Until the second body is found, there is still hope, albeit small hope. Six or seven years ago, I went to church with a 16 year old girl. She and her boyfriend, neither of which had ever paddled before, went to the N.C. Outer Banks and took off in his uncles double. Their entire gear list consisted of the boat, two paddles, and themselves... absolutely nothing else, not even a single PFD. Their goal was to cross the Sound (numerous miles) and back. They capsized and couldn't re-enter. His body was found about 24 hours later. The search for her became more of a "recovery" effort. Miraculously, she was found a couple days later huddled inside a duck blind in the middle of the Sound. Other than dehydrated, hungry, a little hypothermic and scared out of her wits, she was otherwise unharmed. Point is, it's happened before, and it will happen again. This latest woman could be holed up somewhere waiting for a rescue. I'm not putting money on it, but we can hope, at least. Incidentally, the girl I referred to was back to normal within a couple of weeks, but her mother continues to suffer from it today, mentally. She's never been quite the same, and I don't anticipate that she will "be back" anytime soon. As always, there are more victims than just those who were actually in the accident. Rick *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Oct 15 2003 - 05:38:22 PDT
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