Safety: the decisions, in order
Safety on the coast is not a list of equipment, it is a sequence of decisions made on shore, then revised on the water. This is the sequence that the segment guides in this atlas assume.
Before you leave the house
Pick the piece of water from what you have paddled before, not from what looks good in a photo. Read the forecast for the hours you will be out, and read it again for the hours after that, because being late is the most common way people end up out in weather they did not plan for. Name two bail-outs on the map before you go.
Tell someone ashore: route, launch point, expected return, and what to do if you are two hours late. Give them the coastguard number and the name of the harbour you would come ashore at. This is the single cheapest safety measure available and the one most often skipped.
On the beach
Look at the water before you unload. Five minutes of watching tells you the swell period, whether there is a set pattern, where the clapotis is bouncing off the cliffs, and whether the wind is doing what the forecast said. If what you see does not match the plan, change the plan. Nobody has ever regretted not paddling.
Agree the signals and the order of the group on the water, agree who is leading and who is sweeping, and agree the turnaround time out loud. A turnaround time that is decided on the beach is kept far more often than one that is decided at sea, because it was not negotiated under pressure.
On the water
Keep the group within sight and keep the least experienced boat in the middle. Recheck the turnaround time against the actual progress at the halfway point rather than the planned one. In a tidal passage, decide before you enter whether you are committing to the transit, and know what the next slack is if you are not.
Cold is the most under-rated hazard on this coast. Watch for the person who has gone quiet, whose strokes have lost their shape, who is no longer making decisions. That is the moment to land, feed them, and put on a layer, not fifteen minutes later.
If it goes wrong
Priority order: keep everyone out of the water, keep the group together, then deal with the situation. A swimmer is the emergency; a boat that has drifted is a problem to solve afterwards. Call for help early rather than late — a mayday that turns out to be unnecessary costs nothing, and the coastguard would rather be told twice than not at all.
If you cannot get back into a boat, stay with the boat. It is bigger than you on a radar and it floats. If you are in a group, raft up. If you are alone, this is the point at which the personal locator beacon and the VHF on your person justify every penny they cost.