Kayak Search and Recovery (trip 10, day2)

The alarm rang at 0430 and Teria sailed out of port quietly on a light sea breeze. Soon the motor got us to 5.8 - 6 knots over the ground, At dawn I started the search at Rowes Bay beach about 200m off shore and scanned the long beach to Cape Palleranda. My family drove to the boat ramp to have a look too but we all saw nothing there.

 Rounded  Cape Palleranda and motored into the uninhabited Shelly beach National park area - it was also a large shoaling sand bank which is usually avoided by sail boats but it was calm and near high tide so went in. The Sun was just rising and the tide was falling an hour or two past the high point. Then on the first remote beach  - a spot of bright blue lay on the beach - It was "Scamp"!!! . It had missed the rocks of the Cape and landed on the coarse sand of Shelly beach near some stunted mangrove forest.

But the tender was not yet saved - Still elated i turned terias bow towards scamp. The broad sand-mud shoals extended far off this side of the Cape. Terias 2 ft shoal draft helped a bit i took her in to within 200 m of the beach using the centerplate as a rudimentary depth sounder. Once the main keel grounded i spun Teria around 180 degrees, motored out another 50 m and anchored in waist deep water with about 1 foot of water below the keel base.

 The wade ashore with scamp's paddle seemed to be in slow motion. Thoughts of "man vs wild"  and "crocodile hunter" came to mind however they were never in it alone like this.  The life-jacket was on and mobile phone was in a waterproof neck pouch. Tested the sand ahead with the paddle blade, the bottom gradually shelved shallower. Fortunately it was unusually calm with no waves. Surprised a  small 2 ft shovel nose shark near the beach.

Sea weed festooned the Scamp like something out of pirates of the Caribbean. A quick look around and fast paddling across the sea to beat he falling tide which could strand Teria for 8-10 hours if  grounding occurred. The anchor was up and made a beeline out of there under power. The pivot center board scraped the shoal sands until Teria was free. Scamp was following along nicely on it's well tied painter.

Kayak retrieved

After and during this incident a few thoughts on towing a tender came to mind..mostly obvious since this happened

1) Really make sure the tow line is well secured, a really good belay on the cleat with locking half hitch. Don't rush it or get distracted by other things..

2) Tow for short runs in calm waters only

3) Tow by day but NOT at night or late evening.

4) For longer or rougher open water crossings stow the tender on deck