Cold water is a threat not only to kayakers but to other boaters. Two sea kayakers come to the assistance of a fisherman whose luck was not measured by the size of a fish.

Jeanelle and I live on Discovery Bay, near Sequim, Washington. Several years ago, Jeanelle’s Midwest-based mother, Vera, after learning that we frequently boat on these vast, cold waters, asked, “What do you do if you fall in?” I replied, “We don’t.”
Well, Vera—I fell in.

Last fall, after seven or eight seasons of using an inflatable boat to haul up and gather the contents of shrimp and crab pots, I decided, “Enough.” The boat’s rounded sides and tight crevices made it difficult to clean and provided limited space for carrying gear, so I bought an old shallow-draft 12-foot aluminum skiff from a neighbor. Its smooth sides and flat bottom were easy to clean; however, I soon learned that this boat was much less stable than the inflatable. Jeanelle and I tried it out a couple of times and realized that we had to be careful using it when hauling for crab and shrimp pots. I decided I would use it only in calm weather and would stick with the inflatable for rough-water work.