Re: [Paddlewise] The Gotta Get Home Syndrome

From: Shawn W. Baker <baker_at_montana.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 09:25:35 -0700
I've had the opposite happen:  I was all set to attempt a round trip of
a 4-mile crossing.  It was about 9:00am and would have made for a
10-mile day.  Weather was beautiful, no waves, no tide (big lake), and
no other boats in sight.  I had a wedding to attend at 3:00 that
afternoon.

I had plenty of time to do all of the paddling and get back in time to
shower before the wedding, but I decided to skip the crossing; if
anything had gone wrong or not exactly as planned, I would have been
late and could have caught the wrath of my wife!

Risk Homeostasis: I am not comfortable with and was not willing to take
the risk of getting in that kind of trouble!

Shawn

>Doug's description of Bob's experience makes me wonder if the "Gotta Get Home"
>syndrome is not a major cause of sea kayaking accidents.  IIRC, Doug's Storm
>Island incident could be attributable to this, and I remember a fatality case
>out of Whittier in Alaska definitely due to the syndrome.

-- 
Shawn W. Baker          0                                    46°53'N
© 2000            ____©/______                              114°06'W
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\  ,/      /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
baker_at_montana.com    0        http://www.missoulaconcrete.com/shawn/
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Received on Tue Feb 29 2000 - 08:27:42 PST

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