On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 6:20 AM, PeterO <rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com>wrote: > > > I've just seen Craig's email and Coachman's cove is the northern section, > also they did have a beacon. The conflicting reports on their paddling > times > have me confused about how soon they set off the beacon and whether there > were many hours before the helicopter spotted the boats despite the fact > they were just a mile from the beach. Night time conditions could explains > a > protracted search or maybe the beacon didn't have GPS capability and they > were trying to find a kayak within a km or two radius rather than a 100m > radius that beacons fitted with GPS are said to offer. > > According to all the info I have read they began their trip shortly after midnight on a clear night with a bright moon. Once they got out of protected waters they discovered that the sea was worse than they thought and turned back. At some point the one kayaker began to capsize and had to re-enter several times. When the missing paddler became too exhausted to attempt any more re-entries he hung onto the back of the surviving paddler's kayak; reportedly for up to "2 hours". At 6am one of them activated a "beacon" of some sort which launched a search. This area of Newfoundland is far enough north that by 5am there would be full daylight (and probably earlier). I wonder why they waited so long to activate that beacon. Perhaps the two were lulled into some sense of being able to make it to shore between the time there was daylight and the 6am activation of the "beacon" (whatever sort of beacon that was). Or maybe they just forgot they had it along. Activating that beacon earlier might have made a big difference. Age could also be a factor. I'm in my 60s and I am certainly aware of increasing limitations on what I can do and how long I can do it. But if I'm feeling particularly good it's easy to forget. No one knows if they checked the weather but it's quite likely that the weather that seems to have cause all their problems may have been "local" and not even appeared on any forecasts. Since the CCG was concentrating their search around the islands 40nm to the north of where they launched I'm tempted to believe that they paddled into a southerly fed by cold air aloft that swept them away from their launch site and out to sea to the north and those islands. Probably not any one problem or mistake but a series of problems or errors that led to the tragedy of one paddler losing his life. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Jul 07 2010 - 12:42:54 PDT
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