[alanw]

I have a short 5' rope tied to my front handle mount which goes under the front hatch and is ran through my spare paddle and my hand pump. The rope keeps the safety items from sliding out of reach. I can access them through my side hatches or the front hatch. They were one of the first items I bought for my kayak, and hopefully I'll never need them.

When paddling my kayak I sometimes look at the scupper hole by my feet for water level. I know where that water level should be and would start investigating if the water seemed higher than normal. I've always assumed the kayak, if taking on water, would sit level while lowered in the water. Thanks for this report because now I will think about the possibility of the rear sinking lower than the front, which means my habit of looking at the forward scupper for water level monitoring might not work.

This also means that even a bilge pump mounted in the lowest part of the kayak might be ineffective if the kayak sits in an out of level condition when filling with water.