Maui Rescue PLB

Hi all,
Just a quick note of thanks to all the long time posters here.  
I came here in 2010, when I got my first ski.  
Used your advice on safety gear/protocol.
Finally got to use it.
No problems, learned a few lessons.
I'll post more later, off to do a run now, gotta zoom.
mauinow.com/2020/08/31/60-year-old-paddl...ed-off-kahului-maui/
Larry

What??!!  That was you? What happened? Glad you are safe.

"winds of 28 mph and seas up to 12 feet" ...Yep, I would have been out too

Glad you're safe! A PLB seems like a quite unnecessary expense, until you need it. Then its worth 10000x what you paid. Glad yours worked well to get you out of trouble.  I occasionally see the NSRI rescues out of south africa on here since rob and a large contingent live there, but hear very little good information about rescues in the US. Nice to know things work well here as well.

Thanks guys, sorry for the delay on details, but I'll be back later today with some lessons learned.  

We had a great group that day, very good at watching out for each other on the water.
I was in my V-8pro.  It's my north shore windy day boat.  Lifeguards brought it in for me.   

It was pretty hairy out there, in the water for over 2 hours.  I hit something 10 minutes into the run.  Rudder snapped off. I have the google earth path.  I'll post pics later to help explain the time line. 

I was secure in the boat, leashed up fine.  I tried to swim the boat in but could only parallel the coast.  Slightly offshore and very windy.  High tide, I knew the run well, sunny day etc.  I knew they would come get me, but also that I was in for an adventure.     

Bottom line, back up safety stuff kept me safe, so I felt relatively calm.  No big anxiety out on the water.  Everything seemed fine "in the moment" - time passed quickly.  I had my watch running and had a good idea when they would start coming to get me.   "Relax, breath in thru the nose, don't overdo anything..."  Felt ok mentally and physically.

Later that night I began to feel the adrenaline coursing thru my veins.  Felt like I had 10 cups of coffee in me until almost 2 am.  Spooky stuff.  Almost jittery.  Took awhile to clear it all.  

I made several errors in judgement.  I'll include those in the next installment.    

Did a run yesterday and I was spooked.  Run was ok, no drama.   I took these fins for a some peace of mind.  South shore, much less challenging than Maliko.  





 

    

Glad you are OK. Crazy story, but sounds like you were prepared. Obviously, you have skills if your other boat is a v12. Thanks for sharing. 

Stuff on order.  
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000AY06V/ref...le_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PPJGFKK/ref...02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My PFD. Works great.  Super floaty and rugged.  

wingmanlifejacket.com/products/buyhydewingman

RE your rudder snapping off. I've seen this on skis and OC's. Dear all manufacturers. Feel free to put an extra 5 layers of carbon 4" behind the rudder tube where the rudder punches through the hull with some regularity if you have a hard impact or drop. Likewise, reinforce the S*%# out of the rudder tube. I want to be able to hit the rudder with a sledge hammer and have the shaft shear off, but minimal composite damage.

I understand this may not help in your exact situation, but it reminded me of how many times I've seen damage to the rudder tube or in the sweep area of the rudder and I've always though "Why dont they reinforce this area knowing that it is likely to be damaged at some point in the boas life?"

Here's a pic of the timeline, it shows when I activated PLB, ditched boat etc.
 
Big mistakes:

1: Tether on PLB must NOT have a quick release.  I dropped it after about 15 minutes of transmission.  (WTF was I thinking?)  SAR got a signal for about 15 min, then it vanished.  Big thanks to the pro's out there saving boneheads like me.  

2:  Never leave the boat:  I tried to drag it to shore for about an hour.  I inflated PFD, swam with boat about another 15 minutes then ditched the boat.  Sure, I made progress to shore rather than running parallel.  But that's no excuse.  Don't leave the boat.

3:  Never swim away from a friend in a passing boat.  I did.  I was irrational by that point.  I saw him, asked him to call 911.   He did.  He was stunned when I kept swimming and yelled for me to stop and come to him.  I didn't hear him.  
Didn't even look.  He tried to loop back to me but it was impossible.   Be careful when approaching a swimmer.  He didn't recognize me.   He couldn't alert the 911 people that it was me, which confused the situation even more for SAR.   Thanks to them for saving boneheads like me.       

Anyhow, I made it.  I'll probably have more to say later.  Fight or flight hormones change behavior.  I thought everything was fine out there.   But thinking back, not so much...  

 

Here's the damage surrounding the steering tube.  Probably hit a turtle, didn't see or feel anything.  I remember catching a great run, then rounding off to the right.  I assumed I had spun out.  

About 5 minutes later, I swam to the rear of the boat to investigate.  (Nice to have a waist leash).

Anyhow, rudder sheared off cleanly at  the hull exit.  Remainder of shaft still in the yoke.  Probably due to small fatigue from age/bending it straight/whatever.  Nothing bad to say about the Epic rudder.   Shit happens.  But I am going to order a DK for this boat too.  DK works really good on my 12.  





Paddle was in the the bungee behind the seat and jammed thru the water bottle bungee.  Probably took some gas on the outer reef.  Glad I got the boat back...  

Glad you are ok. What happened when you tried to paddle the ski with no rudder? I have done that on flat water and found it possible but challenging. Were you just broaching and tipping all over the place?

