Yikes! That whole story had me all puckered up. Glad you are ok, and seem to have a decent attitude and perspective about the whole thing. The ocean is no joke. Being prepared is the difference between coming home safe and being fishfood. Thanks for posting.

"Easy Peesy Bilge Pump Holder"

1 teaspoon contact cement

2 foot length paracord

1 unit D-ring patch

http://www.austinkayak.com/images/pr...s/large/94.jpg

Attach D-ring to kayak. Tie paracord to bilge pump. Cut to length. Tie Pump to D-ring. Optional - quick release device.

Forgot to say, thank God your ok!

/bing

another thought for those less capable swimmers: maybe swimming out to where the boats are fishing isn't a good idea. I for one know I wasnt looking for any swimmers out that far, and I dont think I would have seen you while I was bombing around after those breezers... it all depends on water conditions... with that wind chop yesterday I couldnt see anything in between the crests... if I was you I would have probably swam to the cove or some other close spot. Boaters are dangerous to swimmers, plain and simple... you got lucky.

Glad you are OK.Its great to see people offer help.This is a great bunch of folks here.Thanks to all who offered to loan me gear when I lost mine due to complacency.

Very glad your ok Tom! I had Andy install an automatic bilge pump that pumps water out of the kayak if the kayak reaches a certain level. There is a floating arm that goes up when the water starts to fill inside the kayak. I recommend this pump to everyone! That water flows out big time with a 12 volt battery. When I used to use the huge ice cooler as a bait tank on my Stealth 14, it was just too much weight and water would leak into the back hatch. I felt really safe with that pump.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...IMG_4500-1.jpg

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...IMG_4501-1.jpg

Great story and lots of invaluable info. Not just important to own the safety equipment, but it needs to be accessible and tethered when the chit hits the fan.

Hey Tom sorry to hear about the loss but I'm glad your alright. The ocean can be tuff but glad you knew what you were doing and kudos to the guys at dana landing and the guys who gave you a ride back to shore.

Gnarly

Glad you're still among the living bro.

Glad your safe,
thanks for sharing your story.

Maybe sticky post material?
Gave us all lots to think about.
Would be a good thing to re-read every so often,
Hate to see it lost in the archives.

Thanks again
and God Bless

Tom
Thanks for sharing, and glad that you are OK, If you need some gear to fish with until you get situated , shoot me a pm , I'll be down in Sd on sunday.

What he said exactly.

You actually lived my nightmare! You have nothing to be embarrassed of because sooner or later everyone eventually will have a close call. There is an old saying "If you sail long enough you will run into rough weather" I'm glad you made it out alive.

Thank You
 

Thank you everyone for all the feedback, generous offers, and most importantly explaining what you do to make your time on the water safe.:you_rock: My goal was to create some awareness and prevent someone else from getting into this kind of situation. Hope to be back out there soon:)

Have you contacted a spero or diver to see if at least your kayak (and possibly some gear) can be recovered?

That is a great idea. With that much gear, and kayak is likely still usable, you could organize a some spearos or scuba folks to dive for the wreck.

Having a couple of flares or smoke signals and a whistle clipped to your PFD might get you out of a jam in a hurry.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...erial%20Flares
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...classNum=11401


http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...0&classNum=154

An EPIRB is also a valuable thing to have when you run out of options
http://www.acrelectronics.com/product2.aspx?sku=2882

Wow, that was an intense story. Glad you found yourself high and dry Tom! Thanks for posting too some great advice has come out of it.

I through my churchils in my dry bag last night.

Thanks for posting, this is important for all of us kayakers, because we can learn from this accident. I have a Tarpon 160 you can borrow, until you can get another kayak.

So glad that You are ok. This post defiently has me thinking on more safety items to add to my Yak. Thank you for posting this and again I am glad that you are ok.

It was bad that afternoon/evening. The wind did not let up and there was a ripping south current. Glad you made it in safe.
-D