Tuesday evening myself, 2 local kayakers, and a visitor from Mexico took a short paddle out into Corpus Christi Bay (Corpus Christi, Tx). It turned out to be a pretty short trip so while the others were taking out at the floating dock I decided to do some laps inside the marina breakwater. As I paddled up to the exit out into the bay, I noticed a fishing boat anchored just outside the rocks that make up the breakwater. There did not appear to be anyone in the boat so I started to paddle over to check it out. Then I saw someone stand up and lift the cover off the outboard motor. I paddled over and asked if he was having problems. He said that he could not get the engine started. I stayed beside the boat as he tried several unsuccessful adjustments. It was getting close to sunset and there was no sign of any other boats inside or outside the marina. I offered to tow him in while he tried to get the engine started. The wind was light and would be pushing us toward the boat ramp so I figured it would not be too much of a problem to get him the 3/4 of a mile to the ramp. I hooked up my towline as he pulled up anchor. I swung around and started toward the breakwater entrance. I instantly became aware that an 18ft V-hulled fishing boat is a lot heavier than a kayak. Even heavier than a double with 2 kids backpaddling against you. The good thing about my Greenland paddle was that I could not get enough bite to actually hurt myself. It just slipped at the first part of the stroke and then seemed to catch and give me all the pull I could handle. Fortunately there was very little jerking as the towline tightened on each stroke. I could hear him trying to start the engine, but he was not having any luck. Finally he pulled out his paddle and tried to help. It did not seem to help that much. We were making some progress, but it was starting to get dark and I was wondering if I had overextended myself. The good part was that there were several nearby places in the marina where he could tie up if I did not get him all the way back to the boat ramp. Finally a power boat came out and he responded to my waving paddle signal. He agreed to finish the tow. This was pretty lucky since the wind direction was starting to change to a direction against us. As I unhooked my towline and started to paddle away I was amazed at how fast I was paddling. It was like the baseball players who swing the weighted bats before coming up to hit. Without all that extra weight the kayak just seemed to jump forward with each stroke. Maybe if I want to get serious about my paddling speed I should start towing a bucket behind me. However, that just seems too much like work and not enough like fun. Although I have not been involved in any really dramatic rescues, I do have an interesting list. This includes 1 golden retriever, 1 schnauzer, 1 baby goat, 1 injured kayaker, and now a fishing boat. Note: I have helped jet skiers on two occasions, but these were not really rescues and I am too embarrassed to talk about such actions. The retriever had followed a group of us up a small river and by the time he decided to go to shore bulkheads along the banks prevented him from getting out. Another kayaker and I herded him back down the river to a spot where he could get out Along the way he almost tipped over two guys in a john boat in a desperate effort to get out of the water. The schnauzer fell off the dock on a canal home and there was no doggie ramp for him to climb back up. When I came by he was clawing at the concrete bulkhead. I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him across the kayak deck. He was so exhausted that he did not even move. I got close enough to the dock so that I could shot-put him back up onto safe ground. The goat was a semi-land rescue so maybe it does not really count. The baby goat had fallen down a small embankment along the channel where I was paddling. Even though there was only about 15 ft of ground for him to run around on I never could catch him. As I was trying to herd him with my paddle he tried to jump over it and landed across my blade. Before he could react I just flipped him up over the embankment. Mother, who had been waiting at the edge of the drop off, and baby ran happily away. The injured kayaker hurt her shoulder during a bracing and recover class at a kayak symposium. This was a strongly BCU oriented gathering and I had been taking some grief from instructors because my rigging and gear was not what BCU would recommend. With 3 BCU instructors and several multi-star paddlers in the group I was the only one who had a towline available so I got to make the tow back to shore. I did not take any more grief about my gear after that. Now that I have added the fishing boat to my rescue list I was thinking that I should paint little symbols on the bow for each rescue like pilots did to their planes for kills or bombing raids. Although a kayak and a boat symbol would be ok, 2 doggies and a goat are not going to be as cool looking as enemy flags or insignia. But I bet they would be great conversation starters at the next symposium I attend. Paddle safely and try to be the rescuer and not the rescuee. I have been on both sides and rescuer is definitely better. Mark Arnold mjamja_at_earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. *************************************************************************** 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 Oct 30 2003 - 15:21:28 PST
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