# Adrift in kayak overnight



## troymclure (Sep 18, 2010)

Howdy all I'm TroyMclure I'm new here so you wont' remember me from any threads such as Kayaking and sharks and trying not too stab yourself in the leg while looking like a wounded seal or etc etc...

Erhum, anyways, had a slightly uncomfortable experience on my kayak the other day and thought i'd post up here so other people can learn from my mistake and hopefully not have similar things happen to them or even worse.

So background, I live on a boat, singlehander. I use a kayak as my dinghy to get me too shore, my previous kayak (until it got lost/stolen) was a seak swift, 3 metres long, wide and stable but slow and hard too paddle. I'm currently in the whitsundays working and cruising. I also recently got a hookah rig off of ebay.

I was anchored off of border island in the whits and decided too try the hookah rig out for the first time, so i loaded up the kayak, really loaded up the kayak. Me + hookah compressor + accumulator tank + all the hoses + the battery + all my dive gear(weight belt, fins, mask etcetc) all on a 3m kayak. It was... overloaded, kayak was sitting low in the water and didnt' feel too stable and i had battery between my legs. Dive was alright though i didn't stay down for too long as vis was fairly meh and the current was a bit too strong, ie i couldn't stay in one place without wedgeing anchor under a rock and holding on. So after a while i carefullly clambered back into the kayak and paddled my way to the boat. Upon reaching the boat i grabbed a hold off the swim platform with one hand, threw kayak up on deck with other then took fins off and put them both on swim platform. Notice i said both, thats at the same time...

Which means that i wasn't holding on the swim platform (this was a major mistake, normally i would tie the kayak to boat as soon as i get there, but with hookah gear in the aft well i couldn't turn around too reach the bit of line i normally tie to the boat with). So anyways, no hands on boat, put fins down on swim platform but by the time i went to grab the boat afterwards it was just out of reach... remember that strong current i noticed while diving? Ah well no worries i thought, i just jumped into the water and started trying to swim while towing kayak with one hand. Hmmm I seem to be getting further away... ok so i started too push kayak while kicking.... still getting further away.

Well i'll quickly drop the anchor so i don't get swept out too sea then. Or so I thought, unfortuantely the anchor rode was tangled with all the hookah hoses and i couldnt' get it free... by the time i'd realised it wasn't going to work i had drifted a fair ways away from boat. Ok so, this was starting to become problematic, still i was only maybe 50-100m away from boat and a similar distance away from border island so wasn't too stressed. I jump over side, tied a bit of line around waist and other end too kayak and set off for the boat... still no go. Current was just too strong and my swimming-fu too weak (the fact i was trying too tow an overloaded kayak may have contributed). So after maybe half an hour of attempted swimming against the current i figured it wasn't gonna happen. Fortuantely by this time i had been drifting closer too shore so i swam kayak too shore with the current. Ok well i was stuck on an uninhabited island with no way to get back too boat. Fortuantely there was a coconut i could see stuck in the sand so a bit of hacking with a knife later and i had a bit of liquid too drink, unforuantely the coconut did not taste very coconuty, and after a swallow of liquid and a few chews of the flesh i threw it away(note: i have since discovered that coconuts, of the brown husk vareity that are not picked quickly, ie that drop off and then float across the ocean until landing on a beach develop a sour taste so the coconut was probably alright just not what i was used to from eating/drinking other fresh coconuts).

So after being swarmed by a swarm of sandfies from hell and throwing away the coconut i decided to have another attempt at paddling out too boat with a new "paddle" i found ashore, the new paddle was a bit of flattish wood, which basically didnt' work. Still no go. I did manage to get away from shore and then taken out a bit further to south end of island though... much to my chagrin as that way lead to the open ocean. Fortuantely i manged to get close enough too shore to touch bottom. Oh and by now it was dark. Which meant that i ended up spending half an hour wading through rocks/coral thinking about stingrays/stonefish and coneshells on a dark and almost moonless night (there was a new moon which promptly set by about 8 or so). Getting back to the beach i decided to try to make a sail using a bag i had and a mast i could hopefully find ashore. Long story short, the mast didn't work, nor did the mast turn out too work as a paddle... i did however get myself far away enough from the island so that when the current took me south it didn't end up taking me close enough to the beach. Which means... yep open ocean.. well sorta.

