If you're going to paddle at night (or anytime when there is a lot of boat
traffic) carry a loud whistle.

If it is large, fast traffic, I suggest one of those canned air horns under
the front straps. Use this first and keep the whistle connected to your vest
as a back-up. We may not be "Big" in the grand scheme of things but we can
at least sound big.

--

"John Fereira" wrote in message
.. .
"Joe Pylka" wrote in
ink.net:

How confident are you that you know for sure where
the boat that's going to hit you is coming from, so you can point your
light toward it?

Good question. A visible signal is only good if someone is looking in the
right direction. A few years ago about 10 of us were on a small lake for
a
moonlight paddle. All but two had headlamps. We saw a boat approaching
so
everyone looked in that direction and started shaking our heads so that
the
boat operator could see us. When it got to about 200' away I realized
that
they were not looking in our direction so I blew my very loud whistle.
That
got their attention immediately and they veered off.

If you're going to paddle at night (or anytime when there is a lot of boat
traffic) carry a loud whistle.

Kenneth McClelland wrote:

If you're going to paddle at night (or anytime when there is a lot of boat
traffic) carry a loud whistle.


If it is large, fast traffic, I suggest one of those canned air horns under
the front straps. Use this first and keep the whistle connected to your vest
as a back-up. We may not be "Big" in the grand scheme of things but we can
at least sound big.

Another alternative is one of the "Safety Blaster" horns, which are lung
powered. They're MUCH louder than any whistle, but take less breath to
operate. Since getting one of these, I don't bother with whistles
anymore. There are two models. The larger one (commonly found at marine
stores) is too big for kayaking, but the smaller one will fit in a PFD
pocket.