Don't Loose Your Paddle

A 17 year old kayaker was found adrift by the Coast Guard about 4 miles offshore. The cause of the distress was the loss of her paddle when the kayak was struck by a wave from a powerboat while kayaking in the Anclote Key area. While she was kayaking with other people, they apparently didn't look behind them as they paddled off.

The two lessons we can learn from this are; use a tether on your paddle, check on others in your party often, and don't let a powerboat wake hit you broadside. Fortunately, the other people did call the coast guard when they realized that their companion was not with them. If she had been solo kayaking, the situation could have been worse. It is easy for kayakers to get separated and always a good idea to look behind you to see how they are keeping up. A person could get a cramp and fall behind. Keeping your bow at a 45 degree angle or less to a boat's wake (or any large wave) will keep you more stable. Having a cell phone and a small flashlight in a waterproof container tied to the kayak would be a good idea.

I have had to rescue people before. The first was a neighbor that drank a good part of a bottle of vodka and became disoriented. By the time we reached Durney Key, he was so lit that he fell off his sit-on-top. The scene was somewhat comical. The mostly empty bottle of vodka was floating nearby along with his shoes, his beer was at the bottom in 3 feet of water and he was drenched. We got him to shore on the key and he seemed to sober up. When it was time to leave, I told him that we had to paddle quickly across the boat channel, and he followed behind. After I crossed the channel, I looked back to check on him and much to my surprise, he was paddling toward Mexico. He didn't hear me when I called out to him, so I turned around and paddled towards him. It was hard to catch up since he was paddling hard, and he had gotten over one hundred yards away. Once I caught up to him, I got him turned around and headed back to land. This worked for a while until his movements became so erratic that I tied a rope to his kayak and towed him back to the landing. I never invited him along after that. The second time, I was traveling from the beach side of Caledisi Island through Hurricane Pass with a strong outgoing tide. My companion got too weak to paddle against the tidal flow and I had to tie a rope to her kayak and tow her back to the Dunedin Causeway. She was able to paddle on her own once we got out of the tidal flow. The takeaway from these two stories is to know the capabilities and limits of your companions. Also, it is very hard to tow someone against a strong current.