What Can Go Wrong On the Water

April-May 2004

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Lyn Hancock

Lyn’s kayak shown here all geared up for eventualities. It has two spare paddle halves tucked under the front bungies for easy access, a strobe light on the front deck in case it gets dark while she’s out, a pair of inflatable sponsons available if it gets really rough, a first aid kit, a tube of firestarter, a survival kit and, of course, a paddlefloat and pump on the rear deck.

BARRY’S STORY

You can get into trouble even when you are experienced and in familiar waters. My kayaking buddy, Barry, learned this valuable lesson in his own backyard of Nanoose Bay, BC. One frigid day in January when the air temperature was 10 degrees below freezing and the surface of the fresh water swelling out of Bonnell Creek had turned to ice, Barry and his partner James decided to crunch their way along the edge of the bay and paddle out to the Winchelsea Islands.

They lunched on South Winchelsea, reveling in the fact that the cold weather had kept everyone else at home. They spent the day paddling the archipelago then headed back into the bay. Their self-satisfaction lasted till they rounded Wallis Point and found themselves wallowing sideways into an unexpected 25 knot northeast gale.

“It was a pretty precarious position”, Barry told me. “The waves were crashing against the sides of our boats and the wind was pushing us opposite to where we wanted to be. We fought our way to the northern edge of the bay and stopped to rest in a somewhat protected area. Finally, I could relax—or so I thought. I breathed a sigh of relief, raised my paddle, leaned back and stretched it behind my head. Suddenly, a roller wave reared up on my right, hit me broadside, and over I went. I was taken by surprise and lost my paddle. At that time I had no paddle leash to keep it with my boatand at eye level in the water a paddle is virtually invisible. Since I wasn’t wearing a wetsuit, I was in shock as soon as I hit that freezing water, and my mind went blank. James tried to retrieve my paddle but he capsized as well.”

Without either paddle to use as a lever for self-rescue, it was impossible to get themselves back into their kayaks.

“We had to swim and push, swim and push, trying to keep hold of our kayaks in the rolling waves. We were lucky. Twenty minutes later, our feet found a sandbank in shallow water near the oyster leases and we crawled to shore. But then we had to track the boats along the shoreline, stumbling over rocks, till we reached the beach where we had parked our vehicles. Hypothermia was a big problem and my steering wheel shook all the way home.”

Since then, Barry has learned not to take safety for granted—even when close to home. Now he carries a spare paddle, paddle leashes for both paddles and a wetsuit even if the weather seems fine. He also takes a waterproof VHF radio, a weatherproof cell phone, and a couple of inflatable sausage-shaped sponsons to help prevent his kayak capsizing in sudden bad weather or long crossings. He points out that sponsons can be useful in keeping a boat stable if you’re towing an injured paddler or while you are fishing. (See end note re. sponsons bottom of page.)

ELLEN’S STORY

Even when you are well experienced and have all the right gear, complacency can still get you into trouble. Take the case of Ellen, who was paddling the Brooks Peninsula on the west coast of Vancouver Island with Bob (not his real name), a long time kayak guide. The day they capsized was beautiful and sunny with winds of less than ten knots, so they had chosen to paddle within 100 feet of the shore, comfortably handling four-foot swells just behind the breaking waves. Yet this safety margin was not sufficient.

“We were too close to shore and you can’t depend on swell heights being even”, Ellen explained later. “Suddenly, a six-foot swell reared beside us and broke. The wave was too big to side-surf, we had no time to roll or turn our boats into it, so we hit it at a 45 degree angle. Bob’s sprayskirt was loose and the wave ejected him clear out of his boat with such force that it sheared the zipper off his wetsuit. When the wave hit me, I turned upside down but conditions were too rough for a roll so I pulled off my sprayskirt and surfaced with my boat and paddle intact. Bob’s boat was gone but he had the presence of mind to keep hold of his paddle.

“So there we were in the water with one boat. We tried an assisted rescue but the cockpit was so full of water with waves crashing one after the other that this was impossible. Somehow we swam to shore although it was a long way—at least four city blocks—and the rip tide kept trying to take my boat out to sea. We had to get through an obstacle course of boulders that were at least three feet high and ran 200 yards into shore.”

After managing to reach shore, Ellen was able to cook a quick hot lunch while Bob battled the bouldered beach to look for his boat. He found it lodged in a crevice about 200 feet away. They had both lost some gear but they had time before the tide came in to bale out their boats, seal the damage with duct tape and dry out their wet suits.

What went wrong? “We were too close to the area of breaking waves and we didn’t pay enough attention to the different size of the swells.”

What did they do right? “We were dressed for immersion, we had practiced surfing and rolling, we had listened to weather forecasts and checked the tides ahead of time, we had flotation bags in the cockpits, VHF radios, duct tape, equipment and ability to cook hot meals and survive a night on the beach.”

You should never be complacent about weather on the water, especially the effect of winds which spring up most afternoons on Vancouver Island’s west coast.

© Lyn Hancock is a freelance writer living on Vancouver Island. She has written 18 books (including There’s a Seal in My Sleeping Bag ) and published articles and photos in newspapers and magazines around the world. lynhancock@shaw.ca

Editor’s Note: Although sponsons sound like a good idea, I find they make for such slow paddling that I never use them. As a rough water emergency device, they may have a place, but you have to know in advance that you’ll need them because the setup pretty much has to be in place before you launch.