I have had this song running through my head since Monday night. Our friends lent us their kayaks and canoe for a couple of days. We enjoyed exploring our river for the first time this way. I will say it was really fun and I am already dreaming of the day we can own one of our own so we can use it more in spring. We've had SO much rain that it was really interesting to see how the river kept rising over the 3 days that we had went on the river. It's isn't a super long stretch that we can canoe on due to a dam that isn't too far up the river from us.
My husband was in the canoe with my daughter. I asked him to hold onto my phone as I figured it would be safer in a canoe than a kayak in case I fell in for some reason. My son and I were each in a kayak. We went into a little area that was super full of algae. It looked interesting so I figured I'd take a picture. I mentioned that I wanted to take a picture and my husband said, "Memories are better. Let's just enjoy this." And I said, "Yes but a picture can jog a memory." So he came close to my kayak and gave me my phone. I snapped these pictures. My husband told me to put my phone in my pocket but I tucked it into bra as I wasn't sure it I would fall out I wanted to make sure I wouldn't lose it or it wouldn't fall out of my pocket.
So my husband and daughter were in the canoe and as they got close to the dam not only did they notice how high the river water was but my husband commented on how they were seeing fish trying to swim up the dam. I couldn't see from where I was so I was a little impatient to try to see how big these fish were. Turns out they were about 6 inches long. Well I guess I got too close with the kayak and the current and water flowing over the dam got me and took my kayak under. Thankfully I was wearing a life jacket so my head didn't go fully under but I was soaked, my sandals went under the current and the kayak was water logged and stuck in the current. Trev remained calm and encouraged me to swim hard and to the edge. I managed to make my way to the edge and my son found my sandals as they were floating and tried hard to get the kayak out of the current. We were worried it would take him under too.
A couple of weeks ago I was telling my daughter about the dangers of having phones by baths as some have been electrocuted I forgot to mention it was when phones were charging. Well she was crying and was worried that I was going to get electrocuted. Trev eventually dropped my daughter off on the edge to stand by me. He told my son to drop off his kayak at the edge. I helped pull it up on the shore while he got into the canoe with Trev and together they would try to retrieve my kayak that was upright and unable to get free from the current. Eventually they managed to get the handle and pull it towards our friends to drop it off. Trev told me to carry my son's kayak on shore to our friends' place but I wasn't strong enough. My daughter found someone to help me carry it while I was soaked and actually laughing about the whole thing. My husband wanted to enjoy the memories but I am thankful for these pictures that will help jog our memories about this event.
We got home and put my phone in a bag of rice for night and thankfully it survived the ordeal. I haven't uploaded any of my pictures in the last 6 months onto my computer so I was worried I was gonna lose them.
We had a little family meeting after and discussed the importance of life jackets and acknowledged how our family worked together in that little crisis. Isolation and lockdowns and just some strong personalities in our little family means we don't always get along. It was such a gift to be able to see how we banded together, listened to Trev's instructions and figure out how to rescue the one kayak and get the other one back as well. All the while have some good laughs and new memories created. Moral of the story: ALWAYS WEAR A LIFE JACKET and DON'T GET TOO CLOSE TO THE DAM!
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