Well, after yesterday's marathon paddle and crappy sleep, it was time to finish the quest. There were only ten miles to go; and after yesterday that didn't seem to bad. So we paddled, oh I'd say two or three miles in the morning to get to one of the last beaches on the island to stop for lunch and have a break before crossing the open water. There wasn't much snorkeling to be done, but there was an old, inactive volcano that you could hike up. I guess that explains how Espiritu Santo got there. It wasn't a very big volcano though, the hike was probably only fifteen minutes. But the view was really amazing up there. Steve and Pete took some great pictures that I really want to get a hold of to post here.
Anywho, after we rested and ate some lunch everyone was energized and ready to get home. So we hopped in the kayaks and paddled south. It was actually really great for the first leg of the crossing; the water was calm, there was a light headwind (so it didn't blow you off course), and the end was in sight. However, after a couple of miles, all hell broke loose. Well, I guess it wasn't all hell, but it had to have been at least half of it. You see, for a lot of the crossing we were protected from a NE wind by the island, as seen in this picture:
Click to enlarge
Once we go out far enough though, well it got pretty rough. The swells were probably two or three feet, so it was nothing major, but that is the perfect size to really annoy you in a kayak. Every wave was just big enough to push you off course just a little bit. You see, when you are in a kayak, you have to either paddle in the direction the waves are going or parallel to them. So as you can see from that picture you were either going to the wrong beach or out to see. So we had to sort of zig-zag to the landing zone.
Well, that was going pretty well, until disaster struck. I turned just a little bit to slowly to go with the wave once and that put me in the perfect position to be flipped. And I was. And it was wet. So there I was, sitting in my kayak, upside down, trying to remember how long I could hold my breath. Unfortunately, I did not (and still do not) know the technique known as the Eskimo role where you can actually right your self by using your paddle. So I pushed myself out of my kayak and surfaced. I flipped my boat right side up again and clambered back inside. Apparently this in itself was amazing, because neither Steve nor Mike (also an experienced kayaker) had ever seen someone get back into a kayak by themselves like that. Of course, my boat was ballasted with about twenty gallons of water, so that might have helped.
Once I was situated in my boat and had pumped all the water out, I realized that I was well behind everyone else. Steve went ahead to make sure everyone else was ok, which left me to catch up. At that point I also realized that My hat was now stowed way up by my feet inside the kayak. In calmer waters I would have reached in and grabbed it, but to stop paddling now would have meant being flipped again. The sun was on my left so I wasn't to concerned about that. But what I never realized about the hat is that the bill keeps all the water that drips off your paddle out of your face. So, eyes watering from the salt, I began to zig-zag my to shore.
All that delay had put some serious distance between me and the rest of the group, so my zigs and zags didn't quite match up with theirs. By some twist of fate I zagged just right and rode the wind almost all the way to shore, which allowed me and my dad to arrive about five minutes before everyone else. I just about fell down and kissed the sand.
The rest of the story has to do with sorting equipment and drinking ice-cold pepsi. That was probably the best pepsi I've ever had. Thus ended the three day adventure that was, and is, TEAK.
