SteveBoal wrote:
I hope that "sinking" is a figure of speech.

Canoes - even loaded ones - should still float when swamped It's darn near impossible to pack a barrel or pack so densely that it is heavier than water. But yes, waves with tailwinds can be dangerous. I remember once finishing a portage and reloading my canoe at one end of a lake with near dead calm conditions (in the lea of the forest and hills) and encountering ever increasing tail winds and waves as I headed down the lake. Just 2-3 km later, at the far end, the "surf" was so large that it was extremely difficult to land.
Steve, landing in waves and “surf” can be as challenging as being out in the maelstrom. I have beaten the hell out of some canoes landing with a gear load on wave swept rocks.
“Swamped” or “submerged” would have been a more accurate word choice for that episode.
Mike McCrea wrote:
beware factors an overloaded canoe and stupid decision making.
I was coming off a trip on Grand Lake Matagamon with my brother in law 30 years ago. We were paddling a small tandem. A small overloaded tandem. The further out we got from any protection the steeper the tailwind waves became, until they were coming within inches of the gunwales as they swept past the canoe. I needed to time my strokes in the stern to essentially lift the canoe on the face of each successive wave.
Just as things became really dicey my novice BIL, who had no idea of the trouble we were in, decided to stop paddling and take his gloves off. With that sudden lack of propulsion the next several waves poured over the gunwales as they passed. I think my exact words were “F#$% the gloves, paddle dammit!”
We managed to make the backside of a mid-lake rock, emptied the water, sat there until my heart rate went down and wisely decided to paddle towards the far shore upwind into the waves, away from our intended destination until we could sneak along the shoreline where rescue and recovery would be easier.
Paddling upwind, into those same height waves, did not threaten to pour water over the gunwales with each passing wave and we managed to sneak our way along the far shore to the take out.