Stormy seas

“Amanda, what’s happening?” My voice gets lost in the 15kt SE that’s finally kicked up. A wave comes through and I see Kath B rise up in the water holding the canoe.  Jim Foti is in the water also. The next set comes through and I look again.  Hang on. That doesn't look quite right.  Uh oh.

Amanda is clutching two seats on her lap, having rescued them from the wreckage. Kath is surprisingly calm, given that the canoe she was on, is now in two pieces. We’re a couple of hundred metres of the Mokes, about to turn back to Lanikai for a great surf run.

A few bumps before things went awry

Donna, who has also come to join us this morning, says she’ll go back to shore and get the lifeguard to bring out a Jetski. I’m reluctant to leave Kath floating, but there’s not much else we can do; we turn with the waves and start to surf.

For a moment, I let myself forget the broken OC2 and everyone else and connect with the water. The Ehukai skips on the wave surface and the energy of the next wave builds behind the canoe. A few big strokes and we’re on. A few slight corrections and we skip into the next trough. This is awesome!

The canoe has picked up some speed now, and it’s easier to find the next run. Donna and Kayleene are ahead on the OC2 and I follow their line. All of a sudden, we’re back at the shoreline. I’d love to do that again, but we’re in rescue mode.

Donna jumps out to grab the lifeguard, and I head out to see how everyone else is going. Cath G has made it through the biggest conditions she’s been in, and looks happy to be back. I give her a wave, and she gives a shell-shocked smile back.

Amanda still has the two seats balancing on her lap. In the calmer waters we make another attempt to pass one over. This time we’re successful. I discover a new top hand drill – there’s not much chance of dropping your top hand when there’s a 40cm square foam seat sticking between your legs! We catch the small bumps back to shore.

Amanda's new trick - 2 seat balancing whilst surfing

Back on land, we pack up the canoes, and hope Kath is OK. Nuku is on watch from the sand-dunes and spots a Jetski coming back to shore. 10min later we see Kath’s head pop up. “Kath!”, we run over and give her a hug.

She retells her story,

“We were going really softly over the waves, backing off each time the nose went over a crest, and coaxing it along. We’d just reached the group and stopped, when the next wave came through and there was a crack. I knew there was a problem when I heard Jim swear [in his relaxed Hawaiian way]."

"Then we were sinking. The crack had gone the full way through the hull. Once you guys left, Jim and I swam the canoe parts to the beach on the Mokes. It felt like it would take forever to get there".

"The jetski came up and took the canoe back first, then came and picked us up. I’ve never been on a jetski before! Oh, and we huli'd that too, when we went to rescue Jim's hat”, she says grinning. It sounds like a beer commercial to me.

We were so glad Kath was ok; she had a few scratches from the canoe on her legs, but otherwise was unscathed. A dramatic end to the OC1 camp.

For more about our trip, follow this link. For more pictures, visit the Gallery