Self rescue Dry Bag

When I got into Kayaking and the solo Freedom Hawks, my wife paid for a two hour+ instruction from a local guide.

One of the things, the guide stressed was to use a small dry bag with a tether to hold certain gear.

She said to blow air into the bag after I put the gear in and then seal it with a 3' tether attached to an outer part of the yak. That way if the yak flipped, and I was tethered to the yak, the tethered paddles and my dry rescue bag would be floating together.

In most of my areas, a VHF is worthless. So I carry an ARS rescue beacon:

http://www.wmjmarine.com/marine-safety- ... eacon.html

When, I graduate to using my yaks in salt water bays, I will take my Uniden Atlantis 250 which floats.

Now, I double zip lock bag my cell phone, even that in many areas doesn't work due to lack of cell coverage. There is good coverage on my local river and one of the lakes.

I have a regular Leatherman and one with brush loppers, other tools and a saw blade in the bag. I have ordered a fisherman's/Diver's fixed blade knife to wear attached to my PFD.

I have tested the REI dry bag re its ability to float with the air and gear/stuff in it in swimming pools and water by launch sites. It floats and keeps the gear dry.

The bag is hung with its tether by our back door where I keep my truck keys. That way, I don't forget it. I keep the Uniden in the same area where it can be charged.

A younger 40 something relative, who has been boating since he was a teenager, liked the floating dry bag and has a similiar one with stuff in his. He has a couple of the 5 hour energy drinks and a couple of sealed granola bars.

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2009 Oasis
2012 Freedom Hawk Pathfinder

Great advice. Thanks for sharing it.

I don't want to pour cold water on what may be a life-saving idea but suggest that anyone interested should test this idea carefully before relying on it in extremis...

I believe that a lot of designs of dry bag (particularly the roll-top type) are designed to keep water OUT, not to keep air IN. If you were to try to support yourself using an air filled dry bag, particularly one with such a one-way seal or which had not been sealed up with some care, you might just end up "popping" the bag open and losing the air and the buoyancy you anticapted relying upon.

Personally I try to expel as much air as possible from my roll-top drybags when I use them - to allow me to put as many rolls as possible in the top and thus hopefully to ensure a good seal. I am pretty sure that they will still provide some +ve buoyancy as long as I am not storing a large lead acid battery in them. I also usually stow the smaller ones inside my kayak - only the larger holdall sized one (for camping trips) goes on the external luggage deck.

I also hate the idea of being tethered to the kayak - too many lines in the water to get tangled up in for my liking. Modern cordage is unforgivingly strong and it would be the devil's own job to untether/untangle yourself in a hurry if you needed to (e.g. imagine being tethered to a rolled-over kayak in a shorebreak!). An estwhile aquaintance of mine's daughter drowned as a result of becoming tangled up in the cordage of her capsized dinghy and he suffered a heart attack and died diving to try to rescue her... I have been over a few times in my kayak and even with just fishing gear and a rolled up sail dangling from the kayak it is still easy to get tangled and takes ages to get everything back into order on the righted boat and you aboard again. For my part the fewer lines trailing in the water and/or attached to me the better.