Novice in a rec boat in trouble and how he was helped.

On Sunday the 8th of November 2015, we had set out for a nice paddle on the Potomac. We launched from Belle Haven Marina and were going to head south a few miles and then paddle back. We paddled out of the mooring bay past the sail boats and out into the Potomac.

I was paddling my wife's NDK Surf, which I never get to do, so I was playing around and out ahead of the group going straight out. The rest of the group paddled at a south easterly angle past the pebble rock shoals that are exposed at low tide.

Conditions: The tied was going out and about 40 minutes from low slack. The winds were blowing around 10 MPH and the skies were clear. The water temperature was around 59 degrees and that air temp was in the high 50's and would settle in the low 60's.

I hear my wife call out that she sees someone on one of the shoals and there was debate in the group if it was someone in trouble. My wife says she is going to check it out. I am a little ways from the group but I turn to rejoin them.

In the link below you can read my wife's write up on what followed:

The lorax's Wife incident report from the paddle on November 8, 2015.

So, hopefully you read her report. What follows is my report. It will be judging but every event has to be looked at with an eye on how could it have been done better. The person I am going to be harsh on is mostly myself.

The group arrived at the scene a minute or two before I did and my wife was calling to the guy in the rock shoal from the north side. I came up from the south side and could hear the guy (from here on out to be know as the victim) sobbing. I am out of my boat and on the shoal beside the guy calling out to him while everyone else is still in their boats. My wife has sent someone to the marina since we are so close and ask a member of the group to retrieve the victims kayak which we see about a hundred feet away by the island that the shoals have formed around.

Here is where I get critical. My wife is giving me orders and I got irritated. My short coming. She had stepped up as the lead but I am capable in my own right. My ego could have caused problems if I had not realized how this needed to play out. I was also irritated that I was the last to the scene but the first to the victim. (This was my personal emotion, in a situation like this people need to remain in their comfort zone.) This is because I tend to react and studied the scene as I approached. I also approached from the rear left announcing my presence and came into the victims view before reaching out to touch him. This was for my safety in case there was ill intent on his part. Stay out of the victims striking range while you assess the situation.

Okay, the victim is conscious but not responding to us. He is sobbing and was obviously cold and not shivering and his skin was pale. Hypothermia!

My wife is on the radio with the coast guard and someone is on the way to get help from the marina. Someone has joined me on the shoal. I do not vocalize my plan and leave the victim to get my emergency kit. The other person on the shoal does the same leaving the victim un-monitored. This is my fault. I should have said what I was doing and asked the other person to stay with the victim. When I got back in about 20 seconds with my kit the victim was laying on the ground but still sobbing. We get the emergency blanket around him as best we could. Had help not been just minutes away I had a ground cloth to move the victim onto.

Moments later the skiff from the marina arrived with the guy the victim had been out kayaking with. We get the victim up and onto the skiff while I am getting irritated with his "friend" who starts fussing with the kayak. The skiff pilot and I both yell at him to leave the kayak and get into the skiff. As I push them off I tell them I will tow the kayak over.

My wife informs the coast guard what is transpiring. Their ETA from the start of the request for help was 6 minutes. The skiff was on its way and I was halfway to the marina towing the victims kayak as the coast guard paused on the other side of the river turning off its lights. My wife said she was watching the time and it was exactly 6 minutes when the coast guard arrived. As I pulled up to the kayak launch with the victims kayak the EMTs were arriving at the marina.

From the time we arrived the victim was in the hands of definitive care in around 10 minutes. My wife and everyone in our group performed great. I have issues with some things about myself and I tend to place the same expectations I have for myself on others, Not a great personality trait.

Speculation time!!!! So, how did this situation happen?

My theory is based off different pieces of information I gathered during the crisis and from the guy from the marina kayak shack.

First the two guys left together. The victim had never kayaked before as stated by his friend that morning while talking to the guy at the kayak shack. The friend who went with the victim that morning and arrived on the skiff for the extraction had been back at the marina for at least a half an hour. The victim is not wearing shoes, they are in the kayak.

They had to paddle against the wind and current to get back and the tide was dropping and the wind was blowing slightly toward the shoals and the island they formed around.

The new paddler in his bath tub shaped 8 foot boat has gotten tired and is paddling inefficiently and is blown onto the shoals. His friend has paddled away ahead of him and does not notice. The guy takes off his shoes and gets out to get the kayak off the shoals. He is first shocked by the coldness of the water and the slippery rocks and falls down letting go of the boat. The boat now not weighted by the paddler blows out of reach. The paddler carries his paddle to the highest point. Probably called out to his friend who did not hear him. Other people kayaking passed him but he did not call out. Hypothermia can happen rapidly and he was in light cotton pants and a cotton hoodie. Not appropriate dress for the water, especially in cooler weather.

We are just glad there was not a headline of "Kayaker Dies on the Potomac". Paddling around i a rec kayak does not make you a kayaker. You are a rec boater. I always hated when they would report "Rock Climber Falls at Great Falls" and it turns out it was someone with no equipment or experience climbing around on the rocks.

Okay, story over.