Kayaking Fog and current

It is very important to do radio checks.  Ask the guy on the other side where they are so you get an idea of distance.  If either side hears anything not right, like a weak signal when there should otherwise be a strong signal, speak up and let the other person know.  Willbd's signal was very weak.  The weakness of the radio made him sound distressed at one point, and that's when I decided to chime in and ask him if he wanted help.  Initially he didn't want to, but I asked him what was going to change in the next 10-20 minutes, because him and IslandHoppa had been at it for a while and it didn't sound like they were getting any nearer.  Willbd decided it was indeed time to call the Coast Guard and proceeded to do so.  The coast guard didn't hear him on the radio.  So I stepped in and acted as a relay.  At that point I stopped fishing and drifted with the current, believing that Willbd was drifting too, and with the already weakened signal, I didn't want to lose his signal, so by drifting I could keep the same distance to him.  I continued to relay messages back and forth to the CG until the boat coming out was finally able to pick up BD.  Thanks to kykfshr Scott for drifting with me.  He was on his way back from way down south and had seen me and heard what was going on over the radio.  By the time the CG picked Willbd up we were past Whale Cove and faced a good uphill paddle home.

-Allen

Based on the data provided by TXPaddler Bear would have beached at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near Avila Beach, CA at approximately 4:56 pm where Homeland Security in the form of USCG would have approached him. Lacking a VHF and appearing like a cross between a Mujahadeen and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle riding a SUP, Bear would have been greeted by a salvo of 50 mm canon fire from a supporting helicopter gunship.

Hasta la vista, Bear!

  First, Glad everyone came home safe,And nice job on all the fish that was caught.And I'm jelious I have to fish every weekend, Second Funny bear grills story( I do think his actions Will get Someone killed someday) and Third Electronics Fail,Have a buddy system stick to it not ,Learn some Basic Nav skills Carry a Good Compuss and an anchor and enough line to hook the bottom,Remember if you have a fish finder you can sometimes tell which direction is to shore by depth changes,Carry A Horn to sound in the Fog Bigger Boat Can and Will run you down on foggy days,as well as Clear days, And  You got Lucky this time,It could have been so much worse if the wind and Waves had kicked up,or you battreys failed..A Fish is a fish and Not worth your life..and there are Big fish closer in too.As for the CG they did their job, but They must have decide he was Not in a LIFE THREATING risk at that time..and I'm sure it hard to see a kayak Thur the fog from a chopper..

First, Glad everyone came home safe,And nice job on all the fish that was caught.And I'm jelious I have to fish every weekend, Second Funny bear grills story( I do think his actions Will get Someone killed someday) and Third Electronics Fail,Have a buddy system stick to it not ,Learn some Basic Nav skills Carry a Good Compuss and an anchor and enough line to hook the bottom

Ever tried anchoring a kayak in the Ocean in over 2mph of current plus wind and swell???

First, Glad everyone came home safe,And nice job on all the fish that was caught.And I'm jelious I have to fish every weekend, Second Funny bear grills story( I do think his actions Will get Someone killed someday) and Third Electronics Fail,Have a buddy system stick to it not ,Learn some Basic Nav skills Carry a Good Compuss and an anchor and enough line to hook the bottom

Ever tried anchoring a kayak in the Ocean in over 2mph of current plus wind and swell???

Shoot ... cast your line out and snag up.  That seemed to hold me in place quite a few times.  Your rod provides some good shock absorption ability too.

-Allen

... Here's my Track on Google Earth, I didn't start the track till well after I'd headed back north. ...

No wonder you couldn't find willbd, your ocean was EAST of the land! 

I am just trying to understand, and not criticizing.  It seems everyone performed admirably, and help was called BEFORE the situation became dire.  Kudos to all.

Why was willbd the only one victimized by the current and wind? I don't know besides lack of experience in the ocean. this was the second time for me.  .   What did he do differently? I was farther west than anyone else I think.

Willbd, do you have turbo fins on your Hobie, and which model of Hobie? Yes on a 2011 outback

I'll be reviewing the HX851 manual as well.

First, Glad everyone came home safe,And nice job on all the fish that was caught.And I'm jelious I have to fish every weekend, Second Funny bear grills story( I do think his actions Will get Someone killed someday) and Third Electronics Fail,Have a buddy system stick to it not ,Learn some Basic Nav skills Carry a Good Compuss and an anchor and enough line to hook the bottom

Ever tried anchoring a kayak in the Ocean in over 2mph of current plus wind and swell???

Shoot ... cast your line out and snag up.  That seemed to hold me in place quite a few times.  Your rod provides some good shock absorption ability too.

-Allen

That makes a lot more sense than using an anchor. It just seems easy to flip in those conditions anchored up with the current, swells etc.

