Usually we find only seals and eagles when we paddle in the local waters, but earlier today some local kayakers found what appeared to be unexploded military ordinace floating in the water off Trial Island. Did their paddle end in a bang? Read about it
here.
*&&#@( #&*%ing $)&@#!^ what a bumblef%ck that was. At least our kayaking neighbours seem to know Rule 1 about finding anything out of the ordinary when paddling: Take A Picture Of It. Okay, maybe a photo of it floating so that one is not handling unexploded scary stuff.
ReplyDeleteRule 2 is of course, call the authorities. 911 is not turning out to be a very authoritative bunch of first responders, at least in Victoria. Two years ago a couple of guys and their golden retriever fell out of a little motorboat near Trial Island and the 911 operator they reached was no help at all. Her supervisor had to play the recording of their call several times before figuring out that they were in a boat capsized near Clover Point, and maybe the Harbour Patrol or someone should be sent to help them.
My suggestion for Rule 2 is to call the authorities and offer to meet them at the corner of one street and another, and pick an intersection right smack next to the nearest beach. (In fact, I'm going to commit to memory a number of such intersections, such as Sinclair Road and Cadboro Bay Road by Cadboro Bay Gyro Park Beach.) Then a paddle group has the option of sending one person ashore to meet with the arriving cops, while the rest stay with the object that's out of the ordinary; or perhaps the right option might be to bring the object to the meeting spot.
It's becoming increasingly clear, though, that a caller being "just offshore" is a very confusing thing for 911 operators, cops, and other useful authority people. We shall have to find clear ways to describe our watery locations, and we shall have to figure out well in advance just who to call -- because 911 is not always the answer.
Although I have to say the few times I have required 911, they've done a great and professional job.
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