[Paddlewise] How far offshore?

I think the adage "Don't paddle any further any further offshore than you're 
willing to swim." is useful in making people consider seriously where 
they're paddling, and whether they should, and to encourage them to prepare 
properly for the possibility of losing their boat, but that it shouldn't be 
taken too literally; after all, any boat, no matter how big, can be sunk by 
some combination of water and weather, and sailors certainly take those 
boats much further offshore than they would choose to swim. (There's an 
equivalent saying with ultra-light planes and gliders - "Don't fly any 
higher than you're willing to fall." -- yet I see folks soaring thousands of 
feet into the air. But maybe they just bounce better than I would.)
I'll forgo the obvious ribbing of the good Reverend who originally posted 
the query (that if he was really up to speed in his vocation, he wouldn't 
need to bother with rolls, paddlefloats, or for that matter, kayaks - he 
could just walk across the water to wherever he's going:-) To second what 
others have said about paddling on North America's west coast vs. the east 
coast: especially on the outer coast (west side of Vancouver Island, and the 
unsheltered shore north of Vancouver Island) you can find "boomers" miles 
offshore. Boomers are submarine rocks and reefs, whose presence is not 
apparent most of the time, but which can "trip" especially high swells into 
fatal breaking waves. Whether or not a rock is a boomer depends on the 
height of the swell, the wind speed, and the height of the tide, so what was 
a boomer-free zone one day may not be the next. If you've ever had the very 
spooky experience of being far offshore on a calm day, with large but smooth 
swells sliding hypnotically beneath you, only to have what appears to be a 
salvo of artillery shells explode just off your beam, you'll know why 
they're called boomers.
I may very well paddle two nautical miles or more out to sea if the chart 
shows such rocks. I enter "danger waypoints" in my GPS, and mark "danger 
compass bearings" relative to prominent landmarks on my charts for 
especially insidious-looking rocks and reefs.
As for the furthest offshore I usually go: the longest crossing I've done 
"routinely" is Georgia Straight (the channel between mainland British 
Columbia and Vancouver Island). The course leg length is about thirteen and 
a half nautical miles, but it's not at direct right angles to the shores, so 
I would guesstimate that the furthest offshore I get is about six nautical 
miles, before I pass the "point of no return". Some people complain that 
long crossings are boring - but, trust me, boring is good; boring is very 
good when you're far from any boltholes. Much better than "exciting". So I 
always check the extended weather forecasts, watch my barometer, and listen 
carefully to the pitch of my weather frog's peeps before setting out to sea 
on such a crossing.

Cheers,

Philip
N49°16' W123°08'


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