Re: [Paddlewise] Nobody Home. . .

[snip]
>There was a newsletter article I saw maybe 3 or 4 years ago in, I think,
>the MASK Club (New York City) publication (Ralph D might remember it).
>They were discussing radios such as above vs. cell phones.  I remember it
>as article contributors concluded that radios were broadband, but maybe no
>one is listening, and cell phones were narrow band, but dial a number
>(Coastguard, police, etc.) and there's almost always someone at the other
>end.  If you aren't in cellrange carry the radio, but carry the cell phone
>anyway unless you *know* you will never be in range.
>
>Hank Hays
>
Yesterday, after my wife and I took our kayaks out of the Chattahoochee and
I drove away to scout for another takeout downstream, she saw a canoe
overturn while trying to turn into the takeout.  After helping one paddler
out of the river, she ran downstream and found the second paddler holding
onto a tree separated from the bank by a 15' channel of fast water (there
has been a very long dam release from Buford Dam and the river has been
high and turbulent).  He said he didn't think he could get to shore (cold,
banged up, and drank some river water) and needed her to call 911, so she
ran back to our boats and got out the cell phone that was behind her seat.
The fire department pulled him out with a rope.

On another local river, according to the Atlanta Journal and Constitution,
a whitewater kayaker drowned when he capsized while showing his girlfriend
how to paddle upstream.  No helmet, no PFD.

Ron

Ron Johnson = rfred_at_mindspring.com

		"How every fool can play upon the word!"
		   W. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice


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