[Paddlewise] Lessons learned: Lake Erie

Had not planned to publish the information I've collected so far since it's
still mostly preliminary.  Then I went out at lunchtime and ate a couple of
half smokes on a bench in front of my office in Crystal City and got
overheated with my jacket on --- and that made me think a little more.  This
is time-sensitive stuff.  The information I have is from a collection of
knowledgeable sources including press contacts and government agencies in Ohio
who are not yet on record, and I can't cite them; your call on how you take
that, but they're on site, they're working the case, and they provided
information off the record.  When the DNR and the Coroner issue their final
reports --- and that could take up to six weeks ---, I'll receive them and
will pass along any variance to this early report. Thanks also to Chuck
Sutherland and to Neil Samos for other background info.

The essence of the incident is that Captain Tom "Rhino" Hancock, USN (Ret.)
died on Lake Erie on Saturday in a sea kayaking accident that could have
easily been prevented.  He was a friend of mine, and what we in the Navy call
a "shipmate" --- somebody who really matters to you.  Somebody who'd take care
of you if you needed it, and somebody you'd take care of if he needed it.  He
was not a paddling buddy, though, and, in fact, I didn't know he was a kayaker
at all.  I knew him from his devotion to aviation maintenance issues, and the
way he went about championing important programs, trying to make the sailors's
life on the deckplate a little easier and better.

______________


We sea kayakers are an independent lot.  It's sometimes hard for outside
professionals who work closely with issues of individual and organizational
behavior to understand how sea kayakers ever get as organized as we do.  We
look at individual and group responsibilty in ways different from most ---
just look at our recent PaddleWise discussion on car racks and a much earlier
discussion on the responsibility of the individual in a group when the going
gets rough!  We tend to advocate individual rights, and we live with the fact
that our personal choices in cold water gear, for example, are just that ---
they're personal choices, and if we want to wear neoprene shorts and a vest in
cold conditions and take the chance that we won't survive a long swim because
we think it unlikely that we'll be forced to do one, so be it.

Rhino Hancock went out in a sea kayak --- probably a yellow Sea Lion or a
decked boat similar to a Sea Lion, from TV reports --- on Saturday with a plan
to paddle out, probably from the local state park, to the Cleveland city water
intake "crib" about four miles offshore in Lake Erie.  At one time, this was a
manned structural platform, and press contacts indicate that it's something of
a local curiousity.  Surface air temp was about 45 degrees F., as was the
surface water temp, although other reports indicated that the air warmed to
the 50s and to the 60s later in the day.  Wind was out of the southwest ---
off shore --- at about 15 kts, and the seas were light, about 1.5 feet.  Tom
Hancock was wearing a drysuit and a PFD; when his body was found later in the
day, he was floating with his face out of the water, and his drysuit was not
zipped fully.  According to professional preliminary reports, subject to
toxicology review, he died of hypothermia, and not of drowning. 

We can theorize about a lot of things, and we can speculate on the wisdom of
his trip, but we can learn one hard lesson: had he had his drysuit zipped up
--- and there's no indication as to when he opened it or that he ever zipped
it up or even that he knew it wasn't fully zipped ---, he might well have
survived the incident.  A sound drysuit with adequate insulation underneath
would have provided him time to attract attention or to affect a self rescue.
A flooded drysuit provided virtually no thermal protection from the start,
and, with the air and water temperatures at the levels reported and a fresh
wind providing evaporative cooling, he probably had little time left when he
went in.  

Did he expect to swim that day?  Probably not.  Did he leave the park figuring
he was going to face a survival situation?  Not likely.  But it turned into
one for him, and he did not beat the odds.

______________________


Please feel free to crosspost this to other kayaking lists --- there's no
pride of authorship here, and no copyrights implied.  We can theorize all we
want about cold water paddling and its requirements --- with this warm
December weather in the northeast, we have to go beyond the theory when we
paddle, and accept the fact that how we actually prepare for paddling and our
attention to detail can influence whether or not we come back.

Jack "Joq" Martin
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