respect the ocean 2. MY experience

[William Novotny]

Originally Posted by GregAndrew

The dangerous irony with these situations is that instinct tells most people to stay on their yak when the smart thing may be to jump in the water. If you have taken on a noticeable amount of water in less than flat conditions. And it has made your yak unstable or very low to the water line. You should probably not open a hatch to pump the water out without getting off. Getting off does several good things for you. It makes your yak more stable by lowering its center of gravity. It raises it in the water line (hopefully above the chop). It allows you to access parts of your yak that you may not be able to reach atop it. And it allows you to position your body to block the swell/chop from washing into the hatch you are pumping out of. Complacency is probably the most dangerous thing for us kayakers. I am guilty of it big time. But having a plan for what to do when the stuff hits the fan can help greatly.

Greg that makes perfect sense and at several times I considered it as I was telling jorge. I think you nailed it with mentioning complacency. I really did not want to get in the water. I thought getting to the boat was the best course. First thing I'm doing is gooping my drain plug shut. Then I'm buying a hand pump and mounting it to the underside of my rod pod hatch lid with industrial velcro.