocean back out as it dives under the river water and is too deep to get over the sand bar to get back out.

Lots of brown pelicans

There were lots of birds taking it easy down there, mostly brown pelicans.

Here’s one coming in for a landing.

See, the mouth is closed a bit

There were only a few harbor seals inside the estuary today, just inside the closed mouth. Something scared the seagulls.

I hung around the area for an hour or so, then headed back up the river going by these pelicans. I’m not sure if they were bathing or fishing but they were doing a lot of splashing.

John’s not doing well

I headed over to John Lowry’s place to give him some fresh fruit I had for him. I went by his place on the way down but didn’t see him. He’s the guy that is always picking up trash all around the Jenner area.

As I pulled in John came from around his garage, rather slowly today. I asked how he was doing and he said, not good for about the last week. He has one of those shocking pace  makers and it’s been going off and he’s dizzy and can’t drive and he has a doctors appointment down in San Francisco tomorrow which he wasn’t sure how he was going to get there as he wasn’t sure he’d be able to drive. He didn’t sound too good to me. I asked if he wanted me to get some help for him and he gave me a weak, not really. To top it off, he’s house sitting for all his neighbors as they are all out on vacations, so he’s all alone around there and can barely do the chores he said he’d do for the gone neighbors.

John’s an interesting character. He’s always helping everyone else out, but he’s been too independent to accept any help from anyone else. He’s almost at the point where he won’t be able to turn any help down soon, unfortunately.

Continued up the river thinking what else I can do

I left and headed up the river, but got to thinking the community should know about John, so I pulled into the boat ramp and looked around for someone to talk with about this.

I was able to find Royce, who helps run the kayak rentals. John helped rescue him once not long ago when he was going out the mouth and his paddle broke and he flipped over and lost his kayak. He said he was concerned and would see what he could do. I asked him to let some others know in the community about John’s plight.

Back to kayaking headed up river

I put my boat back in the water and headed over to the little channel at the upper end of Penny Island and sat for a bit. This channel only gets water in it when the mouth rises the water level, so I pulled in and enjoyed a rest for a bit.

You figure it out

Eventually, I headed on up the river. With the water level rising, the seals that hang out in the river most of the time get their up river logs submerged and usually move down to these logs just above Penny Island.

Here’s a couple harbor seals. You figure it out. :O)

I slowly worked my way up to the muskrat nest area and sat for awhile, then headed back down the river, going to the north side to look for birds.

This is what most of the birds are dining on right now

I spotted this dead little fish on the shoreline. This is what all the birds are eating in the estuary right now. A sardine or an anchovy maybe. They are only a couple inches long. They look like the little sardines that come in a double layer can.

Emailed Ken about John

I paddled on back to the ramp and went on home for the day, thinking what else I could do for John. When I got home I sent an email to Ken S. to let him know about John and make sure the community knew about him.

Did a little work on the van heater core removal

I then went out to work on my van. I needed to remove the belly pan to get to the heater core hoses, but for some reason I always have to procrastinate about this, even though I can get it off in about fifteen minutes and put it back on in a half hour. So I sat around and thought about it until the sun was almost down, then did it in less then fifteen minutes. The belly pan deflects air to the radiator.

I also noticed Kenny was by while I was out. He left the sign on top of the spare tire. Thanks Ken. It says bobseyes.net engraved on a piece of redwood.

I got the heater core out. I think I replaced this about twenty years ago and had to adapt what I could find by adding the pipes.

I called Cindy at Smother’s auto parts, but she couldn’t locate one. So I called Dutton Radiator about it. He said to bring it down and they would order the parts to rebuild it.

Some people are looking in on John

When I went in for the night, Ken’s email about John was there. He said he’d been in contact with John and some other’s have too. Seems he hasn’t accepted any help yet, but now at least I know there are some people down there looking into the matter to see how to help out.

That was my day.