Friday, July 2, 2010

How To Dump A Kayak

Yep, second day out and I managed to sink it.  Hey, I’m not a sailor.  My brother in law and I went out about 8 AM.  We would go in and out of these tidewater inlets.  We would go as far in as we could and then either back paddle or turn around.  We had been doing this for several hours because the main water was getting a little choppy with 1 1/2 foot waves.  We are in an inlet with the Atlantic Ocean on the other side.  We looked good.  Some people call it dumb.  Anyhow, I learned everything you do in these skinny boats has to planned and precise. I was turning around in a very small canal, flipping my paddle around, and then I made the fatal mistake.  I didn’t figure it out till later but you can only do one thing at a time in these floating plastic cigars.  So, I was going for my third thing at once which was turning my body around to see where my fellow kayaker was.  This skinny boat had the nerve to dump me.  Yep, over I went, no hesitation, no warning for the newbie.  It was an adventure to say the least.  Now, it even gets better.  We are in muck.  You that mud that these spas put on your body to cleanse your pours.  I was getting very cleanse.  Went I tried to left this flooded log over my head to get the water out, I sank to my knees in muck.  I can’t go ashore even though it’s two or three feet away.  So now my boat is full of brown sea water and I’m up to my knees in muck.  My brother in law is dying from laughter.  I have never seen him laugh so hard.  It was funny and I was laughing too.  Hey, when you are down and out you left up your head and shout  “Hey, I’m down and out” and make the best of it and laughter it was in this case for sure.  I finally got unstuck out of the much where it only came up to my ankles.  Now back to the original problem – getting back into this skinny boat that seems to be narrower than me at the time.  You know, never say never.  The first time I tried to get on this stick of a boat, I went from one side of the boat and got dumped to the other side into the mucky bank.  Now that was really funny.  I was lucky.  I was going face first when I decided to do the old tuck and roll routine.  I landed on my back and only sunk a few inches.  Yes, to add to the fun they’re were little fiddler crabs all over the place.  I was great entertainment for them. So after about 6 or so tries I landed in the middle of the skinny boat.  Now I had about 3-4 inches of water to get out.  I did bring an orange rag.  It took at least fifteen minutes to get most of the water out and muck was all over the place.  So we made it back the few miles and I spent another 1/2 hour of cleaning the boat and myself at the dock.  I was lucky I had my electronic car key in a zip lock bag and in a dry compartment in the boat.  I was unlucky that they both leaked and the key was very soaked with salt water.  My brother in law went and got Carol and the other key for the car.  When she arrived we went out for another jaunt but  not into any canals.  The water started getting choppy again so after a couple of miles we returned to the dock.  We called it a day for kayaking.  I think my brother in law is still laughing. It was fun and that’s what it’s about.  No camera and thank goodness only because it would have been a loss.

The day ended with cooking crabs, corn and taters.  That I have pictures of and will show when I finished getting off all this muck off me……..

See ya………….

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