Heya, if anyone wants to know how to build a simple yet effective underdeck camera storage compartmentor to know how to install brass strips on the keel of their kayaks, lemmie know and I will post pics and discuss it. Currently, I have installed a plastic rear hatch on the deck of the Night Heron S&G, permanently sealed the front hatch opening for lack of desire to have one and built an underdeck camera storage compartment for a 35 mm SLR with big ass lens. I will probably add a waterproof door on the camera compartment since I have a bad habit with cameras.

Incidently, I was at a family reunion a couple of weeks ago. It was late at night, some time around 2 a.m. The next camp over had children who were frolicking around in the moonlight playing frizbee or something. I thought the would make a great night time picture so I got up off my chair, carefully placed my well used wine cup on something nearby (never did find it again till morning)...cautiously walked over to the picnic table where I knew there was a plastic tub and proceeded to set my camera on top of it (thinking it was bottom up) so that I could take a longer exposure image of the children and maybe the moom. Well, when I set the camera on what I thought was the bottom of the upturned tub, I heard a spelunk! then felt water all over my hand. I immediately sobered up, muttered "Oh shit!" and yanked the camera out as quickly as I could in my not-too-sober state of consciousness. I looked at the camera LCD screen and could see some message saying that the lens divorced the camera body and they weren't communicating. With the words "Oh f**k, not AGAIN!" running through my mind and many hundreds of dollars of possible future debt now being considered (I will never live without a camera even if it means debt), I yanked the battery out of the camera body and wiped everything as dry as I could. I tossed the thing in the car and hoped we'd have another brutally hot day when the sun rose. Well, in the morning I checked the LCD screen only to see humidity on the inside of the glass. I left it in the sun for the next three hours then once the moisture was gone, inserted the battery and promised never to mistreat the camera again. Well, it worked! The electronic guts got a good soaking but because the water was fresh, it apparently survived. The images I had stored to the memory card were fine. I almost lost camera number 6 due to...you guessed it again...stupit maneuvers....I wasn't even in the kayak this time but hey, the kayak was on the car racks only three feet away. Reminded me of the time I accidently washed my cell phone in the washing machine...took three days to dry out but once it did, it worked fine. I had to disconnect the vibrator though, it wouldn't stop vibrating and I didn't want THAT in my pocket all the time. Using that cell phone was never quite as exciting.

Robert N Pruden