huh?
are you even aware of what’s going on in this thread?
Waving paddle
Is often used as a “gather up” signal.
Humor, Pilgrim. Humor…
FE
Be prepared
… since you know me and who else I paddle with on ocasion you’ll find this humerous.
On a COLD morning on January 7th, 2010,… yes today, I went out in my canoe for a little hunting excursion. I’ve only started avidly kayaking a year or two ago but I’ve been canoeing since a was about 4 or 5 years old. Well, its cold enough out for the water droplets on your paddle to freeze in about 3-5minutes. My gear consist of a dry bag with clothes, multiple layers worn, PFD, mulitple knives, and ofcourse rifles.
As I said I’m experienced, but as for my 6’ 5", 240lb, partner, he isn’t. We had been out for about an hour when we descided to pull up to the bank and get out for a bit. BTW were on the Trent river in Jones county, NC. We get out and walk around for a bit. All has been going well so far but it was time to launch again… well Oh boy. My partner had been out with me on serveral occasions before so I wasn’t worried about anything. MISTAKE.
I asked if he was comfortable launching since he was in the front and thats how we landed on the back. He siad “Sure, no problem.” So I assumed no problem. WRONG. I had gotten comfortable situated in the back and he pushed the boat out a bit into the water to launch. I wasn’t paying attention to him to much just relaxing for a moment. Well apparently he didn’t push the boat out far enough and it was balancing on its ridge in the hull. As he got in the boat shifted left some, so ofcourse I slowly shifted my weight to the right to compensate. Well apparently there was NO Compensating this lean.
Next thing I know I’ve leaned so far right that I’m practically on the right gunwale and we’re rolling to the left. SPLASH!! We get dumped, the boat is swamped! I rapidly grab my partner and get him to the bank with the rifles. get the boat flipped back over, drug it up on the bank, dumped it, grabbed the paddles and tossed them to sure, and then realized the dry bag was floating down stream!! lol. I Then re-entered the water to get the dry bag and brought it to shore. Luckily we had the dry bag and clothes. And we were only a short paddle from our put in but it sucked. The only reason I really say this is a mistake to learn from is… I’ve never brought a dry bag with clothing before for this trip. I’ve done it billions of times and over years had grown complacent. Luckily last night I had a stroke of common sense and packed one. Had we had no dry clothing we would have been in a bit of trouble.
Within 10 minutes of me launching the 2nd time… I wasn’t giving him a 2nd chance… haha., it was cold enough for the water on my PFD, Rifles, and dry bag to freeze!!
For you northern paddlers I’m sure the water freezing is a common occurance. But for those of us in Eastern NC… well it rarely happens so it was much colder than I’m used to.
The moral is, always prepare for the worst… no matter how short of a trip, or how many times you’ve done it, or how experienced you are… Crap still happens. Hope this provided a laugh or some knowledge.
Surf zone issues
Not saying that many of the standard stuff shouldn’t be tried, but as bnystrom says anything in a surf zone is instantly harder to execute. The water does not give you the grace of time you get in swells, or even close lake waves in a larger body of water. I have had an assisted rescue in the stuff, but everyone had to work really really fast and there was no pumping out of water.
This is an area where the single best bet is to have a solid roll for those conditions, so there is no getting out of the boat to start with. Anything less is as likely to be a bloopers video as a textbook rescue.
close calls
1. pinned sideways against a fallen tree during high current in the spring…with water within an inch of coming over the rail and swamping the boat…and a dog in the boat. We did get out of it by not panicking…slowly figured out how to inch our way out of it. Root cause was stupidity…not paying attention. Another lesson - don’t try to make quick u-turns to avoid obstacles in high current because if you don’t complete the u-turn you are in trouble.
2. swamped and sank a Blackhawk Zephyr in rapids (class 3-ish), had the boat run me over…rescued by kayaker playing in the whitewater. Root cause - taking a shallow lake boat over a major rapid. Safety gear required is to bring common sense and not run rapids in a boat not made for it.