^ Was not falling out, but definitely uncontrollable direction - to the extreme. 

It didn't dawn on me that the rudder was gone for almost 5 minutes.  I thought maybe the strings got out of adjustment. (I have lines super secure anyhow, which needs it's own thread).  

I was so concerned at the very beginning of this adventure (re confused) that I didn't think to attempt to paddle with my legs out.  That may have worked.  Slow going for sure, but I would have been more visible.  

May have been able to manage a phone call.  But I doubt it.  It was really windy.  My friend had to get out of his boat to call.   I have an emergency button on the phone now, for next time...  Going to set up an app for location with fellow paddlers, so that we can see where the other person is without them having to call.  

So many little things that add up to a dangerous situation...  I'll be better prepared next time.  

  

zachhandler wrote: Glad you are ok. What happened when you tried to paddle the ski with no rudder? I have done that on flat water and found it possible but challenging. Were you just broaching and tipping all over the place?

I spoke to an elite level ski paddler about it today.  He also broke a rudder on a Maliko run.  Less windy.  He was in a Fenn S.  It was not possible to paddle with legs out - bucket is too deep.  He was able to sit in the bucket and very carefully steer the boat ashore.  Strokes were very one sided, lot's of bracing, slow going etc.   He had to cross the reef just before the airport.  He was fine.  He landed along stable road. 

In his opinion, a ski without a rudder will broach on the wave and want to stay perpendicular to the wave.  That's definitely what my V-8pro was doing.   

It's on my GPS line.  I remember thinking to myself that if the boat wants to zoom out, maybe it will zoom in.  So I tried it.  I stopped and got the boat pointed to shore, legs in and tried to paddle to shore.  But the boat would zoom down a wave and immediately broach back out to sea.  I'm guessing the offshore wind and lack of experience/ability had a lot to do with it.  I only tried it once and gave up. 

The V-8 pro has been super fun for me in big conditions.  I can try anything with zero worries of spinning out or almost missing waves etc.  Very easy to remount.  I have eased one leg out and used it as an ama a thousand times.  It's as automatic as a brace now.  Shorebreak is a common "one leg out, slow and turn" maneuver for me.

No rudder in big wind is knarly.  Hope it never happens to anyone.      

Here is a video I'd watched many years ago.  Main point is at 10:44.



I've been in some stressful situations at work and always tell myself, "be careful of your decision making process.  Might be better to sleep on this one..."  

Well, I remembered the video on the water Sunday.  I told myself "you won't be thinking clearly, so don't screw this up..."           

No substitute for experience.  I'm glad "the big swim" is behind me...  I knew it would come someday.  Glad I had the safety stuff.  

I didn't mention the helicopters.  

There were two of them, they had to search for me.  Seemed like a long time, probably 10-15 min.  
They had to search, because I had dropped the PLB.  

They didn't have a pinpoint location.  It takes awhile for the satellite signals,  GPS was underwater...  Hawaii has good coverage with the satellites, some areas vary.  But you gotta transmit...  

Beautiful sunny day.  Barely a cloud in the sky.  

The helicopters (Coast Guard Dolphin and our local Fire Dept. expert - in a smaller one) passed directly over my head - without seeing me - no less than 3 times.  Near passes (1 mi.) probably 3 times. 

Dolphin's final pass appeared to me as though they had info from shore.  Pilot came straight at me, a bit slower this time.  Then turned broadside with the big hatch aiming at me.  (man, did that feel good)  Pilot kept a good distance.  Jetski was on me in 5 seconds.  I got on the sled.  They verified no medical issues and my name, took me in.      

They can't see us.  I had a bright red shirt on, was waving my lime green hat as they zoomed over.  

Don't leave the boat.  It's great flotation and more visible.  
Get some Dye or a streamer or something.  

I have a phone GPS tracker app (google maps) to allow group members to see me, if if happens again.  

Thanks for the awesome write up. I really like the GPS map with the timeline. I think we all learn something in reading this. 

Question - what would have happened had the rescue not come? On the one hand you were not that far off shore and the water was warm. On the other hand huge waves and nasty reefs. 

Thanks Zach. 

BTW, your safety write ups have helped me gear up over the years.  Backup stuff is so critical when things go sideways...

If the rescue had not come, I estimate my swim would have been another 45 min.  Probably less, because someone would have seen me getting really close to shore, then the lifeguards would have scooped me up.   Didn't feel too cold, but the adrenaline was really pumping.  Very scary situation looking back.  Hypothermia is definitely an issue here.  Particularly in the winter.  

As for reef, I was moving in to a very good spot.  (Not by choice, it was all pure luck).  There is a big sandy beach at Baldwin, that's where I would have landed.  I was glad that it was a very high tide.  The windswells stack up on low tides - and become an issue.  If the rudder had come off a few miles later - and it had been low tide - I would have been in a much tougher situation.  Waves break all over Spartan's reef at low tide.  In the winter, the bombs will dredge so bad the rocks are exposed.  Very, very dangerous.

As we all know, when we are swimming - approaching a surfy reef - if we want to get to shore, we have to go thru the impact zone.  If there is a  channel - (smooth water thru the breakers) - it must be avoided.  That's where the rip is coming out.