Yesterday I did my good deed. As I was paddling along, I thought I spied a boat on a distant beach and nobody around. As I got closer it was apparent that the boat–a canoe–was indeed not being attended to and it was not tied up. It was just sitting there on a very low lying sandy beach. The tide was coming in very quickly and within a very few minutes the boat was about to float away. I called 911 to notify authorities what I had found and to see if there was a report of a missing canoe. While I was on the phone and giving the exact location, I had to move the boat a couple of times to keep it from floating away. Then around the point, here comes a couple of people walking along the beach. This was on an uninhabited island, so it had to be the canoe owners. I was still on the phone, so I told the lady on the other end that I would call them back if the couple did turn out to be the owners.
The couple were the owners and they did thank me for rescuing their canoe, but I couldn’t help wondering how naive they had been to leave their canoe–full of their stuff–and just casually had set out to explore the island, which is about a mile long and heavily forested. The beach they parked their canoe on was very flat and could only have been a few inches above the water–even when they left the canoe there. Later I thought how lucky it was for them that a ship, or large power vessel had not gone by and washed their canoe away with its wake. Maybe someone does watch over drunks and fools. Not saying these folks were either, but someone was looking out for them.
Wait till it floats away, then tether it to your boat and wait for the owners to show up. When they do, slap a maritime salvage lien on the boat and contents.
@Overstreet said:
I had my center console swamped and pushed up the beach by a passing cabin cruiser once while I was cast netting bait up the beach. It can happen.
Four boy scouts ,no joke, came along in a boat and helped me put it back in.
Some years back four of us sea kayakers were traveling the intracoastal waterway in NC and we stopped for a break. We noticed that someone had let the tide go OUT and leave their powerboat high and dry. Here comes a muscley dude complete with barbed wire arm tattoo and his super-hot girlfriend. They were going to be stuck there for some hours unless someone helped. We four old kayaker dudes pushed their boat to the water. All we got was a ‘thank you’. Some beers would have been nice.
That sort of thing happens a lot on Block Island… People go there for the day arrive at high tide and along about five pm are reminded that they will have to wait for the tide to return…another six hours… Their boat is nowhere near the water and is too large to push ( about 22 feet) Sometimes happens in the Everglades but knowing boaters bring a pole
It isn’t just newbies. The high high tide a couple or weeks ago where l visit in Maine was 11.7, something like 1am so someone could sleep thru it.
The next morning l found out that one of the kayaks that were part of a group being run by an well known outfitter on the adjacent island had gone missing on the overnight tide. Not only too close to the water, also not tied off and apparently loaded with a lot of the campers gear.
This group included people with no salt water background. I saw the group leaving, suffice to say it was mixed. Probably not a tide chart among them. And the outfitter got good bucks for this one.
In that situation I beg to disagree. I DO think it is the responsibility of the outfitter to exert extra caution when the tide is going to be better than 2 ft over the average and they are taking money from people with no likely understanding.
Update - I just took a look at the description of the trip on the outfitter’s site
“Prerequisite: None
Activity level: Moderate
Minimum age: 12 (17 and under with a parent or guardian)”
And equipment supplied, though apparently at least one person had their own stuff.
No way these folks would have known about nearly 12 ft tides. Not going to go further here because it turns out the guides were not of the sponsoring outfitter necessarily, had better certs and ones I usually respect.
Were I to lose any of my stuff due to a high tide it’d be totally on me, I know better.
Our local Meetup coordinator told me it was a trip leaders job to rescue people.
I am always safety first and have always helped when needed, but my job? I am not young any more so she thinks I shouldn’t schedule trips without a qualified rescuer along.
Good point, but it still irritated me.
Hi String.FWIW, our local after-work evening paddling group has always felt that rescue capacity should be distributed in the group, not all on one person. So the season starts with trip leaders having a talk on the subject from more experienced paddlers and they schedule at least a couple of rescue practice sessions early on.
But this is one of my discomforts with the vicarious quality of Meetups. You often don’t have a predictable enough base of paddlers to be sure that there is rescue coverage in the participants.
@Celia said:
Hi String.FWIW, our local after-work evening paddling group has always felt that rescue capacity should be distributed in the group, not all on one person. So the season starts with trip leaders having a talk on the subject from more experienced paddlers and they schedule at least a couple of rescue practice sessions early on.
But this is one of my discomforts with the vicarious quality of Meetups. You often don’t have a predictable enough base of paddlers to be sure that there is rescue coverage in the participants.
Luckily, I know who ours are. They tend to be hard core paddlers who aren’t interested in hanging with the beginners but it’s worked out so far.
@Celia said:
“…this is one of my discomforts with the vicarious quality of Meetups. You often don’t have a predictable enough base of…to be sure that there is rescue coverage in the participants.”
That “vicarious quality of Meetups.”
Like that fella in the campsite next to yours,
who comes quickly walking over
trampling down the vetch and clover,
avoiding gravel path as he chugs his Coors.
Then without so much as “howdy” on table sits,
just as those triple-A’s in lantern call it quits.
Stating, “There’s a new moon here tonight,
we’ll see the green bats glow in flight!”
Then he proceeds to don a pair of oven mitts.