Not by the hair on my nuggie nuggie nuggets!

Crocks sheesh Californians 

Glad you got the chance to experience all that's involved with the big blue without becoming a statistic, also glad your willing to share your experience so that other "fng's" (all in fun) can take a moment to reflect on what happened to you and then ask themselves " what am I going to do WHEN ( not if ) that's happens to me. My first ocean swim was a rookie mistake and it can be scary, not so bad when there are others on yaks around but the one thing that stuck in my head was looking at the beach thinking if I couldn't get back onboard, could I swim that far. Thanks for the share stay safe with the buddy system and keep at it.
Ps. I found it relatively easy to push my Big Tuna over from the side I was on, but 17 years packing trash I got a little upper body strength. 

The wood slats are custom to keep the pads from oil canning the hull in 4 spots

 

Have you considered joining NWKA and posting up I'm in Tillamook bay and the salmon fishing isn't bad, no luck on the buddys pb this weekend but we seen a few netted.

Looks like it makes good fisherman bait from the responses so far