theanimal wrote: ↑Mon Jul 03, 2023 4:46 pm
Wow, nice work. A testament to the effectiveness of your new regimen for sure. On my NOLS course, we spent the first day on our sea kayak section paddling out from shore and intentionally flipping to practice getting back in. We did it in double kayaks, so would be practicing with a partner. My partner and I had difficulty syncing up and getting balanced together so we fell back in the water again and again. I was shivering and hypothermic by the end of it. Those wide kayaks like you have seem like they would be a lot harder to flip back over in flat water. I'd have to imagine the difficulty is increased quite a bit in choppy water with storms. You have nothing to feel ashamed about. Glad you made it back to shore ok.
Thanks, theanimal. Yeah, the exercise (deliberately flipping) seems to be pretty standard practice for people new to traditional kayaks (aka "sit inside" versus my "sit on top" model)--not so much the righting and reentry, but to teach people how to get out of the kayak if it capsizes. Apparently a person can panic, never free their legs and drown. That aspect (getting caught inside) isn't a concern with mine so I never practiced that, much less what you guys worked on reentering (in tandem, no less). I'd seen videos of a guy demonstrating the stability of the model I have--he was a large guy and literally stood on the gunwale to try to flip it. Invariably he fell overboard and the kayak stayed upright. I never thought it was impossible to flip it, but that and my past experience in it led me to believe it was a highly unlikely event short of being deliberately reckless. Righting mine took some strength and agility but it was fairly simple. It's got a pair of carry handles bolted to the gunwale on both sides at midship allowing two people to carry it between them. So I just had to grab one and slide off the other side of the hull to pull that side up, and use my legs to push the submerged side away while pulling the side I was holding over towards me. It's 40" wide so it's more awkward than it sounds, but doable.
I've always leaned more towards functional fitness (to steal the Crossfit term), knowing that because of what I like to do, a day like yesterday might come. Actually it's sort of a prerequisite for getting out and doing what I like to do to begin with.
mountainFrugal wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 12:03 am
A bit of time will also give you some perspective on the incident. Have you considered writing down in detail the event (even more so than above, including feelings) so you can revisit it later for further insight? I am glad that your health and fitness helped to make things better given the circumstances. A micro adventure!
Thanks mountainFrugal,
I'm at the point now there I'm continually replaying the whole event over-and-over in my mind trying to sort though all the coulda woulda shouldas. It's probably a good idea to write it down, thanks for the suggestion. I can fictionalize it slightly to make myself out to be an intrepid hero, haha! Since I'm typing now I'll recapitulate my thoughts here, maybe cut them out later and save them in a file. Hindsight being 20/20 here's where I'm at.
-The weather forecast was partly cloudy, high in low 80s (which is warm for here), south/southwest winds 4-6 mph, 40% chance of rain starting at around 400-500 PM through the evening with a "trace" possibility that an isolated severe storm or two could pop up in the region during that time.
-I planned to be on the water from about 10AM-2PM then head home.
-I started for home as soon as I saw what potentially looked like rain clouds to the south and noted an increase in the wind. This was about 1:45 PM, so I was close to packing it in anyway. As I headed homeward the wind increased gradually. In time it was a fairly stout headwind but not beyond what I've dealt with before. I opted to commute home with the motor because it is much faster. I was about 25-30 minutes, maybe less, by motor from home when I took off.
-Because I wanted to move as quickly as possible into the wind I moved to sit on the floor of the kayak instead of the elevated seat.
-When I passed the point of the last island before home (maybe 500 yds from the hideout) is when things got hairy. That's where I saw the motorboat pass me (at a reasonably safe distance, at at least under normal conditions).
-Normally I would have turned into the boat's wake when it arrived but opted not to because the wind-driven waves appeared larger. Small whitecaps had started occurring, but again, not any worse than a typical blustery day.
-The boat's wake reached me when I was just past (upwind) of the island. When waves from different directions collide it creates a bit of chaos, there's addition and subtraction, making higher peak-to-trough differential. The lake bed behind me was rising up to the island, amplifying ind driven waves and likely the island itself was bouncing them back towards me.
-In the midst of all of that a burst of wind hit. A couple additive waves, one towards the bow from wind, one towards starboard from the boat's wake, arrived simultaneously and together lifted the starboard bow up out of the water enough the wind gust got under it and in the blink of an eye I was swimming.
Conclusion
The capsize happened so fast I don't think there was anything I could have done in that moment to prevent it. Maybe being up in the seat would have been better. I could have generated more torque leaning into the roll, but at the same time the wind would have caught me more and increased the roll.
So the only thing I can see that would have prevented it is not being there at that time.
-I could have not gone out at all even though the potential weather was believed to be several hours off and the possibility of it being sever was described as trace. I thought planning to be off the water a couple hours prior to any expectation of weather developing was sufficient. Obviously I was wrong.
-I could have stayed closer to home. I'd ventured out only to what I consider a medium distance because of the weather forecast but obviously in hindsight I went too far.
-The only other option would have been to pull up on the leeward side of the island and waited it out. Would have meant moving almost perpendicular to the wind for a short distance though. By the time it became an actual storm, it was over in 10 minutes, when the towboat arrived the wind had fallen sharply and the waves were dying down.
One thing I'll look at when I go to put things back together is rearranging some of the gear. I mount both the sonar/chart plotter electronics/screen and transducer on the same side. The total weight is less than 10 pounds but it does create a slight imbalance that I compensate for by scooching over slightly to the opposite side in the seat. Just so happens that that side is the one that went down in the roll. Would better weight distribution of that amount have mattered? No way of knowing. It didn't help. The challenge with putting the two pieces on opposite sides of the boat is I'd have to run a cable across the deck, which could be a hazard and would definitely be in the way, plus I wouldn't have a "clean" side on the boat to put against the dock when mooring.
I'm not too worried about not being able to right the boat and get back inside. The failed attempts taught me what I need to do different. In hindsight it was probably a waste of time to even try. So much water had gotten in between the upper and lower hull while capsized it would have been easier to simply unhook the paddle and paddle it back to the island upside down. I'd have just had to flip it back over once I beached to drain it anyway (which was a significant chore with all the water in there). If I'd brought it to shore upside down all I'd have to do is drag it up enough to get the stern out of the water, and unscrew the plug.
One error on my part was that while in the water I was focused on getting back home. I kept myself mostly facing that direction and until the towboat arrived I didn't realize how close I'd drifted back towards the island.
I had been considering buying a second kayak to avoid having to lug one across states. I was looking at what amounts to an updated version of the one I have. Same basic size/design as mine but some tweaks/features. I'll have to give it a closer look to see if it's design would have better or worse in that situation.
It was indeed an adventure.
ertyu wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 12:08 am
glad you're well, idave. in your shoes, many wouldn't have been. despite the losses and the pita, nice work. you do deserve the pat on your own back
Thanks ertyu, yeah losing some pricey gear sucks, but it was a risk I was aware of from the inception. I think most people my age would have had a rougher go of it than I did (most would have never ventured out in a kayak to being with). I see people basically paddling canoes and kayaks without life vests every day and shake my head. That I'm religious about wearing mine meant my life was never in any real danger.
Unfortunately, it looks like a great day to be out fishing but I'm a ways off from taking the boat back out. This morning I'll probably go out with a neighbor in his boat to see if we can spot the battery box with his sidescan sonar. Apparently there are some salvage divers in the area, and I'd like to get the battery out of the water and disposed of properly rather than leaving it there to be a source of future pollution. And if they can get my poles and other stuff, great.