[Paddlewise] Great day on the harbour or physician heal thyself!!

G'Day,

Great day on the harbour today. Set out at 07:00 and a guy asks for help
with his boat, which is identical to mine. We admire it for a minute then he
tells me he's just bought it. I ask if he can roll, and he says no so
explain this is a boat that you can't reenter in choppy water unless you
have a friend, a roll, or a paddlefloat (or something). Recommend he should
buy a paddlefloat.

Start out with my mate Johnno to Manly and we pass Dobroyd Head and see two
kayakers - one in the water boat, upside down, the other right way up and
doing nothing. He's doing nothing they must be OK we think, then the
immersed kayaker tries to get in and falls out again. We paddle over and the
poor fellow is being pushed on to the rocks in an 8 foot long "recreational"
kayak with no flotation, no spray skirt, no hooks for towing, no life
jacket, clearly no training and the boats 3/4 full of water. So we pull him
away, empty the boat, get him back in and tell him how to add flotation and
suggest lessons. At that point I wish I had a whole set of books including
Deep Trouble to give him. He is a bit shocked so we keep the suggestions
simple.

Now in case anyone might think I'm an expert (and anyone who reads my posts
or knows me will understand how ludicrous that would be) off we go to find
some choppy water near Middle Head for rolling practice with Johnno as
lookout. The first couple are fine and then I start to blow them, normally I
don't, can't think why but revert to my beloved Paddlefloat assisted reentry
and roll. Bless the day someone on Paddlewise told me to keep a leg in the
boat while setting up the float, huge difference in speed and comfort and
Johnno comments on how much less like a disabled walrus I look than last
time. But why am I blowing the rolls? It turns out my new non draining, non
waterproof deck bag has slowly filled with about 3kG of water. Worse, it was
only held by bungee and was dangling off the boat like a very effective sea
anchor!!!

Physician heal thyself!! What advice should I give me!!!!!

All the best, PeterO


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