I FINALLY got back to the boathouse!
It was so, SO good to be back.
The day was insanely busy.
But only one person fell in, and only one person lost their wallet in the river.
(They should not have had it with them, we do provide free lockers. And we warn people.)
After the public program ended, I was desperate to get on the wter.
Not only because I miss kayaking, but also because i needed to test out my ew kayak plein air setup.
Wierdly, no one else went out. That's really unusual.
It did not go well.
The setup is fine and will work great, but I really screwed up.
I don't like being in the embayment alone and I was so conscious of it.
And also.............
Basically, there was a current that was pulling people out all day.
It wasn't hard to paddle, but the drift was FAST.
I drifted out WAY past the boundaries and didn't even realize it... it really happened so fast.
I had a massive OH SHIT moment and i have never paddled so fast in my life.
It was bad.
I was genuinely scared because I was absolutely definitely not supposed to be in the middle of large boat traffic. Not like that.
But I got back ok.
Everything got wet and I was shaken so I went back in.
I wasn't even out for a half hour.
Next time I'm going to take a tow rope and tie myself to a buoy... this was a brilliant suggestion given by another volunteer.
My boathouse keyholder people were very nice about it but I did apologize profusely.
This is officially my scariest plein air experience and I have nothing to show for it but I sure will next time!
I am so glad it turned to a positive point of a lesson not a tragedy. I was scared similarly but not quite as bad. I was on a swift river and I couldn't get back to where I was supposed to be due to the fast flow. My brother has to come and tow me back. Scary and embarrassing plus my brother was angry.
ReplyDelete