Canoes are known for tipping over, most come with enough flotation so they won't sink. Stock flotation is often just for neutral buoyancy, adding flotation is an optionadding flotation is an option but if I have not done that, my canoe is likely to sink when I get in, and float back up when I get out.
Assuming, I can't get myself in the canoe and the water out (self recovery has failed). It is just me and my swamped canoe, no help in sight, what do I do?
I have not been drinking and I am wearing a life jacket (PFD).
Note I recognize that it is possible to get back in a canoe and bail out any remaining water, but it is also not always possible. Getting in without filling it with water, is a skill; lack of practice, environmental factors, or injury can make it impossible.
Bailing out a Canoe full of water I have been searching for a good image of a swamped canoe, this image of a young boy alone in canoe, water at the gunwale, shows how low a canoe full of water floats. It doesn't really float so much, as just does not sink. If I put my 180 pounds in my canoe, when it is full of water, all of the canoe goes under water. I float in my life jacket, with the canoe 2 feet under.