Well it happened. I flipped the kayak.

Normally, the month of September marks the gradual start of Fall weather, with periods of humid, light wind days. Not this year. Instead we had trade winds and showers throughout the month. I’m blaming the La Nina again, in fact the “experts” are saying yet another La Nina has started. That’s good for lessening the drought and keeping hurricanes away, but bad for offshore fishing.

I was only able to go out once in September, and it was so choppy on the Windward side that my Bixpy motor’s power cable disconnected because I hadn’t completely tightened it. Instead of paddling the 2 miles back to shore to reconnect it, I climbed out of the kayak when the winds calmed, and floated my way to the rudder to try to re-tighten it. Climbed back in, still was malfunctioning, climbed out, tried to tighten it again, and on the climb in my PFD got hung up on the kayak’s rail and I flipped the kayak!

I have never flipped in all the years I’ve been kayaking so I was stunned, 2 miles from shore, alone, with an overturned kayak. (It’s always much safer to kayak with a partner.) My heart began to race as I worried I couldn’t get back in. I righted the kayak, hung on the side a while to catch my breath, and ungainly scrambled in like a wounded crab, and ended up with my legs tangled up under me. My 3 rods/reels got dunked, lost a few small items, and broke one of the flush mount rod holder extenders. Thank God I was able to make it back in without getting hooked or stabbed.

Paddled back to shore with the help of the onshore gusts and tightened the motor’s power cable. The motor started without glitching so I kept testing it and eventually ended up 3 miles out. I wanted to “get back on the horse” and shake off my misadventure. Nothing good was caught in the choppy conditions.

Lot of good lessons were learned though.

• The kayak had to be leaned over quite a bit before it huli’d. I think I can avoid doing that while sitting inside, fighting fish, getting hit by waves etc.
• I now know how to properly tighten the motor’s power cable. Hopefully it never gets loose on the water again. If it does, I won’t get out of the kayak to tighten it.
• Even though I was in 50ft of water when the reels got dunked, some very fine sand got in all the reels. Never a good idea to dunk reels no matter how deep you are.
• Everything tethered stayed tethered.
• The floating Action Hat GoPro mount did its job and I was able to retrieve my cap that had fallen off my head.
• The Garmin 44CV Plus fish finder and the Bixpy battery were completely submerged for a few minutes and didn’t short out.

One of the two Ram flush mount rod extenders I was using to hold my rods behind the kayak seat broke, leaving its base wedged in the flush mount. I couldn’t remove that piece, and it was impossible to find that exact Ocean Kayak flush mount rod holder online that would match the screw holes in the kayak, so I ended up having to take the flush mount out and chip away at the protrusion with every tool I owned so it still could be used.

I ended putting that partially filled flush mount in the spot of another flush mount I don’t use much, and put the undamaged flush mount in the spot behind the seat.

Instead of the Ram flush mount extender that couldn’t be locked tight enough to troll with, I’ll see how the Scotty flush mount extender works out. It’s strong and rigid but since it has no give, if I take a strike and the drag is tight, the kayak could flip or the flush mount could rip out of kayak’s base!

Well, they say it’s not IF but WHEN you will flip your kayak. I don’t want to go through that again, but now I have a better awareness of what do if I end up in the water and can’t get back in.

I would hang onto my kayak and first call for help on my VHF radio, and if that doesn’t bring a rescue, I could activate my PLB (Personal Locator Beacon). Bummer is, my rescuers may not be able to bring my kayak in also.

Hoping October has some light wind days!