At 10:54 AM 9/10/99 +0700, Dave Williams wrote: >Peter Osman wrote: >...I don't normally tether myself to the boat, the personal tether is >something I've been thinking about since starting to kayak - I know its >controversial but I intend to use it when faced with unexpected and extreme >conditions away from surf. i.e the sort of situation Lone Madsen found >herself in. I note several very well known long distance paddlers use them. Audrey Sutherland (author of Paddling my own Canoe) demonstrated her personal tether at the LL Bean symposium this year. She ties a piece of rope to a clip that she attaches to her deck rigging just in frong of the cockpit. The rope has a large non-slipping loop in in that she puts over one shoulder and under the other arm. She also uses a paddle leash from the middle of her paddle to a deck line on the other side of the cockpit. She answered the inevitable question about worrying about getting tangled up during a capsize/re-entry like this. She practiced using the teathers doing capsizes and re-entries over and over and over in warm water but rough conditions (in Hawaii) so she could pretty much tell what the ropes would do when a capsize occurred. She did carry a knife on her vest in the event that she tangled herself but she practiced enough that she felt that chances of getting tangled were extremely low. When asked if she capsized during one of her 650 mile solo paddles down the Alaskan coast she said that she did, once, and was back in here boat (a 12' inflatable) in 23 seconds. She said that she never paddles without a personal tether because losing your boat in cold water is the worst thing that could happen. In strong winds the kayak could easily be blown across the water at 10mph and no human can swim that fast. All the PFD is going to do is keep you afloat as you die of hypothermia. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Sep 10 1999 - 05:04:59 PDT
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