In a message dated 3/30/2001 9:04:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, Matt Broze, mkayaks_at_oz.net, writes: > 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 > That lines up with the Department of Natural Resources Police preliminary conclusions, Matt. Despite all the pros and cons whenever tethers are discussed, something connecting the paddler to the boat might well have made the difference. To Matt's point that a drysuit might not have made a major difference, I checked my charts again. Graeber put in on Friday at Colonial Beach, roughly 11 statute miles west of St. Clement's Island, where his body was recovered. Winds were strong out of the west southwest, backing to northwest on Saturday. Had he left and lost his boat anywhere near the put in, he would have had a long ten-plus mile float along a very choppy Potomac before making landfall at St. Clements --- and, had he floated south of the island, he would have gone another seven miles or so before being blown onto landfall. The fact that the kayak wound up on the Virginia (western, lee shore) would obviate his separation somewhere along the Virginia shoreline. It would have been a long, long time in the water. Without good neoprene gloves and some sort of thermal head and neck protection, it's hard to imagine that he would have remained functional very long, in any event. Hard lessons. Jack Martin *************************************************************************** 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 - 18:40:55 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:40 PDT