Thursday finally came, according to the forecast the calmest day of all four since Sunday. The day we should have been paddling to Port Heiden. Well, one of us is paddling, while the other has to go with the broken boat somewhere else.
Because I won’t be able to continue on the journey by myself in Freya’s kayak, it was me who drawn the short straw. In the same time Freya made a decision for both of us, that she will continue to paddle, while I will fend for myself. I must admit, however happy I am that it wasn’t me breaking the boat, that no one sustained any injury, that no equipment was lost apart from Freya’s tow line, I am at the moment disappointed of having the trip cut short.
We got up early, as for the rescue we wanted to use the opportunity of slack tide at high tide, when the sea at our beach should be the calmest. Tony, fisherman who we met during our stay in Port Moller, has a dingy on his boat, and has been willing to assist us since Sunday evening.
And true to his word, at eight o’clock in the morning Tony launched his little dingy to come and get me and my stuff, while Freya will tow her broken pieces behind towards Tony’s fishing boat.
It took a bit of faff before we launched, as Freya was high on the fact that a rescue was going on, and that she will paddle, she’s been talking about it every day since Monday. Her and Tony exchanged gifts, and so on. Finally we were ready to go.
Firstly we helped Freya to launch and then Toni brought the two pieces to her.
My stuff and me made the dingy very heavy, and no, I am not a rower, so it was slightly slower progress from the beach to the fishing boat. Fortunately, there was Tony in his full diving gear and flippers pushing us along like a human propeller. Tony and Freya were way excited, to me it felt like journey to the gallows.
Luckily it didn’t last long. We transferred all that was staying including the wreck on Tony’s boat, where AC was waiting for us. We waved the last good byes, and Freya was off. I immediately had a distraction from my misery, despite how calm it has been, I started to feel sea sick. Ouch.
The only sensible thing was to accept a patch against sea sickness, and make my home on the upper deck watching the horizon. Slowly it was getting better, and after AC’s super sweet ginger tea and some crackers, I was ready to look around. Sun was shining, snow capped mountains were coming out into view, and Tony and AC were getting ready for fishing.
I felt good enough to watch, but kept out of their way, they know what they doing, and don’t need me in a way. Yeah, it’s getting quite exciting not knowing what will follow in the next few days, as I make my way from here. In the meanwhile I watched the net to go in, then be taken out with some catch.
