What were they thinking????

[Xpierrat]

There were two Yaks that tried to launch at Daina yesterday AM..... They looked to be well equipped and you would think that they were experienced Yakers but I think other wise.... Conditions were 17 to 20 out of the East with pretty good 4 to 6 foot swells coming in....launch was 3 or 4 hours after high tide....
They struggled a pretty good while in close just trying to hold the Yaks straight long enough to get in and try to punch thru the surf... one flipped but did not appear to lose any gear.... they moved up the beach a ways thinking it might be easier.... ( they did not see the good size rip and hole just up from them where it was deeper and the surf was alot more forgiving ) and tried again.... both boats were equipped with peddle drives but the guy would not or could not hand paddle a lick and it was going to take some strong strokes to get going... the second guy gave it up he had out riggers which prevented him from flipping but added too much drag to be able to get past the surf and headed dragging his yak back on the beach.... the first guy had finally got out around a 100 yards but I had to get back to work and so I missed the grand ending.... I was told that he flipped out there and this time lost his gear, crate full of rods and not sure what else.... Apparently he made it back to shore to lick his wounds.... Thank God no one was hurt.

It was blowing enough I even decided to skip fishing the pier after work.... even if they had a good launch..... with that head wind it would have been an exhausting paddle out to the fishing grounds. Not sure if he recovered any of his gear.....maybe a good thing...

[james380]

Good story.