Jack Martin wrote: <SNIP>>>>>>>That's about it. Maybe not the granularity that some might want, but the basics of this death are probably clear. My take --- - he was in a new boat, his second time out, in adverse weather conditions. - his float plan was verbal and very open-ended. - his neoprene cold water protection is, in the opinion of many, insufficient for water temperatures encountered that day. - we have no benchmarks for what is considered his experience level. - he was alone. If this were to have been a typical incident report, I would have pressed for more details. But the object lessons are pretty clear, even without the details: the river thinks it's still winter. Michael Graeber's death pretty well establishes the fact that, at least in this instance, his gear and his experience did not protect him. So, all you Chesapeake area paddlers --- and any others with similar weather/water conditions --- take care out there this weekend. With unsettled weather patterns for the next three days, and with the rain we've had in the last two days, the creeks and backwaters will be cold --- maybe colder than the main rivers and the Bay. It's still drysuit weather out there, folks, and head and hand protection for immersion is still the most appropriate policy.<<<<<< I have a slightly different take on this. I think it wouldn't have made much difference what he was wearing. The paddlefloat being still folded and with the kayak points to the conclusion that he lost his kayak as soon as he bailed out but before he got started with that rescue. Once that kayak is gone if he didn't have a way to summon outside help (or other boaters or paddling partners in the area) and if he was far from shore (and that could be a few yards if the wind or current was taking him the other way) no amount of thermal protective clothing up to a full survival suit would have been likely to save him (other than by extending his life for a few more hours when someone just might happen to come upon him accidentally). I don't know his skill level but even if he could roll, had he done it yet in his new kayak? Same for any other rescue he may have tried while leaving the paddle float in place, had he practiced them with the new kayak? I would say that the critical gear that may have been missing was a tether or some other method that would keep the kayak from blowing away faster than he could swim. I think the wind and the lack of hanging on to the kayak rather than cold water were most likely the critical factors here (beyond the lack of being able to quickly summon help). Cold water can certainly make a rescue much harder but we have no evidence that a rescue was even attempted. If you can't exit the kayak without letting go of it at some point the wind can easily take it from you. I don't know the deckline situation with a Kodiak but more than a few paddlers have tried to grasp a slippery round kayak and found nothing to hold on to and then watched it blow away faster than they could swim. It happened to Verlen Kruger off the Oregon Coast during his 28,000 mile exploration of North America but lucky for him he had a partner and an EPIRB. It was still a close call. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Mar 30 2001 - 18:04:08 PST
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