Last night after work I went to Huntington Harbor to paddle away the frustrations of a very *bad* day at work. Huntington is not one of my favorite local harbors but since it has very little traffic it can be serene. It was dusk so I taped red and green light sticks to my paddle and checked to see if air horn and waterproof flashlight were in handy reach. I had been slowly passing by an impeccably maintained lapstrake sailboat in a slip, admiring it, when I heard a noise behind me, swiveled back, and saw two guys in a rowing shell coming straight at me like a bat out of hell. Collision time, about 4 seconds. I dug in, did a power sweep turn to starboard, probably yelling "hey, go to port, to port!" I don't remember. We did miss each other, though there was some clattering of paddle and oars on both hulls. It was that close. As they receded down channel one of them broke a stroke and flipped me the bird. Angry? Yes, I was, no more or less than at someone who drives SoCal freeways doing 100 when the rest of us are doing 60 (OK, 75 <g>). They weren't looking but then neither was I. I had let the serenity and quietness of the harbor lull me into a false sense of security and not doing a 360 degree scan every minute or so as I usually do. I don't know what these rowing shells can do in the way of speed with two pumped up guys going hell for kingdom come (10-19 knts?), but the result of a collision would have been catastrophic, mostly for me, I'd guess, since I was just ambling along. Moral of the story: Most of the traffic that is lethal to kayakers is bigger and faster than we are, but makes some noise so we can take measures to detect and avoid it in time, but in this case it was blind. So was I. My "running lights", flashlight, and air horn were not even a factor in collision avoidance here. Keep that 360 degree look-around wherever you are. -Nick *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Has anyone tried the small mirrors that clip on your sunglasses like the cyclists use? I'm thinking of getting one for the extra margin of safety. >Moral of the story: Most of the traffic that is lethal to kayakers is >bigger and faster than we are, but makes some noise so we can take >measures to detect and avoid it in time, but in this case it was blind. >So was I. My "running lights", flashlight, and air horn were not even a >factor in collision avoidance here. Keep that 360 degree look-around >wherever you are. > >-Nick > > > >*************************************************************************** >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/ >*************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Nick's tale of near-collision with a fast-moving rowing shell "struck home" with me. Just a few days ago I was paddling back toward a put-in on the inlet to Cayuga lake here in central NY, as the Cornell crew was practicing. Only one shell was near me, and I moved far toward the right side of the channel to give them plenty of room. They were really "booking"! Woudn't ya know it, when they were about 20 yards from me they suddenly (!) veered to their left, aiming right at me. Like Nick, I powered out of their way, and collision was just barely avoided. I'm not sure how they managed to change direction as abruptly as they did - and I'm not sure they were even aware of how close we came to colliding. Testosterone is such a wonderful thing. Bill Hansen *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Bhansen97_at_aol.com wrote: > > Nick's tale of near-collision with a fast-moving rowing shell "struck home" > with me. Just a few days ago I was paddling back toward a put-in on the inlet > to Cayuga lake here in central NY, as the Cornell crew was practicing. Only > one shell was near me, and I moved far toward the right side of the channel > to give them plenty of room. They were really "booking"! Woudn't ya know it, > when they were about 20 yards from me they suddenly (!) veered to their left, > aiming right at me. Like Nick, I powered out of their way, and collision was > just barely avoided. I'm not sure how they managed to change direction as > abruptly as they did - and I'm not sure they were even aware of how close we > came to colliding. Testosterone is such a wonderful thing. It certainly is. And it doesn't have to be males. When I was paddling a multiday trip on the Hudson, my partner and I in our double at about 6 am (we started at 3 am each day to take advantage of the ebb current) came up into an area where several university rowing crews were working out in Poughkeepsie. We had already put in about 14 miles. One of the women crew's spotted us and waited for us to come abreast before blazing off and leaving us in their wake. Any competition is fair competition even if two old men in a double Klepper. I chuckled to myself knowing that we would have another 20-25 miles yet to go on the river that day and had started hours before that day. Back to males. Testosterone driven crews are totally oblivious. One of the scariest things I ever saw (from the deck of sightseeing boat) was a two man outrigger crew crossing the middle of NY harbor on Labor Day weekend at a full clip oblivious of the crisscrossing ferries, sightseeing boats, pleasure craft, sail boats, etc. Just a bee line across about 2 or 3 miles of some of the busiest waters around. They never turned their heads and were totally focused on their target ahead, The Statue of Liberty. What balls!!! ralph -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
>From: Bhansen97_at_aol.com Only >one shell was near me, and I moved far toward the right side of the channel >to give them plenty of room. They were really "booking"! Woudn't ya know >it, >when they were about 20 yards from me they suddenly (!) veered to their >left, >aiming right at me. Like Nick, I powered out of their way, and collision >was >just barely avoided. I'm no lawyer, but given that the collision regulations (a.k.a. "the rules of the road) require, among other things, that: 1. an adequate watch be kept from every boat 2. the master must stay aware of developing collision risk situations, and take early and appropriate action to avoid collision it sounds to me that any folks on a rowing shell (unless they had a forward-facing cox'/steersman) would have a hard time proving they did either of these things in the event of a collision. A great consolation, I'm sure, to you, or your estate, as they sued. Philip Torrens N49°16' W123°06' *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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