Re: [Paddlewise] Danish dragon boat, some answers

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 9:11 PM, <Pamvetdr_at_aol.com> wrote:

> . Someone on this list who
> shall remain nameless has twice put me in a leaky boat and/or one with
> insufficient floatation and no bulkheads, and I let him do it. I hope I
>  have
> learned better now. No crisis either time but at least once, some of that
>  was
> luck.
>
> I have no doubt at all that no one on this list is in any doubt as to who
that "nameless" person might have been, so let me just say in my defence (at
least of the leaky kayak incident) that neither of us had any idea of the
extent of the leaks (there were seven - count 'em - seven holes in that
Mariner Coaster; that we never got further than 25 feet from shore, we were
both in drysuits with appropriate layers, I had a cell phone in a
water-tight container, and Pam carries enough safety gear to rescue an Army
regiment and feed them for a week.

I don't remember the no-flotation one but I do remember the boat with the
skegbox that leaked enough to make it unsafe which we discovered immediately
after being in Deception Pass.

Have we all done stupid things? Sure. Especially those of us who were
kayaking 20 and 30 years ago. There were no cell phones, no hand-held VHF
radios, a hand-held GPS cost $3500, and wool was considered to be the most
safe clothing you could wear other than a skin diver's wetsuit. I have
personally paddled in hiking boots, jeans and a sweater with a poncho. I can
only say that most of the kayaks we paddled were incredibly difficult to
overturn and, except for Doug Lloyd, most of us were pretty cautious about
where we went and when.

However it's not 1975 any more. If we can't at least have a discussion of
what went wrong - and I don't think we can without at least some criticism
of the decisions the trip leader made - then we might as well pack it up
now.

WDR
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