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

Hi Peter,

	While I have never been drawn to deck bags personally due to aesthetic
concerns, I had my first experience with them this past October. Our club
was at Squam Lake (of On Golden Pond fame) for a foliage tour with lots of
intermediate level paddlers. Some pretty stiff winds (35 knots) were
forecast for the day but based on the configuration of the lake it was a
perfect opportunity for everyone to get some high-wind practice. We started
out down wind just fine while the fetch was short but once the wind waves
had a chance to build things got pretty interesting. This one paddler was
broached, by the wind I presume, and once sideways to the waves soon
capsized. Water was still warm (60 degrees or so) and there were lots of
paddlers around so he was in no real danger.

	I went in for the rescue, I'm a pretty big guy so I usually find it faster
to do my assisted-rescues without any assistance from the swimmer. I hauled
his bow up to drain the boat and spun the boat hull down as the boat falls
out of my hands. Before I could get both hands back on the boat to pull it
parallel to mine it overturned again! This had never happened to me and I
was more than a little embarrassed so I quickly drained the boat again,
asked the swimmer to keep his hands off the boat and spun it hull down a
second time. Before I could get both hands back on the boat it was upside
down yet again! Now I was getting irritated. I hauled the bow up for the
third time, asked the paddler to let go a second time and started to spin
the boat hull down (for the last time, I prayed). This time I found a way to
spin the boat without completely letting go with both hands but once
right-side-up the deck bag full of water made it nearly impossible to keep
the boat upright given the way I was holding the boat. We finally got the
swimmer back in his boat and then to shore but I will never forget how
difficult I found it to do the assisted-rescue-without-assistance on a
narrow boat with a deck bag in strong winds and 2+' chop. Just another
scenario to practice in the future I guess.

Good Luck with your deck bag.

Jed

-----Original Message-----
From: PeterO
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!!!!!

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