# Malabar 28/07: no fish, a capsized yak and no PFDs



## CanuckChubbs (May 2, 2010)

In hindsight, and if fate had something to do with my procrastinating all day and deciding around 12pm to head out anyways to Malabar than I am glad that it turned out this way.

It was a great day to be on the water and Malabar or Long Bay was calm and flat. This was to be my maiden offshore voyage of my recently acquired Cobra Marauder. I was just going to bring my bare essentials, not a lot of fishing gear and 1 rod. I usually bring my emergency dry bag with the basics in case something went wrong...but of course I left that at home. The launch was smooth from the steep concrete ramp off of Fishermans Road and an easy paddle to the northern heads area.

Having arrived at the northern headland area, the water became choppier and the waves increased with the NE winds. It was not severe but just enough to remind me why I loved my Outback: stability, easy to turn without having to paddle, and most importantly...no soup axx. Overall, I really enjoyed how the Marauder handled and I never felt unsafe or tippy; just very wet

:twisted: Around 1:30pm I saw 2 guys paddling a yellow/red sit-in kayak and heading up the middle of the bay past the headlands. I thought that they were going to NZ. Having fished the area regularly I was aware of the changing conditions of the bay and remembering all the signs of "bad things are about to happen," I paddled over towards them. Both of the guys seemed very amused and having a good time without life jackets (PFD's), and mentioning that they were having trouble with their rudder. Offered assistance but they refused and said g'day. This was not the end of their journey... :?

I returned back close to the headland and had a chat with a guy in a tinny who was anchored up and not really catching much. Interesting thing, he was by himself, small tinny and no PFD. :twisted: Anyhow, I had kept an eye on the two geniuses who by this time had capsized from their kayak. I watched from about ~250m while they tried to get back into their sit-in kayak. Anyone who has fallen out of a SIK knows that it's a pain to get back in and bail out the water without proper technique and equipment.

After watching for an agonizing ~5 minutes of them trying to re-enter I paddled over to them to help them out. On my way over to them, I realized how difficult it is to see someone in the water holding onto a half-submerged kayak. Glad I wear my bright orange long sleeve top every time 

By the time I got there, both of them were just holding onto the kayak and had decided to swim back to shore with their sinking kayak. The kayak was getting swamped, and it was only a matter of time that it would have sunk.

With the wind and the current they were more likely to blow into the southern headland and not be able to swim back to the bay. I waved over to the tinny man who came over to help out. Had I not chatted to the tinny guy and asked him to keep an eye on me while I go over he would have never known due to him facing the opposite way. While he was on his way I had another chat with the fellas.... :twisted:

I asked them where they were from, both answered Maroubra...B.S. I though and asked again...Germany. Any life jackets on board...nope, no paddles by this time either. :twisted: By estimates, they were in the water (16.5C) for ~15 minutes. I am not 100% sure about signs of hypothermia, but I'm sure that they were pretty close. By this time the tinny got there and these 2 guys spent the next 5 minutes struggling to get into the boat. They towed the kayak back with them and I'm sure that they thanked the guy in the tinny at the end.

The lessons from all of this is always wear a PFD and know the condition of the kayak prior to going offshore, and I'm sure that I could keep on going. 

However, if everything happens for a reason, than I am glad that I slept in, procrastinated, and decided at the last minute to fish Malabar. Not patting my own back, but if I had not made the effort to keep an eye out for these 2 guys :-? , things could have turned out very sour for them and their families. At the end of the day, I am just glad that they did not end up on the news.

  AND A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO THE MAN IN THE TINNY!


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## Jeffen (Jan 18, 2011)

Wow,

great effort there, Canuck!
Seems some people are determined to claim a Darwin award.

If you weren't keeping an eye on them, they guy in the tinnie might not have been aware of them at all.
So close to a tragedy it's scary.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

Go right ahead and pat yourself on the back, you deserve it.
I bet they have no idea how close they came.
Unless they were good enough swimmers to leave the yak and swim it, it would have ended pretty ugly.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Lucky lucky boys. Good on you mate. Plenty of big container ships also use this channel, just lucky that they didn't meet one of those!


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## labrat (Jul 25, 2008)

Yep you did a good thing bloke.

It is unlikely that the kayak would have actually sunk - all the plastics I have looked at the specs of that are used for kayak hulls have a SG slightly less than 1 ie the material itelf will float, although only just. It would have provided enough buoyancy to keep their heads above water as long as they could hang onto it. It looked like a fairly long swim dragging the hull though so it's a good thing you were there.


