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AK float plane pilot retrieves stranded kite boarder

Yes it's good news, but I gotta say anyone who kiteboards or windsurfs in Turnagain Arm is fishing for a Darwin Award. That cold, dirty, turbulent, windy water ain't your friend....
 
yea.. i hear that...

From the aviation side, it sure beats those "C-152 crashed in cemetery dozens of bodies found and many more feared dead" type of news stories :)
 
Good story, what was the reason a boat of some type could not reach him?
 
Ron B said:
Good story, what was the reason a boat of some type could not reach him?

The nearest boat ramp is 25 miles away located in Knik Arm. Generally speaking, there is Zero recreational boating in Turnagain Arm. Between the shallow mud flats, boar tides, whitecaps of wind driven water and treacherous currents, it is probably some of the most dangerous water in the world.
 
N3243A said:
Yes it's good news, but I gotta say anyone who kiteboards or windsurfs in Turnagain Arm is fishing for a Darwin Award.

Mind you, there's probably a bunch of people who think the same thing about landing an airplane where there's no airport, just for the hell of it.
 
Turnagain Arm is right out my window. For what it's worth it's pretty darned docile at the moment. When it isn't? There are lots of guys who windsurf it and have for years, including some good friends. Not me, mind you, but these guys are not crazy or irresponsible. I've been tempted to take a Zodiac out there many times. I've run a jet boat around the southern end plenty of times bouncing around the 20 Mile and Portage Creek. Further out wouldn't be a big deal in the right tide times. Heck, there's a friggin barge on the mud in front of 20 Mile. An active work boat. How do you suppose it got there? A good friend's dad used to take a canoe across to go moose hunting back in the day. These days most people are scared to get near it.

Good for these guys for having communications and taking care of their problem privately. That's the way it should be done. Bravo.

SB
 
Happy to read all ended well!

Jim is a very proficient bush pilot who flew for Lake Clark Air and now flies for Servant Air out of Lake Hood, he "knows his stuff".

Well done Jim!
 
Ron B said:
Good story, what was the reason a boat of some type could not reach him?

Fire department folks parked on the highway and watched the kitesurfer at a location where there was 3/4 mile of mud between them. If they had gone along the road another half a mile further, they would have been to a channel where an inflatable could have launched.

The most dangerous place for mud(quicksand) in Turnagain Arm is at Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage where many people fish for salmon.
 
Here is a photo of what Turnagain Arm can look like at low tide with the many channels, etc. There can be as much as a 36 foot difference between high and low tide, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia with 42 foot differences. Locations in Nova Scotia have 'toilet bowls' that will take a boat down. Turnagain Arm has nothing like that. I estimate the current in some locations on Turnagain at 8 knots maximum.

IMG_4287.JPG


...and some Cub-Accessed Kite Surfing on Turnagain...

IMG_4280.JPG


enjoy!
 
Nice pics, Dave. Have you noticed how consistently low the tides have been lately? The flats are actually drying in places.

The Arm is glass this morning. Gorgeous.

Stewart
 
Dave Calkins said:
There can be as much as a 36 foot difference between high and low tide, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia with 42 foot differences.


Ehhh, not so fast there Dave. I used to believe this also, told it to everyone who would listen. Trouble is, it ain't so. Yeah, Turnagain Arm has some pretty amazing tides, but it's not in second place. Ungava Bay in northern Quebec has tides about the same height as the bay of Fundy, about 55 ft, if you consider the extreme (difference between lower low water and higher high water) The Canadian Hydrographic Service currently says they'd need to take more measurements to determine which is higher. Bristol Channel in England also has tides close to over 40 feet. The Gulf of St Malo in France and the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia may also have a greater extreme tide range. A while back I saw a tabulation of the places with the greatest extreme tidal ranges, (can't seem to find it again right now) and Turnagain Arm was a surprisingly long way from the top. It was sort of an "Ooops" moment for me, as I hate being a disseminator of misinformation.
 
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