Paddlewise, As promised below is my account of some of the circumstances of Andrew's accident. It comes from an evening a group of us spent with Paul Hewitson working through some of the audio and video tapes and the information Paul could provide. Its not intended as a substitute for a proper enquiry but is a kayakers perspective. It has been reviewed by Paul and comes with Paul and Vicki's permission. Best wishes to all of you, PeterO ACCOUNT FOLLOWS The following is a summary of a discussion held on Friday 16th March 2007. Paul Hewitson brought us together and presented the information he had discovered. Paul is very familiar with Andrew's technology and the circumstances of his voyage. Our purpose was to try and understand the circumstances of Andrew McAuley's tragic death and discover whatever could be learnt for the benefit of the sea kayaking community. This isn't an official report just my recollection. The meeting was attended by about 15 guides and trainers of the NSWSKC some of whom knew Andrew very well. And of course Paul Hewitson who knew Andrew very well indeed. I've run this past Paul to see if there was anything that needed to be corrected and it comes to you with his and Vicki's permission. THE VIDEOCLIPS AND VOICE RECORDINGS Andrew's comments in the video clips taken during the trip showed he was finding it extremely tough. Andrew normally would not complain about a trip being hard. He would isolate his mind from the stress and keep acting very logically. It was a characteristic his hard core paddling friends have commented on frequently. However, on this occasion even when Andrew sounded 'down' he always had something positive to say about the 'adventure'. The voice recordings and text messages throughout the trip indicated Andrew was thinking logically and maintaining his motivation, albeit recognising the dangers he was facing. The recording OF Andrew's distress signal was considerably longer than the fragment released to the press. It took our group a few minutes to understand because of high background noise and distortion. However, Andrew's speech seemed coherent although difficult to hear through the noise. In response to repeated requests from the coast guard he several times replied his kayak was sinking and he needed help. I didn't hear him call Mayday it may not have been received from the start of his transmission and that may be why the coastguard asked him to repeat his request. They would also have had difficulty understanding what he was saying through the noise. The last words we heard sounded like 'Its gone' and were at lower volume than the previous transmission. Paul's interpretation, was that Andrew was holding on to the boat and a VHF radio and lost his grip on the kayak while he was talking. He may then have dropped the radio deliberately in attempting to regain the boat. This interpretation made sense to all of us. THE STATE OF THE BOAT The kayak was self righting when the cockpit canopy was clamped over the cockpit i.e. in the sleeping position. However it was difficult to roll with the cockpit canopy positioned on the rear deck, Andrew capsized three times earlier in the trip and had managed to right the boat each time. The kayak had an outrigger with inflatable float deployed when found. Andrew may have been using it in an attempt to reenter the boat, or he may have deployed it to stabilise the boat before the accident after he had stopped paddling for the day. The paddle was tethered, assembled and in the water when found, indicating that the accident occurred while Andrew was awake and not in the resting position. While Andrew slept the paddles would have been disassembled and in the cockpit. There were several patches of large barnacles on the hull. There was food for about a week and 10 litres of desalinated water left in the boat. Likewise Andrew's course was very close to that planned. All this indicated that Andrew was very much in control of his day to day planning, paddling and operations. The 406MHz EPIRB was located inside a pocket in the side of the cockpit. Photographs taken throughout the trip show the cord around Andrews neck and it is believed this was the cord for his 406MHz EPIRB. Andrew had a tether and used it when swimming to the front hatch when retrieving food. Its not known if Andrew wore the tether routinely while in the kayak. INTERPRETATION The fact that the tether and EPIRB remained in the boat and that the accident occurred in the late afternoon or evening suggests that Andrew may have been preparing for the night, changing clothes, or sending his daily text message log when something, probably a wave, hit his boat and knocked it over. Andrew may have opened the hatch at the rear of the cockpit to take out his immersion suit or to search for an essential item (VHF radio? Tether?) Its not clear whether he opened the hatch before or after the capsise, Paul suggests probably after as it would have been very difficult to access the hatch from the sitting position, keeping in mind the hatch is in the rear bulkhead. Paul's interpretation; from examining the boat, the coastguard's audio recording and particularly his cry 'Its gone' at reduced volume; was that Andrew was holding on to the boat and a VHF radio and lost his grip on the boat while operating the radio. He may then have dropped the radio deliberately in attempting to regain the boat. This interpretation seems likely to us. Paul and the whole group felt that Andrew was using the best judgement he could. Particularly if he was changing clothes at the time of the accident. Paul emphasised that wearing a tether when at sea (and not coming in through surf) was a key message. It was very easy to understand the removal of the tether and EPIRB when changing clothes but I came away with the sense that they need to be on all the time no matter what. Another message I took away is that if ever in such trouble to repeat the word Mayday 3x at the start of the message, every time you hit the transmit key. The first occasion can easily be missed. Hind sight is too easy! Andrew is one of the very few people I know who could keep their head after weeks of sleep deprivation and extreme hardship and the recordings throughout his voyage amply demonstrate this right to the end. Peter Osman *************************************************************************** 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. 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> Paddlewise, > > As promised below is my account of some of the circumstances of Andrew's > accident. It comes from an evening a group of us spent with Paul Hewitson > working through some of the audio and video tapes and the information Paul > could provide. Its not intended as a substitute for a proper enquiry but is > a kayakers perspective. It has been reviewed by Paul and comes with Paul and > Vicki's permission. > > Best wishes to all of you, PeterO > > <snip> Thanks for this, Peter. I believe we all benefit from this kind of review, and that it makes a (very) small good thing out of this tragedy. -- Darryl *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Peter, thanks for the write-up. I was struck by the fact that Andrew reported over the radio that his kayak was sinking when it was found floating. One wouldn't think that an experienced paddler would believe his kayak was sinking when, in fact, it wasn't. Years ago while my wife and I were cruising down the west coast of Mexico we worked a distress call on the ham radio bands from a sailboat headed out of Puerto Vallarta called (ironically enough) "Faith". The middle-aged couple on board sounded confused over the state of their vessel and mentioned to me that they did not trust their drinking water supply. When I asked them if they had any canned fruit on board they said that they did and I tried, without luck, to get them to start drinking the nectar from those. Meanwhile I contacted some tuna clippers up on 15 meters and found one who was close and who headed immediately for Faith. When the couple was safely on board the clipper and Faith had been scuttled (at my request, rather than leave her as a hazard to navigation) I talked to the captain of the tuna clipper who told me that they couple appeared disoriented and seriously dehydrated. It appeared to him that, other than their mental and physical state, the Faith was seaworthy and in good condition. Although Andrew had 10 liters of fresh water aboard I wonder if dehydration might have been a factor in the incident; it can certainly create mental confusion and might cause an experienced kayaker to believe that his boat was sinking and that some action was required. Even if not, it is important to understand how dependent the human body is on fresh water. We don't last long without it and it's not pretty. Craig Jungers Royal City, WA *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
"Although Andrew had 10 liters of fresh water aboard I wonder if dehydration might have been a factor in the incident; it can certainly create mental confusion and might cause an experienced kayaker to believe that his boat was sinking and that some action was required." This 10 litres of water had been desalinated. Andrew was using a Katadyn Survivor 35 manual desalinator pump. From the website: "He took 50 litres of fresh water, with the aim of working through most of it in the early days to lighten his load. He'll now be desalinating his daily H2O requirements - 15 minutes of pumping yields one litre of fresh drinking water." So that 10 litres represents 2.5 hours of pumping. With that requirement, it would be easy to shortcut getting supplies. Was progressive dehydration part of this? *************************************************************************** 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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