Last Monday we had a bit of an upset – LITERALLY!!!
The outboard motor on the dinghy had been giving us a bit of trouble on the day we left for Suriname so Chris decided to clean the carburettor and he spent the morning doing that.
We knew that David (Baloo) was in hospital again and that Nicky (his wife) had not been able to stay nearby in Kourou this time, so later on in the afternoon, we thought we would pop over to Baloo to see if she would like some company.
We jumped into the dinghy and off we went. Normally I sit on the tube one side while Chris is on the other driving the dinghy which gives us a good balance. For some reason, though, this time when I got in the dinghy, I sat down astride the seat and did not change onto the tube so my weight was more central than usual and our balance was not quite right. Passing Baloo, we turned to head into the current and then go alongside but we took it a bit fast and a bit too sharply for our new dinghy (it’s a lightweight design which seemed like a good idea at the time – so much easier to lift and pack away and well up to carrying our weight) and with a slight gust of wind the dinghy flipped over and we were in the water!!
I started to float up and realised the chain we lock the dinghy up with was resting on my leg so I flipped that off and in so doing off went my flip-flops!! I thought I was going to come up under the dinghy which did not seem like a good idea so started to try to swim to one side then Chris grabbed my hand and pulled me up – under the dinghy!! It was in fact completely the right place to be as there was a large air pocket and I was able to catch my breath. Chris said that he had popped up a few seconds earlier and was rather worried about me so was very pleased to see my hand! We spent a minute or so under the dinghy as there was plenty of air and we could hang on to the seat and then we ducked under the tubes and could hang on the carrying ropes of the dinghy. The water is not cold so there was no problem with that and as Chris said we could drift along for a while and would eventually have drifted ashore. Thanks to a number of swimming sessions with my dear friend Val Jones who (nagged - strike through!! strike through!! LOL) gently encouraged me to tread water for over 20 minutes before we sailed off, I was fairly comfortable holding on and treading water!!!
The outboard motor on the dinghy had been giving us a bit of trouble on the day we left for Suriname so Chris decided to clean the carburettor and he spent the morning doing that.
We knew that David (Baloo) was in hospital again and that Nicky (his wife) had not been able to stay nearby in Kourou this time, so later on in the afternoon, we thought we would pop over to Baloo to see if she would like some company.
We jumped into the dinghy and off we went. Normally I sit on the tube one side while Chris is on the other driving the dinghy which gives us a good balance. For some reason, though, this time when I got in the dinghy, I sat down astride the seat and did not change onto the tube so my weight was more central than usual and our balance was not quite right. Passing Baloo, we turned to head into the current and then go alongside but we took it a bit fast and a bit too sharply for our new dinghy (it’s a lightweight design which seemed like a good idea at the time – so much easier to lift and pack away and well up to carrying our weight) and with a slight gust of wind the dinghy flipped over and we were in the water!!
I started to float up and realised the chain we lock the dinghy up with was resting on my leg so I flipped that off and in so doing off went my flip-flops!! I thought I was going to come up under the dinghy which did not seem like a good idea so started to try to swim to one side then Chris grabbed my hand and pulled me up – under the dinghy!! It was in fact completely the right place to be as there was a large air pocket and I was able to catch my breath. Chris said that he had popped up a few seconds earlier and was rather worried about me so was very pleased to see my hand! We spent a minute or so under the dinghy as there was plenty of air and we could hang on to the seat and then we ducked under the tubes and could hang on the carrying ropes of the dinghy. The water is not cold so there was no problem with that and as Chris said we could drift along for a while and would eventually have drifted ashore. Thanks to a number of swimming sessions with my dear friend Val Jones who (nagged - strike through!! strike through!! LOL) gently encouraged me to tread water for over 20 minutes before we sailed off, I was fairly comfortable holding on and treading water!!!
| Sorry been trying for days to cut and edit but no luck!! You can see the dinghy leaving Moontide about 23 seconds in and we flip about 50 seconds in!!! |
However, luckily just at that time, Nicky had gone out onto her deck and seen the dinghy drifting along so jumped in hers to recover what she thought was an empty dinghy. She was quite surprised when our heads popped up!! She came alongside and offered to get us into her dinghy but we knew that would not be possible with our bulk etc! She tried to tow the upside down dinghy and us but her outboard was not powerful enough so she went off to get help. Within a couple of minutes she was back with a pirogue that managed to tow us to a rocky out-crop where we could right the dinghy (making it much easier to tow) and get on board the pirogue. He then took us back to Moontide and left - with a healthy tip of thanks. (Luckily I’d not lost my bag as it’s a duffel-type bag I wear on my back so I still had my purse!) By now we could see the emergency services where on the shore by the marina office and Nicky went over to them to say all was well.
We brought the dinghy up on deck and took off the motor for inspection and a further clean out of the carburettor the next day! (Chris cleaned it on Tuesday {for the second time in 2 days!!!} and we were back using it on Wednesday).The emergency service boat came up to check all was well and to get our names for their records. It was quite impressive as they had wet suits on and all the gear for diving – luckily not needed! I gave them the details although my writing was worse than usual as I was by then feeling rather shaky.
We stripped off and had a cup of tea followed by a whiskey!!! All in all the whole thing had only taken about 20 minutes.
It was my first unintentional swim and I suppose if you’re going to go in it might as well be impressive!
We found out the next day that it was all on the CCTV security film of the marina – stardom at last!
We stripped off and had a cup of tea followed by a whiskey!!! All in all the whole thing had only taken about 20 minutes.
It was my first unintentional swim and I suppose if you’re going to go in it might as well be impressive!
We found out the next day that it was all on the CCTV security film of the marina – stardom at last!