Super suggestions.
Huge thanks for all the feedback. Picked up two rolls of Duck tape: dayglow orange and holographic silver. Will use that to decorate the crown of my wide-brimmed hat. I have coral and purple ball caps; guess I should get a hunter orange one as well.
I’ll use reflective tape on my boat and Werner as I’ve read some reports that it can be more easily seen if it’s moving.
Normally if I see something coming at me, I’ll head in another direction. While I’m improving my paddling speed while using my Lumpy, I’m still slower than with my Werner. Need to work on that - but my GP sure has been a godsend on some recent outings. Thank you, Bill!
See and be seen - the brighter the color the better. Which makes wonder why the Greenland devotees seem to always wear black.
lights, tape, action…
Yes, it’s fairly common to have powerboats here in Florida use a high power spot (like a Q-beam) to search out the next channel marker on the ICW, while traveling at high speed. That said, you don’t need a huge high candlepower beam to light up SOLAS tape.
In addition to boats, having reflective tape makes it easy to spot your partner with a modest headlight. Even a dim light will get a strong reflection from SOLAS tape.
That said, local conditions/traffic applies and I agree that having tape won’t make you visible to all craft. It’s just another safety tool. One of the biggest scares that I have in doing the Everglades Challenge 300 miler are powerboats operating at high-speed at night with no running lights at all. Having a stern light, and a bright light to illuminate my deck (so as not to blind the captain of the boat), are also helpful.
Greg Stamer
Yep, agree with all that
I was just making sure you weren’t attributing any of the same magical properties to reflective tape that I’ve seen suggested before, such as the notion that incident light need not be aligned with the viewer’s line of sight to see reflection (any claim to that effect was certainly a case of the viewer ignoring the fact that they had a small light source of their own, as you describe for keeping track of nearby paddling companions).
Think about an airhorn
We’ve had similar problems with a jet boat tour operator near where we vacation on Lake Superior. We bought an small air horn at West Marine. If they’re not looking in your direction they might not see even the most brightly colored paddle. So now we wave paddles, use the horn and a Fox whistle