Crow Island (Casco) over the weekend

[rick stoehrer]

Paddled out Friday night around 8 or so. Clear, cold, wind outta the SW or so to maybe 10 knots and a fairly level sea....a foot or so? Stopped by House (which is for sale for any of you with a spare buncha millions hanging around) to check out the ferry to Peaks...lotsa time. Crossed the channel to LIttle Diamond....as we cleared the channel, the ferry lit us up with a spotlight...we had apparently shown up on radar (which makes me think they had that bad boy dialed in pretty good - we aren't much of a target)...as we had cleared their channel i think they were doing it more to satisfy their curiosity....called in a securite to let them know there were only two of us, we had cleared the channel, our course, destination, were monitoring the frequency and had light to avoid collision per CG regs. Stopped on Cow to stretch and then the long crossing down to the green can 5 (fl 4 sec) in the channel between Little Chebeague / Long Island. From there a quick trip across to Deer Point (aided by our dear friend red nun 2, fl 2.5 sec) and then upta Crow hand railing along Great Chebeague. Sacked out in the old cabin on Crow. It's very Blair WItch but the forecast was for rain on Saturday night and we didn't really feel like making camp twice.

Up saturday morning to a bagel and tea and then paddled into the now stiffened SW wind (sustained 20, higher gusts). The cold, not eating much that morning or the night before combined with the relative strain of paddling into the wind had me in the early stages of hypo well before we hit the launch at Long. I am experienced enough to know I was hypothermic BUT....hypothermic enough to not have done anything about it...so we paddled on to Trefethen, met our friends and turned downwind to surf back to Crow....at this point I was pretty much full on into the "umbles" stage and was more or less drifting back...surfing a bit but not much going on and just...blah. Anytime i am quiet, clearly, there is something wrong.

Got back to the island in lousy fashion and shape, got up to the cabin and sat in there rocking a bit trying to find my mouth with trail mix...shivered a bit...knowing the entire time i should be changing, drying off etc., before anything else but....hypothermic...judgement is crap...eventually changed and got myself sorted out and well. I have never loved my wife so much as pulling that pair of fleece one-sie drawers she bought me awhile back...a warm, fuzzy hug. Felt right as rain after getting warm and dry and eating a bit.

Great big fire on the beach and lotsa food on Saturday night. A small dram of Ardbeg capped it.

Paddle back on Sunday in the sunshine...rain and wind had mostly passed and the wind was W and diminished.

It is definitely the season and it definitely bites us all in the arse...dress, eat, conserve. And don't be afraid to make decisions for your friends...you don't have to be RAMBO about, suggest a stop, get warmer, eat, have some tea. Say it's you and not them....believe me, there in no condition to gig to it. Subtlety is lost to a cold paddler...it can be awkward but a hypothermic paddler doesn't have a whole lotta judgement....you have to do that for them...if they get snippity and argue..well, that's the cold talking ain't it? Makes you think you're on the right track.

[Lbeale]

Thanks Rick for an informative account of hypothermia. I had hypothermia once while kayak camping and your description of the symptoms sound mighty familiar. It is interesting how judgement goes out the window. I made the mistake of thinking I could handle it myself -- did not need help -- and was stubborn about it --even while I was shaking uncontrollably.

Hypothermia can happen to anyone -- regardless of size and gender - and not just weak-knee women like myself. Before reading your account, I would of guessed that someone like you getting hypothermic were slim to none -- I guessed wrong.

Someone who supposedly knows told me that once hypothermic you increase the risk of getting it again in less daunting conditions.

Do you know if that is true?

Also, pair of fleece one-sie drawers - how can I get me some of those?

Les

[rick stoehrer]

Looking back yesterday, Saturday had all the symptoms but at the time it was just so insidious...it cascades in little increments...sets on real quiet...you truly do need to keep ahead of it.

i don't know about women vs me vs others in regards to susceptibility....it's a physiological response and so I'd suppose that we all have different intrinsic thresholds but would think that everyone is susceptible.

Hoping that it hasn't lowered that threshold going forward but only time will tell. Quick google didn't reveal any data in that direction.

Marmot made that fleece jumper...don't know if they still do but boy do I love mine.

[EEL]

I guess this is the season when that much maligned thermos of hot tea can be a very, very good thing to have aboard. I have taken up the habit of making up one every morning before breaking camp even in the summer while out and about in a kayak. During shoulder seasons its always in the day hatch.

One way to look at hypothermia is that the greatest danger is not when you are at the point of shivering. It is well before that when it affects your judgement and fine motor skills. That is when climbers and, I suspect, kayakers can have catastrophic failures which seem totally unexpected. When you first get a few shivers not such a big deal, when you cannot control them it is a very big deal. Then you need heat as at that point even all the insulation in the world will not keep you alive.

Cold weather increases the importance of adequate and regular fluid and calorie intake. It seems many kayakers don't have the habit of taking frequent snack/drink breaks which is more common among skiers/hikers/climbers.

Ed Lawson

[rick stoehrer]

I blame this all on an utter lack of STRONG, HOT TANG...which, before anyone gets upset, isn't slang for anything, Really, piping hot and mixed strong that powdered drink stuff rocks it. I forgot my damn thermos this weekend.

[spuglisi]

Les,

Check here.

http://www.backcountry.com/stoic-merino-200-1-z-suit-womens

[Doug]

Rick,

Thanks for the candid recap of your experience. I was curious if you could have avoided this by dressing for a colder paddle or were you already dawning a dry suit?

I tend to push the limits this time of year with hydro skins and dry top but it's right around now I pull out the dry suit with 2 pair of glacier gloves to follow soon. (I change to the second pair after a long midday break with hot to drink.)

Doug

[rick stoehrer]

This has never been a problem before and so I've generally dressed less rather than more so on Friday/Saturday/Sunday it was all Reed Aquatherm Fleece Dry cag and a pair of Aquatherm fleece trousers. Friday night I sported a polartec beneath the top and Saturday I did not.

At any damn time had I realized what was going on with me, I could have reached behind me and pulled out a cag to put on over everything and been toasty warm...but again, judgement isn't crisp and things start to spiral. Honestly, I have no recollection if i was wearing a wooly hat.