Quitting while you're ahead: Ending a trip early

27 May, 2018, 6 min, 1011 words

I had the dubious pleasure today of ending a trip early. We talk a lot about safety during training, and it became pretty clear that I couldn't keep this group of clients safe in the long run if we stayed out on the water. So we ended the trip early and came back to shore. This was a fabulous learning experience for me. It also showed me how well-prepared I actually am to keep people safe out there. On the whole, I'm proud of my actions, though there's plenty I would do differently next time. Here's how the whole thing went down.

Getting started

Packing and group preparation on the beach. This took a little longer than usual, as we had to swap some spray skirts, and my clients did a great job asking questions when they were confused. In retrospect, I noticed during this time that the wind was louder than usual, as I had to really speak up to be heard by everyone.
Launch. The wind was starting to pick up when we launched, but it still looked fairly reasonable out, so we went ahead and got on the water.

On the water

Fighting the wind. The wind strengthened during and after our launch, and pretty quickly I started seeing not-insignificant seas. Our group, which varied significantly in experience, started to have difficulty staying together, and progress into the wind was slow at best.
Checking in. At this point I checked in with my clients to see how they were doing. All six were excited and having a good time, so I decided we could stay out a little longer. Then the wind and waves started picking up again.
Calling for advice. I got two of three boats to raft up to buy me some time. In that time, and while keeping an eye on the third boat, I tried to call a colleague on the radio to get a report on waves further out. Later I called the office to let them know we were going in.

Quitting while we were ahead

Calling it quits. While making those calls, the wind started blowing us in towards shore, and one boat started having difficulty keeping away from shore. I also saw one double get drenched by a wave. It was getting rough out, and showed no signs of letting up. It was time to get off the water, so I told everyone we were turning around. Here's where it started to get a little funky. My group continued to have difficulty staying together, so I hopped between doubles and explained the landing process.
Landing. I landed first, as usual, and called people in, one boat at a time. All that is normal. What isn't normal was me wading out to my upper thighs to help drag people in. In those waves, it seemed like the safest option, and I'm lucky enough to have fabulous bibs that kept me nice and dry. I called in the least confident boat first, then ran over to the second least confident, and finally called in the most confident paddlers.
Wrapping things up. Once on land, I got everyone set up with hot chocolate and snacks on the beach. People were wet and cold, so this was a great morale booster, and it bought me time to coordinate with the office and start unpacking boats.

When we all got back to the office, I checked our local airport's weather again. This is what it looked like: south winds at six miles an hour until we launched. Then, the winds jumped to sixteen miles and hour. In the next hour gusts started blowing at up to 27 miles per hour. Typically we start thinking twice about going out with clients around ten or twelve miles per hour. In retrospect, ending a trip early was absolutely the right decision.

Reflection

My reflection on this series of events started as soon as everyone was safely ashore. While I got clients situated with hot chocolate and snacks, I started to second-guess and analyze my decisions. My boss, Trent, also knew that I'd need some time and space to debrief, so after unpacking the trip we sat down to discuss it. This was a really valuable time to reflect and discuss my actions out on the water. And finally, this post is a further attempt to synthesize all of those feelings and thoughts into a coherent and actionable whole. Ending a trip early can be scary, but I learned a lot from it, which I'll be bringing to trips in the future.

Things I'll do differently next time

There are two key things I'm going to do differently next time. The first is that I'll pay more attention to trends in wind and waves while out on the beach getting ready. That might have allowed me to call the trip before getting out on the water. The second change is that I'm going to trust my gut when making these decisions. As a guide, ending a trip early is my decision, and I don't need to call others for help making it. I need to make a decision and execute on it.

Other than that, I'm going to work on getting names down pat. Under pressure, it's doubly important to remember people's names, but it's also doubly hard.

Pride

There's plenty that I'd change, but it's also important to reflect on what went well. I'm really proud of how I managed a group of three double kayaks out on some rough waters, and of making a call based on the situation. I noticed that I was feeling nervous, and instead of hurrying and missing things, I slowed down and focused on being deliberate in my actions. On top of that, I'm proud that even in a stressful situation, I stayed positive and encouraging. My clients clearly responded to that. Even though they were disappointed by having to cut their tour short, all of them were quite positive and enjoyed their limited time on the water.