2-Issues

Sunday’s paddle from the bay campus was planned to be a level 2 to Rome Point. When we arrived the air temperature was in the low fifties and it was blowing 15+ on the shore. It was clearly a bit stronger on the open water. T suggested we could have a pleasant paddle at a nearby pond and have the added benefit of cleaning our gear in fresh water. The group votes were “don’t care” and “the bay” so the bay was chosen. JS, JS, and L were planning to head across on a 3-4 fishing paddle. They were a bit more organized and pushed off at 10. We were on the water at 10:30.

PB,TM,HCJ,DV,LB,EJ,CC,RB,BH were all paddling (CM was not!) We headed out into open water and then realized we should probably hug the shore for as long as we could to stay out of the wind. TM and EJ were out front. I hugged the shore closely to feel the waves a bit. The paddling was easy and everything was warm except for my hands which were chilled by the wet-wind-chill. C offered her gloves; RB was trying his new pogies which he found too warm.

As we rounded Casey Point the winds started to make their presence known. The slight NE direction of the shore line had been protecting us from the north wind more than we realized. About this time we noticed the JSs coming across the bay without L. Apparently he had decided the wind on that side of the bay was too much and headed back to the launch. In what will turn out to be a bit ironic we questioned the judgment of letting L go back alone.

We approached the Jamestown Bridge and regrouped by the beach near the old structure to prepare for the final assault into the wind towards Rome Point. As we passed under the bridge it acted like a wind tunnel and focused an incredible blast into our faces that was difficult to overcome. From there all we could muster as a group was ½ mile of paddling to Greene Point. BH and I both attempted a few up-wind runs to investigate the down wind surfing opportunities. The down wind runs we fast but I at least couldn’t sustain any continuous wave riding. We laughed about how we would need only about 17 minutes for the return paddle. In a strange occurrence JS tipped over just from lack of attentiveness (playing with fishing stuff I assume). His strong roll got him back up quickly to make it a non-event.

We stopped for lunch in an area that was not as protected from the wind as we would have liked. T had his usual spare sandwich which I really wanted but JS beat me to it. I ate H and C’s cookies instead. The conversation was enjoyable as always. RB wore CC’s “special jacket” to keep warm.

After lunch it appeared that the wind had died significantly. B and I expressed a bit of disappointment in this given our desire to ride one long wave back to the bay campus. We shouted over to T “to the lighthouse?” and with an assenting nod we were headed out towards the Plum Beach Lighthouse which sits in the middle of the west passage in the shadow of the bridge. My boat was happy on a more northerly reach directly to the lighthouse. T took a path closer to the bridge abutments. I was treated to a paddle through a huge assemblage of seagulls fighting with the blue fish over some surface bait. As I continued I could see T on my beam and was beginning to feel the wind lift my paddle a bit as it crossed my boat. The seas were a bit taller out there but nothing I couldn’t handle. I knew that some of the group was beginning to fall back a bit but I was focused on slipping behind the lighthouse into an eddy and then come about and watch them approach.

It was about ¾ of a mile from the beach to the lighthouse. Somewhere about ½ mile I should have recognized the changing conditions and waited to regroup with the others. What had happened was that the wind had not died down at all. It had just backed to the west a bit and the beach that we ate at was shadowing wind in a way it had not done before lunch.

In the last ¼ mile the conditions worsened quickly. They became sloppy enough that I could no longer glance over my shoulder to see what was happening behind me. All I could do was check that T was still on my beam. By the lighthouse it was utter chaos. The current and the wind and the lighthouse had things stirred up to a frenzy. I slipped behind the structure but was met with waves approaching from both sides instead of calm. I knew at this time that the whole group didn’t want to be there. I think T could see this so he headed down wind under the bridge. I took that as a clue and headed towards him. Just as I passed under the bridge B started shouting “Boat Over” and looking back from where I had come. I had no idea anyone else was out there with me. As I looked back I couldn’t see anything because the bridge abutment blocked my view. When I finally drifted past the bridge I could see the boat over and B and I headed over. T accessed that B&I could start the rescue and instead headed to a power boat and asked them to stand buy if we needed help.

