harlingford
would you have fared any better if you had paddled in without your spray skirt on? It sounds like you put a lot of effort into that, and that’s what was holding you back. I made a PFD with a VHF pocket a top priority and always carry that and three pencil flares on my person, for just such an occasion. Don’t know if the flares will work, but there they are. Glad you story had a happy end. We hear of experienced paddlers not making it. I imagine their ordeal was a lot like your, only without the good outcome.
no
It was impossible to paddle without the spray skirt on because every 4th or 5th breaking wave was big enough to come over the coaming. The more water in the boat, the less stable it was, and then more would come in, and it would swamp and soon capsize. It was an unusual day and place in that the waves were breaking and reforming for a long way out so there wasn’t a well-defined surf zone. We were playing in a place with secondary breaks on sand bars because the primary breaks were too big for us. The secondary break wasn’t that big and it seemed safe and fun as long as we were in our boats. The problem when we were out of our boats was that the the waves kept breaking and re-forming for a long way on multiple sandbars, all the way to the beach, so it was impossible to get to a place where there was just swell and you could pump without getting clobbered.
But you may be right - possibly if every time we re-entered we had just paddled hard toward shore without trying to re-skirt, after 3 or 4 capsizes we might have made it to shore instead of being in the same place but weaker and more cold.
bowrudder-
The more I think about it, the more I think you’re right that it would have been better to just paddle hard toward shore without pumping or re-skirting. I was very close to getting the skirt on the first time, and then that became the task I was focused on. After the 3rd try, I should have mentally stepped back to consider an alternate strategy. I still felt calm at that point, and I’m not sure why I didn’t. I hope to never be in the same situation again but if I am, this will be helpful.
Just wondering what else
could have been done differently that would have made your incident “less eventful.” I believe after reading your story that if you and your friend made staying together a priority after your initial capsizes…it may have been much easier to get back in your kayaks in a coordinated effort. Maybe one of you stay in the water and stabilize the others kayak while he got in, and then attempt another assisted rescue while staying rafted up for stability. I know if I were in that situation it would be hard to be more concerned about staying together than getting in a rush about gettin my butt out of the cold water and back in my kayak, but I’ve read too many stories about people getting in more trouble by getting separated.
Of course, it always helps to discuss with your partner or group about what should be done in the case of a capsize before you leave out on a trip and to practice rescues together in conditions other than the YMCA pool. I’ve seen many people become overconfident just because they’ve practiced rescues in a pool. It’s a good idea and better than no practice at all, but nothing like battling the conditions while trying to do the same rescues.
Ditto . . .
Used up most of my free passes in 'Nam . . . and flying the ultralight. Trying to plan for every possibility on the water!
This is a great set of posts!
It’s good to learn from others’ mistakes, before we make them ourselves - and to see supportive discussion and creative exchange of ideas in response to these incidents.
This string has some of the most useful Advice, Suggestions and General Help I’ve seen posted in some time.
emergency paddle signal
Isn’t that what waving a paddle back and forth over your head means? That’s what it means with people I know.
Exactly
All of us in the group knew that and used that signal to no avail.
You’re on the right track
– Last Updated: Jan-06-10 7:23 AM EST –
Trying to do cowboy re-entries and allowing themselves to separate were both mistakes that could have been costly. With two swimmers, one should reach over one boat and grab the other to stabilize it while the other paddler gets in. Once he's back in his boat, he helps the second paddler in. In a surf zone, ANY assisted rescue is dicey, but the two most important things are speed and getting the paddlers out of the water. Although paddling a boat with water in the cockpit is a pain, it's better than swimming, so any pumping should be left until you get to shore or calm water. Get out of danger first, do the "housekeeping" second.
One suggestion for self-self is to learn to re-enter and roll. Forget about the somersault underwater and putting the spray skirt on, just do a quick side entry, get upright and get out of the danger zone. If need be, you can do this repeatedly with less energy than most other rescues and a higher chance of success.
Almost got hitched a second time…
Now, dat wuz a close call…
FE
60 seconds
– Last Updated: Jan-06-10 8:52 AM EST –
A few instructors have challenged me to do assisted rescues in under 60 seconds during classes. At the time I took it mostly as an exercise to improve confidence, and make it more automatic. But in reality there are cases like yours, where a very fast assisted rescue could be vital. If you could have rescued each other into dry boats between big sets, you may gotten yourself out of trouble faster, and stayed together.
Another advantage of using assisted rescues is that you can benefit psychologically from staying together. It's easier to get discouraged or panic if alone.
Once separated, I'll agree with Bnystrom that a reenter and roll is low-energy, and quick, and reliable in rough water.
(by the way, I'm definitely not intending to criticize the OP, as I could definitely imagine myself in trouble in his scenario. Just using his example as a thought exercise to be more prepared. Thanks for sharing.)
Time for us
to do some practicing!!
That is frightening.
Glad you are OK.
