Craig said, "Someone mentioned using reflective tape to aid in a rescue at sea. Let me add that not just "reflective" tape but "retro-reflective" or "solas" tape is what you want for good visibility at night. Retro-reflective tape actually reflects more light back to the source of light (instead of just off in all directions) which makes it much easier to spot you in the nastiness of a storm at sea. PeterO also commented on retroreflective tape. And I agree -- it has an important place in any kind of night kayaking, whether you're out in the harbor or in extremis at sea. The limitation is that it's just a shiny stripe during daylight -- neutral value -- and, at night, it has to be illuminated by a light source near or behind an observer to have any visibility value. In other words, someone with a good light source has to be scanning the area in which the kayaker is located with a beam of light. At that point, you're a Christmas tree to the observer -- so major plusses for retro-tape. But if it's dark and there's no illumination coming from a passing vessel, chances are you're still just clutter to the observer. That's where flares and strobes come in. Smoke/flare markers are great -- and they give an approaching helicopter a good wind line to set up his approach, too. Strobes -- well, they're great. My primary strobe is the same light I had on my vest in Viet Nam in 1968. New ACR battery, but same light. It's brilliant! ACR and others are readily available at boat supply houses -- and I've found the same to be the case for SOLAS grade tape, too, unlike Craig's experience. The other element of visibility that I'm big on is flourescent paint on paddle blades. A "road crew" flourescent yellow tee shirt doesn't hurt, either. Don't understand the physical properties of flourescent paint or material, but I do know that even a small patch of that stuff will pull you out of the visual clutter immediately and definitely. Try it! Yellow is best, apparently, but you can go pink or green if that floats your boat. Joq *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Jul 09 2010 - 05:54:44 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:42 PDT