Re: [Paddlewise] 0 for 3!!!

As a former US Navy Parachute Rigger, [Parachutes, Inflatables, & LOX 
systems, I give you a Salute for such a well written piece. Great info 
here, the last paragraph is worth repeating:

Martin, Jack wrote:
> As a former combat search and rescue pilot, I'll weigh in here from a
> perspective of 300 to 500 feet above you and your capsized boat.  

[sniparoni, the Internet Treat]

> Consider your environment.  Consider who might look for you.  What will
> they see?  (We had a man-overboard situation one day in low-key carrier
> operations at sea where a sailor lost his footing and wound up in the
> water.  Everybody saw it, everybody saw him.  And everybody helped by
> throwing life vests, mattresses, pallets, rafts, huge flares, etc. into
> the water to mark his spot.  Problem was, he was now somewhere in the
> middle of a half-mile wide flaming debris field of rescue stuff and
> flotsam and jetsam, and it took us a half-hour to find the poor bugger.
> So figure out how to stand out in that debris field -- or in some of the
> urban waters in which we paddle.  Comms, active short- or long-source
> visual night signals, smoke as a day signal (how many PWCs emit a
> quarter mile stream of flourescent smoke?) and passive identifiers like
> flourescent paddle blades (that can be seen in fog or haze long before
> anything else) and retro-tape.  Think it through.  Where are you
> potentially going to be if you encounter trouble.  From 300 feet, your
> head and frantically splashing arms are, at best, another whitecap to me
> in my helo.  Don't need no more whitecaps.  Got lots.  Stand out!  Tell
> me where you are!  Show me where you are!  Or I might wind up leaving
> you where you are 'cause I can't find you -- and I really don't like
> that.
> 
> Joq

Great advice.

mark

-- 
#
# mark zen -- fort lupton,  colorado,  usa
#-========----============--=========--===-
# ckayakr[at]dotzen[dot]org------------http://www.dotzen.org/paddler/
#      o,    o__              o_/|   o_.                o__/
#     </     [\/              [\_|   [\_\               [\/
#  (`-/-------/----')      (`----|-------\-')  `\--------/--------/'
#~~~~_at_~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~~~~~~~
# Semi-Random Fortune ...
#    A bug in the hand is better than one as yet undetected.
***************************************************************************
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/
***************************************************************************