3. half-filled a Royalex Rendezvous with water and almost got slammed into a railroad trestle when paddling upstream against hard current and crossing an eddy line by upstream part of railroad trestle (dog actually saved us with a big/fast weight shift!). Root cause - lack of common sense…I knew I was cutting across the eddy line too soon and too close to the railroad trestle.
4. paddling buddy slumps over in his solo canoe due to diabetic coma. Ended up towing buddy over a mile back to put-in.
Safety gear that would have helped is rope/string to make sure one boat could tow another (he had rope) and glucose tablets to help get him back on track (they are cheap and I now have them in my car and my thwart bag). Also makes one wonder about bringing extra flotation because had he fallen out of his boat the situation might have gotten very serious very quickly.
we made a turn about once that …
– Last Updated: Jan-07-10 8:00 PM EST –
...... I'm sure took every bit of a thousand feet or more to execute and bring under full control , in a really wind blown reservour (Yough).
Yep , it was really strong wind on the 3rd day !!
We went out for our last spin anyway , crossed the reservour to the windward side and continued . Took a shore break and decided to make the run into the right split of the fork which we had neglected during the past two days .
It was going ok into the wind being relatively close to shore on the far side , but then broke out into the fork and it seemed as if the wind speed instantly doubled ... we pressed on digging as hard as we could on every stroke ... after about 10 minutes (or less) of this (me laughing so hard my gut hurt) , I said to my faithful and trusting partner in the bow ... well what do you think , had enough , ready to turn about and head on back so we can break camp , head home ??
She yelled something I couldn't quite make out but it was a definate "YES" ...
I told her it was going to be a wild turn about , so get ready , and we launched the turn to the left .
Like I said , it took at least a thousand feet to complete !! We went skidding in a sideways 45 degree skew fashion , the bow just seemed to refuse to complete the turn . I told her keep driving that paddle hard on the right side sweeps , while I tried all I could think of from the stern ... finally just dug the paddle in on the left side to make it a rudder at 45 degrees to the gunnel , at least that held it in the skewed angle and brought us on a course that was closing towards the windward shore again , albeit in a skewed angle .
It gave us both a break for a minute , by that time the canoe had blown back out of the fork and well into the open reservour waters .
Now closing toward shore , as we got closer (a few hundred feet off shore) , the wind got a bit slacker , just enough for us to complete the turn with many more powerful strokes .
We were in full control again and had no more unexpected issues running cross downwind and back to camp .
I discovered later what was the problem with the canoe not wanting complete the turn , powerfully fighting us and always wanting to turn back upwind again through this manuver ...
many of you know why ... now we do too !!
crazy ride it was ...
suggestion , don't laugh yourself into a stupper while trying to avoid a nasty capsize in windblown open cold waters ... she couldn't make up her mind if she should scream or keep the faith ... did I ever tell you all that this gal is real trooper !!
so this isn't no big deal , unless you were there and it was happening to you ... but I like this thread and wanted to contribute something ...
Haha, sorry
to hear about your incident, Dale. Good thing you packed those spare clothes. I’m definitely gonna have to give Doug a hard time on our next poker night.
A “free pass” burned
I’ve had a few close calls where it could have easily turned out bad. Knock on wood, but none arising out of paddling. Nevertheless, Dan inspired me to chip in here. There was a dicey spot on a mountain top in Utah. And once I was about a hundredth of a second from being maimed or killed on my bicycle. Driving home from college I spun out on the rain-slicked highway at 75mph, spinning 360s down the road, into the median, back on the road, and off the other side–not a scratch.
But here’s one that happened on the water. On the Chesapeake. In the Chesapeake. Out with a fellow that was much drunker than I realized, I went for a swim off his power boat. He left me out there with only my shorts, a couple miles off shore.
