Missing Wellington Kayak Fisher
Like most of us Yakkers I have been following this search with great interest.
Unfortunately the unfortunate guy has not been found and hope is fading quickly.
Although this has been a massive search very few details have been released. I wonder if the search team included persons with an intimate knowledge of kayak fishing and not just the usual Police, S&R, Coastguard and Maritime staff? While they all have a valuable role and input only a knowledgeable kayak fisher can interpret or draw the right conclusion from some of the evidence.
A published photo shows the recovered kayak on the beach. It is a Cobra Marauder that was found floating the right way up. It has not been established if during the capsize the guy rolled the kayak or exited without doing so? if he turned over then rod and net would have slipped out of the rod holders and would be hanging from their leashes. If that happened he must have flipped the kayak back and stuck the rod and net back in the rod holders. To me it seems strange that this was his first priority rather than attempting to re-enter.
What interest me. Was the rod and the net in the near seat rod holders as shown on the photo when the kayak was found? If so then it would be impossible for the person to re-enter as the rod or net would have prevented him rolling the legs back into the foot wells. He would have discovered that on the first attempt and would have moved one of the above to a rear rod holder or ditched them altogether .
What about the fishing rod and line? Was the hook and sinker stored on the rod or was the rig fishing in the water or was the line cut? Every one of these options opens up a new possibility. If he was actually fishing than there is a possibility that he got snagged and pulled himself over trying to break the line? Or if the reel drag was set too tight a big fish like a stingray or shark could have flipped the kayak or at least unbalance him enough to fall overboard. It nearly happened to me a couple of times. To determine if the kayak has rolled one would expect water in the reel or inside the kayak as the hatches on the Marauder are not that water tight.
There is no paddle so one would assume that it was not tied on or stored in the paddle holder. So lets start from the fact that the guy is in the water either holding the paddle or not. Essentially he is no longer connected with the kayak. Whether or not he righted the kayak is immaterial he is not physically attached other than hanging on to some part of the kayak. This is made harder as the Marauder has no safety cords around the hull. It is highly likely that at some stage he lost contact with the kayak and with even a light breeze the kayak got blown away faster than he could swim after it. So now he is in deep crap and has to make important decisions. If he had a cellphone it is a safe bet that it is wet by now as he did not managed to contact anybody. Decision time. Is he going to float supported by his life jacket (I assume he was wearing one) until rescue comes or trying to swim ashore?
Apparently divers have recovered some of his clothing on the bottom of the bay. This suggests that he would have taken off some items and presumably the life jacket too as it would be very hard to swim some distance wearing all that. Was he a good swimmer and what was the distance to the shore? Also what were the conditions, seastate, wind, currents and water temperature at that time. All the above is educated guess work. The only certainty is that he never made it to the shore.
Summing up. He only had the Marauder for a couple of months and when adding the absence of some of the standard essentials ( paddle leash, VHF radio, lack of re-entry technique etc) suggests to me that he is pretty well a kayak fishing newby.
Did the search team consider all of the above? I really wonder?
Cheers
Rainbow