[pe2-image src=”http://lh4.ggpht.com/-tAkn9JgDLm8/UW2KJo2I7sI/AAAAAAAAUqw/rb8MH5q8Xk0/s144-c-o/P4140017.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5867497787721576130″ caption=”Laundry day for two guys at the coast guard station – bucket, cold water hose, brush, basic soap and the concrete floor as a wash board…” type=”image” alt=”P4140017.JPG” ]

Pos: here
Loc: Rio Magdalena
Acc: Coastguard Barranquilla
Dist: 11,5 km
Start: 5:30 End: 10:00

One of those days…

The wind went really down at night as forecast from maybe close to 20 knots yesterday night to around 10-13 knots in the morning, which convinced me I could go today – but I knew it would be hard work. But I also knew I could make it! Waiting another three days where there maybe lower wind forecast was not really my thing. And as the coast guard guys obviously thought already yesterday I could go…

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-hn652Fq-X5g/UW2KPjpmbKI/AAAAAAAAUqw/afkqqMuG0Yc/s144-c-o/P4140018.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5867497889406020770″ caption=”…while the obviously broken fancy laundry machine in the bath room rather contained newspaper and plastic???” type=”image” alt=”P4140018.JPG” ]

My escort boat came in time at 5.30 am, where I was just on the water, ready for action! An easy launch, as the sea and surf in this sheltered corner was surely low. But the wind was still blowing against me from NE…

I paddled with reasonable 4-5 km/h speed parallel to the long jutting out breakwater of the Rio Magdalena in about 1,5 km distance. I already saw along the wall high breakers playing their game…well…

The plan was to give the river mouth a wide berth, as I was advised from all coast guard guys on the briefing. But how wide? I just had to see and feel…

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Pyp3YC513gU/UW2KGVgYBNI/AAAAAAAAUqw/5mWFJ6bE-o8/s144-c-o/P4140016.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5867497730990408914″ caption=”The Colombian take away version of some soft drink…” type=”image” alt=”P4140016.JPG” ]

The swell got bigger reaching the level of the first left river head , but to my right I saw after a short while calm water around the break water end. On the other side, the big stuff was piling up nastily! Ok, just keep on paddling out and turn in when you think the waves are not white breaking any more, but “just big”…

I paddled straight out, paddled and paddled – all against 15 knots wind, for sure. My distance to the left breakwater head which I had as a fix GPS point was growing, and I slightly turned right to eventually see the spot where I may turn right fully and where there were no breakers any more.

All easy in theory, and all sounds reasonable…if there wouldn’t be the constant headwind, and the outgoing river current I could not fully calculate. Both of them together surely played the sea up more and more, but as there were no white breakers in my line, I felt all right wriggling my kayak easy around the big waves. But still I saw at some point just huge massive brown walls of water around me, and barely could hear my coast guard boat jumping frequently with a heavy crash down a steep wave, or speeding up the engine with a howling noise to climb another one in time *not* to jump or to get trashed.

What I knew, but they couldn’t know, is that *me* in my kayak has much less issues in such huge waves (as long as they don’t break) than the guys in their small open coast guard boat! I just reached the point where I thought I soon should better turn in fully, already 4 km away from the river mouth. I felt I crossed already the virtual line extending out the river. But I also rather wanted to paddle 90 degrees to the river mouth head for a longer while as I thought despite going back will be tough against current and wind, I better be well away from the breaker line extending the second break water head. The wind may push me on my way back right against that breaker line!

All in all, at that point I felt the going will be quite tough, getting out far enough to be safe from the breaker line, plus getting back on the other side…but I still had plenty of energy.

I already noticed my coast guard guys did not really feel comfortable in their boat, driving here and there, sometimes out of my (and maybe also out of their) sight, sometimes very very close to me on either side in the danger zone. If a fat wave pushed either me or them onto each other, shit would happen…I heavily gesticulated to stay behind me and far away, but either they didn’t understand, they didn’t see me, or they finally wanted also to signalize something which I
eventually got…they actually wanted me to turn around! Just now, when I almost reached the peak!

Well…if I thought right, I may have had still quite some power to keep on going, but honestly I was not sure how the way back would be…and as we had to be a team, despite bad communication, I needed to take care about their needs also. And I though in this case I was the way more experienced person in those conditions!

*I* still felt good, having still energy and not being sea sick at all, but I knew how ugly a ride on such a boat in these conditions is. As they had to drive very slow, they may have felt even more ugly not being able to take the waves how *they* needed to take them – probably with more speed. What turned out later, was that all four guys were heavily sea sick, and three of the four young guys had thrown up already, only the driver who was at least too busy for that (yet). They also later admitted they were more than once scared the boat would flip over…they can’t roll! 🙂

I agreed to turn around, but also signalled then they could also take me on board! I signalled to get both boat and kayak parallel straight into the wind and waves, that we could careful approach side by side and the boarding procedure could happen quickly. But I also thought will they be able to do what needs to be done – RAPIDO! Or me and my kayak and maybe their boat would get in trouble. It seemed they either were not able to get close with pointing into the wind, and when they were close, all four men were squeezed around the wheel. How will they get me and my kayak aboard from that position?

