Plan for The Worst

Plan For The Worst That Can Happen

Risk assessment is a key safety element of every sea kayaking endeavor.
- Eric Soares

Why You Should Prepare for The Worst That Can Happen

Because if something bad happens out on the water and you're unprepared to deal with it, you're in trouble. When you make a practice of thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong, you have a far more realistic outlook, and that can keep you out of trouble to begin with. Is all of this overkill? Maybe. But it's your life we're talking about, and how many times, if ever, have you heard about tragic incidents involving boaters who were “overly prepared”?

Knowledge and Experience

The safety hurdle faced by most recreational boaters is that they don’t have enough knowledge or experience to imagine the many things that can go wrong on even a modest outing. This places them at a huge disadvantage when trying to plan for the unexpected. What can these folks do to improve their odds?

Learn About Bad Stuff Second-Hand

A lot of people believe there’s no way you can learn to climb, paddle, backpack, scuba dive, fly a plane, ride a horse, a motorcycle or whatever- just by reading about it - that the only way to really learn about that kind of stuff is by doing it.

That's true enough, but only up to a point, and it’s a very important point. There’s a LOT of stuff that you really don’t want to learn about the hard way, by direct personal experience. That's why reading about the mistakes that other people have made is so valuable.

Getting totally creamed when you decide to paddle out that little inlet or river mouth to just “check things out”. Ditto paddling in a bay and getting swept out the inlet when the tide changes.

Watching in horror as your kayak does a “Cleopatra’s Needle” or sinks like a stone because it had no floatation. Ditto watching your kayak blow away.

Capsizing 200 yards from shore and finding out that the guy who tried to warn you about the danger of cold water really did know what he was talking about.

Getting swept into a tide race or blown offshore even though the TV weather report you watched in the morning said nothing about dangerous tidal currents or small craft advisories.

Getting really and truly lost when your trusty GPS runs out of juice, breaks, malfunctions, can’t get a signal – whatever – and it’s getting dark, and cold and you don’t have a map and compass, and even if you did, you wouldn’t know how to use them.

Floating around in the dark, shivering and watching the lights of boats and helicopters that are searching for you but having no way to signal them because you have neither flares, a waterproof flashlight, cell phone, VHF radio, or emergency strobe light.

Getting to the take-out and realizing that Mary is missing – because she capsized 2 miles back and nobody knew it because your group didn’t have a designated sweep.

Some Classic Examples

I’ve never regretted being too vigilant, or safety conscious, or infatuated with checklists and meticulous planning, or cautious about my choice of paddling partners, but almost every single time I’ve made the mistake of being sloppy, lazy, or complacent about those things, it’s come back, in one way or another, to bite me in the ass.
- Moulton Avery

Incapacitated by cold.

Blown out to sea by high wind.

Paddle breaks, blows away, or is lost in rough water.

Ankle leash breaks and boat blows away.

Waves dump water into cockpit and boat fills with water.

Capsize and can’t get back in boat.

Cell phone and/or VHF radio lost when boat blows away.

GPS unit breaks.

Lose prescription glasses– can’t see.

You get lost.

Hit a rock and smash hole in boat.

Dislocate shoulder.

Caught in thunderstorm.

Night falls - can’t see anything.

Paddle float blows away.

Become seasick and can’t remain upright.

Deep cut on finger.

Exhausted - can no longer paddle.

Lose cover to rear hatch.

Fog rolls in - can’t see anything.

What Will You Do If ...

Checklists Are Your Friend

It’s easy to forget stuff at home, or in your car, or at the take-out. Consider having a checklist for each situation.

Leaving Home – a list of all the things you want to have with you at the put-in.

Launching – a list of all the things you want with you on the paddle.

Returning Home – a list of stuff that you don’t want to forget at the take-out.

Read the close call and fatal incidents associated with Rule 5

Rule 5 Close Calls and Fatalities