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 *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
At 07:56 AM 8/9/00 -0800, Seng, Dave wrote: > 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. In a really neat book I've read, "Alaska Blues" by Joe Upton, the author talks about taking his salmon fishing boat in there at high tide. He describes it as awesomely beautiful, and it's made me want to see it for years. -- Wes *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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