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#295953 - 05/04/20 02:17 PM Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E
Doug_Ritter Offline

Pooh-Bah

Registered: 01/28/01
Posts: 2197
https://www.thefishingwire.com/releases/9da9eaf9-a28b-4f0a-a338-42a3b5ae685d

Watchstanders in the Sector Juneau command center received the initial phone call from one of the kayakers at approximately 9:15 p.m. requesting assistance. The kayaker indicated that he and another male friend had become exhausted after an approximate 9-hour, 23-mile paddle in their 10-foot kayaks. He expressed concerns about running out of daylight, having no lifejackets, no exposure suits, no warm clothing, no food, water, survival equipment, nor means of communication aside from a cell phone running low on battery.
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#295954 - 05/04/20 03:44 PM Re: Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E [Re: Doug_Ritter]
Russ Offline
Geezer

Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
Wow. What they lacked in gear they made up for in over-confidence and willingness to call others for rescue (once they had a cell signal). If that cell battery had been fully dead they’d be Darwin award contenders.

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#295958 - 05/04/20 04:52 PM Re: Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E [Re: Doug_Ritter]
teacher Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 988
More info in the OVERBOARD VEST thread.

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#295959 - 05/04/20 06:37 PM Re: Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E [Re: teacher]
Russ Offline
Geezer

Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
The last post in the Overboard Vest thread is from July ‘19.
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Better is the Enemy of Good Enough.
Okay, what’s your point??

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#295961 - 05/04/20 07:48 PM Re: Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E [Re: Russ]
hikermor Offline
Geezer in Chief
Geezer

Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
Amazing lack of forethought and preparedness! Even here in sunny Southern California, whenever I get in a kayak, my PFD is worn, equipped with a knife (for dealing with kelp) and a strobe light at a minimum. Usually there is a signal mirror along as well.
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#295963 - 05/04/20 07:51 PM Re: Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E [Re: Doug_Ritter]
Phaedrus Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 04/28/10
Posts: 3148
Loc: Big Sky Country
Wow! What can you even say? I understand that most of the time people aren't charged for being rescued but sometimes maybe they should be!
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“I'd rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” —Richard Feynman

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#295968 - 05/04/20 09:36 PM Re: Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E [Re: Doug_Ritter]
Teslinhiker Offline
Veteran

Registered: 12/14/09
Posts: 1418
Loc: Nothern Ontario
“The sea finds out everything you did wrong.”

– Francis Stokes
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Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

John Lubbock

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#295969 - 05/04/20 10:34 PM Re: Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E [Re: Doug_Ritter]
teacher Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 988
Also, a 10' kayak is not a sea kayak.

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#295970 - 05/04/20 10:44 PM Re: Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E [Re: teacher]
Herman30 Offline
Addict

Registered: 08/08/06
Posts: 495
Loc: Finland
Originally Posted By: teacher
Also, a 10' kayak is not a sea kayak.

Yep, sea kayaks are about 17 feet, mostly.


Edited by Herman30 (05/04/20 10:44 PM)

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#295975 - 05/05/20 04:17 AM Re: Alaska Kayakers Rescued With No Life Jackets, No E [Re: Doug_Ritter]
Burncycle Offline
Addict

Registered: 09/16/04
Posts: 577
Very lucky they had signal!

In our waterways this time of year calls are common since there are sheer dropoffs and no entry / exit for miles at a stretch, sometimes rapids, swiftwater and blockages not obvious from the entry point, depending on how the weather's been. People hop in on tubes and swimwear and that's it, sometimes a cell phone and some beer.

They'll start out late afternoon on a route that takes 6 hours, end up calling after pitch dark because they can't see and it's gotten cold.

The most commonly used item when we arrive on scene is a space blanket. The most common comment I get was "we thought the river looped back around to the starting point"

It's important to have a good idea of their location, because there may be an entry point close to the cell phone ping but we don't want to inadvertently enter downstream of them. However, we don't want to put in so far upriver that it takes an extended amount of time to get to them either if we can put in closer, especially if there's a medical issue.

Fortunately, most parts in my AO have full cell coverage, and a common technique we use is to have them pull up their location on google maps, zoom out a little bit and take a screenshot to send to the incident commander's phone and we can go from there.

I have been introducing drones, but we run into legal VLOS issues because Tennessee has some tree canyons...

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