02-13-2010, 09:42 PM
[cool][#0000ff]You are thinking in the right direction. It is better to take decisive action in the right direction...trusting in the natural floatation of your craft and most of your gear...than to panic and start thrashing wildly. Unless the tube is completely flat deflated there will be some remaining air for a bit of floatation. And, if you are in compliance with most state laws, you will have a PFD aboard, even if it is not fastened on your body. Very difficult to sink a human that is essentially positively buoyant to begin with.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water in the waders sinking you? Common fear but not likely. Water inside the waders does not weigh any more than water outside the waders. But, the waders do have some weight. So do your rods, reels and tackle. If you truly fear being dragged down, ditch some gear. But the waders are not likely to take on water unless you sink really low. Even then, you can lay over backwards and propel yourself pretty good with fin power...keeping you and your craft above water and moving well.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have a humorous story about TubeBabe too. When we lived in Arizona we sometimes balanced our round tubes on our heads while hiking short distances from where we had to park to where we wanted to launch. Those trails often took us through spiny trees and cactus plants that had plenty of non-friendly protuberances...not good for float tubes. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]On one trip I successfully launched first and was starting to kick out away from shore as TubeBabe sat back in her tube. Even from a few feet away I could hear the sound of bubbles and could see a couple of streams of them coming up from one side of her tube. She had bumped into something stickery on the way to the water and her trip was over before it got started. The plus side is that she found some crappies close to shore and still got some nice fish from the bank.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There were other times when we got leaks in our craft simply from setting them down on the waterline without looking. Floating cactus spines would gather at waters edge and of course they always pointed up to catch the descending tubes. Arizona was not always tuber friendly.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Water in the waders sinking you? Common fear but not likely. Water inside the waders does not weigh any more than water outside the waders. But, the waders do have some weight. So do your rods, reels and tackle. If you truly fear being dragged down, ditch some gear. But the waders are not likely to take on water unless you sink really low. Even then, you can lay over backwards and propel yourself pretty good with fin power...keeping you and your craft above water and moving well.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I have a humorous story about TubeBabe too. When we lived in Arizona we sometimes balanced our round tubes on our heads while hiking short distances from where we had to park to where we wanted to launch. Those trails often took us through spiny trees and cactus plants that had plenty of non-friendly protuberances...not good for float tubes. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]On one trip I successfully launched first and was starting to kick out away from shore as TubeBabe sat back in her tube. Even from a few feet away I could hear the sound of bubbles and could see a couple of streams of them coming up from one side of her tube. She had bumped into something stickery on the way to the water and her trip was over before it got started. The plus side is that she found some crappies close to shore and still got some nice fish from the bank.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There were other times when we got leaks in our craft simply from setting them down on the waterline without looking. Floating cactus spines would gather at waters edge and of course they always pointed up to catch the descending tubes. Arizona was not always tuber friendly.[/#0000ff]
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