(NY Post, 8/31)
"
...
Danziger, a corporate headhunter from the Upper East Side, was taking kayaking lessons with wife Ellen at 3:30 p.m. near Pier 61 when he toppled out of his craft.
Fortunately, the crew of the passing ferry spotted him and pulled him to safety.
"He was in the water for 17 minutes. Another minute or two and he would have been finished," said crewman James Canham, a retired firefighter who dived in to pull Danziger out.
"
First question: If he was in the middle of a lesson, where was the teacher, who could presumably use this opportunity to teach how to empty the boat and reenter?
Second question: 17 minutes in the water in August puts you within a couple of minutes of death? Don't people voluntarily go in the water in August for hours at a time? OK, maybe not in traffic, but am I assuming too much that the rescuer was referring to hypothermia?
Closer to home:
On Sunday we went north, leaving from the west side of Grand Isle and going to Point au Roche state part in NY. There was a lot more motor traffic than we've seen all summer.. I guess partly the holiday weekend, and part that the price of gas fell a bit.
We stopped for lunch in a small bay near the campground. It would have had a spectacular view but for a large raft-up of tall powerboats about 10 yards off shore. So we got a view of transoms.
We didn't have to go far into the lake before it was a straight downwind run to the starting point. It wasn't exciting surf, but a noticeable speed boost. The new whiz-bang wave/wind tool on the noaa site says that part of the lake had 15 knots and 1.4 foot waves (precise!) for the run home.
Who says we don't let Euro-paddles or rudders on our trips?
(to be fair, I don't think he used the rudder at all)
5 comments:
whaaaaa?
I gotta find that article. That's bizarre.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08312008/news/regionalnews/taxi__ferry_rescues_kayaker_126905.htm
Just had to share a response from a noted weisenheimer on the yahoo group for the Pier 63 crew (I shared this with them since they are right in the vicinity), cause it kinda cracked me up:
"Bonnie, what the rescuing crew member MEANT to say- is that -"in a couple of more minutes he would have been FINNISH! ( it is a little known maritime standard that after 15 minutes at the mercy of the aquatic elements most survivors consider themselves natives of Finland- nobody knows why......)
BTW I've gotten word on a couple more versions of the story - it's all hearsay & secondhand so I'm not gonna pass it on but let's just say that it sounds like the story was a trifle misreported in the Daily News & moreso in the Post (not surprising for the Post, the Post is a rag - best headlines in town, but a rag nonetheless). Hey, who's gonna miss a few silly little facts when the story's soooo much more exciting without 'em?
Maybe it's a NYC pollution thing? By 20 minutes you're finished. Covered with varnish and wax.
Good thinking. So from that point on, instead of going to the store to buy a can of Lemon Pledge and a bar of Irish Spring, you just buy two cans of Lemon Pledge. What's wrong with that?
Also explains why I've gradually come to have this irrational dread of termites...
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