The winter creepy chronicles
That reminds me of a boating accident that happened on Pueblo Reservoir in Dec. 2004 or 2005. Pueblo is the only CO lake open to boating year 'round, because it rarely freezes over.
A couple fishing off a powerboat got into trouble with high winds. The woman swam to shore, ended up in a hospital, recovered. When I paddled at Pueblo a month or two after the accident, divers still had not found the man’s body. We paddled among flotsam marked with orange flags. I felt ice crawling down my spine at the sudden thought that a bloated set of fingers might pop out of the deep. I don’t know if the body ever did show up.
So…what diff did it make whether they were on a 16 ft boat or longer? Once they’re in the water, they’re just bodies. I guess the shorter boats might rock more violently in high wind. Then the criteria really should be about weather conditions, not boat length!
My swim was not planned at all
Had I planned I might have done something smart, like wear a wetsuit. But since it was flat water where I paddle often I didn’t do it. Then I decided to go among the ice to get a video of it hitting a buoy. Then thought it would be easier to break thru 30’ of ice instead of going a few hundred yards around. The whole story “Cold And Alone On An Icy River” is in the August 2010 Sea Kayaker. Chris the Editor gets full credit for the catchy title.
Anyway any one of several things could have made the incident much better or worse and not wearing a PFD would have been a fatal mistake since I had no margin left.
That said I agree with several others here, you can’t legislate good sense.
SYOTW (in my PFD)
Randy
fellow oarswoman is a bit of an
oxymoran.
I rowed and sculled between '60 and '67. There were essentially no gals rowing on the Charles then. On the Schuylkill there was the Philadelphia Women’s Rowing Club, a rare and exceptional organisation. There were very few women’s crews for them to race.
Anyway, no I didn’t know her.
There are probably several hundred women scullers in the world right now who are better than I ever was.
A couple of us are setting up a
park and play next week (Thanksgiving week)at Ten Mile River. Interested? Dennis