>Anne Burton wrote: Here's a link to the Kayaker Rescued story on the front page of the >> Portland, Maine newspaper:http://www.portland.com/news/kayak1105.shtml <snip> Dave Kruger responded: >Thanks for the link. Lotta good info in the article. A very fortunate guy. By the article, he did not have a roll, which seems a little unusual for surf kayaking. Without more detail, it's hard to tell what really happened. Seems his reentry did not work.OTOH, he had good immersion clothing. 15 hours on a buoy! I wonder if I >could last that long. What happened to him could happen to me. I'm glad he is alive. Doug Lloyd adds: I phoned the South Portland Coast Guard today. I tried to get hold of the actual kayaker, but wasn't able to get through. I hate calling people so soon after a close call, but you derive more accurate info as one's memory can get rather selective as time passes after your rescue. Perhaps Chuck can get hold of him as it is an East Coast "thing". The Coast Guard was helpful. Usually they will not say much, but I said the details may help avoid them having to go out again! Anyway, I was told that the kayaker took his !# foot boat and headed out into the bay at about 1:00 pm. He dumped in a moderately rough sea state about 2:00 pm. He then let go of his boat, unable to reenter, and made the bouy by 3:00 pm. He was picked up the next morning about 6:30. No boat present, obviously. Coast Guard member had a number of recommendations, offered without a prompt from me. 1) "Darn hard trying to find someone in a black wetsuit and blue life jacket. You guys need something bright, and some way of attracting attention. 2) "Never give up your vessel, a bright colored kayak would make searching a whole lot easier". >From the newspaper article, it is obvious why he left his kayak behind, though I would have towed it behind on a rope which doesn't inhibit swimming much, if I thought I could have made it to the bouy and gotten back in. Bright clothing, PFD's, flashlights, flares, reflective tape - the incident speaks for itself in terms of commentary. I give this student an minus D. Sounds like if he was "an experienced kayaker", he may have been more of a river paddler possibly (good paddlers they are, but not usually so well equipped. If he was in a short sea touring kayak, he needs to go back to grade One. I did not take from the article, as Dave did, that this young man had no roll, necessarily. Glad he made it though. Get back to me Chuck, if you are not going to try and make contact with him, or sic Ken Fink on him, yeah, he'll interview anyone that screws up! BC'in Ya Doug Lloyd *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Nov 05 1999 - 20:45:52 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:16 PDT