The Day We Almost Died in the Exumas

April and I didn't want to waste our last day at Fowl Cay and we decided to go down to the beach for a few hours. She wanted to master standing on the paddle board. I was going to paddle around and look for sea turtles.

The water was a little rough. The wind was blowing in from the east and it made little, tiny waves in our little cove of water. It didn't look too bad, but on the paddle board it wouldn't have been easy. I suggest we get in the kayaks and go around the island. It's not big. The kayaks are easy. We will go with the current and maybe, just maybe the current will be the same all the way around!

I totally talked her into it.

She thought it was a good idea…at the time.

We start out and are smiling and talking about how we can't believe we have to leave. It's so amazing and the water is so gorgeous. We see JR, April's husband, at our place and he waves. April tells him our plan and he smiles and nods…she actually said, jokingly, "We are kayaking around the island! If you don't see us in a few hours, send someone to look for us!" She was joking….

We get to the first set of little jetties. Cute little rocks piled up. The current will change when we go over them, but it doesn't look too bad. The kayaks are so easy. I'm sure we can make it and when we get around the corner, the current will probably change again…or it will be all smooth and lake water like. I'm sure of that. Smooth water will be right around the next corner.

Wait. What is that? April, are those white caps? Are we about to be in the full on fight of white rapids right here in the bahamas? Ok, just keep calm. It will be fine. We can do this. It's too late to turn around now. We are so close. Look, there is the inlet and we will be back to where we started.

Hey April, "Are you moving? I'm barely moving! This current is strong!"

I'm in my mind telling myself that this is great exercise, I'll probably be sore tomorrow, I can't wait to get to the shore. Will we ever get to the shore?

We have to go all the way around, there isn't a beach on this side. It's all rocks. Keep going, we've got this.

We finally make it to the pass. The problem with the pass is the current is meeting in the pass. There are boats that come through the pass….with motors. There are waves. Big waves. The waves are pushing us where we want to go, right? Wait. I'm turning around backwards. April is tipping. DO NOT TIP IN THE PASS!!! Get out of the pass! If we get really close to the rocks, we can sneak through. If a boat comes through, we ram into the rocks. What do we do. Get away from me! If we bump each other, we both go in. OMG, I'm nervous. She's panicked. She's using her panic words. Just get out of the pass!!!

She thinks it's a good idea to go to the pier. Hello? How will we pull this heavy kayak up onto the pier? I can not do that! There's a little piece of sand over there and what looks like a smooth concrete area that is just big enough to pull up a kayak. I'm sure that's not what it's there for….until today.

She pulls right into the right spot. I am 10 feet down the bank where there are lots of sharp rocks. I keep slamming into the shore and start to worry that the kayak will be damaged by the rocks. What if I damage the kayak? I would feel terrible! I finally get out of the thing and start dragging it across the rocks that I'm also walking on with my tender feet. I look up and April is out. Her kayak is out. She's pulling it up onto the driveway and I'm still not sure I can get mine up there. She comes down and grabs it and pulls it onto the land and then goes back to get hers out of the way. I FINALLY got it out of the water.

Now what? We are both in our swimsuits, wet hair and no shoes. We have to tell them in the office. We go in and tell Grant our brilliant idea of kayaking around the island. We're laughing and smiling…he's not. He asks how far we made it and he's jumping up out of his chair with the radio in hand. I can get the guys to get them (panic), where are they? We proceed to tell him that we got them out of the water and onto the land. His whole face and shoulders relax and he smiles this really big smile. He thought we left them in the water and they were just floating along in the caribbean!! We saved the kayaks and our lives! We didn't die and the kayaks are on the shore! Celebration!!! Then we walked all the way back to the beach with no shoes and only our swimsuits on. We were alive.

Look at this picture…do you see the current out there? That's where we almost lost it!