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British kayaker rescued clinging to buoy in Channel

a bit more info. He stated using an inflatable:
www.dailymail.co.uk

Rescuers baffled by claims Brit kayaker survived 12 days adrift at sea

Exclusive: The man, believed to be from Manchester, nearly drowned after being separated from his kayak for two days, French authorities confirmed.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
the story seems odd, sometimes migrants use inflatables to try and enter England . . .

the channel buoy:
ChannelBuoy.jpg
 
Absolutely staggering. 26 degrees Celsius is insanely cold for a human body temperature.

One has to wonder what his thinking was before setting out. Were mind altering substances involved?
 
So was the temperature really 36 degrees, not 26, and the time out in hours, not days? He had "lost the plot" by going so a lot more can have been "lost".

There was mention it was an inflatable kayak by one news media.
 
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Well 36C is almost as warm as the human body's core temp, which is 37C (98.6F) I doubt the English Channel would ever be that warm. Journaists are notoriously inaccurate in their reporting, but 36C is a temp I don't think you could get to in Tahiti
 
OK I see what is said now. His core temp was 36C! That is sensible. He was hypodermic. The water was not 36C.

Any way you look at it, the story is amazing that #1 he'd try such a think in only clothing that can't help him and #2 he was so blessed by God (Most call that being lucky, but I think it was an act of God to not let him die at that time and place)

A fishing boat just happened to spot him?

He was a very tiny speck in a very big ocean and the odds of them spotting him because the boat was off their regular route and timing was astronomically against him. What would that be? 1,000,000 to 1? Maybe even higher.?
But if it was God's intervention it was one chance in one.
I hope he is grateful.
 
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SZihn said:
He was a very tiny speck in a very big ocean
Click to expand...

Clinging to the buoy actually mitigates the "tiny speck, big ocean" problem to a significant degree. As the French spokeswoman in the BBC article noted, more than 400 commercial ships per day transit the English Channel, and they all have to pass fairly close to the Colbart Nord buoy. According to the AIS tracker at marinetraffic.com, there is a ship less than 1100 meters from the buoy right now, and that's just the random instant I happened to check. On any given day, he likely had a dozen or more chances to be spotted clinging to the buoy.

When you think about it, in a way, aren't we all trying to "kayak to Spain?"

Buoy and ships.jpg


Alex
 
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