One piece of equipment that we should add is an anchor or kelp clip. Willbd could have peddled to shallower water anchored and rested and waited for the tide to change and ride the waves to DB. I made the comment to Rawkfish and the two guys fishing with him that if I needed to call the Coast Guard that could you please drowned me, because I'm a retired/disabled CG vet. Our motto is always ready. Did Wilbd get the name of the BM of the boat that got him. I want to ask Him/Her why they were not at the base before the 47 footer went out on the tow, never while I was at Umqua River SBS did we ever not have a boat crew at ready unless all boats were out working.

Talking with the XO she said they took one extra person on the 47footer for the tow for training. That left them on short on the 25 footer. She was off duty and was called into go out on the 25 footer.
Willbd

I do agree that we need to have a way to plan our trips and use our equipment better. Also knowing our own abilities better could help us stay out of trouble. I would like to help with the navigation training.

Good job to all except the CG. Willdb thanks for keeping a cool head I've had to deal with people in less trouble that were hard to communicate with.

Stephen Ret. CG QM3

Any criticism of the advice to head toward the sun leaves out an important factor. You have someone that needs simple straight forward instruction to get them headed in the direction that will bring them to relative safety as soon as possible. "head into the sun" accomplishes just that. anything more overcomplicates a potentially dangerous situation.

This sums up what I was shooting for.  Yes, we are in the northern hemisphere.  However, it would have only caused confusion if I had tried to explain that the sun isn't exactly at a heading of 090.  For our purposes, it was close enough and it worked.  Luckily, the fog wasn't thick enough that it blocked out the sun.

Also, I strongly discourage anchoring in the unprotected ocean unless you really know what you're doing and have plenty of salt behind your ears.  If you've never tried it, trust me, it isn't as easy as it seems.    A kelp clip is a better idea, but if you're exposed to swells, you put yourself at a high risk of taking a swim(and that isn't fun in kelp stringers).

Best practice is to ensure you have an adequate level of physical fitness before hitting the ocean as mentioned previously.

...I would like to help with the navigation training.

Stephen Ret. CG QM3

Right on, wheels.  It would be nice to have another QM to collaborate with.

-Jeff QM2 (SW) Navy   

One piece of equipment that we should add is an anchor or kelp clip. Willbd could have peddled to shallower water anchored and rested and waited for the tide to change and ride the waves to DB. I made the comment to Rawkfish and the two guys fishing with him that if I needed to call the Coast Guard that could you please drowned me, because I'm a retired/disabled CG vet. Our motto is always ready. Did Wilbd get the name of the BM of the boat that got him. I want to ask Him/Her why they were not at the base before the 47 footer went out on the tow, never while I was at Umqua River SBS did we ever not have a boat crew at ready unless all boats were out working.

I do agree that we need to have a way to plan our trips and use our equipment better. Also knowing our own abilities better could help us stay out of trouble. I would like to help with the navigation training.

Good job to all except the CG. Willdb thanks for keeping a cool head I've had to deal with people in less trouble that were hard to communicate with.

Stephen Ret. CG QM3

Hey doughboy, was it you I was talking to on the way in thru the depoe bay harbor?  It's good to have a retired CG guy in NWKA! (AND navy guy, rawk )

One piece of equipment that we should add is an anchor or kelp clip. Willbd could have peddled to shallower water anchored and rested and waited for the tide to change and ride the waves to DB. I made the comment to Rawkfish and the two guys fishing with him that if I needed to call the Coast Guard that could you please drowned me, because I'm a retired/disabled CG vet. Our motto is always ready. Did Wilbd get the name of the BM of the boat that got him. I want to ask Him/Her why they were not at the base before the 47 footer went out on the tow, never while I was at Umqua River SBS did we ever not have a boat crew at ready unless all boats were out working.

I do agree that we need to have a way to plan our trips and use our equipment better. Also knowing our own abilities better could help us stay out of trouble. I would like to help with the navigation training.

Good job to all except the CG. Willdb thanks for keeping a cool head I've had to deal with people in less trouble that were hard to communicate with.

Stephen Ret. CG QM3

Hey doughboy, was it you I was talking to on the way in thru the depoe bay harbor?  It's good to have a retired CG guy in NWKA! (AND navy guy, rawk )

Big fan of a bunch of seamen stuck in plastic containers huh? 

It may be my thick head, but after 4 pages I have yet to understand exactly what went wrong. I have some ideas, but what will be learned to prevent this in the future for BD. Do you (willbd) now what specifically you need to- work on, do, or not do, to stay safe in these types of conditions before you venture into them again? Answering this question will be the best learning tool and point of this thread yet. For yourself and all us intently following along.
 I agree that a lot of good things are coming from this. And tops kudos job by those involved that made it turn out safe! 
  Allen drifting to keep radio contact! Hoppa sailing into the fog! You guys deserve way more beers than we can afford.

