This guy launched on the west side of Narragansett Bay in a 10’ rec boat on Friday afternoon. Temp’s were in the low 50’s, but the forecast called for gusty winds and heavy rain. Water temp’s were in the mid 30’s, and there were small craft warnings on the bay. The kayak was recovered earlier this week on the east side of the bay, but still no sign of the boater.
With the warm temperatures, the rivers all iced out here on Saturday. I was thinking about going out alone this weekend, but after reading this I decided against it - went hiking instead
So much heartbreak for the family. Up here there’s still an ongoing volunteer search for a young man who paddled out into Lake Michigan Labor Day 2016. No PFD. Only the kayak was recovered.
nd still can’t figure out how they were made. The water under the ice is only 2-3 feet deep until you get to the open water. I really hope there isn’t a car out there.
Tom, that looks so much like a river I know, but I realize it could be almost anywhere in the Midwest. That reminds me though, of a car that went through the ice on Lake Waubesa by my home town, I think back in the late 50s or early 60s. Two guys left a bar late at night in their car and were never seen again. The story was forgotten until the car was found in the lake about ten years ago!
I hope they get lucky, but that is a much trickier area than people realize. My closest time to ever being a newspaper story was near the mouth of that river just up from where it dumps into Narragansett Bay. A day maybe like this one, when the winds ramped up hugely out of the east between 10 am and noon and stayed there for the afternoon. Shore often can’t be gotten by directly paddling to it in stuff like that, can require taking an oblique angle and landing somewhere unplanned.
Even if the details are not how I might have approached the same thing, incidents like this make me stop a bit.
@Celia said:
I hope they get lucky, but that is a much trickier area than people realize. My closest time to ever being a newspaper story was near the mouth of that river just up from where it dumps into Narragansett Bay. A day maybe like this one, when the winds ramped up hugely out of the east between 10 am and noon and stayed there for the afternoon. Shore often can’t be gotten by directly paddling to it in stuff like that, can require taking an oblique angle and landing somewhere unplanned.
Even if the details are not how I might have approached the same thing, incidents like this make me stop a bit.
nd still can’t figure out how they were made. The water under the ice is only 2-3 feet deep until you get to the open water. I really hope there isn’t a car out there.
New Jersey Ice Capades?
Or Fargo Season Six?
Looks like Vito or the Gundersons,
are up to their ole tricks.
Somethins’ fishy with those tracks.
No roadway sane man wishes.
Does some poor soul find final rest
down there with Luca’s fishes?
I wish we knew more about the wind and tide direction
I used to paddle there fairly often and a north east wind with an outgoing tide can make the water look smooth
That is until
You get into it and realize there is no getting back
Just FYI the picture is on the St Joseph River where it widens and slows down about two miles upstream from Lake Michigan. Here’s another shot of a put-in further upstream. While it looks pretty it’s also scary since there is a slippery slope leading down to the edge of the river. The river is opening up again after being fully iced over and turned into a coyote highway.
@kayamedic said:
I wish we knew more about the wind and tide direction
I used to paddle there fairly often and a north east wind with an outgoing tide can make the water look smooth
That is until
You get into it and realize there is no getting back
Looks like it was the opposite - tide was coming in. He launched around noon, and high tide was 4:56. Winds were from the south at 14 mph, with gusts of 40 mph (yikes). Would have been some pretty good waves pushing everything up the bay. Temp hit 60 degrees that day, but still, what was he thinking.
Newbies don’t know what they don’t know. Literally. I doubt he knew either that his boat was vulnerable to capsize in such conditions, or that he had no means of timely recovery if it happened.
I am not saying that he could not have found out - there is at least one serious kayaking place up in Wickford that would have tried to get him set in the right direction. But people active on this board tend to underestimate how far off the assumptions of a newer or untrained paddler can be. Especially so for those who had that initial not-smart experience and lived to learn better. I can be pretty thick. It took two of them to properly get my attention.
A relative had an Old Town Otter that is likely under the water in Muscongus Bay forming its own little home for critters. She and her husband sincerely thought that if you left a boat upside down it could not float away, even with a high tide overnight that came in at a plus 1.5. So it wasn’t tied down…
There are two college degrees involved here so it isn’t about measured intelligence. My guess is that it was a combination of the husband’s penchant for unfounded grandiose statements and their being in vacation (drinking) mode. But even with that, it is a choice that will leave most on this board scratching their heads.