Basically the situation was this. facing north there is whitsunday island to the west (unihabited though frequented by lots of yachts/daytrippers) border island was on my east initially, north there is hook island on the east about same longtitude as whbitsunay island. south there was a few island off of whitsunday island but inbetween those islands and looking west was well... the great barrier reef being the next closest bit of land(at low tide anyways).

So as i drifted south of border island i had to my west whitsunday island and ocean to the east. Current was forutantely taking me south hopefully to a few islands near whitehaven beach. By the time i had started drifting it was about 9 oclock in the evening. I had hoped that when the tide changed i might get taken north again but that didn't work out either. By the time the tide changed (about 2 hours) i had drifted about 6kms south, and got stuck in a gyre. I could see lights a few kms in the distance (presumbably from anchor lights) and land mass south of my position and west but no way to get there. I'd lost the"mast" overboard and just had my dinky flat bit of wood to paddle with. It took me till about 2 o clock to realise i was stuck in a gyre. Until then i'd been holding out hope that i'd keep drifting south and eventually make it too the anchor light i could see but after a while i realised i was pretty much stuck. WHich sucked but was at least better then being washed out too sea. I did spend a while trying too move further west while coming around inthe gyre every so often though. It was about 3 oclock when i decided too try to get some sleep and wait for morning. I should point out that sleeping while sitting up in a kayak thats overloaded with hookah gear is possible, though be prepared to get jolted awake every now and again when you lose balance while sleeping and nearly fall overboard.

I woke up after a couple of hours of very fitful sleep to watch the sunrise. A damn fine sunrise it was at that.

I spent the next hour trying with some success to paddle my way to a nearby island i hadn't seen during the night, i was only a few hundred metres away from it but just hadnt seen it cause of the lack of light. There was even a catamaran anchored near one end. At about 6:30 in the morning and maybe a 150 metres to go I saw a large motor boat. It was heading north and as it approached i waved them down.

Half an hour later i had a towel a bottle of water and some very friendly/helpful people asking if i was alright. The boats name was classique and though i can't remember the names of the people aboard they were out of sydney, the boat was a big motoryacht and if anyone sees it please say a big thank you from me and if they ever come up to queensland i owe them a steak dinner/champagne etc etc.

About half an hour after that i was back on my boat and spent my 29th bday happilly sleeping away (after devouring as much food as i could stomach).

All in all i spent 16 hrs adrift overnight, i am probably fortuante too have been caught in that gyre as it saved me getting swept out too sea, i'm very fortuante too not have lost anything overboard the whole time, it wasn't a horriffic experience but there is this whole big list of things i'd have rather been doing with my time then that and it could have resulted in well death had a few more things gone wrong.

What i'm hoping people get from this post (aside from an informative tale) is that kayaking can be a dangerous activity and that there are certain things you should be careful off. Now i haven't been kayaking for that long but after this experience i've decided too start taking kayak saftey stuff alot more seriously. Will have a kayak grab bag with me from now on which always goes in kayak if it's going any more then ship to shore distances. Thats a grab bag like i have on the yacht with various safety gear. Ie Handheld VHF radio, signal mirror, bottle of water, few muesli bars, flares. I'm also going to be alot more careful in places with strong tidal flows. The tide where i was wasn't too strong too paddle against (though there are some spots like that in whitsundays) but without a paddle... now i had previously always leashed my paddle to the kayak but from now on the paddle stays leashed to the kayak whenever kayak is not leashed to the boat. I guess for most people that would be make sure you do have a paddle leash, trying to swim with a loaded kayak against a current is not a good idea for people (like me) who arne't strong swimmers.