It was a pleasant summer afternoon that turned to dusk while I bobbed and lazily stroked towards some boats that were anchored, fishing, I guess, around a mile off. With tides and currents, I have no idea if I was making any progress. The Bay always seems full of crab buoys when you are moving at speed, and it was my hope I’d come across some buoys I could use for floatation. I never did. I guess I was in the water about two hours. It had started to get dark. The boats I was headed towards turned on lights, and I was afraid they were leaving. They were still far off, and I began to think I’d be in trouble when it got dark. My bald head was going to be mighty hard to spot in the middle of the Bay in the dark.
I remember admiring the developing sunset. It was calm, and the water took on a lovely oily, purplish look like it does on a calm summer night. And there was a dot on the horizon to the east. It grew and developed an outboard motor sound. It came straight for me on a line about twenty yards away. I raised my arms and the pilot throttled down and the boat settled into the water nearby. I swam over and the fellow helped me up onto the back deck. I’ll always remember that guy, and the kid that was with him. The guy just kept repeating, louder and more emphatically each time, with the kid just staring at him, “what the F are you doing out here”. The F got a little more emphatic each time.
That’s how I burned a free pass.
I don’t know about any lessons there. Alcohol. It sure screwed up my buddy. But you don’t need my story to know about that. PFDs? Well, I’ve been out fishing a few times in the years since that happened, and my friends sometime suggest that it’s damn hot and I can take off my PFD. I just tell 'em “that’s okay, I’m fine.” You see, a few hours bobbing in that Bay with nothing but my shorts made an impression. And one never knows how many free passes one has left.
~~Chip
Beware the Tilley Hat!!
This story came to me second hand, but I think it is worthy of this thread.
A few friends of mine took a short trip down a local river. Two of them were very experienced boaters, the third was probably in a canoe for the third or fourth time ever (but with a lot of previous experience in kayaks). This third person was wearing his brand new Tilley hat, with the chin cord in place.
This river is known as a pretty brushy river, with the occasional blowdowns. While there are no rapids, the current is pretty steady. The riverbed drops off quickly from the banks.
Well, this guy was paddling close to shore, occasionally ducking under branches, when one particularly sturdy branch hooked in right between his cheek and the thin shoelace strap of the Tilley. He came to a stop, frantically trying to release himself from the branch, and the canoe kept going. Over he goes, into the drink. Now the water is cold, and the branch still has a good grip on him…that shoelace will not break! No knife! Fortunately his head was still above water, but since his feet weren’t touching bottom he was essentially hanging there by the strap, withthe water flow trying to drag him downstream.
Fortunately something popped (I’m not sure if it was the strap or the branch) and he was able to swim free. Fortunately, they were only a few hundred yards from the take-out, because he had no clothes to change into. And he ended up with a pretty deep gash and bruising around his neck.
Lesson…if you-re going to wear your Tilley, stay away from the woods. If it is not a windy day, do NOT use the chin strap. Imagine if this guy went swimming and caught on a subsurface branch, or rebar, or something.
-rs
first and last
– Last Updated: Jan-09-10 12:52 AM EST –
First time I went out another guy was at the same pond on his first day. We both managed to get out on the lake but he capsized with his neoprene spray skirt still attached. It being our first time out we were thinking about so much other stuff that when he flipped over he didn't think to pull the pull cord. He panicked but eventually remembered to pull it off. I have to give him credit for doing that in a full panic without any practice, because it's something you want to practice a few times before you are upside down.
The last time I went out, two days ago, I paddled around an island. Water temps 47 air temps 45. I got back out on the harbor and saw a big ship down the river running with the ebb tide out. It was about 5 miles away so I decided not to wait. There was some confused water but I couldn't slow down and would have to brace on the fly. The Nordkapp LV was so beautiful. I hit a 3+ knot current and 15 knot wind. The huge ship must have been a passenger ship that got closer than I thought it would. Still, over a mile away, but I didn't think it would get within 3 miles.
practice
During the summer I often practice paddling with a boat full of water. Been doing that since I realized in a similar situation how unstable I was Fortunately, I was in a class at the time but it was an eye opener. Lyn