Tropical Blog

When Things Go Wrong

Rainy the past two days in the land of humidity. I bought a new fishing pole yesterday morning and of course, any time you buy a new toy you want to use it right away, right? So I loaded my gear into the car, slid the kayak onto the roof rack and drove down to Islamorada, a fishing/tourist town in the Middle Keys. The weather report called it a forty percent chance of rain, which in the Keys usually equates to spotty, off and on showers. When I got to the small beach where I put the kayak in, it was sprinkling just a little. No problem, it wasn't a thunderstorm and the wind was calm, I can paddle out to Indian Key and fish in a little rain. Besides, the weather made it all but certain that I'd have the island all to myself. I paddled for half an hour before pulling into the gap in the mangroves that hides a sandy beach on the south side of Indian Key. I unloaded my gear and started walking towards the coral shelf where I planned to set up my camp chair and cast into the ocean. As I walked a steady rain started. By the time I reached the clearing near my fishing site it was pouring. "Well at least there's still no wind," I thought as I set up the chair. Not three minutes went by before the gale hit. At least thirty miles an hour, blowing the hard rain sideways right into my face. I hadn't been on the island more than twenty minutes and I began to think it would be best if I left now, before things got worse. I walked back to the kayak and loaded up and started paddling back towards the small beach where I had parked the car. Unfortunately the wind was blowing hard in my face and there was a strong current moving against me. The half hour paddle was going to take at least twice that long in deteriorating conditions. As I crossed one of the deeper channels I felt an increased drag on my normally fast moving touring kayak. I looked behind me to see that the camp chair that I'd placed on the deck behind me had been knocked almost clear of the bungee strap that I'd tucked it under and was dragging through the water. I reached back and tried to replace it on the deck, but it was waterlogged and felt like it weighed at least fifty pounds. I was in the center of a deep channel, rough whitecaps breaking over my cockpit and pouring water into the boat, and I was wrestling with a waterlogged camp chair. Just as I was debating how exactly I could muscle the chair back up unto the deck behind me without capsizing and going for a swim in the turbulent ocean, the bungee cord tenuously holding the leg against the side of the kayak snapped under the chair's weight and it slipped from my grasp and quickly sank into the channel. All the time I had been working on the chair I hadn't been paddling, of course, and the current had carried me back towards the bridge that carries cars on US1 north and south through the Keys. I grabbed the paddle and furiously worked my way out of the current to avoid being swept under the bridge. I hugged the shoreline and made my way back the landing where I'd parked my car. After exiting my kayak I was carrying some gear through knee high water when I slipped on a slimy rock and sat down hard in the water, I was already wet from all the rain, so that didn't matter, but the gear I was carrying got soaked too - my wallet, car keys and cell phone all had a nice salt water bath. After loading everything back into and onto the car I started home, I'd gone about ten miles when I looked at where my new fishing pole should be and.........nothing there. I had left the pole back at the beach. The pole that I'd just bought that very morning and had yet to even cast into the water. So I turned around and went back. Luckily it was still there, right where I'd left it. All in all, what had started out as an easy paddle to do a little fishing turned into one of my least favorite experiences on the water. Some days, when things start to go wrong there's just no stopping the oncoming train of shit that's headed your way.