> Probably my bad karma will have me come back as a Coast > >Guard worker rescuing nerdy weekend-warrior kayakers from dangerous > >crossings - who knows. I'm not sure that would be such a bad fate. I can think of lots worse things to be doing with a life than spending your time on a boat helping people who are doing the things we love to do. :-) Some of the greatest satisfaction/pleasure I've experienced has been when I've seen the result of something that I have taught save someone from serious injury/death. Doug, you can probably take credit for my having had star flares with me when my faulty logic got me in trouble in Monterey. I really don't think I'd be here if I had not had those. We generally get in trouble when we think we've taken everything into consideration but have missed some significant factor. In my case I didn't practice getting back into my SOT boat because I'd done it lots of times before. The only problem was that I neglected the difference in buoyancy and ability to drive myself up out of the water which was provided by a full 1/4 inch wetsuit and big fins. Because of this miscalculation of fact I didn't have a paddle float, which allows me to reenter with no problem. Because of folks like the Broze bro's that Paddle floats exist. I never ever heard of them back 30 years when I was paddling a Royak. Because of Doug's messages, specifically, I had flares and a whistle. (now I have star flares, smokes, whistle and air horn, paddle floats (plural), Wet Suit (replacing two piece dry suit which just didn't cut it keeping me warm) and will be getting flotation bags for inside the boat, just in case I ever lose the hatch cover/puncture the hull. VHF radio will come before I go very far offshore as well as a GPS to backup up my old fart navigational ability. Sometimes I feel very average....... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Flory, San Jose, CA. dflory_at_earthlink.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The average person is an idiot, that is why they are only average. ©1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:07 PDT