Kayaking Fog and current

Being disoriented in the fog is just a big mental test.
My grade would be about a D+ over all.

The first test was when I called the group to say I was lost. It was a lot harder to pick up the radio than I thought. We all carry or should carry a VHF radio and I never thought it would be a challenge to push the little button and say the words “I am lost in the fog”. The call to the Coast Guard was has hard but not as hard as when I agreed that it was time to call them.

I think I made fair to good decision after making the call for assistance.
Rawkfish telling me to head into the sun was right. I knew that the sun would take me to the beach.

My mental decision to hold off was due to the fact that I did not know the reefs and rocks and was afraid of ending up in the rocks.
The only other reason   that it was not the best idea is we had IslandHoppa looking for me. One rule is when you are lost and someone is looking for you you need to stay put.

In looking at the data I have and it looks like  IslandHoppa and I were probably close  at some point.  Having IslandHoppa try to find me as plan A was not the best plan.
Having me head east and up the coast north might have been better. But I still had mental issues with rocks.

Willbd -- all I can say is I'm impressed as all get out from afar. You kept your head and your pride in check, and everyone on this forum has benefitted immensely from your careful after-action reporting. Thanks for your forthright approach.

Willbd -- all I can say is I'm impressed as all get out from afar. You kept your head and your pride in check, and everyone on this forum has benefitted immensely from your careful after-action reporting. Thanks for your forthright approach.

Thanks!
I am still trying to get my head around some of the events. I keep playing it out and thinking of all of the what if's.
I am impressed with the effort some people have put into trying to figure out how in the hell did you do to get into this and explain it in a level head manner on how to get out.

willbd

Bryan,

I, too, continue to think about last Saturday and learn as much as possible from it. I'm sure at some point we were within hearing distance but our Air Horns didn't seem to do us any good. I gave about 4-5 blasts after sailing toward you but apparently it wasn't at a point when we were within a mile of each other.

In comparing our tracks it's still not possible to be sure since there's no time information. My track only begins after I'm returning from being pretty far off shore. The iPhone FlyToMap GPS App was extremely helpful in providing real time location info and showing how well (or poorly) I could move against the current and wind.

I'm now pretty comfortable that I would be able to use the HX-851 to get a bearing and range on you which would have helped us connect more quickly. That said, it's not clear that together we would have been any better off in returning to DB harbor. In retrospect, I should not have sailed off to look for you without having your location on my VHF. It was a poor decision on my part.

Your DSC Position Requests came at 9:46 and 9:53 and I think I'd already been heading for you quite a while before you sent them. I made it back to Depot Bay harbor at about 3 PM. I didn't spend any time fishing once I headed to find you so I'm thinking I took over 6 hours in my wild goose chase. There was a point after the CG picked you up that I was getting pretty tired and considered hailing the Chum Bucket when they trolled by. I kept peddling and then the winds died for a good while costing me even more time. Eventually they picked up and became favorable and my last leg was pretty clean heading up to the jaws.

Once there, however, I had a very hard time judging the entrance as I passed two red buoys. I, too, was very concerned about getting in too close to the breakers. Had the fog been a lot thicker I'm not sure what I would have done other than call CG for assistance.

I think we all felt safe in the fog assuming we'd stay close enough together. In retrospect that was false confidence. The reality is that when you're focussing on fishing it's very easy to drift away and lose visual and audible contact.

I do think everyone has learned a lot from this analysis and we're all better kayakers for the experience.

Ihop, you sailed past us off whale cove, then disappeared into the fog.  Shortly after (5 minutes approx) that you stated on the VHF that you would signal with your horn.  We heard nothing and my guess is you were fairly close to us.  I was really surprised we couldn't hear it.

Ron, wow, that's even more distressing. Acoustically fog should enhance rather than retard the range of a horn. We need to run some tests out there next time.

If moving at 6-8 miles per hour, Ihop would have been 1/2 or more mile away from Ron. Likely pointing the horn away given the scenario. Considering the high pitch of our horns and the density of the fog at the time, it doesn't seem unreasonable that your horn was soaked up that soup.
 I'm afraid that most of these types of air horns are not designed to cut the fog. Lower pitch is what is required and thus more power is required to drive the sound. Hard to store such power in a small can.

Couple questions, and i'm not armchair quarterbacking.

Does anyone carry flares and would they have helped locate willbd?

Would the good old pealess whistle or mouth horn have worked better than the air horn?

Does anyone carry a drift sock when saltfishing? Am thinking actually one about 36 inches for saltwater use. Would it have helped here?

DeaFish,

True enough, I was making 8 mph land speed so in 5 minutes I'd have moved 2/3 of a mile. Also the frequency of the horn is a factor, here's a technical analysis of it:

http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0469(1970)027%3C0426%3APOSTAF%3E2.0.CO%3B2

Lower frequencies penentrate farther but I don't see any small portable air horns on the market.

I have two drift socks but didn't bring them and not sure how they would have been of any use in our situation. Flares may have been visible above the fog, hard to say though.

Does anyone carry a drift sock when saltfishing? Am thinking actually one about 36 inches for saltwater use. Would it have helped here?

I always carry a sea anchor (drift sock) with me.  However, one wouldn't have done anybody any good in this situation, as they're meant to keep you from being wind blown all over.  I use mine on windy days to slow my drift over bottom structure, and while on anchor to keep my bow pointed downhill.

Couple questions, and i'm not armchair quarterbacking.

Does anyone carry flares and would they have helped locate willbd?

The fog was thick enough that you couldn't see a kayak 100 yards away, definitely wouldn't be able to see a flare if they were never in air-horn range.

Would the good old pealess whistle or mouth horn have worked better than the air horn?

Maybe.  I bet part of the problem of not hearing horns was exacerbated by blowing their own horns and reducing their hearing.

Does anyone carry a drift sock when saltfishing? Am thinking actually one about 36 inches for saltwater use. Would it have helped here?

No, it would have made things worse.  A drift sock keeps you from being blown by the wind, it doesn't help you when a 2-3 mph current is the problem.

One point of thought on why my VHF was reaching the Coast Guard and willbd's wasn't.  I have an Icom M72 that is capable of 6W transmission.  Compare this to the normal high transmission setting of 5W.  I bought this radio specifically because of the 6W transmitting capability and this high battery capacity.

-Allen

One point of thought on why my VHF was reaching the Coast Guard and willbd's wasn't.  I have an Icom M72 that is capable of 6W transmission.  Compare this to the normal high transmission setting of 5W.  I bought this radio specifically because of the 6W transmitting capability and this high battery capacity.

-Allen

I was under the assumption that Willdb has the Standard Horizon HX851, which also has 6 watt transmission. 
And 6 watt is default for channel 16.

One point of thought on why my VHF was reaching the Coast Guard and willbd's wasn't.  I have an Icom M72 that is capable of 6W transmission.  Compare this to the normal high transmission setting of 5W.  I bought this radio specifically because of the 6W transmitting capability and this high battery capacity.

-Allen

I was under the assumption that Willdb has the Standard Horizon HX851, which also has 6 watt transmission. 
And 6 watt is default for channel 16.

Hmmm ... right you are.

-Allen

Like trees and hills, I wonder if fog reduces transmission distance?