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Jim: You know the saying "familiarity breeds contempt"? I never even thought that I might lose any equipment. Other than my first outing, I have not lost an outfit or, for that matter, much of anything. I had been fairly cautious about leashing all my rods and securing the top of my bait tank that held items like my VHF and Boga. Don't get me wrong, I have been wrong side up several times, but everything important has been well secured. Because I was thinking that the worst that could happen is that I get wet, I did not give my yak the prelaunch check I should have.
I do know about foot bracing and using my torso for extra power, but "old habits die hard". I was less concerned with speed than stability because there were 2 swell directions. As it turns out, a little more speed would have been the call for the wash that got me. I knew that a dash was not going to happen with legwells full of water most of the time, so I was watching and waiting for a lull. Unfortunately, the lulls that I saw before I got in the water were occuring about 200 yards north of where I had been swept to (didn't realize that till I was swimming).
Yes, my front hatch was closed. I replaced the straps with Bungee cord which held up very well.
Sasha: After a wave breaks, it starts to lose power. The further after it breaks that you hit it, the easier it is to get through. I was looking for a window where I could get through the area between the break and where the whitewater became manageable. Unfortunately, that distance was probably about 100 feet, and no lulls were in my immediate future.
Shortly after my last swim, I had finally moved far enough South to find another area that had lulls. I made it out to fish for 3 or 4 hours till I was too cold and wet to continue.
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