[Paddlewise] An easy lesson in group paddling

This story was reported yesterday in the local Juneau newspaper: 

"A missing Juneau kayaker was found in Endicott Arm about 8 a.m. today by
the U.S. Coast Guard.
The man, 41, was reported missing by his two kayaking companions about
midnight while they were touring Endicott Arm, near Tracy Arm, 44 miles
southeast of Juneau.

``Three kayakers were paddling from the mouth of Endicott Arm toward Fords
Terror,'' said Coast Guard pilot Rich MacIntyre of Air Station Sitka. ``They
started Monday afternoon, and sometime in the evening the slower kayaker
fell behind and eventually got out of sight. The other two turned around to
look for him. In the dark they must have passed each other, because the
paddler who was missing ended up at the mouth of Fords Terror,'' MacIntyre
said."

 This one ended well.  Apparently the pair had the only radio so the group
couldn't communicate amongst themselves once separated (if local conditions
would have even permitted it).  No details on how they managed to notify the
CG, I'm guessing that their calls were picked up by another pleasure of
fishing vessel and relayed to the Coast Guard.  The search involved both a
47 ft boat out of Juneau and a helicopter from Sitka.
 Ford's Terror is aptly named - it's a narrow passage that really rips
(class II WW) with the tide changes (18.4 ft yesterday) and can also be
clogged with icebergs from a nearby glacier.  Just thinking about being in
there if a big chunk of ice were to break loose on an ebb tide makes me
shudder.

Dave Seng
Juneau, Alaska

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