In these circumstances, we probably owe a responsibility to ourselves and our loved ones (and sometimes our fellow paddlers) to be able to recover from a capsize. Of course you may be someone who is so expert at re-entry and roll that you can easily enter your cockpit and attach your spraydeck underwater, and roll up, but ....
can you do it in the sort of conditions that would cause you to capsize, and if you did not get all the water out of your boat before you rolled up, how likely are you to capsize again?
A friend who has a very reliable roll, and has practised re-entry and roll extensively, capsized in the sea early this year and found the shock of the cold water sufficient to ensure that his brain could only tell him one thing - 'get out of the kayak'. Luckily, he was not paddling alone.
Probably, the only real alternative is assistance from a paddle float (if you can do a ladder rescue reliably in rough conditions, I take my hat off to you), but we all know the problems - slow to deploy (especially if you have to inflate the float) - does not offer much support if you just stuff the paddle under the deck elastics - uses the one piece of equipment that you would like to have to hand once you are back in the cockpit - still the spraydeck and pumping to do, don't forget.
My personal solution:
Just about allows access to rear hatch (note control line leading forward)
The float deployed.
Standard re-entry via rear deck - feet on the float - roll over as you slide into the cockpit. Pump out, spraydeck on, release the line, and get paddling (the float just settles back beside the hull for now)
Known disadvantages:
Only deploys on one side of the kayak
Some limitation on what else can be carried on the rear deck
Has to be fitted to the kayak - even if only in a low tech way
Small amount of extra windage
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