When at sea...

Another sad sea faring story's unfolding off the coast of New Zealand. Paul Van Rensburg left Tauranga (my home town) for Gisborne on March 12--a two-day trip--and went missing shortly later. After three days of searching off the east coast--a search then abandoned--his 12-metre yacht Tafadzwa was found Sunday by an Orion out on training, drifting about 110kms west of the Chatham Islands.

A Chatham fishing boat went out to tow it in, and found his dinghy and kayak securely lashed topsides, everything snug down below, baskets of fruit still hanging in the companion way, and his dog--scared but okay.

As you can see from the photo atop, the reefed mainsail's thrashed, as is the headsail. But even without bad weather, which it appears from everything snug below may not be an overriding factor, sails can deteriorate very quickly when not tended to.

It hasn't been mentioned in reports, but it looks like this is another possible case of a yachtie peeing standing over the side instead of in a can/something (!) in the safety of the cockpit. When at sea, sit to pee ;)

Police are currently scouring his GPS tracks for any clues.

Courtesy of the New Zealand Herald, you can find some good photos and video here.

Summer storm safety

Last summer Jane and I were out paddling on Jordan Lake and were caught in a typical North Carolina summer lightning storm. We were way out on the lake and could see the dark clouds looming. Furiously we paddled for the nearest shore to try and beat the lightning and thunder. Once we landed, it poured, and the lightning was quite spectacular across the lake.

Most of the two to three hours waiting for the storm to pass over was spent in some hilarity, discussing just what we should be doing to protect ourselves from a lightning strike. In hindsight, after a quick refresher once I got home, we got some things right, but a few key things wrong.

• Get off the water as soon as possible. Don’t worry that you haven’t reached your campsite or got back to the put in. Lightning commonly strikes the tallest object – out on the water, that’s you, sitting in your kayak.

• Get off the beach and head inland – lightning has a canny way of striking the land where beach and water meet.

• Leave your paddle with your boat – quite a nifty wee lightning rod, that paddle.

• When inland, head for the lowest sheltered area you can find.
  
  
• Sheltering under a grove of trees is fine – just don’t stand under a lone tree as, once again, lightning commonly strikes the tallest object.

• Crouch down and try to minimize your contact with the ground – keep your feet together and head down low.

• Spread well out if you're in a group so if one of you gets hit, others can administer CPR. If you’re all huddling together the risk is you all get knocked unconscious.

• Wait at least 30 minutes after the storm’s over before heading back out.

If anyone else has some sound advice, I’d appreciate hearing about it!

PHOTO: NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)

Keep a lookout

One of my favourite radio shows as a kid was the BBC comedy, "I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again”. One of the best lines from one episode is from a chap who’s up the lookout.
Narrator: “Suddenly, there was a cry from the lookout.”
Lookout: “Look out!”
Capt'n: "What is it?
Lookout: "An iceberg."
Sound effects: major crunching of ice on wooden hull.
Lookout: “Don't worry. It's gone now.”

An acccident on NZ’s Waitemata Harbour last year left a salutary lesson to kayakers, and boaters. An 8m powerboat, travelling at 16 knots was about 60m away from Stuart Chrisp's yellow kayak when he waved his bright yellow paddle and shouted a warning.

Obviously, shouting at a boat with twin props and doing 16 knots means you’re not going to be heard. And blowing the obligatory whistle attached to your PFD is a waste of time in most circumstances. There’s really not a lot a kayaker can do when caught in such a predicament. Thus the onus is on the bigger and faster boats to do the right thing – keep a lookout and adjust their speed.

Skipper of the powerboat was a rear commodore of the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron (RNZYS), who should have known better. Last week he pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court to failing to keep a proper lookout, and failing to consider the obligations of the vessel he was in charge of. Interestingly, he’s believed to be the first person in NZ to be prosecuted for colliding with a kayaker. I don’t know if that’s the case elsewhere in the world.

On the skipper’s side, as soon as he heard the "thump" of the kayak under the boat, he fished Chrisp out of the water. But that, quite rightly, wasn’t good enough for the Court.

Overall, it’s a good warning for boaties with fast and powerful boats; collision regulations clearly state that you must keep a proper and effective lookout and adjust your speed accordingly. Please. But it also means that we kayakers have got to be always keeping a wary eye out in areas with heavier boat traffic.

And Chrisp? Apart from the fact that he seriously thought he wasn’t going to see his wife and three kids ever again, he was whisked off to hospital with severe bruising and a locked back and, as any good Kiwi would, said he was in “bloody agony”.