Went in the drink yesterday

Long story short: After a long, tiring, awkward, and minor-pain-turning-to-cramps few hours of unexpected equipment-related problems, I told my buddy I needed to head back the half-mile plus to our shore launch spot. I began.

I dumped my sit-on-top kayak when cramping and, later put together that an involuntary sudden head movement also triggered my positional vertigo. My PFD, belted chest waders, flats boots, strapped-on sturdy fishing hat, insulated gloves, and technical top did their jobs and I only slowly was getting cold. My hands, arms, shoulders, etcetera were not up to self-rescue [I tried] but the kayak was a temporary floating safe haven. It was nice to notice a small Lido 14 sailboat swiftly closing on my position; I could hear my buddy getting close, as well.

The sailboat guys towed me and my kayak into shallow water, where I waded onto a gravel spit and promply fell down. I was in Tomales Bay which is linked to Bodega Bay and then the Pacific Ocean; I was in a part of the bay that is part of the Pt. Reyes National Seashore in Northern California.

Almost uncontrollable shivering; cramping hands, arms, shoulders, abdomen and stomach. Tried to re-group to get back on the water and to shore. Put on a dry top; barely able to drink a hot cup of tea two-handed due to shaking. Tried with my buddy to come up with a plan; failed. After a few minutes, feeling like a jerk, I told my buddy to call 911 and that he was in charge because I did not seem to be thinking straight.

I was hoping for a quiet, discrete boat ride to shore. Nope. Coast Guard, someone's circling spotter plane, Highway Patrol, National Park Rescue boat, local [sheriff?] helicopter landing on the spit, local fire department, and local paramedics on shore. Checked out by three separate sets of para-medic/EMTs: one from the helicopter, one on the boat, and a team on shore. Released by each with comment my blood pressure was a little high.

Very tired and a little slow today, a bit emotional, grateful [sp
?], feeling old and a bit foolish.

Let the games begin!

Being a live fool isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.

Sounds like the emergency response crowd was having a slow day.

What do you think was the root cause? Hypothermia creeping up? Overexertion? Dehydration? Bad chow?

i'm glad you're ok dweste! it sounds like a harrowing, and cold ordeal.

i'd love to hear more of the story, when you're feeling better and hindsight kicks in. two questions come immediately to mind: what happened to the guy in the boat? what made you push through when you first start feeling "off"?

EDIT: Since we're probably going to analyze this anyway, what equipment did you have with you?

It's a good thing to live to tell the tale. Embarrassment is temporary. The alternative on the other hand....

I started the day with a rudder failure and returned to shore to fix that successfully. Seat was not right but I could not see the problem or figure out a fix. Constant discomfort and attempts to adjust; lots of unusual muscular effort.

I was introducing my buddy to the area and promised him crab, kelp, and maybe some mussels and clams if time permitted.
Self-induced pressure to perform regardless of discomfort.

I called a halt before we got to the prime crabbing area due to my problems. Buddy brought home only 1 legal red rock crab and about 5 pounds of bull kelp [wet weight], released several undersized crabs. Self-induced guilt for compromising buddy's trip.

I did not want to abort and go back on my promises. Self-induced sense of obligation over-riding other factors.

We were a bit late. Self-induced time pressure.

All the pressures were distracting. I do not recall eating or drinking on the water at all. Self-induced low energy and some level of dehydration probable.

It was a bright sunny day. No hypothermia until in the water.

Today it looks like a circus of errors; yesterday it seemed like the right thing to do.

"Complex systems fail in complex ways".

You'll find that in the history of accidents, you'll usually find on the "monday morning quarterbacking" that there were numerous times to stop the flow of events. I think for aircraft accidents, it's about 7 things. For people, it could be just 2 or 3.

Bad things happen when making decisions under pressure (just some of the bigger examples):
- Challenger - "Go Fever"
- Columbia - Management quashing low-level engineers using friends in other agencies to get hi-res photos that may have helped.

The problem you have is:
- How do you know when your total judgement has become impaired?
- When do you "call it"?

As for you, I'm glad you're alive! Good re-inforcement for all of us, and I don't see anything I would have done differently.

As for the first responders, management of all types likes "metrics", so you were a ripe opportunity to gather them. Doesn't matter if 16 agencies treat you as a patient, they all get a patient contact credit. Plus, probably some interest in seeing if it is someone they know so they can rib them!

[quote=dougwalkabout
Sounds like the emergency response crowd was having a slow day.
[/quote]

At Channel Islands NP, we always abruptly terminated our operations on the water to respond to distress situations. Our skippers made it clear that this is the appropriate response for any vessel. Makes perfect sense to me.

