Fatality at Cabbage Key By Charles Sutherland April 6, 2002 This past Friday readers noted a newspaper story about the death of kayaker Robert Strickland, 51, prepared by Bob Reddy. Briefly, Mr. Strickland was paddling a 16-ft Sit-on-top kayak off Cabbage Key near Cayo Costa State Park located about 20 miles west of Fort Myers, Florida (Gulf Coast). He and his wife had had a picnic on Cabbage Key that included some alcohol. It appears that Mr. Strickland set off alone from Cabbage Island at about 11:30 am. His boat was found on the west side of Useppa Island adjacent to the Intercoastal Waterway at about 2:30 pm. His body was found at about 3:30 pm in the same general area where the kayak had been found (location not exactly indicated,exact times not clearly stated). Authorities suggested that alcohol played a roll in his death. They saw no indications that a powerboat had hit Mr.Strickland. News report at: <http://www.news_press.com/news/today/020405drowning.html> The story left a number of unanswered questions. Did he and his wife paddle off in different directions after their picnic? The story states that "SHE" paddled off at 11:30 am after their picnic. Did they mean "HE" paddled off at that point? Mr. Strickland was not wearing a PFD. Was there one on his boat? What was he wearing? Authorities said the wind was west and the tide was coming in during the early afternoon. We have had some speculation on Paddlewise that water temperature might have played a roll in this accident. The Venice, Florida NOAA weather station is located about 33 miles north of Cabbage Key. Data from that station for Thursday, April 4, indicates that in the early afternoon the water temperature was about 76 d. F, the air temperature was about 74 d. F, and the wind was West (300 d.) at about 10 knots. You may access this weather station at http://seaboard.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/florida.shtml, which will show you, a map of Florida with the NOAA stations on it. Click on station VENF1 (Venice, FL). Cayo Costa State Park is located at the north end of La Costa Island, which is a barrier island. The next island to the north is Gasparilla Island, which includes the town of Boca Grande, FL. Pine Island, mentioned in the newspaper report, is parallel to and east of La Costa Island. Cabbage Island lies just on the east side of La Costa Island, and Useppa Island immediately east of Cabbage Island. The Intercoastal Waterway (IW) runs north south between Cabbage and Useppa Islands. The gap between these two islands is about 3/8ths of a mile (660 yards), and the width of the IW trench is about 1/8th mile. This part of the waterway between La Costa Island and Pine Island appears to be well protected from westerly winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico. The entrance to Charlotte Harbor lies between La Costa Island and Gasparilla Island to the north. This area is shown on NOAA chart # 11427_2, which you may access at http://mfproducts.nos.noaa.gov/images/charts/11427_2.gif You may further examine this area through Mapquest at www.mapquest.com by entering the location, "Boca Grande, Florida 33921". You must then change the centering of the map by clicking on the bottom of the map until the map crosses the channel between Gasparilla Island and La Costa Island. Center the map on the islands between La Costa Island and Pine Island. You should see Cabbage and Useppa Islands labeled on the map. When you have all this nicely centered, click on the satellite image option at the top left of the map. If you get this all centered and scaled adequately, you will now see a great image showing the islands mentioned above with the deep and shallow channels running between them. Why bother with all this? After examining the chart, map, and satellite image, you may conclude that Mr. Strickland was probably never very far from land. He was paddling in an area under the lee of La Costa Island. He capsized for an unknown reason. Maybe he leaned on the edge of his paddle. Since SOTs are watertight, perhaps the wind, even though not very strong, blew his boat away from him. The news report said the tide was coming in. Boat traffic usually returns to port on the flood. There may have been traffic in the IW when Mr. Strickland was paddling in the area between Cabbage and Useppa Islands. Such power boaters don't care much about speed limits; one of them might easily have thrown up a wake large enough to capsize Mr. Strickland. Some even regard such behavior as FUN. The authorities saw no evidence that a powerboat hit him. Such contact is not required to kill an unprepared kayaker. We don't know how much alcohol he had with his lunch, or anything about his physical condition, or skill as a paddler. A PFD probably would have saved him. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 4/6/02 1:29:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, skimmer_at_mail3.enter.net writes: > > Fatality at Cabbage Key > By Charles Sutherland > April 6, 2002 > Very nice summary. Thank you, Chuck. Much preferred to a lot of speculation about alcohol, etc. hank *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
<skimmer_at_mail3.enter.net> [Charles Sutherland] wrote: > Fatality at Cabbage Key [snip] > The Venice, Florida NOAA weather station is located about 33 miles north of Cabbage > Key. Data from that station for Thursday, April 4, indicates that in the early afternoon the > water temperature was about 76 d. F, the air temperature was about 74 d. F, and the wind > was West (300 d.) at about 10 knots. You may access this weather station at > http://seaboard.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/florida.shtml, which will show you, a map of Florida > with the NOAA stations on it. Click on station VENF1 (Venice, FL). Water temp may have been significantly cooler than that. See below. > Cayo Costa State Park is located at the north end of La Costa Island, which is a barrier > island. The next island to the north is Gasparilla Island, which includes the town of Boca > Grande, FL. Pine Island, mentioned in the newspaper report, is parallel to and east of La > Costa Island. Cabbage Island lies just on the east side of La Costa Island, and Useppa > Island immediately east of Cabbage Island. The Intercoastal Waterway (IW) runs north > south between Cabbage and Useppa Islands. The gap between these two islands is about > 3/8ths of a mile (660 yards), and the width of the IW trench is about 1/8th mile. This part > of the waterway between La Costa Island and Pine Island appears to be well protected > from westerly winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico. Excellent report, Chuck. I paddled that area for a week in January, 2001, and have a couple added observations: 1. The water temperature inside the barrier islands was 20 degrees (yes, 20 F) colder than the water temp outside. For the incident in question, that translates to something in the 50's. (Venice is on the Gulf, yes?) When we were there, the transom temp off our houseboat was 46 F several days running. Despite that, we were the only paddlers wearing immersion protection. Everybody else paddled in shorts or maybe fleece. 2. When the wind is up, the area between Cabbage and Useppa gets pretty foul, and especially if there is any northerly component to it. We were houseboat-bound for about half of our week of paddling because of strong wind (in excess of 20 knots). In clear weather in winter, we observed plenty of NW wind, and the shallow embayments were worse than the deeper channels. We will never know for sure what happened to the guy. I join you and others in bemoaning the unenlightened reporting of the incident in the local press. For comparision: a year ago, two guys headed out on a week-long trip drowned in that same general area. They were "experienced," but suffered hypothermia when their double capsized. Yup, you guessed it, no immersion clothing. I think many paddlers there, in winter, are deceived by the relatively balmy air temps and are unaware of the true water temp and its effect on them. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
At 06:58 AM 4/8/02 -0700, Dave Kruger wrote: ><skimmer_at_mail3.enter.net> [Charles Sutherland] wrote: > >We will never know for sure what happened to the guy. I join you and others in bemoaning the >unenlightened reporting of the incident in the local press. It certianly was a lousy, lazy, and possibly unethical job of reporting and headline writing, almost to the point of libel. In my own case, I would never say that alcohol was a contributing factor to any kind of accident unless I could clearly quote a police report. I frankly thing the quality of local news coverage has gone down on a nationwide basis in the past few years, but I'm not going to get up on that soap box right now. -- Wes --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wes Boyd's Kayak Place http://www2.dmci.net/wesboyd/kayak.htm Kayaks for Big Guys (And Gals) | Trip Reports | Places To Go | Boats & Gear --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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