I shouted and signalled that three men had to go to the side and bow to the boat, to give me a hand and to reach for the kayak quickly to lift it up. A slight try, but then the boat had to turn away again on a huge wave, another try, some careful climbing to the bow of at least two men, then the boat needed to turn away again on another huge wave…and they did maybe one or two more half hearted tries. This is f…… not working! They simply had no idea what to do and probably never had done such a thing like taking a kayak on board!

Now if I had been weak and in trouble and really neededto be taken on board! No way they would have been able to get me…not even sure what they would have done if I’d be swimming.

Anyway, my thought was now “help yourself or no one would help you”, get out of here and back as soon as possible by yourself. I paddled for maybe five minutes, as the boat eventually made it to come parallel pointing into the wind with me also turning in, and the guys started to line up somehow along their boat side. I signalled they needed to catch my bow line first, one guy caught it, and I was shouting “RAPIDO!”, passed my paddle, got somehow a hand, stood up and
climbed in while two other guys fortunately were able to hold the kayak, and one held the bow line.

But two of them were standing way too much to the stern to lift up the kayak “QUICKLY” out of the water, as there was a metal tube from the roof in the way – and the kayak was also loaded and heavy. It took a while to make the guys move more to the bow where the board wall was fully open, all the time trying to hold the kayak. Meanwhile the cockpit filled up with water on each wave, and the guys grabbed wherever (like on the strapped on spare paddle on the back deck or on my bungees), but not on the solid deck lines, cockpit rim or toggle…we tried three times to lift the kayak parallel, with now only two guys and myself commanding up to the boat on top of a high wave, but no chance. I almost lost grip myself on the bow! Loaded plus the cockpit being more than half full with water, and one man missing, there was no chance. The missing guy was at least still holding the bow line, but was at the same time bending over the other board side to throw up (again…?).

He soon also let go of the bow line, which I fortunately quickly grabbed. To lose my kayak now here would be a fucking bad thing! Not really sure what I’d have done then…jumping after it with no paddle?

I realized parallel lifting won’t work by no way, and the cockpit kept on filling with the waves crashing to the side of the boats. I had to change plan, and shouted to the guys to let go the stern and to join me on the bow, lifting that one first and on the same time emptying the cockpit on the lifting. With three joint forces this eventually worked, glad I didn’t hear my hull cracking in the wave noise as this is surely the worst way to lift a loaded kayak over a side board.

VAMOS! All on board, the driver had just to find the right direction…not sure what he would have done without m GPS running and the guy on the bow who was holding my kayak on the other side to me checking *my* GPS shouting directions…they either had *no* GPS, or just one with no map…

But sooner or later we were back on the calmer side of the river mouth entrance, fortunately riding with the waves with no jumps necessary. From that end where I had already spotted the calmer seas around the first break water head, they easily drove into the river mouth and further on to to a very narrow shallow side arm to the coast guard station hidden in the marsh. We chased up one small crocodile in that side arm!

[pe2-image src=”http://lh5.ggpht.com/-0lIiPStFjPA/UW2J-ymISGI/AAAAAAAAUqw/DxPX8pR7IN4/s144-c-o/P4140010.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5867497601360218210″ caption=”My sea sick crew coming back from the attempt to round the river mouth of Rio Magdalena” type=”image” alt=”P4140010.JPG” ]

I made some jokes on the drive back to get the stress out of every one, as putting my diving goggles on to avoid the sea spray in my face or teasing them with their throwing up…but I also told them on *this* boat I’d also get sea sick! The main issue for me is the constant smell of petrol and the exhaust. I couldn’t blame them, but also needed again to realize for myself I am only responsible myself!

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-1AXQ6-Gpx5o/UW2KEkw6_6I/AAAAAAAAUqw/nSgxGZedBys/s144-c-o/P4140013.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5867497700726603682″ caption=”Coast guard station Barranquilla” type=”image” alt=”P4140013.JPG” ]

What did we learn today? Bad communication with a language barrier and with bad or no briefing makes a bad team. One team member being more experienced can’t let the other one go and has also to turn around if the other one wants it, but is also fucked when the supposed stronger “helper” is not able to “help” any more or to “help” at all! Help yourself, don’t rely on any “rescue”, rather don’t get that far! Both team members learned a lot today. Thanks to the coast guard guys to join me out there in really heavy seas! WE MADE IT SAFELY (BACK…)!

For tomorrow, I will jump with my kayak on the boat again, and we will drive together out of the river mouth to the other side where they drop me into the water when the seas becomes reasonable low again. Not good to put four willing but very young coast guard guys once more into such a situation…sorry! And no chance for them to escort me on a maze path with portages through the inland waters. That’s the situation!