A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

[IlliniDave]

If you're curious about the heart rate...

I'd estimate it to be in the ballpark of 60% of max rate (age-based calculation), 90-100 bpm maybe. Gauging that on having taken a lot of heart rate measurements after rowing on the C2. I'll try the old school method if I think about it next time I do a longer paddle. Don't take my phone on the water up here because there's no reception anyway, and things in the yak regularly get wet.

I have kind of a blase attitude about it--it's not a great cardio workout, but it beats sitting on the couch with a bowl of chips and Netflix. Maybe as my shoulders adapt and strengthen I can get into the moderate intensity cardio territory.

Or, I can try paddling while using the motor more often. I tried that last time out for grins. Added very little speed to the boat above whatever the motor thrust provided, and was surprisingly difficult.

[Scott 2]

I wonder if it'd be different in a cheap sport kayak. Not that one needs two kayaks...

[IlliniDave]

My neighbors have a couple and have said I could use one pretty much whenever I want. I should take them up on it. I'd expect it to be a lot more ergonomic and efficient--get considerably more speed per unit effort. Be interesting to see if makes for more of a cardio workout.

[IlliniDave]

Half-Baked June Scorecard

The only data I have is from having gone out to check balances for the stash since it's the end of the quarter. For the first time in a while the change year-over-year was positive, which is encouraging. Still down 4.5% since turning in my salaryman card. So, stash is still fair, trending modestly up.

I'm woefully behind on my spending tally. I don't think I even 100% finished the May numbers, and haven't done anything for June yet. Still, I'm pretty confident that my spending level was easily within the annuity, probably with significant margin as has been the trend. Food is noticeably more pricey here but with a lot less variety available in the high-end food snob category (organic, grass-fed, pastured, etc.) so I think that's a wash. I tend to use a little more gas here but not a ton.

I think I mentioned I have a new roof on the stash. That's 2 of the 4 bigger bigger projects I've planned now complete. I'm probably going to add gutters. It turns out I've got some clay under one corner of the cabin on the downhill side. A working theory is that roof runoff on the adjacent side is draining down to the lake less efficiently, and when the freeze comes the wetter soil under that one corner is causing uneven heave. So the guy who is masterminding my skirting plan thinks putting in a drain tile (I think similar to what I'd call a french drain) on that side along with gutters on the eaves on the same side to get some of the runoff away from the structure. I'll probably just put them on all the eaves.

I opted for a steel roof. So far I don't detect much difference in noise level during rain or daytime heat radiating inward. The roofer added foam insulation panels on top of the decking under the metal, which may or may not be a significant factor. My lingering concerns with the metal roof were the heat absorption and noise, and it seems fine in those regards. After the skirting/final reworking under the cabin (major project 3), I have a collection of modest interior improvements/renovations that taken together are project 4. After that, I should mainly just be battling entropy up until it's time to sell.

I don't have much on the health and fitness front. I've been eating less well and my physical activity is not on a consistent schedule/routine as much as it was. But I still feel good and my belt tells me my waist hasn't changed much. The one thing I haven't been doing much is walking/hiking, but with the worst of bug season drifting into the past, and decking out in full bug regalia less a necessity, I'll be ramping that up soon.

In the local area here we've had over 3" of rain in the last ~week, so the acute drought and fire concerns have eased. Still planning to have 14 or so trees taken down for long term fire resilience, but once my little stash of wood dries I'll feel okay trying out my new campfire grill.

Well, off to my morning band workout. Upper body pulling motions today.

[IlliniDave]

Why Fitness Matters

I came uncomfortably close to a calamity today. I was out fishing and noticed some clouds off in the distance. I was 20-30 min from home so I started hightailing in that direction. About 2/3 of the way there a crazy squall erupted. Home was upwind so I was heading into the waves, but a boat was also gunning it to get off the water heading in roughly the same direction I was, maybe a difference in 15 deg of heading. He gave me plenty of clearance, but once his wake hit me I was screwed. The waves from the wind were the larger so I maintained my heading as best I could in the wind, but hit an inverted "V" in the waves timed perfectly with a gust of wind and over I went.

The first degree of fitness that mattered is my intellectual fitness (and stubbornness): I never get into the kayak without my flotation vest on and properly secured.

The second was my emotional fitness: I stayed calm.