Would you prefer a lackadaisical, half-hearted, response?

Glad you're okay. That was a very smart and egoless thing you did, acknowledging your limits and letting someone else take over. Bravo. Now we can flame you for all the other stuff.

Let the Games Begin Huh?OK,Now What the H+$$ were you.....Hey Man,I'm Glad you survived to Tell the Story! Like Forrest Gump said"It Happens!":)

Sounds like there was more going on than just hypothermia. You may have come down with a flu or some other disease. I've sen it quite a few times and been through it myself once or twice. I'm feeling strong and them ...whammo ... it is like someone pulled the plug. Fortunately it never happened in the backwoods.

I once had a friend suffer such an onset during a trip. His was pretty clearly the flu that was going around. About sunset he lost power. He couldn't eat, had chills, a high fever, and generalized weakness. He could barely stand. Fortunately we were close enough in that it wasn't a big thing to get him to a road and get us picked up. This was before cell phones so I hiked out the few miles to call a friend.

Doctors said that physical exertion, heat of the day, and possible borderline dehydration made it worse. As it was he was good to go after a few days sleeping in and mothering by his girlfriend.

I'm no doctor, and I'm not going to second guess your judgment. Sounds like there was more than just hypothermia. Uncontrollable shivering is common but serious cramping seems out of place.

I suspect that you exerted yourself far more than you thought. That you were close to exhaustion but perhaps fooled by cooled temperatures, sunshine, into thinking you were less tired than you really were. I've seen this during early season trips when people mistake the signs of exhaustion for 'being a little rusty'. If you fell in while near exhaustion the effect could be profound. In effect all systems would be demanding energy you don't have. Throw in a little dehydration and not eating enough and you are looking at the mother of all Bonks.

It also should be noted that this is the beginning of the cold and flu season. Add a virus to the above and it gets bad, Very bad. What happens if you hadn't got out of the water? Body recovery is a bummer for everyone involved.

Calling for help is okay. Doing it before you are absolutely sure it is clearly a life and death situation is okay. That is why those guys are there. Why they make the big money and get to play with the shiny toys. You had good reason to think it was potentially life threatening and acted accordingly.

Rule Number One: Don't let what anyone else might think keep you from doing what you have to do. You have to make your own call. Embarrassment and shame pass. Death and serious disability ... not so much.

From your previous posts you seem to have your duckies in a row. It isn't like you stubbed your toe and had the National Guard fly to Timbuktu to give you a taxi ride out for convenience sake.

And yes, the Coast Guard seems to have only two settings, all out and off. They seem to figure that it is better to go big and back off if reasonable than go small and find out they don't have enough resources. I bet you most of the crews were sitting around bored. A bit of pre-season warm up probably did them some good.

Glad it worked out.

[quote=ki4bucAs for the first responders, management of all types likes "metrics", so you were a ripe opportunity to gather them. Doesn't matter if 16 agencies treat you as a patient, they all get a patient contact credit. Plus, probably some interest in seeing if it is someone they know so they can rib them! [/quote]

Just clarifying in the interest of "seriousness", its better to send more resources to an incident, than to not have enough. Again, glad you're alive and someone call.

Isn't this what I have heard to as one of the rules of the seas? Essentially everyone within potential rescue distance makes a concerted effort to help regardless of what they were doing or heading to and veer off course to head to the person(s) needing rescue?

Absolutely. That is what my mentors have taught me. I was trying to find some sort of formal statement, but that has eluded me. We have all read accounts of rescues at sea where large commercial vessels have responded to smaller boats in trouble.

Not just a rule, it is a staple of International Maritime Law. From a quick English search, it appears it is codified in a number of laws in the respective countries.

Edited to add: Since I'm not a lawyer (and I don't know if this guy is), this link explains the rules: http://www.thelog.com/askattorney/askattorney.aspx?x=96 If you do, or will ever, operate a boat, you probably want to contact a maritime attorney. No, I don't even know where "maritime law" takes effect either, so you'll have to figure that out yourself.

No, absolutely not. I meant the comment to be tongue in cheek. "Checked out by three separate sets of para-medic/EMTs" doesn't seem terribly efficient, but sometimes redundancy can be a good thing. Might have been a case of overlapping jurisdictions, where if they respond they have to follow through.

Re multiple paramedic/EMTs, I am pretty sure it was protocol. Helicopter guys couldn't leave without checking - they were first on scene. Boat guys transporting me had to check me out before the ride to be sure I could be safely transported without other support. And on shore the fire, highway patrol, and paramedics couldn't clear me to drive and go about my day without a check.

