Re: [Paddlewise] incident on Lake Superior

 
I've been able to glean a few more pieces of info about the weekend's
Duluth incident. Apparently the paddler was not even wearing a wetsuit.
This was apparently his second time in a kayak. He actually capsized not
very far into the ship canal, wasnt intending on going all the way out, but
was swept out by the current (the canal is also an outlet of the St Louis
River). He was in a borrowed boat and as far as I know, had no kayak
training. This also is third hand info.

Last night I was out paddling with a couple friends. I turned back early
due to a headache. Wind and current in the canal were pretty strong, making
it an effort to get back in. Once I made it into the harbor the offshore
winds increased even more, and it was already getting close to dark. My
friends were nowhere in sight. I walked out to the lake side and scanned up
and down the shore for them, seeing nothing. I then drove to a beach about
1/2 mile away, thinking they may have decided to take out there and walk
back to the cars. Two people there said they had seen them paddling toward
the ship canal about 20 minutes prior, so I went back there again and still
saw nothing. By this time it was completely dark. I decided to check back
at the cars one more time. If they werent there I was going to the Coast
Guard even though I was pretty sure they were OK since the waves were not
big. Fortunately one of them was there. They had decided not to try to get
through the canal, as the winds were so strong that one paddler, a very
lightweight woman in an unloaded boat with lots of freeboard, was being
blown away from shore. So they paddled past the ship canal and landed on
the beach over there, where I never would have thought to look for them.
Anyway that ended up happily, but gave me a bit of a scare.

It did raise the question though-when is it time to call for help? I was
fairly confident that they were OK since the waves werent "capsize size",
and I knew at least one of them could roll and do assisted rescues in those
conditions. Although the winds were strong, I didnt think they would be
blown offshore (wrong) although I knew they would have trouble getting
through the canal, and I knew both were wearing drysuits. I found myself
not wanting to embarrass the hell out of them by calling help if they were
OK, but they were overdue, it was past dark, and I didnt want to wait too
long either. We never set a pre-arranged "time to start worrying", as
conditions were breezy but benign when we split up. If I had to do it
again, I would have arranged a "time to call help" before splitting up, no
matter how ridiculous it would have seemed at the time.

Wayne




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