When I went to Florida my trip went from great to worse all in a matter of days. You could say that the whole vacation was a bust. Nothing was worse than our trip out to Rabbit Island, part of Ten Thousand Islands. We were not prepared, we did not have the right equipment, and we just had no business being out on the water.
For those of you that don't know Ten Thousand Islands are essentially the back country of the Everglades. It's a whole bunch of islands clustered in the bay giving them the name Ten Thousand Islands. If you may have recalled from my last post I was with an ex-boyfriend during this particular vacation. And, if you are asking yes, this vacation was the deciding factor as to whether I wanted to break up with him or not.
That day was supposed to be a nice day on the beach. We stopped at the dock that marked Ten Thousand Islands just to explore. Then all of a sudden he was going on and on about he's always wanted to go out there and how cool it would be. I told him we were not prepared for it. The kayaks we had were regular recreational kayaks that were not made for the sea. We didn't have skirts, nor food for the trip in and out, nor the necessary camping tools to be out on an island. But he still insisted we go out. The problem with this guy is he would argue and argue. Sometimes it was best that you just leave it be.
So I decided after telling him it was a bad idea to let it play out. I didn't think it would go as far as it did, but I knew he would pay. Rabbit Island was the closest of islands being five miles out from shore. We bought a waterproof map in the gift shop, a couple of gallons of water, and brought snacks with us. The tent came with us, and even the camera and phones.
I worried. I worried that we wouldn't make it out. I worried that we wouldn't make it back. I worried that the equipment that wasn't mine would be ruined. That we would be stranded without phone service. I still let it play out. I shouldn't have let it play out that far.
The first step was to get out of the bay on these kayaks. The waves were very choppy, and the wind wasn't kind. I moved with the waves, not working against them. I knew if I worked against them my kayak would start filling with water every time a wave would clap onto the boat. He was not as experienced. He thought he was but he wasn't. I would look over and see him just riding into the wave. All the stuff and him getting coated with salt water. I fought those waves hard that day. I just focused on the little canal opening. So calm. So inviting.
I think it took us forty five minutes to an hour to get to the canal. When we did it was calming. I took a sign of relief and a break after fighting the wind and waves. Up ahead was a dock and porta pot. We stopped not knowing how long it would take us to kayak the five miles. There was no option of a toilet after this. Just mangroves all around us.
With a compass and the waterproof map we made it to Rabbit Island okay. To this day we don't know if it was exactly Rabbit Island. You see no matter if you have a map to the islands you feel lost. You don't know what is what. All your trust is in a map. There is no signs to guide you, just mangroves and little plots of land.
Rabbit Island was full of mangroves except for the little bit of beach that was exposed on both sides allowing the wind to come through. There was supposed to be a couple staying on the island, but they never showed. Part of me wondered if they ever made it out of the bay, or if they had the same fate of the group that was rescued when we arrived at the station. Either way I prayed for their safety.
The island was full of white sand seashells galore. Beautiful dried coral and conch shells with holes scattered the island, threatening to erode down into sand. We were lucky to see the sunset on the island, and I'm glad we did. That was the most beautiful view that we had seen the whole trip. After this things turned for the worse.
I am always having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. As you can imagine I have had some crazy thoughts while doing so in the certain places I've stayed. In South Dakota I was worried I would come face to face with a rattlesnake. At our campground in Big Cypress Nature Preserve in Florida I was worried about being maimed by a panther, or an alligator coming after me. On the island, however, I was not worried at all. I thought to myself what kind of creatures would even be out this far. So I went out with the lamp to make my journey to the porta pot. As I did I was looking around me just in case anything were to go bump in the night. That's when I saw it. The beady red eyes of a raccoon. Now you are probably thinking this raccoon is going to come after me. This ends with him staring at me, and me staring at him and then I keep walking. After that the night was uneventful.
The next morning we found a whole bunch of horseshoe crab shells scattered on the island. Apparently there was more than one raccoon on this island, and we found exactly what they ate. We packed up our things and took some bird pictures before taking off. I got to take pictures of some birds we see in Ohio, but I never get this close. After that we made sure we had everything was packed back into the kayaks and headed out at the appropriate time. This is where things go from good to worse in a matter of minutes.
We were on the water and it felt like time went slow when it happened. The wind was as terrible as the day before, but this time he tipped the kayak. Out in almost open ocean. Luckily we were close to the island, and we were not in that deep of water. All he had on his feet were flip flops, and as you can imagine they fell off his feet as soon as he was in the water. Luckily most of the items we had borrowed fro my mom and the important things were in my kayak. But I watched as the dry bag that held our phones and camera were floating in the water. The worst part. I felt like I couldn't kayak to him for a moment. The wind was forcing on me and I struggled for me to make it to him. I started crying. Clothes were floating, the dry bag was floating and his kayak was filling with water. He cut his feet on the clams that clung to the mangrove roots. He threw the map my way but it didn't make it to my kayak, and I couldn't catch it in time before it disappeared. We were stuck out in the wilderness. No boats were close by. I didn't even know if we had cell service. We were stuck.
When I finally retrieved the dry bag, the first thing I did was get my phone out. Now after this I will swear up and down that Sea to Summit Dry Bags do really work. It saved my phone, his phone, and my $600 camera. By some miracle I got cell service, and I luckily had the ranger's number in my phone.
I called the park ranger's number, and as it rang and rang I was praying that some one would pick up. Finally I heard a man's voice on the phone asking me how he could help. I explained to the man that we had an incident where one of our kayaks tipped and we needed rescuing. The man thought he would have a sense of humor (I was too much in a panic to catch) and say that would be $500 to come out and get us. Of course that sent me into more panic and the phone went silent for a moment as I tried to figure out in my head where I would get the money, or how we could possibly manage to get ourselves out of this predicament. The man soon answered that he was just kidding and would be out to find us momentarily. Panic soon turned into relief after that, and I just focused on trying to help him gather all the things that came out of the kayak.
The man was only in his forties and was on one of those fast patrol boats when we waved him down. He couldn't get super close to use because of the mangrove roots so my ex pulled his kayak to the boat first and I paddled over at a safe distance. The ranger and my ex unloaded all of the equipment out of the kayak and hoisted his kayak up onto the boat. Then is was my turn. I paddled over and I did the same with mine. We didn't sinch the kayaks to the boat because all of us thought it would be okay, and that we would make it back.
The ranger told us that we were lucky and that we shouldn't have been out there in the kayaks we were in. I muttered that I told my ex that we shouldn't have been out there. I grew up in the camp and canoe capital of Ohio, I knew what water conditions you should not be kayaking in. The ranger just told my ex maybe you should have listened to her.
Once we got away from the island the ranger started to put his boat in high gear. The wind hit you like a brick as the boat took off. All of a sudden my kayak picked up wind and went sailing off the boat. Of course my ex had the instinct of trying to catch it almost about to break his hand. He was lucky he was unscathed. We backtracked to retrieve my kayak and the ranger made sure it wouldn't happen again by tying both kayaks down on his boat.
One of the only good parts about this trip was that we met the park ranger. Turns out he used to be from Youngstown, Ohio and decided to move to Florida so he could wear shorts everyday at his job. He was intrigued by my environmental background and gave me a couple of pointers that helped me in my career choosing path. Talking to him was the only thing that made the trip back to shore better.
In conclusion to this whole trip I don't stray far in the water without the most proper equipment, and I make sure I'm prepared for whatever can happen. To this day it's hard for me to go kayaking and be like everyone else putting there life jacket in some part of the boat. I DO NOT like going out when it i windy after that trip. Always be safe, and be prepared because the water can be a dangerous thing when not careful.
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