“Is that a bluegill?” I asked.

“It’s a perch,” he said, “but it’s considered a bluegill.”

Farther upstream I saw three or four large carp (not supposed to be very good eating), and a fair number of other, smaller fish I couldn’t identify.

When I was a small boy, and my father took me to places like Cabrillo Beach, in the salt marsh wetlands of the Port of Los Angeles, before the city dredged them and drained them and rebuilt them as posh marinas, commercial real estate, and a hotel, I remember seeing wooden boats half-buried in the sand, marine junk laying about. It was a great place then.

When I first purchased the E68, I got it at a price so low the seller insisted I not reveal the full extent of the bargain to anyone. The cost of the replacement skin, while not as deeply discounted was certainly reasonable, so I’ve agreed to ship the old skin back to him. I think he’s planning to experiment with methods of attaching a coaming he’s developed for another boat. Always happy to aid in R & D.

That old skin is still serviceable. I was planning to use it until the sun so weakened it that it tore, then buy another boat (Greenlander Solo), as Pouch no longer manufactures the E68 (bad decision, because in a lot of ways, it’s a great boat).