And i've also decided too work on my swimming cause as evidenced by this event, sh.. stuff does happen. Best to be prepared for as many eventualities as you can be.

So yep thats it, watch currents, hang on to your paddle! and besides that happy and safe kayaking all.


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

Not sure everyone knows hookah and gyre. 
Hookah: SCUBA diving without the air tanks. Air compressor on the surface, long stretchy hose to a scuba style mouthpiece. The air line tends to snag on things.
Gyre: Rotating sea condition that means you drift in circles.

Scary night :shock: :shock: :shock: Glad you lucked out.

Troy, think about adding some of the following to your yakking:
1/ paddle leash on your main paddle.
2/ second paddle (even webbed gloves or ping pong paddles), learntthat one the hard way myself.
3/ plb.
4/ suggest an old yachtie thing when solo - leave a long line with float out when you are at anchor
5/ Always keep hold when you go over - doesnt need much of a blow to mean you may never catch the yak.

Scare aside, Man, it sounds like you are living the life!


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

yikes.... a scary situation that's for sure. glad you survived ok and din't get pushed north/east during the night.

a few lessons learnt there, that's for sure.

welcome to the forum.


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Isn't a hookah one of those big waterpipe/bong/drug taking utensils?


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## garyp (May 30, 2008)

Great read, and certainly a lot of lessons in there for anyone who takes to the water on a yak.

Well done for posting it and highlighting the issues to everyone.

Glad you got picked up by good folk, hope they gave you a cup of coffee


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## Duane (Oct 20, 2007)

Great first post Troy 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_McClure

My money is on grinner


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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QlpoOTFBWSZTWXtYTO4AABNfgAAQQIdEAKQAEIA/59+gIABkRTNTYlP1E9TymRmmJP1QiaaaRgQMQ0yAhPna6YtBW6teBen9idcwc7x3Qc9hJ0wp5ieJMin1+Hn5Hb2olhLc3aWQaZY4eM20Wiw3OsCeaRCRxJgqD1D6MiQ8BREQoYOpE3/MIPxdyRThQkHtYTO4


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## troymclure (Sep 18, 2010)

Howdy all, thanks for well wishes and hope a few people learn from my mistakes.
Will defiantely be having paddle leashed to kayak from now on, though have just ordered a new hobie kayak (much to my bank accounts dismay) so will have peddles as well just in case.

ps:- @Red, heh mate how'd you know i was looking at that? Cruisers forum? Though actually i ended up going for the albion 35. Needed less work to get it cruise ready and got me out and sailing quicker. So far happy with descision, she's not a quick boat but seems very safe, had her out in 30knots and havne' thad too reef yet O.O.

@dru heh some good advice mate, like the line with a float thing, might even try that when sailing, i generally clip into safety lines in bad weather when sailing but a line with float would add a bit more safety again jjst in case. oh and whats a PLB?


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## Ranger (May 31, 2008)

Don't leave home without Wilson!


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

patwah said:


> Personal Locater Beacon, you may remember them as similar to such things as epirbs


try this as a link - I use the GME unit: http://www.ja-gps.com.au/GME/mt410g-plb/

By law a vessel must have an EPIRB. But if you are over board they will find the boat not the person. The EPIRB will last twice as long, but the PLB fits into a pocket in my life vest. In the Sydney to Hobart, the boat must have an EPIRB, but each individual must have a PLB. Mine cost about $600 (accurate to a few meters), a $400 version is vailable (accurate to a couple of k).

I'd rather be in your office today!


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## troymclure (Sep 18, 2010)

Heh that (GME) looks handy... expensive... but defiantely something to think about. I've got an epirb on the boat but as a singlehander falling overboard is a definate concern. 
And lol yep was feeling a mite castawayish while i was opening the coconut.

ps:- Aye can't complain about the views out the office window here. Still it can be a bit distracting trying to work when it's a bit rolly ^^. Well worth it though, the cruising life is highly reccomended if you can do the mobile business thing.


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