NEWTOT_at_mail.modot.state.mo.us wrote: <SNIP> >>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! <SNIP> 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.<< <SNIP> The question I want to know is what color were your paddle blades. For visibility while paddling bright paddle blades waving around in the air attract attention way better than a bright boat or PFD. In your case you were even lower in the water and the PFD would also be mostly submerged. Next to your paddle blades a big bright hat would have probably been your best chance at being seen (especially if you took it off and waved it around). The Coast Guard says if you want to be spotted make yourself "bigger, brighter or different". Another way to make yourself bigger, brighter and different while in the water is to do a lot of splashing. I read something from the Coast Guard recently that said they like yellow first and a light bright blue next best. Different colors work better at different times. I'd choose Day-glo orange for fog but if it was getting dark I'd go for the light blue (it almost glows at night while red looks black). Of course Day-glo colors fade rather quickly and I'd also hate to have to look at it all day on my foredeck (at least until it fades). It should be easy to spray the paddle blades with bright colors if they aren't already bright. I wouldn't worry as much about the rest of your equipment. When searching rough seas from the air the coastguard does not like white, too much like whitecaps. Of course, by having an all yellow kayak, unless you notified the CG by radio or EPIRB you would probably only be helping them recover your body by the time a search got started. If you have the radio or EPIRB to get the search started they can also be used to help them find you. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** 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 - 19:07:47 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:29 PDT