I asked each to check the box on their form that says, "Feels like a jerk."

On a positive note, I think I tracked down the last soaking, stinky bit of clothing from where it migrated in my vehicle.

Muscles from shoulders through hips still sore. Drinking a lot of fluids. Curling up in a warm blankeet for a nap is my new hobby.

Thanks for the support.

good to hear your safe and sound.from my reading this seems to be a text book example of what can go wrong despite having the right gear and knowledge to make it right.some self induced pressures along with what seems at first to be a minor medical problem or pain, then a cascade of small errors that put you in the "drink".i think down hill skiers have a saying about the one last run of the day that maybe should not have been made.my only close call with hypothermia on a canoe trip was when i did the "i'll just push on to the next bay and a nice camp" when i should have pulled in to the first level spot and got into dry clothes and had a hot meal.most times it's not "nature" that kills us,it's us.

1. Glad you are OK
2. As people have said, it's the little stuff that multiplies to catch you out
3. You were obviously in a bad way - worth us all remembering that you might have been the only resource / best in your group - so the things that could make a difference (shelter, dry clothes, brew kit etc) need to be available and set up to be idiot proof - with hypothermia or whatever you cannot expect to do anything fiddly, that you could do easily in good shape.

"barely able to drink a hot cup of tea two-handed due to shaking. Tried with my buddy to come up with a plan; failed. After a few minutes, feeling like a jerk, I told my buddy to call 911 and that he was in charge because I did not seem to be thinking straight" - this is the point in the wilderness where things go from bad to disaster

Scary Scary! I Consider falling Into the water one of thee scariest things. Its highly unpredictable and in a river can sweep you away for a good distance, separate you from your gear, soak threw everything you expected to stay dry, and worst of all chill you faster then you expected. Glad to hear your ok and made the smart choice of giving control to your friend when you realized you where incoherent to the situation.

dweste,

Glad to hear you are well and thank you for sharing your experience and providing details of what happened and your thoughts about the situation.


Art in FL:

"Rule Number One: Don't let what anyone else might think keep you from doing what you have to do. You have to make your own call. Embarrassment and shame pass. Death and serious disability ... not so much. "

Nicely said. It is better to feel a little embarrassed and get help quickly than to be stubborn and let a situation deteriorate further. I think figuratively dying of shame is much better than literally dying from pride.

You did good. Glad you're alright.

Welcome home! Everything else is secondary.

Glad to hear that you're ok dweste!

Situations get complicated and a lot of folks would have let their pride or priorities push them back out on the water in an attempt to avoid embarrassment which would have only made things much worse for everyone. None of us want to make that call but I'm glad you did.

It's amazing how a very mundane illness can creep up on you when you're pushing yourself physically, dehydrated, etc. The same illness might barely rate an off day if you weren't pushing yourself.

No wetsuit? What is the water temp. there?

Glad your OK, but it looks you made the headlines as well.

http://www.macon.com/2011/02/07/1441286/kayakers-rescued-at-echeconnee.html

The water certainly looks chilly from the photos of the Rescue.

Not me.

Opted for breathable stocking foot waders, belted at waist, and technical layers on top, with PFD, of course. Did some intertidal wading to scout for seavegetables and bivalves - intended to do more that day. I was very buoyant [just call me Bob] but the water was creeping into my clothing.

Every time I have kayaked in my wetsuit overheating is a big problem and you wind up opening the suit for comfort.

Not sure the water temp, but typically in the 50's to low 60's.

Dweste, I am glad you got out of it OK and that the whole thing is now just an internet chat, but I am puzzled by a couple of things. You say your clothing was "doing its job" but shortly thereafter you were "shivering uncontrollably" I doubt your clothing was working very well. You would have been much better off in a wet suit. The best combination for sea kayaking that I have used is a farmer john topped with a float coat; the coat can be easily adjusted for exertion and is less cumbersome than a PFD. The better float coats are rated as PFDs (class III, I believe).

It is important to know the temperature of the water in which you will be paddling - there is a big difference between 55 and 65. I am surprised that your water temps might have been in the 60s at this time of year. In the Channel Islands, well to the south of you, we attain 60 degrees only in the late summer; water temps in the high 40s are pretty common during winter. At that point it is worth thinking about dry suits.

Again, glad you are back and talking about your experience. Thanks for sharing it with us - that way we can all learn.

When my positional vertigo kicks in I am disoriented and a bit stunned for a few minutes. That took place immediately before and after I was in the water, independent of water temperature, and may be why I did not feel cold right away. In fact the cool felt good on my cramping muscles.

