Capsized: Learning From a Crisis

Something to hold onto

If you had asked me a month ago what I would do during a potentially disastrous boating accident, I would have probably said: “Panic. Definitely panic.” Well, it turns out I’m wrong.

During a weekend with friends on the Connecticut coast, I made a series of mistakes that left me in a small, tipsy kayak, separated from my kayaking partners, trying to paddle home while fighting rising winds and waves with whitecaps. That’s when I sagged sideways into a wave and capsized. Out of the boat, I began bobbing up and down 100 or 200 yards out from an inlet. My life jacket – an old model powered by compressed air – failed to inflate. So I grabbed onto the kayak with one hand, casting about for what to do with the other. My flip flops floated away as I grabbed my orange baseball cap out of the water (easier to spot me from a distance). I also took hold of the paddle, which was just beginning to drift away.

That’s when things could have gotten really bad.

I managed to flip the kayak over, but I just couldn’t seem to lever myself in. Then there was a sudden sharp pain in my foot as I was stung by a jellyfish. That just seemed like too much. I wanted to be out of the water. And for a little while, I considered letting go of the boat and swimming to the inlet. The kayak was too big and seemed too hard to move.

What a terrible idea. Every summer its seems like I hear about some guy dying in a boating accident, as often as not because he overestimated what he could do or underestimated the danger.

After thinking about it, I just decided I didn’t want to let go of the boat. Instead I held on and began propelling myself with my legs, a little bit like a child at summer camp using a kick board. It took me 15 to 20 minutes just to get to the entrance to the inlet. A little more time, and I propelled myself toward the nearest thing I could see, a floating dock at the edge of an estate. I ignored the No Trespassing signs and dragged myself out of the water. From there, I was able to get help.

Some thoughts: It seems to me that my experience can be encapsulated in two thoughts… but the more I think about them, the more I think they could be applied to all sorts of crisis situations:

• Hold on to the kayak: When there’s one thing that can ensure you keep your head above water, whatever else you do, make sure you don’t let go. Forget about swimming away. Don’t get distracted by the flip flops floating away. Save your energy for what matters.
• Head to shore: Don’t get fancy, don’t get distracted, no matter how slow it will be. Start moving toward the closest piece of land. Eventually, you'll get there.