Re: [Paddlewise] 0 for 3!!!

I enjoyed the post too. I'd like to do an in-depth article for SeaKayaker 
Magazine some day regarding flares and rescue visibility. Someone may beat 
me to the punch, though.

There is an alternative to swimming from your kayak and needing a rescue - 
just tether yourself. I know, tethers are dangerous and we are all just 
between swims...

I bought my 14 year old daughter a well-made fiberglass (can paint it pink 
for her) sit-on-top kayak this weekend - possibly a Laser Blade according to 
Matt B. (ever tried to stump this guy on kayak identifications - almost 
impossible I think). It has a day hatch on the back right side behind the 
well, a back-center lunch hatch, and a full size hatch on the front deck 
with a hole plug for a mast on the foredeck. I found a Pelican flare set in 
the hull, with aluminum cartridge hand-held smoke flares included with the 
pencil flare set. Will have to try them out. Must be 25 years old or so.

I liked Mr. Martin's sentence:
"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."

Sounds like the debris field that fans out after one of those poorly made, 
lightweight sea kayaks breaks up in heavy seas, to me. :-)

Speaking of flaming debris fields, I cut-in a rebate window into the kitchen 
today, then sprayed a can of expanding foam around the inside perimeter. 
Didn't know the chili on the gas stove top was still cooking. The wet-foam 
circumference of the window caught on fire from the expelled gases. Very 
entertaining. My daughter was wondering if I was going to jump through the 
window - circus style. Oh well, at least I didn't set of any flares in the 
bathtub.

Doug Lloyd



> 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
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