Paula thought it would be amusing if she stuck her tongue out while I tried to get a picture of myself. It's really a shame that Paula never returned from this paddle....
Since this was a practice session, someone had to get wet, and Bernie went in.
Louise moved in to save Bernie. He filled his boat up with water and Louise had quite a time trying to empty his boat.
Just for fun I tried lifting Bernie's boat up. Because he has only one small bulkhead, his boat can take on a lot of water and get very heavy. Louise took over again, and Bernie was eventually saved.
Bernie dunked himself again and this time it was Paula's turn to save him. It was at this point that we realized that we weren't practicing to save each other, we were practicing to save Bernie, a far more likely event in any case.
Bernie, only wearing his half-wetsuit, was starting to feel the effects of the cold water, so it was my turn for a dunking. (I was smart and was wearing my full suit.)
I didn't want to be rescued, however. I wanted to try a self-rescue and see if my repaired shoulder hindered my climb back into my boat. Into the drink I go!
And I popped up with from under my boat my customary cry of "Holy fuck, that's cold!" This was followed by the spitting out of salt water, then by a shriek as cold water found its way to my naughty bits. Onlookers on the beach were no doubt wondering who was the large woman with a beard who was such a poor paddler that she had fallen out of her kayak.
And I had trouble. Part of the problem was that apart from the shoulder being weak, I simply had forgotten what to do. I waited while Paula emptied my boat....
...then got the paddle under the strap....
...the paddlefloaot on the paddle, lined myself up.....
...and pulled myself on my boat.
Success! Any day not drowning is a good day!
My pictures are here.
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