Re: [Paddlewise] Strobe Question

Craig Jungers wrote:

> Rescue professionals (of whom I am not one) now recommend a steady light.
> NRS has an LED light by Princeton for attaching to a PFD that is small and
> has settings for high, medium and low brightness plus settings for fast and
> slow blink for $14.95:
> 
>  (http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=2775&src=froogle&refer=2775)

Same beans from the local USCG rescue folks (Cape Disappointment Motor
Lifeboat School) on the preference for a steady light.  In addition, 
another data point:  Bar pilot took an  unplanned swim off the Columbia 
River one dark night some 10-12 years ago, equipped with strobe (it failed 
very quickly), and wearing a heavy float coat covered in SOLAS reflective 
tape.  Mike spent a lonely hour and a half swimming and waving at the USCG 
helo running transits overhead.  The helo knew pretty much where he had to 
be because the spot where he went overboard was known, and the longshore 
current direction and speed were well known.

They never saw the strobe, and they never picked up the reflection from the 
SOLAS tape.  What caught their eye was the _splashing_ he did whenever the 
midnight sun searchlight was pointed his way.  In a white-capped sea, the 
difference between what his hands did and the wave pattern caught someone's 
eye.

Mike still drives freighters across the Bar, but has since upgraded his 
kit.  Sadly, a neophyte Bar pilot was lost a year ago in a similar 
incident, when he failed to deploy his strobe -- it was switched off when 
they recovered his body some 3 days later, on the beach.  Head injuries to 
the neophyte suggested he may have been semiconscious or unconscious from a 
bump on the noggin as he fell in.

As far as lights go, anyone planning serious nighttime paddling might want 
to look into Princeton Tec's APEX unit, which sports a concentrated 3W beam 
(rated to reach out some 56 meters with a usable spotlight; 72 hours of use 
predicted), and an array of four different LEDS which produce a broad beam, 
separately switched, and of lower output, but rated to last 100-150 hours 
on alkalines.  Not cheap, and not lightweight, either, partly because it 
uses a 4-AA-cell pack at the back of the head.  It is submersible, and 
designed for on-the-water use.  After struggling with innumerable 
generations of lightweight headlamps, the last two of them LED variants, I 
decided to spring for an APEX.  Can't wait to try it out.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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