The third was physical fitness. I was easily able to scramble up on the hull and assess the situation. Twice I got back in the water and flipped the boat over right side up, but I couldn't scramble in without flipping it back over. When I climbed back on the hull for the fourth time and thought about it, I realized I needed to flip it again and climb in on the other side (I was trying to get in on the side where all my sonar crap is mounted and couldn't hurl myself far enough across the boat to center my weight with all the stuff in the way. I was going to get in the water one last time and try it from the other side (if unsuccessful I decided I'd just get back on the hull and paddle to the nearest island). But a towboat from one of the resorts pulled up before I could slide back in and towed me back to my dock. All-in-all rather humiliating, haha.

iDave of 2022 might have been able crawl on the hull once. Maybe. iDave 2022 would not have been able to flip the boat upright in the water. Since iDave 2022 always wore his flotation vest he probably would not have died unless he was in the water long enough hypothermia got him. But he would have been pretty helpless in the water. iDave of 2023 I'm 100% confident could have made it to the island with the kayak, got everything sorted, paddled home, and licked his wounds.

Don't get me wrong. I'm pretty beat up and will be sore as hell tomorrow. The worst will be from having slipped and fallen on my ass on a sharp pointy rock while dragging the kayak up out of the water safely ashore at my place. I did get rescued (more assisted, but I gotta give those two young men credit). However as soon as I realized how easily I could scramble up on the hull after that first time, I knew I could get myself out of the predicament. Funny given the title of this journal, but up there on the hull kayak I slipped into the most thorough state of mindfulness I've achieved in a few years.

The bad news is I lost my battery (a pricey lithium one), the box I keep it in, three fishing rods, three reels, a backpack full of fishing tackle, one "fishing glove" (luckily the right one as I use my gloved left hand to lift the fish and my right to unhook them). Miraculously my sonar/chart plotter unit was still working even after being submersed a foot or so multiple times. I presume the electric trolling motor is okay--the battery for it is at the bottom of the lake but as far as the motor itself, they're designed to be pretty rugged when it comes to getting wet. Altogether a loss of about $1,200 back of the envelope.

I'm scheduled to go back home in 3 weeks for a midsummer vacation from vacation, so will likely wait to re-outfit until then. It's super impractical to fish out of it without the motor, but I might try (still have a couple poles). At minimum I can still paddle around.

Lots to rethink after the episode, and I might deploy/mount my gear a little differently.

So all my health and fitness upgrades wound up paying off, and if the towboat hadn't come by, would have paid off even more. I'm now extra motivated to keep at it. Keen grasp of the obvious there.

The biggest lessons are 1) always wear a properly fitted life vest, 2) don't panic and have a plan. Regarding 2) I knew exactly how to right the boat, and was basically doing the right thing to climb back in (YouTube Videos), just failed to account for the track mounted gear. Lesson learned.

[theanimal]

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.

[mountainFrugal]

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!

[ertyu]

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

[IlliniDave]

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.

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.

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.

[not sure]

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.

Fingers crossed! Let us know how it goes!

[IlliniDave]

Fingers crossed! Let us know how it goes!

Thanks, not sure. After a solid half day with two boats equipped with sidescan sonar, two free divers, and a remote underwater vehicle, we found nothing of mine. The divers (and RUV owner/operators) are the brother and sister-in-law of one of my neighbors and live locally and to the diving/collecting as a hobby. Things broke up so everyone (sans me) could head into town for the 4th of July parade.

Unfortunately when me and my other neighbor first went out we found a cube-shaped object in fairly shallow water that the divers later located--it was a very old tackle box they brought up (they collect such little treasures). And because of that find it was hard for me to convince people that it was too far off to the side of the path I was taking, and given the wind direction, it was unlikely any of my stuff drifted there. I must come across as pretty dumb, haha. Unfortunately I wasn't collecting a log of the sonar data when it happened. They also found a very old fishing pole and what was probably a soda bottle, for a local bottler (long defunct) that is probably 75-100 years old, which they were very excited about. Made them happy enough I didn't feel bad about not compensating them. Tomorrow I'll probably paddle the kayak over there with my sonar and look around some, but I'm not optimistic the stuff is findable, much less recoverable, without certified scuba divers as the depths quickly drop to 50'+ moving out from the island.

[Scott 2]

Glad you're ok. Great incentive to keep with the fitness program.

Sucks about losing the gear, but it's already sounding like an inflection point in your skill development. That's what experience looks like.

[Seppia]

Wow, congrats and what an adventure, I would have freaked out!
Hiking and scuba diving have taught me to always, under any circumstance, keep a huge margin of safety with everything - you need it when the elements decide to mess things up.
Looks like you have a similar approach.
Many may consider it pointless, but you only need things to go very wrong once

[IlliniDave]

Glad you're ok. Great incentive to keep with the fitness program.

Sucks about losing the gear, but it's already sounding like an inflection point in your skill development. That's what experience looks like.