OK - let me attempt to pull my head partially out of my behind. I apologize to rawkfish for essentially saying he gave willbd poor advice - that is not true, rawk gave good advice. Willbd was pretty far offshore, had probably gotten turned the wrong way at one point, was tired, and his radio signal was weak - it was imperative that he make headway to the east and find the coast. The advice to follow the sun did that. I was listening to the radio transmissions, and I mentally said "head toward the sun" myself.

I also agree that in emergency situations, communications have to be simple and direct - there should be no ambiguity, especially when communications are over the radio, where it easy to drop parts of the conversation. Saturday was no time to get into the details of navigation by the sun, moon, and stars.

However, I was concerned that the fact that the sun was south of east and going south quickly, the current was flowing south, and the fact willbd was getting to the southern edge of radio transmission range was adding up to a situation where he might make  too much headway south and get out of communication range, or worse, get turned due south and get going parallel to the coast. I thought a warning to try to keep his bow pointed to the left of the sun would be simple enough to understand, and valuable.

Now in the interest of further education for all, I had some of our engineers do some trig for me. I gave them the following parameters:

a) Kayaker maintaing a bearing of 115 degrees @ 3.5mph ( the bearing of the sun at 10:00am and the generally agreed on speed we should be able to sustain for a few hours)
b) South flowing current of 1.2mph (One estimate of the current which I believe is reasonably accurate)

I asked them to calculate where the kayaker would be in one hour. I plotted the results on Google Earth using willbd's furthest out waypoint and  marked the endpoint as "rawkfish's bearing"

I also asked them to the same problem, but changing the bearing to 25 degrees. In my previous post, I said that willbd would have fared better if was told to keep the sun at 3 o'clock. I picked that because I thought it was easy to understand, (although I really wanted to say 1:30) and it would cause willbd to "ferry" across the current in an eastward direction. I plotted this as sherminator's bearing".



One of the engineers figured that a bearing of 70 degrees would produce a due east track given the above parameters. I don't know if this proved anything or not, but those that feel I owe rawkfish a beer, let me know and I will gladly provide as many beers as you all request.

BAck in my other life at the University of Mich Children's hospital, I attended  every Monday a debriefing/problem solving session called the M&M conference---Mortality and Morbidity.
The conference is designed to examine critically and non-judgementally, events or errors that resulted in adverse patient outcomes.  The intent was to promote transparency and non-punitive criticism, to improve patient safety.

  I am happy to see  that kind of thinking and criticism of this event, which had a happy outcome---willbd made it home, but could easily  have been a sad outcome.  We need to post our adverse events and and invite  these examinations and critiques, only that way will we learn the lessons that will keep us as safe as possible on the unforgiving sea.   There is a lot to mull over in this thread!!!

Points I take from this thread: 
1: Install a good deck compass like I used to have on my Current Designs SINK.   
2: Make sure batteries for the mapping GPS/FF are fresh and have a spare set handy.
3: Keep up my gym membership and stay in top shape.
4: Never NEVER go out in the ocean alone!
5: frequent radio checks with the companion(s).

BAck in my other life at the University of Mich Children's hospital, I attended  every Monday a debriefing/problem solving session called the M&M conference---Mortality and Morbidity.
The conference is designed to examine critically and non-judgementally, events or errors that resulted in adverse patient outcomes.  The intent was to promote transparency and non-punitive criticism, to improve patient safety.

  I am happy to see  that kind of thinking and criticism of this event, which had a happy outcome---willbd made it home, but could easily  have been a sad outcome.  We need to post our adverse events and and invite  these examinations and critiques, only that way will we learn the lessons that will keep us as safe as possible on the unforgiving sea.   There is a lot to mull over in this thread!!!

Points I take from this thread: 
1: Install a good deck compass like I used to have on my Current Designs SINK.   
2: Make sure batteries for the mapping GPS/FF are fresh and have a spare set handy.
3: Keep up my gym membership and stay in top shape.
4: Never NEVER go out in the ocean alone!
5: frequent radio checks with the companion(s).

Those are all good points - but I'd like to emphasize that #1 is no more important than #2,3,4 or 5.  One break in that chain could mean death, and quick.

Sherm - while I enjoy the calculations, and obviously heading at an angle would have been slightly better, there are a few flaws:  Willbd was definitely not able to paddle at 3.5 mph, and Jeff didn't have a team of engineers to help make on the fly decisions.  Don't worry, I agree, he should have gone at an angle, but listening in on the conversation it was easy to tell that more complex instructions were highly likely to fail or be misunderstood.