Expect the unexpected

I went out for what I thought would be a low key sail for a couple of hours in my Skerry from the local beach yesterday. I remember looking the box I made to fit under the port thwart, which contains radio, first aid kit, and space blanket, and thinking "Nah, won't need that today." {Cue ominous music}

The forecast was for a warm sunny day, with 10 knots till much later in the afternoon. {Cue more ominous music}

Coming back, the wind suddenly kicked up round midday, 20 knot gusts recorded over at nearby weather station.  It was quite frisky out there.  The green arrows are the prediction, red line the recorded wind gusts. Oliver, who was out in his dad's Laser nearby, capsized three times.

I could see two dark shapes way out, and thought "those guys are brave, that's a long way out for a sit on top fishing kayak".

My tack back to my launch spot took me near the fishing kayaks, and as I got closer, I realised one guy was in the water. I dropped sail, and rowed over towards him. The guy on other kayak headed in front of me, and said something like "I've got this". He looked like he knew what he was doing, so I rowed round, pickingup shoes, water bottle, and paddle from the first kayak. When I turned round again, both kayakers were in the water. 

I rowed the Skerry up beside the second kayak, and tried to hold that steady while the second guy climbed in, but the kayak was too unstable thanks to the amount of water in it.  The good news was, holding that kayak next to the Skerry provided significant extra bouyancy on that side, and after a couple of failed attempts the second kayaker was able to slither into the Skerry without putting us both in the drink.

The water here is still mighty cold, and the kayaker now in my boat did not seem to be in a good way.  I had no way to warm him up. The other kayaker was still in the water.  No other boats were anywhere near. This was not a good situation.

Luckily the kayaker now in my boat had a radio, and I suggested he put out a Mayday, as I had no good plan for what to do for the other chap in the water. 

Luckily, and I don't know how, shortly after this the first kayaker managed to get himself back in his kayak, though it was swamped and he was putting all his energy into not tipping over again. 

Luckily there was a Fisheries boat not too far away who responded to the Mayday and who were on the scene in minutes.

Fisheries picked up the kayakers, took the kayaks in tow, and what could have been a serious incident had a happy ending.  I raised sail and headed on back to the beach, hopefully a wiser sailor. 

I learned a few things.  The obvious one is, always always take radio and first aid and emergency blanket.  If the kayaker had not had a radio, the situation would all have been much more fraught.   Second was that people are more important than boats - I tied a line onto the second guy's kayak after he got in the boat - it was there, and that seemed like a good idea at the time - but towing it slowed me right down and made it much harder to manoeuvre.  Let the boat go, don't worry about stuff, worry about the people. 

The good news is that you can rescue a kayaker in a Skerry if you get their kayak beside you on the side the person is going to be coming over. 

The other thing I might add to my boat gear is some sort of net for collecting stuff from the water - not that easy from a Skerry I found.

But Skerry's certainly are fantastic little boats, mine proved itself again yesterday!

Here's a rough video of the events. I was filming before the wind kicked up and forgot to turn the camera off. Footage was largely accidental. But interesting.

Meanwhile the glacial progress on the SCAMP continues. I got the deck carlins on, now trying to finish up jobs that need doing before the deck is glued down, like cleat doublers. Cut out the port holes at last and had a trial fit of front deck and cabin sides.  It is starting to look like a boat, and I am still enjoying the build. But by golly I will be glad when it is in the water! Now if I had been in the SCAMP I could have picked both kayakers up, no worries.