As we walked to the tour office, Mother Nature decided to give us a shower. Since were were going kayaking, we could not have been more appropriately dressed for this little downpour… and it was a downpour. We walked into the office where they told us we could wait 10 minutes when the rain would pass, or we could leave right away. We were all soaking wet, so we decided there was no reason to wait. We loaded up on bench seats in the back of a truck that had the kayaks strapped to a rack above our heads (which ended up acting like an umbrella), and drove off. Alex, our guide, told us that usually they kayak directly out of Samara beach and kayak for 45 minutes to the island, but since we had the kids, they would take us closer for a 15 minute kayak to the island.
By the time we got to the beach, the rain had stopped. Alex and the driver unloaded the truck and realized that they had forgotten the paddles… so we stood and talked while waited for some to be brought. The island loomed close from this spot, and the island’s beach was visible. Soon the paddles arrived, and the pairings were set… Dylan and me in one kayak, Aidan and Karen in the other tandem, and Alex by himself in a single.
Dylan and I got off to a great start… Alex pushed us in the water and we paddled close to the spot he wanted us to wait at. Karen and Aidan… they were a different story. Karen was having difficulty paddling the weight of two, and the wind was blowing them. Alex switched with Karen and she took the solo kayak while Alex paddled the tandem with Aidan. Dylan and I watched this transpire from a distance, because although we stopped in the right place initially, the wind was having its way with us too and we had ben moved quite a ways away.
As Alex and Karen began their trip after the switch, despite my best efforts, Dylan and I had been blown way off-course. I struggled mightily to get us going, but the wind kept fighting back. It was blowing from the front and right of the direction we were paddling, so I had to only paddle on the left side to keep going straight. Dylan kept saying, “We’re getting so close.”, but I felt we weren’t making progress at all. My left arm and shoulder started to burn, it looked like we weren’t making any progress, and my brain told me that my body did not have what it needed to safely get Dylan and me to the island… in fact I had a moment where I felt I couldn’t safely get us out of the situation. The wind was blowing us towards a rocky shore which seemed to be getting closer than the island. I apologized to Dylan, “I’m sorry buddy, I tried, but I don’t think I can get us to the island.” “Don’t say that daddy; If you do we wont make it.”
I looked at the other kayaks and the island beyond, and I looked at the rocky shore and realized, not making it wasn’t a possibility because the only alternative was being pushed into the rocky shore… that is when I had a “Failure is not an option” moment, and I just paddled, and paddled, and paddled. The burn in my body was muted, or undetectable (I don’t remember which). I don’t know how long it took because there was no sense of time… only the objective, but slowly, the island did draw closer, and eventually, we slid onto it next to where Karen and Alex/Aidan had come ashore. I dropped my paddle, walked up the beach, took off my gear, and chugged a bottle of water, thankful that Dylan and I were safely on the island.