I’m still out there, in that dratted kayak, doing that kayak thing. Less alone, however, as I’ve had four sessions with friends who came out and practised rescues with me. It was great, and I am indebted to these folk:
A who has been rescued more times in more different ways than anyone should have to be;
D, who taught me a new skill (rotating my kayak around the victims kayak instead of the other way around) and a nifty way for smaller people to empty bigger kayaks;
P and A (again) who happily dunked themselves in the brown but warm water of Tuross Lake multiple times to the amusement of the cafe patrons;
Doug, with whom I can practice rescues very quickly one after the other to groove the movement in at the end of a paddle day;
Finally, N who got a group together (A, again, Doug, C and N) and ran me through a series of complicated scenarios. Special thanks to C who allowed me to do a “hand of God”rescue on him.
The best practice, however was yesterday when we actually ended up with a real scenario in real conditions having to solve real problems. The crazy thing is, after months of carrying around a full safety kit on every single paddle day I did, no matter how short and easy, yesterday I pared my kit down. Isn’t that the way of it? You carry a first aid kit for 300 days and on the 301st day, you decide to leave the kit at home and find yourself with a “situation” as one of my climbing buddies would say.
This is what I left at home, and yes, it sounds crazy now: marine radio (I have literally never used this item), paddle float (also never used in a real situation), spare paddle (used once in a real situation), dry clothes in a dry bag (would not have been used). It also turned out that I did not clip my tow rope onto my tow point properly before leaving home. This has never happened before either!
Here’s what happened. We paddled out to Three Isle Point (locally known as Yellow Rocks). We had a light headwind, as expected, but easy conditions inside North Head and the swell was small with a very short period. At Yellow Rocks, the conditions were so good we paddled through both gauntlets: the very shallow one and also the dog-leg gauntlet. It’s not that common to get through these in such easy conditions. Over to North Head, the wind was increasing and the sea state was building but not too bad. At North Head, we paddled through another gauntlet and also into a gutter with a sheltering reef either side of the opening to the gutter. By the time we came out of there, the wind was 12 to 14 knots from the northeast (as expected) and the sea was building.
We decided to go as far north as Oaky Beach. It’s often hard to land at Oaky Beach as it has a really nasty dumping wave but we were hopeful we could land on the main beach with the conditions we had. It was heading north to Oaky Beach, that I noticed that our companion (let’s call him Yeti to protect the innocent) was slowing down, but, I did not put the puzzle together and realise that Yeti was feeling really unstable in a kayak that he does not normally paddle. Yeti's usual kayak is one of those big slabby stable kayaks that require a nuclear bomb to capsize. The Sasquatch, that Yeti was paddling on this day has notoriously poor primary stability and also a very small amount of free-board. The deck is almost submerged as the kayak is paddled and with any kind of sea state, the cockpit is completely awash. It also turns out, that owing to removal of the skeg, the kayak leaks water into the back hatch!
Nevertheless, we landed without incident at Oaky Beach – it was a very easy landing and launch as the tide made a deep gutter in front of the dumping wave and timing to get in and out was easy. We mopped out Yeti's kayak and set off to return to Batemans Bay. Doug and I had by now realised that we needed to keep a close eye on Yeti so I said to Doug, "You go first and lead, we’ll put Yeti in the middle and I’ll come last." We were about two-thirds of the way back to North Head when Yeti went over. He made a good effort to roll but, as is often the case when we are a bit on edge, his head came up first so he simply pulled the kayak back over. Despite trying very hard, I had got a short distance ahead of Yeti so I turned the kayak into the wind (around 15 to 17 knots) and paddled back to rescue Yeti. Before turning, I called to Doug and he also paddled back and along side me, in case he was needed. As I was getting Yeti back into his kayak, Doug noticed something black floating on the water and asked if we had lost anything. “Go take a look,” I suggested as Yeti and I were in no danger. The black thing turned out to be my tow line!
