Rstevens, good cautionary tale! I agree with your conclusion in principle, except for that incident where my nonelectronic key failed to open the car door, not due to a failure of the key but due to some electronic “decision” the car made to refuse the key. Those devices are temperamental and it’s hard to predict what they’re going to do.
A total security system would be: spare fob and full set of house etc keys in the car; unprogrammed key in a magnetic box under the car; fob or unprogrammed key in your PFD; full set of spare keys in the house; and spare house key outside the house. That covers pretty much all events. I have used all 5 of those stashes!
After reading tons of reviews it became clear that every type of box or pouch is prone to some percentage of failures for some users but they work great for others. This cylindrical dry box has strong reviews and seems like the simplest of all the choices, with only one possible point of failure—rubber gasket could get worn out by repeated screwing and unscrewing of the cap?? It floats and the bright color is helpful for retrieval. The small boxes with a clasp could come unhinged. Cell phone pouches look like a good contender, but don’t fit the size and shape of my PFD pocket. Some of the more expensive ($35) pouches and key cases have quite a few negative reviews of waterproofness.
One last thought is to be careful about which keys you have on your keyring. It’s not a good idea to carry things like the key to your bank deposit box everywhere. I will take only the key fob in the kayak. Depending on where you paddle, the chances of ending up in the water could be greater than the danger of having your other keys stolen from the car. There are many stories of theft from launch parking lots; so far I’ve escaped that.
I have carried wallet, key fob, and misc pocket stuff in a blue bag from this Walmart set when paddling since 2012. I often carry the bag in a deck bag or in my PFD pocket. I have been in rain and unscheduled “swimming” . I have also washed the loose auto key fob in the pocket of my trousers in the washing machine. It does funny things until it drys out. Which it did and works fine. Don’t worry so much.
Ziploc bag, in the pfd. I don’t understand why you need a double Ziploc, plus a water proof case.
. My fob has gone through the wash many times, works fine. I get they are expensive, but they are designed to be durable.
This makes me particularly glad to have a Ford. Most of the time when I am doing stuff that makes me not want to carry the fob, it stays in the console and I lock/unlock the car with the numeric keypad on the driver’s door
“Don’t worry so much.” Let’s say it’s Sunday, late fall, 4 p.m. You’re kayaking in a remote area, haven’t seen another paddler all day, not a single other vehicle in the parking lot. You’ve gone overboard and your electronic key is drenched. You get back to your car but you can’t get in the car, and if you could, you wouldn’t be able to start it. You’re up an old logging road 75 miles from the nearest tow truck and 150 miles from the nearest dealer that has a laser machine to cut a sidewinder key. (I had to go to another state to get mine made.) Anyway, it’s a holiday and the dealer won’t be open until Tuesday. You do have a cell phone—but if you failed to protect your car key I wonder if your cell phone was protected when it went into the lake. Let’s say your cell phone is working. Oh, wait, there’s no cell service in this mountainous area. Woops! It’s start to feel a bit chilly as the fall temperature drops from a nice 57 in the sun to the 40s late in the day, probably 30s at night. You’re not prepared to spend a night in the woods. What do you figure will be the cost, in terms of time, money, and effort, to extricate yourself from this situation?
You’re lucky in this scenario, since you managed to hang onto your kayak and you still have your key. Much worse if you were separated from your kayak. Could also be compounded by a person’s age, health, etc. All this because you failed to secure your car key in a sturdy waterproof case on your person.
Am I the only one that sees the absurdity in all this. I have been driving legally for 50 years and for the first 40 years only had a key. A simple piece of metal that was virtually indestructible in normal usage. There was no such thing as a cell phone. A telephone hung on the wall and the cord kept you within 10’ of that spot. For many of those years there wasn’t even an answering machine and if you needed someone you kept calling till they picked up or you drove over and saw them in person. You never called anyone outside your area unless it was something special as you got charged big bucks for long distance. Home movies were on film that had to be developed and played on a movie projector and if grandma wanted to see the grandkids you mailed her a photo as there was no email. Most of your memories were kept in your brain not on a cloud.
We lived thru all that and did just fine. Maybe better in some ways.
I can hardly believe such simple inventions as a kayak or a canoe are even still around but I noticed OT and others are now putting USB ports and places to attach all kinds of electronic gadgets to your boat.
Get a plain old key made for 5 bucks if your car still has a slot for a key in the door and put the key in your PFD pocket tied off with some cord. Put your phone in a zip lock bag and put it away and enjoy your day without snap-chat and face-book and the hundred other apps I see everyone using while paddling.
I haven’t seen every key fob out there but the ones I am familiar with contain a backup physical key. Not sure I would want a car designed by engineers who decided it was OK to strand me when the fob’s battery dies.
Waterbird was answering me. Read the details of my post. There is a dry bag there that has worked in the past for less than $ 13.
As to the Water bird example, they left out the part where anxiety caused the paddler to have a heart attack and died before getting back to the ramp was left out. We can and often “what if” way too much on this forum.
Personally if that was me at that ramp I have a key, a phone that unlocks door, and Qruiser that has a spare key fob.
Lighten up. Take precautions but do it with reason. …or just stay home.
I got a spare “plain old key” (just the sidewinder blade) made for free by a dealer in Maine who didn’t see any sense in charging $150 for 10 cents of metal and a 2-minute job. But the chances that that key is going to work 100% of the time are slim.
Then most Fobs would fit. I have fobs with keys which wouldn’t fit. Two inches by five I think is exterior dimensions from scaling the clip in the picture.
I have a valet key which is kept unprotected and tethered in my PFD pocket. It gets wet. Over the past five years there hasn’t been one instance when the key did not work and open the car door.
I guess if you bent the key it wouldn’t work. Can’t imagine any other reason.
