Setting the outcome before you even arrive at the beach....

[Jim]

Far too many incident reports flying around of late, but I believe I have learned lessons and put them into practice, unfortunately as someone said in an earlier thread, sometimes the outcome is determined by decisions you make before you get on the water, this tale is about exactly that.

A few days after Easter we have assembled on the Lleyn Peninsula, the weather has been crappy so we have had an exploring day but with a better forecast we decide to plan a trip.

We are 5, myself of course, a friend I have paddled with on and off for about 15 years whom we shall call 'dad', his son whom I have never paddled with but is about 16 and I'm told quite strong, whom we shall call 'son'. These names are not very imaginative but I shouldn't forget them. We also have another friend with whom I have paddled on and off for about 10 years, whom we shall call 'sick boy' and my final friend whom I have paddled with for 4 or 5 years now and whom I am struggling for a name so lets call her 'glitter' because her boat is glittery. A 6th member was somehow prevented from joining us by Britain in bloom, I have not asked her for an explanation of that because I know I won't understand it.

So the plan we hatch is to paddle Bardsey sound with the ebb. Sickboy knows the area reasonably well, Glitter knows some of the area and has a guidebook, I am unclear whether or not Dad has done the sound before and Son of course has done very little at all. The plan is hatched, we don't 4 cars so we rationalise. Dad and Son will travel together with some extra kit, and I'll drive Glitter and Sickboy. Stick a post-it note in the margin at this point, you may want to revisit this section later to see where it all went wrong.

The drive to our put in is long, winding and hilly. Seriously folks, Scotland has mountains - long sustained climbs, Wales has hills, shorter much steeper buggers that are much more a challenge to drive! We have chosen a beach on the north side of the Peninsula to launch from, the tide will run southward (aiming to leave with the first of it but it's not a narrow window we have a couple of hours to slide if needs be), the swell from some quite strong W-NW winds is still rolling in but the wind is now NW-N and a bit lighter.

The drive took a bit longer than planned - I never knew before that Sickboy gets motion sickness, he presumably did because he opened the window at the campsite before we left. Myself and Dad shuttled to a beach on the south side of the peninsula before re-joining the others and getting ready to go. We were running a little behind schedule but it really didn't matter, it just meant we got a bit more lift heading down towards the sound.

So we launch and wave goodbye to the tourists and set off. Soon enough Dad and Son have moved just out of conversation range, but are checking behind frequently and slow down to keep within shouting range. Glitter is paddling alongside or slightly behind them. Sickboy looks to be struggling so I stick reasonably close to him and in conversation elicit the fact that his car sickness has translated to sea sickness in the awkward chop we have found beyond our start bay.

Having discussed Mark's excellent concept that if you aren't close enough to hold a conversation, you aren't close enough, Dad and Son are frequently checking and backing off to stay about in shouting range. We are clipping along nicely now at 11-12 kph in the tide, I have got slightly ahead of Sickboy by now but he's still there within loud talking range, Dad and Son may have let the gap open a little now and Glitter has looked around and not seen Sickboy behind me so stopped for a bit. We exchanged a few words and swapped roles, me with the intention of closing the gap with my Taran and letting Dad know Sickboy was sick and we really needed to get him to set the pace. I was still checking behind me but obviously Sickboy and Glitter would be getting a bit further away. Just as I was registering surprise at just how much further away Glitter called Dad on Ch 6 to explain that Sickboy was sick and they would need to stop - this stopped Dad and Son so we were able to rendezvous, but by this time Sickboy and Glitter were nowhere to be seen.

I thought I caught a flash of a paddle near some rocks we had passed a very short time ago (moving fast). Glitter and Dad held a short conversation on Ch 6 (I was listening on tri-watch but couldn't face unlocking the handset and selecting 6 to transmit on). Glitter and Sickboy were talking about landing (Sickboy had told us there was nowhere to land before our takeout precipitating leaving luncheons in the takeout car) and aborting, but were happy for the 3 of us to continue. On the spot Dad was actually considering this, but I was beside him by now shaking my head and telling him to relay the message that the others were to stay where they were and we would re-group and abort together. At this point I had serious doubt if we could even get back against the tide.....

