Check Six

Weather is such a huge part of living in the midwest.  Average folks with no interest in climate change, hydrology or anything that resembles science subscribe to 3 or 4 weather sites, follow a meteorologist like a religious guru, have NWS or Weather.com on their phone, and know the minute of multiple radio or TV forecasts.
Only in the upper midwest will you find people who know about derechos, dew points, wall clouds, uplift, and who can read a radar plot and base their activities on what's coming.

And so there we were - out on the lake for a leisurely set of level 4 intervals with 10 athletes.  I knew the storm was supposed to hit the area, but looking at the radar, looking at the storm track, and at the ground speed, I figured we had until about 6:30 or maybe even 7:00 to get off the water...

Wrong...

Fighter pilots have an expression "check six" - meaning to look to see what's on your tail (the 6:00 position on a clock face).  It applies to any outdoor sport as well.  Look behind you, or move away from the shore to see what the sky may be bringing.  In our case, a quick look at our '6' suggested the storm had picked up speed as it moved toward the metro!

We started hearing thunder and seeing distant lightning at 5:30.  We were already off the water for a team meeting, so we weren't heading back out in any case.  Ten minutes later, the gust front hit, and raindrops started to fall.  Fortunately it wasn't really windy.  We caught a ride back to the cars, and came back down to pick up boats.  All the time, it was raining 1-2" per hour!  And just as a bonus, we had the K4 out on the water.  Hint - to transport a K-4 on top of a Suburban, use a long ladder as a rack extender. It still sticks out a couple of feet on either end (ok, more than a couple of feet), but it will get the job done for around the neighborhood.  And who says Mother Nature doesn't have a sense of humor?  We got everything put away, and as I headed home, the rain stopped, the storm had moved through, and the sun was thinking about making an appearance.

At the end of the day, I looked back at the process.  We stayed within our safety margins, took appropriate action to get athletes and equipment off the water *before* the squall hit, and executed a bailout plan.
What would have happened if we'd gotten caught out?  Always have a contingency plan.  We have half a dozen specific houses along the lake, plus two park buildings, that are 'safety points' for weather (or other) emergencies.  At worst, you'd have a bunch of paddlers huddled under the porch waiting for rain to stop.  Someone will usually have a phone you can use to call backup transport.  I should probably get a waterproof cell phone with a keypad.  My very smart android phone is just about useless with water on the faceplate.  And when all else fails, hunker down.  Midwest storms rarely last more than an hour.

And always - check six.

Compendium of errors

Watching water levels rise over much of the country this week, plus seeing a posting that the Snake River Canoe Race is going to require PFDs to be worn this year has me thinking about safety.  I started out planning to write about boating safety, but after watching the carnage at Trans Iowa, creek levels on the Almanzo course, and dodging storms driving back from Oklahoma last weekend, I'm going to broaden out a bit and write mostly about common sense.

Years ago, in another lifetime, I was a sailor.   I raced on Puget Sound in everything from 14' dinghies to 50' ocean racing yachts.  But most of the time, I was racing in 24' one design boats of one form or another.  And we raced in some truly idiotic conditions.  Usually, foul weather gear, wool pants and a wool sweater were enough to keep you pretty toasty, but with 48 degree water, 42 degree air, and often a little rain or spray - hypothermia could be a real danger.  And there's nothing like a 30knot breeze, too much sail, bad judgement and an abortive spinnaker run to put you in the water, further hampering your decision making processes.
  After a couple of instances like that, I took safety a little more seriously - in fact attending a symposium on rescue techniques and survival.  One of the presenters was a Coast Guard captain who talked about several incidents, and their chronology.  I've never forgotten the phrase "a compendium of errors" that he used to describe the chain of events leading up to the final disaster.  In most of the cases he cited, it wasn't one single event that caused the problem - it was a chain of manageable crises, any one of which could probably have been survived, but when coupled together spelled disaster. Wife unfamiliar with operating the diesel, husband knocked unconscious by the boom, poor grounding on the electrics affecting radio and instruments, no radar reflector and rapidly degrading weather.  Any one or even two of these could likely have been handled, but in the end...
A compendium of errors.

I've gotten home from springtime bike rides shaking so badly that I had a hard time opening the door and stood in the shower with my clothes on until the hot water was gone trying to warm up. A flat tire would've been more than I could've handled.  I've also done a quick strip on the side of the river to put on dry clothing after an untimely swim in mid-April, when staying wet would've likely been problematic - but dry and quickly warming up, I continued on for the rest of the 4 hour paddle.  And I've lost a good friend in a surfski accident on an inland lake due to that same compendium of errors.  Temperature and precipitation are not your friends in the spring and fall.

I haven't had a chance to talk to Trans Iowa riders yet, but I'd bet that the ones who survived and the ones who had to stop have some incredible war stories of cold, wind, rain, storms, mud and maybe a little glory.  Incredible effort this year.

OK, enough doom and gloom.  Whether riding, paddling, sailing or hiking in the spring (or any other time) be prepared for conditions.  "Check six" as pilots say - look behind you to see what the weather is doing.  If you are paddling, have a change of clothes and a warm hat.  Bring a rain jacket, fingered gloves, a vest, cape or whatever.  Bring a little extra food, and make sure you know the conditions.  Traveling in the spring often gives you a different perspective on the countryside, so enjoy it.  But be prepared for the conditions.