This is a story I wrote after our summer 2005 swamping in the sounds. Hope it helps people think about the issues of cold water.
A Swamp Story - The Open Men's "3 hour tour"I wanted to share some thoughts on the grand swamping experienced by the open-mens crew on the sound thursday. We had 4 crews going out at a rather late time of 6:40. We decided on a straight course into the wind and waves for 45 minutes, and then turn around and surf back. On thursday the wind was from the north, with a tide coming in, and rather large swells, and even some almost body surf size shore break (hammering our waiting canoes).
We gave the open-wahine the more buoyant Kalenakai Bradley, so Laura could get experience with the best "Gorge" boat in perfect conditions. The men had the boat tuesday so it seemed only fair. This left Kukini - a calmar, to heaver open-men but with Keala, Johns Son, as our lighter steersman replacement. The other two boats were filled with novice men and mixed crews. After less than a minute, our mens crew exhibited very big swells that were getting everyone wet as we were beating right into the waves. Moving more to the right to not take the waves bow-on was also scary since the ama was light. Gordon's novice crew even went in right away to rig more stable. We figured lets just go straight into the waves, take our beating, and then
turn around and surf back. Little did we know this would be surfing back in a Coast Guard boat instead.
Going against waves like this, much like the Gorge, is difficult, especially since here they were bigger than the Gorge as they were tide and wind generated. As now had a full men's weighted crew in an "lower to waterline" Calmar canoe, the waves end up hitting the bow rather hard, but what is worse is that they come over the middle of the boat. Thus seats 3 and 4 and 5 take the most water in - and we are talking like 20 big buckets of water at a time. The Ama was watched carfully and one time popup up a frightening amount.
So now 10 minutes into the paddle, we have seats 3,4,5 bailing at the same time! The boat was at least 1.5 feet deep in water. At seat 4, I was using the biggest bucket for bailing. We would get it down to a 1/2 foot and the next wave would go back to 1.5 feet. Not a good sign.
Finally we collectively thought this was not a good situation so said we should turn around. We signaled Lauras Kalenekai boat that we were turning, then before we turned, another wave hit - and all of a sudden we were submerged! Wow, we didn't think that was going to happen. We were getting ready for a fun paddle back home. This was at about 7:15pm on a sunny windy night, about a mile or more off shore, but about 3 miles from Redondo.
So now we were wet in a boat sinking but being held up by the flotation of Ama and the bow/stern's boyant sections. Paddles are floating around, life vests are skatteringg, the bailers are floating away (or sinking), the water bottles are gone, the slippers, basically everything. And of course we have a few extra paddles for different reasons. We started by putting on the life vests! (Ricky couldn't get the kids vest to fit!)
We figure we would just huli the boat over then back again, then get going, just like the pool huli drills! Well, first try (after finding as many of the essential things floating away) worked but was just as full of water. So we did it again, and got a little gap where we could start bailing.
Now we had at least a couple cold people, so they were put in the boat to start bailing and those of us not as cold could stay in the water. The problem was that we could get a slight headway in emptying the water, and a small wave would fill it again. I think we tried another huli with the idea of pushing up this time. Fat chance. We did get enough to figure we might as well try to hobble in. Unfortunately a small wave again swamped the boat. Now what?
By now, the other 3 boats were circling, and luckily no dorsal fins were circling too - but Ricky did get a big Jelly Fish sting on his leg. We figured lets get the coldest paddlers into dry boats and then figure out what to do. Keala was the coldest so he went with the 5 open-womens crew. It was still very rough and we were concerned with other boats swamping, so two boats headed in to shore. Now we had 11 men, another dry Calmar canoe, and a swamped boat, with 4 men on the boat getting colder. luckily the water was as warm as it gets, and it was sunny out. I myself was in good shape, warm, since I had wet suit booties and thick wet suit shorts, which I put on at the last minute in the car.
At this time, our only option was to be rescued, and Earl and Randy thought ahead to dial 911 and call for a Coast Guard rescue! (Good think we had cell phone coverage.) That was great news and I think relieved us to think how to stay warm until they arrived. That arrival wasn't for maybe 20 more minutes. In the mean time, Robert went to the other boat to get out of the water and try to get warm. We didn't want to try the huli trick again since it would involve getting totally wet again, and by then we were kinda dry since Robin was on the Ama, Doug was on the aiku at seat 2, and I was on the seat 4 aiku. 3 people seemed to float ok.
