He laid Big Sally flat. Step one: Inspect. He ran his palm over every inch of PVC—found a pinhole leak near a seam, a frayed strap, a pebble lodged in a valve. “That pebble would’ve sunk you at the first eddy.”
Maya ran the Rogue that weekend. On day two, a submerged root wrenched a valve slightly loose. She remembered Leo’s checklist, found the wrench in the side pocket, fixed it in six minutes, and kept going. raft repack
Step five: The repack. He rolled the raft from bow to stern, squeezed out residual air like rolling a sleeping bag, then nestled it into the bag with the repair kit, pump adapter, and a laminated checklist. “Now,” he said, “when you’re thirty miles from a takeout and a rock snags your floor, you’ll know exactly where your patch is. Because you put it there.” He laid Big Sally flat