new shark attack.

What else is new.  There's shark attacks and sightings all up and down the coast.  You can either make your peace with the landlord, or stick to the sweetwater.  

I think diving really changes your view of sharks in the kayak.  After swimming around more or less naked, having a big plastic shield under you is awful comforting.

Hey Mooch are you fishing in the triangle in this swell? lordie maybe I should get out there with you that can be some of the most exciting paddling to be had around here

nah - I checked the forcast on Monday and there was a small craft advisory for this Saturday. I just checked it again today and it seems like they dropped small craft advisory. We were just going to paddle around and not fish - I just wanted to give her a tour. Still, I'll be taking her to the RWC sloughs instead. I'll bring one rod and troll for stripers at the sloughs.

Here's that link from KGO

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=3599709

Here's a link with descriptions of all shark attacks on the West Coast. Only 5% of all attacks have been on kayaks.

http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/unprovoked_kayaker.htm

You got to love the first line. Unprovoked attacks!! Who the hell provoked them?

You got to love the first line. Unprovoked attacks!! Who the hell provoked them?

yeah! No kidding! I guess just being on the water is "provoking" enough But then again...it doesn't help when your wearing a seal costume   ....and just happen to be surfing  

I cringe at the thought of a GW puncturing my kayak, taking on water, and not being able to paddling back.

Ditto.  I have been investigating real flotation for our yaks in the case of this, or other more plausible swampings.  Pescadore told me a story of a Scrambler XT with a failed scupper that swamped back when he did tours.  This could REALLY suck in the wrong setting.

From my own swamping experience, we were fine because of sideriggers, dispite the boat being underwater.  Side-riggers are out of the question, but there are paddle floatie things (kind of like kids water-wings for a paddle) if you could use those and lash your paddle crosswise on the deck, you'd probably stay upright at least.  Of course then you're paddle-less.  Hopefully your buddy would tow you in rather than tip you over.  

I don't know if you could make this work on a SOT but these "training wheels" looked interesting to me: http://www.pygmyboats.com/mall/GE10SPEC.asp Why not blast some expanding foam up into the Bow and Stearn of the boat. I don't think it would take much flotation to keep your boat up and also you probably wouldn't lose much storage area. Maybe you could even mount your fish finder transducer way up front and encase it with foam. Has anyone ever added a hatch to the very back of their tank wells. It seems like the Prowler well has a round spot that would be perfect for a hatch. That would give you easy access way back if you were touting and also give you an access to spray in some foam. Just a thought.

I went salmon fishing on a friends boat earlier this year and saw a pod of Killer Whales working on a Humpback baby. We were the only ones out there on a Monday and watched for about 1/2 an hour. We got close, but not too close. It seemed to me the larger Orcas were teaching the babies how to hunt. There was no blood in the water yet, tons of birds circling tho.
It looked like they were trying to drown the Humpback. They just kept swimming on top of it pushing it back under water.
I could only imagine the stress the Humpback was feeling. It was a spectacular sight to see in Monterey bay.

It seems like the Prowler well has a round spot that would be perfect for a hatch.

davkrat,

That round spot can be used for a hatch - but I think that option was originally intended for mounting the rudder kit. I actually thought of putting a hatch back there anyway - just for kayak camping purposes.

That's what I was thinking Mooch. That's why kayaks are so appealing to me you can use them in the ocean, small alpine lakes, camp out of them and run them down rivers and streams. Beats the hell out of a gas guzzling $50,000 boat you can only use in the Ocean or Tahoe! I've read somewhere else that when you are touring your drybags act as floatation should you capsize. Seems like a hatch back there might not be a bad idea.

See this page for shark attacks from this year and as far back as records were kept. It also links to attacks by type: kayak, swimming, surfing, boats and so on.  
                 http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific_coast_shark_news.htm

2 thoughts:
1) Could the years of shark "research" done at the Farallons by  trailing surfboards and similar decoys behind a boat to try and attract GWS's be a conditioning thing? I know I'm not the first to ask this question. I'm fascinated by this research and I admire the researchers, but I don't think that surf board part was well thought out.
2)As far as flooded boats go, I had the front hatch of my Nomad completely full of water once at the wash rocks south of Reef campground - spear gun got hung up half-in and half-out of the hatch; big swells filled it FAST. The boat still floated (it's built in 3 compartments) and I managed to paddle it back to shore (backwards). One redeeming thing about the Nomad!

They stated it was whitey

There really aren't any other sharks out here that attack surfers, are there? The only other sharks out here big enough to attack someone might be blues, threshers, and bonito sharks (Pacific version of the mako), but it never seems to happen.