8APRIL @ Pierre, SD - Bob and I talked far into the night, so I awakened at 0830. Today appears to be calmer than expected. Neverthemore, I will stay with last night's plans and watch the end of the Master's golf tournament before departing for the lake. At 1300 I mixed two packages of epoxy and reinforced the keel on each end. The keel at the stern is scraped through one fiberglass layer in three spots; I attribute that to the stern dragging most times when pushing away from the shore. OK ... you figured it out ... where I sit sits deeper in the water also.
During the day I bought groceries - peanut butter, tuna, apples, carrots, noodles, milk, grapejuice - enough to keep me fed between stops. There being far more water-front businesses than in Montana and North Dakota, food is almost a non-concern. Bob's compressor was turned on to allow me to pump up the portage wheels and all seems set for departure.
At 1800 the Master's was obviously going to be won by someone not named Phil, Tiger, Rory or Padraig, so we left for Joe Creek landing, 37 miles away. Six folks were on the dock fishing when we arrived, a man and five children. They had a string of maybe 15 smallmouth bass ... big ones. Rarely have I been so impressed by the size and number of large fish ... more impressive by knowing that most were caught by people barely 1/4th my size.
Bob and I positioned the canoe alongside the dock and were conversing about securing it while we would walk to and from the truck with my gear when water was seen flowing through a hole and into the craft. Evidently something impacted it while stored over the winter or it was punctured while being repositioned or the canoe business used it and it and dropped it on a rock. had I examined it yesterday I would have seen the spot and repaired it. Oh well ... there being no other sensible thing to do we lashed the canoe back on the truck and motored back to Pierre. Bob graciously allowed me to stay another night. At midnight our day was over.