Shipwrecked! OR The story of why Terry will never go kayaking again

So what did you do for Valentines day? Me? Oh, I got shipwrecked.

So today was Kayaking Day for Terry and I. We were both excited. I had kayaked before in Victoria, and have lots of canoe experience, so was not worried.

We rented our kayak from Iguana Surf. First off, this was not a proper kayak. It was cheap, plastic affair. But I figured, whatever, it is inexpensive and the bay looks pretty calm. The guy renting the kayak asked if we wanted lifejackets. Uh... yeah? I could not believe that was even an option.

We went out, went to an island that was on the lefthand side of the bay. It was full of shells and crabs and bright yellow fish. Neat. The guy at the rental store talked about a island somewhere around here, but this island was rather small so I was not sure if this was what he was talking about. I spied some land further along, but could not determine if it was part of the coast or perhaps THAT was the island he was mentioning.

We made our way out towards the "island". Unfortunately, that meant passing by one rather rough beach, with large waves and rocky outcroppings. We had been good up to that point at making sure our erstwhile kayak was always orientated into the waves so we would not capsize. But it only takes one lapse of attention.... and then we were in the water. I know how to flip capsized canoes and get back in, so was not too worried about this little kayak. I flipped it, got back in and instructed Terry to get in from the nose. He had some troubles doing so, and it took about three tries of him to get into the kayak.

Once we are both back in and seated, I notice that the kayak is sitting substatially lower in the water and has lost a lot of its stability. We flip again. I flip over the kayak again, get back in and get Terry to do the same. Flipped over again. At this point I realize something is not going right, so we have to make it for shore.

SIDENOTE: Terry has his sandles with him, I have a t-shirt I have taken off. Throughout all of this we had MIRACIOUSLY managed to lose none of our stuff.

We are both holding onto the kayak, weakly swimming for shore. It is very slow going and awkward so I tell Terry I can probably flip the canoe over and paddle it to shore myself, so he can just worry about getting himself to shore. I flip the kayak over, get in and paddle most of the way to shore. I periodically hear Terry yelling and swearing behind me. I stop and look back, and consider going back to get him. Back it seems he is actually doing okay, just being Terry.

I get to shore, and Terry follows shortly afterwards. I inspect the kayak and discover that the reason it was sitting so low as because THERE IS A HOLE IN THE KAYAK. Not in the bottom, but it looked there was a plug on the nose of the kayak that was unplugged. So everytime Terry was trying to get back into the kayak he was holding the nose underwater and it was filling up, making it unusable. I prop up the kayak and wait for all the water to drain out. It takes about 15 minutes.

Once we are both on shore, I laugh and kid around, saying what a great story this is. Our best story so far! We got shipwrecked on a deserted beach! Terry does not share my enthusiasm, since we now have to carry the kayak down this beach to another beach inside the bay to get back into stable water and then kayak the couple kilometers back to the beach we rented the kayak from. Whatever. Weirdo.

So we make it back into the main bay, Terry terrified into immobility everytime a wave hits us. I decide that this is not a good time to mention that we seem to be taking on water again, and will probably be half sunk and the kayak will be unusable again in about half an hour. I figured we had another 15 minutes to get back to the beach, so no worries. Terry was on a need-to-know basis at this point, and I decided he did not need to know.

We make it back to the shore, amid catcalls from passing yahting enthusiasts. We capsize from a wave once more, for good measure. It was in waist high water, and seemed to amuse the fishermen beside us. We take it back to Iguana Surf completely tired and drenched and get the deposit back.

So that was my Valentines day.

Tomorrow we are off to a night in Liberia, before heading to Nicaragua!