Events of Sat October 3

Team - Yesterday, Saturday October 3, was a big day for BWK. A lot of people worked really hard and went the extra mile to salvage the day in the face of a huge windstorm.

Hats off to Odessa for her planning & logistics & CS which were put to the test yesterday, with good results. Congrats to Emil and Colin for pulling off the Inverness Downwind Tour, which I heard was challenging (btw, we need to de-brief). And to Pete for what must have been a marathon motorboat day, and Chris Miller and the Marshall shore staff for delivering excellent customer service, and to Emil again for manning the Marshall site and responding to the emergency situation, and for retrieving the lost kayak, and to Chris Miller and Amanda for launching a heroic rescue efforts with the Sea Cur in big seas, and for everybody else that helped out, in large and small ways, to make the day go.

We can congratulate our selves that the scout troop, and the Esther Kim group, got served and got to have a great weekend, which they would not have had without our our planning and efforts.

A couple of “learning moments” stand out from yesterday. First, to recount the events of the Esther Kim group: one of their members capsized a closed single on the way to Tomales Beach. He was assisted by anther participant, and was able to get to the beach, but they were not able to recover the kayak, which drifted off in the wind.

Chris Miller and Amanda launched the Sea Cur from Inverness to search for the missing kayak.

A random kayaker on the bay spotted our kayak floating upside down and called 911, instigating a rescue effort by the Coast Guard and the deployment of a helicopter.

This could have been avoided if we had called the CG and advised them that there was a boat missing and that the person was safe. For this to be effective we would need a positive ID of the kayak, make model and color, so that they could match it with the report, ie, that they could be sure that the kayak in the report was ours and not somebody else’s. That means that we would need positive kayak ID on the rental release forms. So this is something we need to work on.

BTW, the phone number of the US Coast Guard, Bodega Bay, is 707-875-3596. This number should be posted at all sites. When you call, ask for the Officer of the Day.

Another thing to consider about yesterday is a re-examination of the criteria for renting closed SINGLES in the face of adverse conditions. Our criteria now is that the participant have taken a basic recovery class at some time in the past. This is pretty minimal. As we know from experience, closed singles go over first, and just because someone has had an entry level class does not mean that they can recover in 4 ft rollers. In my opinion, in conditions like yesterday, participants should be screened for intermediate to advanced rescue skills to qualify for a single. So we need to make a policy on that.

One other thing that came up yesterday which I got a report about was that 2 clients were permitted to bring their own kayaks on the Inverness tour, which turned out to be Hobie Pedal boats, and as a result they were ill-prepared for the tour conditions. So we need better screening procedures for that.


If anyone has any other comments or suggestions about the events of yesterday, please feel free to reply to this blog entry. We will discuss these matters in future OPS meetings.

Thanks again for all the great teamwork yesterday. You are all heroes in my book.