B and I reached the swimmer about the same time. He had the composure to have kept contact with the boat and his paddle but was clearly fatigued from the ordeal already. B was closest to the overturned boat and I came alongside him. I had realized the previous day from practicing rescues in the standing waves by Stone Bridge in Tiverton how dis-concerting it was to do the initial lift of the boat to do a T-rescue in these conditions. B was showing this hesitancy. From my position I could reach over using B’s boat for stability and lift it easily so we got the boat up and emptied.

The next struggle was getting a tired swimmer back in the boat who was also worried about being a paddler again in the same conditions that had caused the boat to go over the first time. We were stable in this position and the water was not too cold so we tried to get him to relax a little and gain some strength to lift himself up onto the boats.

About this time my paddle that I had tucked under my deck line swung out into the “outrigger position” out of my reach. I began to focus on getting a grip on my own paddle and lost track or the two other paddles I was supposed to be holding on to. Fortunately E arrived about this time and retrieved these paddles.

We got the swimmer up on our decks and began to get his legs in the boat. B was doing the rescue in a bow-to bow position because that was the quickest way to approach the over turned boat as we approached it. Unfortunately that also meant it was hard to hold the boat as the tired swimmer tried to slip his legs into the cockpit. The boats separated and the cockpit re-filled with water as the swimmer hung precariously between his boat and B’s boat. We managed to get the boats back together and the swimmer in but then had to do a lot of pumping to get the boat emptied. T had showed up by this time so I used his pump to help empty the boat. We did not attach the spray skirt at this time. We were lucky that the boat was floating high enough and stable enough with us both holding it that this oversight was not critical.

It was clear that the swimmer was going to need some support while he regained his balance. E hooked up the rescued boat and B together and began to tow them both. I did not have my tow belt on because this was a level 2 paddle. E started the tow but it was clear that a double tow would be needed. I rafted up with B to get his belt as opposed to opening my day hatch and chancing filling that with water. I hooked to E and we both pulled in the direction of the Kingston shoreline. As we neared the shore we discontinued the tow and met with the others who had headed towards shore earlier to avoid any additional boats over. We paddled back to the Bay Campus together and began the de-brief of what had gone wrong (and right).

I was a big part of the wrong department in a number of ways. But I think the simplest way we could have avoided this would have been to paddle as a group. T, B, and I headed out towards the lighthouse without gaining consent of the whole group. Half the group didn’t know where we were going. Had we stayed together as a group we would probably have headed towards the lighthouse as we did BUT we would have certainly decided to turn towards the Bay campus sooner.

I headed out to the light and although I was in visual contact with T we were not in verbal contact. I’m sure he would have slowed me up as the conditions worsened had he been able to communicate with me.

As I neared the lighthouse I chose to go through the worse conditions to seek the protection (which actually didn’t exist) behind the lighthouse. I should not have put myself in these conditions where I could no longer look back at the rest of the group but could only focus on keeping myself up.

B and I chose to allow the rescue to proceed bow to bow. It was probably a good decision to continue this way once it started but if we were more attentive to getting this set up right we could probably have avoided the boat filling up with water again.

I didn’t have my tow belt on.

I lost track of the paddles.

The good things were the support of T and E, they let us work the rescue but provided support to the little mistakes. And Bob was extremely attentive to the whole situation.

I think given the fact that we had power boat support readily available sending the remaining paddlers to shore was a good decision. (Had the situation been different I think they should have stayed together and held a position down wind of us, paddling into the wind and keeping visual contact, rafted together if conditions and wind drift allowed.)

This was supposed to be a level 2 paddle. We as a group struggle with keeping a paddle at that level. Sometimes it works out where the advanced paddlers play closer to the rocks and the more timid paddlers stay in the more predictable conditions. Other times the conditions are hard to hide from. In this case we let ourselves get into conditions we didn’t have to. It never would have happened had we stayed as a close knit group and provided opportunity to everyone to weight in on there comfort with the conditions.

Comments and thoughts of course welcome and encouraged ...

Winds North 20 G25+, water 60, air 56