Sand storm

I really thought about not going around the inlet in these conditions but I looked at the tide and saw I had maybe 30 minutes to get around it. I was now or in six hours in the dark so I went.
I made it two miles out in mere minutes. The last part of the rock jetty was submerged so it was even farther than I had thought. I went around the light and tried my best to go into the inlet with the wind and the current against me.
I pedaled with all my might and tacked as close as I could but I was losing ground, fast. It was not one of my finest moments. I had to get back on the other side and somehow find a way to make it back to the beach. This far out the wind was a good 35 miles per hour in my face with gusts that I thought would tare my boat apart.
I pedaled with the energy of the doomed. The sail was useless in that sort of wind. I was looking for any sign that I was making progress and not slowly drifting out to sea. My only indication that I was not going backward was that I could steer. I plunged into every wave and my muscles burned like hell. I prayed for no breakage. If my drive or my rudder broke I was done for. I could not anchor since the bottom was sand and besides my anchor was out of reach in my back hatch.
It took half an hour before I could see people on the beach. I had to go north since my trampoline was menacing to flip me over. Fortunately I only had one trampoline on the left side. The gusts were just unbelievable. I was making progress even if it was slow. Just as long as nothing broke and I continued getting small pauses between gusts I would make it. Basically, during the gust I pedalled as hard as I could to stay in place and whenever the wind died down to a comfortable 35 miles per hours, I tried to gain some ground. To say the least, I lost most of my extra calories during that battle. The other calories were spent hauling my kayak piece by piece over the dunes and inlet.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• kayak
• inlet
• sand
• storm
• fernandina
• beach