With Yeti back in his boat, we resumed the journey, Doug staying right beside Yeti this time. We made it another 500 metres before, close to North Head where the sea state is always more confused, Yeti was over again. Doug and I were both close by, so I suggested Doug rescue Yeti while I put a tow rope on as it was clear that the solution to this problem was to have one paddler support Yeti and the other paddler tow the two rafted paddlers into the calmer waters of North Head bay. Doug has an annoying habit of keeping his tow rope stowed away in his day hatch (behind his cockpit) and it takes quite a time to retrieve so I thought I would tow, while Doug rescued. Subsequently, I retrieved my tow line from Doug’s kayak and said “I’ll put you on tow” while Doug began the process of rescuing Yeti.
I hooked my tow line back onto my tow hook, and put the other end on Doug’s boat (the Sasquatch was inaccessible as it was being emptied of water) and began the somewhat laborious process of turning my kayak into the wind which was now around 17 knots. With short sweeps on the leeward side of my kayak, and forward movement, I got turned into the wind and finally I felt the tug of the tow on my kayak. Meanwhile, Doug had Yeti in his boat but there was still a lot of water in Yeti's cockpit because the Sasquatch has so little deck above waterline. Yeti made an attempt to pump the water out with a hand pump but as much water came in as went out so the effort to empty the kayak was eventually abandoned and the spray deck reinstalled.
On my end, I thought I was making slow but steady progress moving the two kayaks away from North Head reef and I was able to turn slightly downwind which made progress easier. Doug, however, yelled at me to stop towing as more and more water was pouring into Yeti's kayak as it turns out they had not yet put the spray deck back on. It transpires that I was quicker at getting the tow deployed than Doug was getting Yeti rescued. I stopped towing and endeavoured to simply hold position, but then Doug realised that his paddle, which had been floating beside his kayak on its leash had broken free.
This now is the situation: I’m out front with two boats on tow to my kayak, Doug has no paddle, and Yeti is incredibly unstable. I pulled the quick release on my tow and turned back to Doug and Yeti. In a flash, Yeti was back in the water again while Doug was paddling with his hands! Yeti tried several times to roll but was unsuccessful and also tried to scramble on the back deck. The Sasquatch, however, is a worthy adversary and any attempt to regain entry to the cockpit via a back-deck scramble was destined for failure. I kept a eye on Yeti while I quickly retrieved Doug’s spare paddle (in his back hatch!) and Doug went off to retrieve his paddle, while I began the process of rescuing Yeti again.
As I was sliding the Sasquatch alongside my kayak after emptying it and preparatory to getting Yeti back in, Yeti, for some reason, let go of my bow and lunged for the bow of the Sasquatch. In the wind, two kayaks, one of which is empty are no match for a swimmer so we were rapidly carried downwind away from Yeti. I clipped my extra short tow (which I carry in a pocket on my PFD) onto the Sasquatch and reaching over the Sasquatch and my deck at the same time, I contact towed the two boats back to where Yeti was swimming towards us. Disaster averted.
As if that was not enough, I note that Yeti's PFD has come unzipped and he is zipping it up before climbing back in! Apparently, the zip had pulled open during the previous rescue. I can see that Doug has retrieved his paddle, so I call him to come and help. He paddles over and stows away one paddle and pulls in the tow rope which is floating in the water – one end attached to his (Doug’s) bow. Doug quickly sorts out a tow and clips onto the Sasquatch and with Yeti and I facing each other, Doug begins towing us around the reef at North Head. I have clipped my kayak to Yet's Sasquatch with a short line but still have to work to keep the kayaks from spreading apart.
Once around the reef at North Head, the conditions calm immediately and we release the tow and all paddle into the beach. All the gear is stowed back away, my tow rope firmly secured to its tow hook, Doug’s spare paddle carefully stowed, the Sasquatch bailed out again. We plan to paddle around Three Isle Point and assess the situation again. If needed we can paddle west along the north shore of Batemans Bay before crossing back to the south side and, worst case scenario, one of us can drive a car over to Maloneys Beach to pick up Yeti and the Sasquatch.
It is windy in the Bay, a perfect day for a downwinder, but neither Doug nor I are confident getting too far from Yeti so we only catch a few waves here and there. Yeti manages quite well as the Sasquatch easily catches waves, without a skeg however, the stern tends to slide out easily and Yeti weaves back and forth to our home bay. An interesting day out and, as Yeti said later, “too bad we didn’t have a Go Pro as you would have passed your assessment.”
