Short Story re visibility: I didn't think visibility was a major issue paddling lakes here in the Ozarks, where the most common craft is a 2 man bass boat. That all changed on Pomme de Terre Lake when a storm arrived with brute force while only 500 yards from shore, near a boat ramp. I was in a friend's tippy Beluga, which immediately blew over and I was unable to roll back up. There I was in the water waving my paddle frantically as bass boats zoomed by at full speed to escape the storm - the wind and rain reduced visibility more than I could ever imagine, as many boats came within 20 feet (no joke!!) of me. I thought for sure I was going to be hit, even with my paddle waving high. This went on for 15 minutes! Finally a boater spotted me before running me over and pulled me out. My wife was about 20 yards away, overturned as well in a blue CD squall - we could hardly see her. We proceed to pull her aboard too. This was a learning experience! I thought we could make it back to our launch site before the storm became severe - I expected a gradual build up, not dead calm to hurricane! The world was a classroom that day! The beluga was yellow but partially submerged, my PFD was red and black. I think blue was a bad color choice for the Squall. I think your PFD color is every bit as important as your boat. Just a note expressing that visibility is not only an ocean freighter issue! *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Aug 02 2000 - 11:03:37 PDT
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