The Tilley Bailer

On a recent canoe trip, down the French Broad River in NC, my husband and I hit a stationary log in the water and were stuck.We used our oars to get the canoe off of the log, but the canoe was quickly turned around sideways to the current and tipped over dumping us and our contents into the swiftly rushing river.

My Tilley Hat stayed on, as I had just pulled the straps down under my chin. My husband, righted the canoe. It was filled with water, which made it very heavy, but, was still floating. The current was swift, and started moving away. We grabbed on and floated down the river with the canoe. The river banks were 90° to the water, so we couldn’t get out of the river, as there was no shore. We kept floating. We saw an area ahead with piled up tree debris, so we steered the canoe over. We were exhausted but able to stand on the debris and tie the canoe to a branch. All we had to bail water with, was a water bottle. That seemed like emptying a swimming pool with a teaspoon.

My husband looked at me and asked me to give him my Tilley Hat. He said it’s water proof and it might work to bail water. Well, the Tilley Hat worked as a bailer - it held about 2 quarts of water! Not only did it hold the water, but the brim was very sturdy and made dumping the water easy. The bailing went much faster, and we were able to climb back in the canoe and finish our trip.

We decided we needed to include a bail bucket on our next canoe trip. But after reconsidering, we decided buying another Tilley Hat was the better recourse. River canoeing has its hazards, and our day could have turned out differently. I am grateful that I had my Tilley hat.

- Sue Tice