Wind pushed water out of Bay
The only time that I ever thought I might have to call for a rescue was not from particularly challenging conditions, but from a lack of water. Happened at the top of Galveston Bay with a strong north wind. Me and one other paddler both with basic day trip kit. At the ramp, some local fishermen who had just come in questioned our trip and warned that the winds would push a lot of water out of the top of the Bay.
We decided to paddle down the Trinity River instead of directly out into the Bay to shelter from wind and assure water. After paddling down and through a cut just to “take a look” at the Bay, we decided instead of paddling back around the river, we would cut across the Bay to a boat channel and back to the ramp. Looking at the chart it appeared that even with the wind, if we paddled south for a distance, we would eventually have sufficient water to cut across. The tide was forecast to be moving in as the day wore on, so even with the wind we expected improving depths.
Long story short, winds continued picking up to about 20kts, and we continued having to paddle and in places crab walk ourselves south and away from “home.” All the while, I’m watching a town further to the Southeast that I figured, worst case we would paddle with the wind all the way there and pay someone to give us a ride to the car.
Landed on an island to try and warm up, grab a snack and rest. The bailout option was not feasible because even that far South there was still not enough water to paddle across. We were finally able by slogging through mud that was knee deep in places and paddling in little chunks to get to the boat channel. Even the channel was pretty darn shallow.
By this time we were tired, wet and now faced a 3 mile paddle directly into the teeth of the wind which continued to increas. We knew the winds were going to increase that afternoon but planned to be back ashore or at least in sheltered water before it got real snotty. I hooked up a tow to my buddy, but we made it back just before dark.
Lessons learned - my friend usually packs a “pop-up” bivy shelter and didn’t that day. It certainly would of given us a place on the island to get out of the wind and warm up more. I guess I haven’t learned my lesson though, because I still don’t have one.
Listen to the locals - always! Doesn’t mean that we should not have paddled that day, but when we started running out of water we should have turned around. Don’t be lured into the “if I can just get past this . . . I know that there will be more water” mentality.
Really think through your “bail out” locations. Given your experience that day, is there a reason the “bail out” might not work?
This was a day and environment that even with the wind, was not terribly challenging paddling. But the cumulative effect of fatigue, wind chop and cold was definitely having an impact as the day wore on.
good advice
– Last Updated: Jan-06-10 4:17 PM EST –
Over-confidence was big factor. We made the mistake of separating before we were in our boats with skirts on because we each were so confident that we could do a cowboy re-entry much faster than assisting each other, and it seemed dangerous to be close together with breaking waves. We were obviously over-confident, partly because we had practiced cowboy re-entries a lot and could do them fast -normally, but not quite fast enough in breaking waves at the end of a tiring day. Fatigue was a big factor in that. This happened 3 years ago. Afterwards, we concluded that we should learn re-entry and roll for the future, just as bnystrom said, and that is now the first thing I would go for in a self-rescue situation. (Though I have to admit it's been a year since I last practiced...) Doing re-entry-and-rolls and paddling the boat as far as possible between capsizes (without pumping or skirting) would probably have been the best strategy - once we got separated. My feeling at the time was that it would be dangerous to try to raft up to assist each other becuase of the risk of the up-wave kayak inverting on the down-wave one in a breaking wave. But that might have been a better strategy, I don't know.
one rescue can consume up to three…
"…one rescue can consume up to three people."
Though Hutchinson regularly notes “Never fewer than 3 should be” we found in one situation that it took 2 people to resuce one paddler in the water, and it took another to retrieve the boat… Wind gusts over 30 knots make everything more difficult.
In that case we thought the 4 of us were going for an easy short morning paddle. It turned into one of the hairiest situations. Every time someone comments that we’re over geared for a paddle, I remember that day…
"don’t be an idiot."
After we were safely ashore after the harrowing time in 30+ knot winds and were asked what we were doing out there, my only response was “Being stupid!”
re: I never wore cute shorts again tho.
But that’s punishing us for your mistake!
Party or Surf. Pick One
Come to party, or come to surf, but don’t think you can party all night and then do dawn patrol.
I don’t think details are necessary
cave
was paddling in newfoundland with a friend and some of his colligues.
we visited some caves and paddled through them.
later on that trip we were in a more exposed area but it still seamed calm, i saw a small cave and asked if we should go in there. The consensus was it was too shallow and boaring with one of our group saying it was exposed to and pointed south east. it struck me he just could not be bothered.
we went on and our boats went up and down gently three or four times and a few seconds later the cave filled with water splashing out over the roof and back to the sea.
i have gone through dozens of caves with the same group before and since, when our friend kind of looks and says ,“na” i don’t go near it.
newfoundland has some great caves, archways, etc.
it’s cold all the same. they were rolling and i tried to show off.
i asked a friend to spot me and as he said “no don’t” it was too late. my short wet suit was not up to the task and shock hit me: i swam!
i wear a full farmer jane there now.