Besides being that far from shore and capsizing in the first place, I'd say the first real mistake in this incident was in letting the victims kayak get away from him. Since there were two of them and the victim had a PFD on, the next mistake (from the point of view of hindsight) may have been in not chasing down the victims kayak and bringing it back to him. This would be a no-brainer if there were at least three paddlers present but would have required some quick but considered decisions given only two paddlers. How far away had it blown? Could the paddlers stay in visual contact while the one still in a kayak went to get the victims kayak? Possibly they were some distance apart at the time of capsize or the waves were big enough they didn't want to risk getting separated. The victim may have wanted to remain clinging to his friends kayak rather than feel he was being left alone as the kayaker chased the capsized kayak. Any delay in making this choice makes the "chase down the kayak" option that much harder too employ. A quickly deployed towing system would make this an even more attractive option, although a paddler without any way to attach the kayak and tow it could probably at least stop the drift of the escaping kayak so the victim could swim to it if they got to it fairly soon after it escaped. Towing a fully immersed swimmer with a towline or the stern toggle of a kayak usually works on a river when you have only a few dozen feet to traverse to shore (and plenty of time to do it before the next rapid), but even that is grueling work so it is just not going to work where any significant distance needs to be covered. Carrying the victim on the back deck (as several have suggested) would be the best alternative if getting the victims boat back to him was not a good possibility. However, unless the paddler still in the boat is fairly confident in their bracing and rolling ability it may be scary for them to let the victim climb up on their deck (as the potential rescuer doesn't want to get into the same situation that the victim is so graphically demonstrating to them). Some kayaks with especially high or V'ed back decks might also make this choice much more difficult. Without the ability to summon outside help and his kayak too far gone, the laying over the back deck/straddle approach was probably the only chance the victim of this incident had of making it to shore alive in that situation. Since the victim (without any hypothermia protection) was still alive after three hours the water couldn't have been real cold. If I recall correctly, Steve Landick hauled Verlen Kruger several miles, draped across his back deck in under 50 degree F. water on the Oregon Coast. They got to just outside the surf line and were trying to figure out how to get the by now incapacitated Verlen through the surf just before a helicopter summoned by their (only a few days old and stored where it wasn't that easy to get to) EPIRB arrived to pick him up. Verlen's slippery hull had slipped from his grasp after he capsized and wet exited during a storm. Steve had a real fight just getting turned around and back to Verlen. Chasing down his rapidly disappearing craft was out of the question. Luckily for Verlen, Steve was a kayaker as well as a canoe paddler and had a kayak paddle he could get to (so he had better bracing during the long haul in 50 mph winds to shore). I'd suggest that a stern carry be part of every paddlers next rescue practice so you will be less afraid of using it if it becomes the only viable alternative. 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 Thu Sep 19 2002 - 18:24:49 PDT
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