So the scenario had developed for a split.
Group X were the guy with knowledge of the race we were heading for, but who was sea sick and not much use for owt, with Glitter who has plenty of experience but may have struggled to do anything with Sickboy had he got worse going home.
Group Y had 2 strong experienced paddlers and one young almost complete newbie.
Clearly both groups were now weakened and I was unsure if either would be able to complete their objectives if we had split.

Instead group Y worked back up an eddy to the point where I saw a paddle flash and the group as re-united within about 10 minutes with group X who were both on a stony beach, the kind of beach that looks like it eats boats. Dad and Son landed but I opted to hold station in the waves until Sickboy was feeling up to getting back in for the short (but hard work) journey back to our launch point. This journey did in fact have a serious moment on account of the strength of the tide running past one of the smaller outcrops on the way, I almost turned in too early and was close to being pushed back to the west of the rock, most of the others were caught out by the strength of the tide and th slow going there too.

In the end we landed where we launched from, and then set out in the opposite direction for a bit to see another quieter beach to chill out for a bit before laying in the tide off a small island and returning back to reverse the now not needed shuttle. Not exactly a big paddling day, and I never got to see Bardsey Sound or Bardsey Island but we put into practise several things picked up from recent incidents:

- Stay in close contact
- If close contact is lost do something about it right away (we used 2 techniques in quick succession - chase paddler and VHF),
- Unless there is a really really good reason or previous plan, don't split the group up

Actually we slightly broke the last point the following day in much calmer conditions on another section of coast where Sickboy felt queasy again so I accompanied him inshore taking an extra stop in the bay whilst the others paddled across the bay to explore a feature and then all land at the same place. We used inter group comms again that day to arrive at our take out 5 minutes apart, the difference being we weren't in strong tides, the wind was light and the whole day was a bit of a bimble just to make sure we did something.

As to where it all went wrong - go back to your post-it in the margin.....
When planning the shuttle, Sickboy who knew he sometimes gets motion sickness* and devised the shuttle plan, could have made himself one of the drivers instead of a passenger**. That tiny detail would have put him near the front of the group feeling fine and leading us through Bardsey Sound having a lot of fun, well almost certainly. The key decision that affected the outcome of the day was made before we even left the campsite some 20 or 30 miles from our launch point - so it does happen!

Jim
*In 10 years of trips, usually a week at a time, we hadn't noticed this about him....
**Of course my driving style may have been to blame, I don't have passengers often.

[Kayaks'N'Beer]

Sounds pretty textbook, Jim. Things were fast approaching that tipping point where you have to make some good decisions to avoid a fiasco, and that's exactly what you did. Well played!

Am I the only one who had a picture of Jonny Lee Miller in their head, reading this? :)

[Douglas Wilcox]

Great story Jim, I like near miss stories because you can make as many comments as you like without further hurting the feelings of those involved. I have posted a few near miss stories myself over the years.

You of course are a great paddling companion :o). Recently going down Ayrshire's Atlantic Coast David decided to cross the bar into the mouth of the river Stinchar while Phil carried on down the coast. You stayed out watching Phil, I went in watching David. We were both in sight of each other. I called to Phil on channel 16 but he was listening on 6. You heard on 16 and realised he hadn't so you called him in on 6. We learned that day to have all the VHFs on dual watch 6 and 16.


And how is this for group control? The dot on the horizon to the left of the mast is one of the other 3 kayak sailors. The point is one of us always sticks with Jim who is the only one without a sail. Yes we split the group but in less benign conditions than this, kayak sailing back from Ailsa Craig recently in a force 4, Tony, Phil and I stuck within talking distance for the whole 15km open crossing.

Group control when kayak sailing has its own issues, just like paddling in a tide. The only difference is its easier to drop a sail and paddle back upwind than it is to paddle uptide. Food for thought...,. time for luncheon.

Douglas

[soundoftheseagull]

Thanks for sharing your experiences.