Thanks, Scott 2. Yes, there's nothing like seeing the results of ones persistent lonely grind efforts pay off. I'm pretty motivated to keep things going. Good point about it being an inflection point. I'd mentioned my life vest above, it's very small, looks like a child's life vest but is customized for kayak fishermen. It did a pretty good job keeping me afloat. I've been kicking around the idea of sourcing some of the buoyant material to stuff inside a new battery box when I get one. I'm not sure I can get enough to float something as dense as a lithium battery, I'll have to a test with a rock if I can find one of equivalent weight. But if I could get the assembly to float, if I ever go over again the battery box would eventually wash up on shore somewhere and likely be recovered by someone, even if not me. So I'm even putting the increasingly rusty engineer section of my brain to work. The most regrettable thing to me about the whole incident is that leaving that battery in the water is now part of my legacy.

[IlliniDave]

Wow, congrats and what an adventure, I would have freaked out!
Hiking and scuba diving have taught me to always, under any circumstance, keep a huge margin of safety with everything - you need it when the elements decide to mess things up.
Looks like you have a similar approach.
Many may consider it pointless, but you only need things to go very wrong once

Thanks, Seppia. When I was working with the guys at the local kayak shop back home they put a lot of emphasis on safety which left a big impression on me. In hindsight I'm grateful to them and happy i was receptive to their views. This was the first time I ever had things go wrong on the water and I think it's made me forever dialed in on safety and survivability in all my outdoor endeavors, even those where safety concerns don't necessarily leap to mind.

[sky]

You could take a floating object such as a bottle or piece of foam, tie a line to it, wrap the line around it and tie the other end of the line to your battery box. Assuming the water is not as deep as the length of line, if the box goes overboard to the bottom, the floating object will unroll and become a buoy.

[IlliniDave]

In the spirit of, it's always something, I woke predawn yesterday to the sound of rushing water. My initial thought was that one of my pipes burst so I put some clothes on and started investigating. Long story short, a beaver dam a good distance away, maybe a half mile to mile, had failed during the night. We have a little tiny brook that other than during the spring melt or maybe a sustained downpour is barely more than a trickle. It runs into the lake on the far side of one of my nextdoor neighbors cabins, and goes through a culvert under our privately-maintained gravel road. The culvert was completely overwhelmed. Me and the 5 present neighbors in danger of being cut off were able to get our vehicles to the other side before it washed out so bad as to be impassible by vehicle. The pond was mostly drained by yesterday evening and it sounds like repairs are already started (on the road--the beavers have probably been busy since the night before last). I'm beginning to question my "love" of nature, or rather, of getting up close and personal with it.

And just to throw salt on the wounds, I went to town later in the morning yesterday. In taking my trolling motor apart to dry it out I disturbed some of the dielectric grease on the connectors and wanted to apply some to those places before I buttoned it back up. On the way in I got a call from one of the kayak shop guys back home who is helping me source things to get my kayak functionality restored. About a minute into the call my phone started going all wonky. The town population was down to 3,300+ people last census, but one thing they do still have is a little electronics shop that is also a retail/service outlet for my carrier. Long story short the battery failed. Once extracted it was all misshapen like it had overheated.

They say bad things come in threes, so I hope that's it for me for a time. I'm susceptible to getting dispirited in the throes of a run of bad luck, even when some of it is relatively minor like the phone battery. I kind of want to just hunker down in the cabin and hide right now

[IlliniDave]

You could take a floating object such as a bottle or piece of foam, tie a line to it, wrap the line around it and tie the other end of the line to your battery box. Assuming the water is not as deep as the length of line, if the box goes overboard to the bottom, the floating object will unroll and become a buoy.

Yeah, that's an excellent idea. Thanks. I actually have several marker buoys I used to use before i had onboard GPS in my arsenal to mark spots. The deepest water in the lake is about 65 feet and I'd bet the buoys have 100' of line or more, or could be modified to add at least the 65' for the deepest two basins. Even better if I could wind enough 1/4" rope around one and I add some significant buoyancy inside the box, the whole assembly could be hauled up from the surface. The lion's share of my on-the-water time is spent in 20' of water or less. The only time I'm over deeper water is commuting to/from the cabin or spot-to-spot across one of the basins. So even if I can't get 65' of rope around one, I can get enough to cover quite a variety of situations.

[Scott 2]

I know it feels like bad luck, but as an external observer:

1. You survived flipping the kayak with no significant injuries
2. You got the car moved before the road was cut off
3. You caught the phone battery before it caught fire or exploded

It's not exactly winning, but still fortunate.

[ertyu]

yeah, if there were shit that had to happen, you weathered it the best possible way each time