- In hind sight, what Earl wanted us to try was to get warm people ready to get wet and try to right the canoe, again and again, until it worked. We could have done this and kept trying with new warm people. I think since we knew someone was coming to rescue us already, we figured lets just stay dry and wait.
- Another idea Earl had was to keep the canoe upside down, then people could have sat on top more out of the wind.
Our problem here was that the 11 people couldn't get into one canoe and paddle in. We couldn't tow the boat or even use say 8 people, since we were concerned of waves swamping the boat. In any event, leaving the swamped boat with a few cold paddlers didn't seem like a good idea. Having the cell phone to call for help was the best solution.
In hind sight, I think we could have filled the other 2 boats with a couple more paddlers each - at least the more buoyant Bradley - and then we would have had less in the last working canoe. But, our 16 year old steersman was rather cold and they figured getting him to shore was very important. Not only that, if it got colder, and dark - having all the boats could have been invaluable. We might have been able to ferry paddlers in, but once those 2 boats left, our options were limited. The danger at the time was having one of those boats swamp because of the rough conditions, the those paddlers were not equipped for the cold water.
Finally a small Coast Guard boat shows up. After some time, it finally threw us a line and pulled our canoe (Kukini) closer. The three of us got on board, and Robert swam from the other calmar to the boat, since he felt he would warm up on the boat. We then tied the ama to the boat, and hoped for the best. This is when the straps on the aiku came off as the ama was being pulled straight off. So we took the ama off and put it on the back of the small boat. We then left the boat for later.
Another bigger Tacoma Police boat showed up as well. We figured that could tow the canoe to shore. Robert dived in to help tie that boat to be towed. In hind sight, when you are cold, you cannot always think as good as you can otherwise. I think that was a risky move.
Off the two boats go towards Redondo, one with the ama, the other slowly towing the canoe. After a few minutes, they dropped towing the canoe to get the cold Robert into shore. Both crews were more worred about the people over the replable boats. Gordons boat, now with Ricky steering, paddled back with their 6 paddlers. I think all the paddling crews got some good surfing on the way back!
We were met on shore by the Fire Department who raised the Redondo beach excitement by showing up with a full fire truck. Those that had been in the water were provided blankets, and they took our temperature to make sure we were ok, and took our names for their reports. The different emergency services were vital to our survival! This
was the Desmoines Fire Department, the Coast Guard, and the Tacoma Polices's Water crew.
Gordon did talk the Coast Guard into letting him go with them out and tow our injured Kukini back. So we finished with all our boats and all our lives! What an adventure.
Some notes:
* Make sure every boat has a working cell-phone, local radio and eventually a 2-way radio.
* Try not to separate unless you have to for safety reasons, but before doing that, make a good plan that those in charge can agree to.
* Don't panic, think clearly - but again the cold can impair that judgment.
* We were probably in the water for over 30 minutes, trying to get above water as much as possible. We also were not drifting towards shore so who knows when we would have arrived on land.
* Having a wet suit is very important on cold and rough days. This can be just shorts, or even better farmer johns that you don't wear up unless cold or in the water.
* Having wet suit booties is always good on the sound, again in rough conditions.
* Having extra stuff in the boat that floats around makes it hard if you huli, but also when you land. The Shorebreak this time was very hard to manage.
* Getting the canoe turned over without water, or that doesn't fill up right away is difficult. Maybe we can devise a way to use an inflatable to put on the seat so it floats the boat just enough to not fill it= with water on the re-huli.
* In rough conditions, maybe evaluate the use of the canoes based on the weight of the paddlers. This is hard, since everyone wants the chance to use the bigger-water canoe. Also, the use of skirts would be great, but unfortunately that would take another 1/2 hour to put on, and we had a late start as it was.
* For practices, we need to efficiently and urgently get to the water and get paddling. This is really needed when it is high tide, and also when a big shore break. The canoes can get damages being hit by the water. You should see the front bend when hit by a wave.
* Evaluate the course to take based of factors of the weather, the water conditions, the time of day, the tides, and the levels of the crews.