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## scoman (Oct 4, 2010)

Well played again and terrible to think what might have happened had you not been in the area.

Can't express how important life jackets are as you just never know what might happen.

I have only forgotten my life jacket once and it was the only time i needed it!!


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

CanuckChubbs

Top marks for:

1, Sleeping in

2. Saying hello to the tourists

3. Keeping an eye on them

4. Chatting to the tinny guy, and getting him to keep an eye on you when you went to help the tourists

5. To you first, and the tinny, for saving their lives. 

I mean this. _If you had not been there_, and done exactly as you did, in all likelihood, _they would have perished in water that temperature_. We maybe should have the opposite to TOW....Saving The Idiots (STI). Hang on, that doesn't sound too good. Any other suggestions?

Mods: Suggest this be moved to Safety.


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## Guest (Jul 28, 2013)

I thought the Germans stopped sending submarines ages ago....
Well done mate


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

kayakone said:


> We maybe should have the opposite to TOW....Saving The Idiots (STI). Hang on, that doesn't sound too good. Any other suggestions?


Great idea Trev

OOTW - Out of the Water
SBY - Saved by the Yak
The Golden Paddle
The Golden PFD
The Halo


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## islandboy (Jan 20, 2013)

I could never do learn to roll in a SIK so I prefer to get wet in my SOT, at least its easy to get back onto. Still, never go anywhere without my PFD


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## islandboy (Jan 20, 2013)

Had to laugh! I said I never go anywhere without my Pfd, I submitted that, then my photo came up with me sitting in a yak NOT wearing a PFD! That day was about 40 degrees and I had just slipped it my shoulders! No excuse!


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

As we will inevitably have more of these incidents (we've seen two similar at Scarby in the past six months), I suggest a vote. Some good suggestions to date from Nick and Jon:



nezevic said:


> Geez that could have been nasty. Kudos Canuckchubbs.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





anselmo said:


> kayakone said:
> 
> 
> > We maybe should have the opposite to TOW....Saving The Idiots (STI). Hang on, that doesn't sound too good. Any other suggestions?
> ...


More suggestions welcome, or vote for an acronym. I'm going for *SBY*.


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

New thread with a poll trev

Sponsor a prize
Ill put something up


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## mjos (Mar 6, 2012)

Nice work.

How you finding the marauder?


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

TOW+ - Tale Of Wow
WOT - Winner Of Today, Was Out There
TOSA - This One Saved Another
HOA - Helped Out Another
HOD - Hero Of the Day
ACD - Above the Call of Duty
RESCUE - Random Effort Saved Citizen Under Equipped


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Nice work Chubbs, hopefully they are wiser for the experience but probably dont realise how close to davey jones locker they really were.

Cheers Hedgy


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

Yes fantastic work. Clearly not ready to be where they put themselves.


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## CanuckChubbs (May 2, 2010)

Thanks for the cudos, I think most of us would have done the same. Unfortunately, I really do think that those two nupties will not have learned from this experience as they were quite amused by all of this.

In hindsight, I could have told them that bronzies have been spotted in the area that day, and that in their current predicament they were most likely not going to make it back to shore. :twisted:



mjos said:


> Nice work.
> 
> How you finding the marauder?


The marauder is quite good...almost as enjoyable as my Outback. However, having been out on the water for approximately 3hrs, there was quite a bit of water inside the hull of kayak. That is somewhat concerning. I will test it out again this weekend to see what happens. Keep an eye out cause I will put up a review about the marauder from a "fat guy's" perspective, similar to my Hobie reviews.


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## simond11 (Aug 29, 2005)

Great work Canuck! Lucky you were there.
Sorry, but I am fed up of people who go on the ocean ill prepared. They think it won't happen to them, and inevitably it does. Unfortunately it seems that it's always up to someone else to put themselves in arm way and go and help these people. I don't think it's an excuse that if you are from overseas you may argue you don't know the rules. I believe that Pfd's are mandatory on every vessel, unless you have a 45' Bertram, and even then...... I even have a self inflating life jacket on my inflatable runabout and I wear it religiously every time I go out. It's my life at risk, and I don't expect someone else to come and save my arse!
Cheers

Simon


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

Lazybugger said:


> kayakone said:
> 
> 
> > As we will inevitably have more of these incidents (we've seen two similar at Scarby in the past six months), I suggest a vote. Some good suggestions to date from Nick and Jon:
> ...


*PFD Award* - Philanthropic Fishing Dude Award
AKA *PFD Award* - [nsfw]Protecting F*cking D*ckheads[/nsfw] Award


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