Confession: when I got onto the gravel spit island I took off my flats boots and waders - I do not know why. I felt "warm" in the sun for a few minutes, but then began shivering and it was downhill from there.

I will try to find out and post what the Tomales Bay water temperature was on 2-5-11.

According to weather wunderground, the regional water temperatures right now range from 53 in SF bay on down to 50-51 degrees in Bodega Bay, etc. I doubt they were significantly different three days ago.

I shiver just thinking of those temps - definitely wet suit conditions, for my money.

Waders can be potentially life-threatening if you go in if they happen to fill with water. Many a wading fisherman has had this happen so while you did have a PFD, the waders could have offset some of the effectiveness. Plus, if they fill with water, getting back in the kayak just became much more difficult. Glad to hear that you were all right. As someone else mentioned, a farmer john bottom coupled with your dry top would probably have been a better combo.

Bill

here's a write up and some photos from a old "how to fish and camp" book about the waders filling with water issue...

Given a water temperature at or around 54F the standard chart gives you an "Expected Time Before Exhaustion or Unconsciousness" of 1 to 2 hours and an "Expected Time of Survival" of 1 to 6 hours. :

http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/coastal_communities/hypothermia

The range is 50F to 60F and 54F is certainly close to the lower end so it suggest both will end up on the low end of the range. Add in a degree of physical exhaustion, what seems to have caused the dunking, and those figures might be optimistic.

Then again our man wasn't completely unprotected so a bit longer makes sense. But, here again, he doesn't, by my eye, look overly plump and well insulated by fat. So that would suggest a figure more on the low side. Point being it is a hard call to make. I'm pretty sure even the same individual and identical conditions will vary in their survival times.

What scares me is that figure of one hour on the "Expected Time of Survival". As I read it that means that dead in an hour is not out of the question. An hour waiting for help is a long time. An hour left to live is always going to feel like too fleeting a moment.

If you have the time spend some time perusing that Seagrant site. Lots of good information. Things that bear repeating and being reminded of even if you have heard them before.

Another site with some interesting tidbits:

http://www.shipwrite.bc.ca/coldwater.htm

Here in the Channel Islands, it is very simple. If you go into the water wearing a wetsuit, you have a chance to survive. One gent drifted for two days until he fetched out on an oil rig (summer conditions - water temp in the 60s). If you are not wearing a wet suit you will die. A PFD just makes it easier to find and recover your corpse.

There was an instance a few years back where a fishing boat sank with something like eight or so people on board. The survival was as outlined above; all the survivors were wet suited. One fiance, in a wet suit, clung to his fiancee, unwetsuited, until she slipped from his arms into the depths. The ocean is very unforgiving.

Anybody got something more cheerful to discuss?

Turns out the manufacturer has added both some outriggers and better seat pegs since I last looked. I intend to add both to my kayak outfit.

You can survive embarrassment, and I'm very glad you did come out of it okay.

What would have been REALLY embarrassing is having Doug Ritter explaining on national TV how one of his forum regulars, who knew better, croaked from hypothermia!

I'm glad you're still on the green side of the grass!

Sue

Thanks, Sue!

I believe I was in the early stages of hypothermia. But I was not alone or without resources. If there had been need there was a lot of standing and downed tree wood on the small island, we had some food and tea, stove, etcetera. [And I was carrying an American Medical DR PSK with full, recently refreshed contents.]

We were not in the wilderness, so we refrained from doing things we would have jumped to in those circumstances. My route was just off the small island, which was down tide and downwind of me so I would have "washed up" on the island even without any help.

Still, I made mistakes and the experience was a wake-up call to even better preparedness.

On this bright sunny day I was not able to flag down any passing boats with paddle or jacket waving. After a few minutes I was too busy being cold to think about doing anything but trying to get and stay warm.

But as I listened to my buddy concentrate on his 911 conversations, I clearly recall two sailboats coming close by that he did not try to flag down and that I, sitting wrapped up and clearly a bit out of it, also let go. I still have not sorted all that out.

But I am going to be carrying some pocket flares when I go out next, and will try to figure out how to afford a PLB. I want more survival options!

Edit: I did not think to try my signal mirror. In fact I did not want to open my PSK because it did not feel like an emergency or survival situation.

Okay, now I am going to assemble a hypothermia kit, including some instructions on when and how to deploy it aimed at me as I slip into hypothermia [no big words, etcetera].

Thoughts, oh mighty brain trust?

Edit: I am going to start a new thread for this discussion.