# Boating safety-missing kayaker



## choppyseas (Jul 14, 2016)

We had a scary night on the Cape Fear the night before last. We sailed our Super Sunfish to Sharkstooth Island and camped for the night. Around dark the Coast Guard came to the island and questioned everyone about a missing woman in a red bikini. Her kayak had been found but she wasn't in it. For four hours the helicopters flew overhead with spotlights and boats everywhere searching (I know the article says it was only 3 but it was definitely 4). Thankfully she was found alive on a neighboring island. This is a reminder of an important lesson! It's important to check your charts before leaving on any kind of boating trip so that, not only do you know where you're going and have a route in mind (so that you can let someone else know where you're going) but so you know your surroundings in case of an emergency. I try to always create a route on my Navionics app and share it with someone before I leave and familiarize myself with landmarks, etc. I learned this lesson in high school: my sister and I went for a short afternoon kayak (normally around an hour). We lost track of time and it was almost four hours before we returned. Our parents had just called the Coast Guard but all they knew was the general vicinity we said we were going. We hadn't given them a route or anything so it would have taken much longer to find us had we actually been in trouble.

Missing woman found after crews searched land, water for 3 hours - WECT TV6-WECT.com:News, weather & sports Wilmington, NC


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

How was the weather? I would have thought it was blowing stink and the sea was still rough.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

And I thought you were going to tell us a story about an ex-con and..........


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## SENCMac26x (Sep 16, 2014)

I sail up that river all the time and have thought many times about stopping on one of those islands for the night to camp out, but have always been worried about old pylons, trees just under the water.

Did you have any issues?


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## choppyseas (Jul 14, 2016)

SENCMac26x said:


> I sail up that river all the time and have thought many times about stopping on one of those islands for the night to camp out, but have always been worried about old pylons, trees just under the water.
> 
> Did you have any issues?


No, we did not have any issues. We always use Navionics mobile app which shows where the hazards are. It's a great app because it's constantly updated both by Navionics and by users (community edits). Outside the shipping lane it gets pretty shallow but you can see that (and any other dangerous hazard) on the charts. We always have a great time there.


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