Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Between life and death
For those who havent heard about it, while windsurfing, I almost killed myself. It was interesting, here goes. I was waiting for the storm to come in, cause the best winds are just before a storm really kicks in. Everything was fine and good, and I was having a blast out at sea, with I would say, a short period of rather kick ass wind. Then, the clouds came in... and I was hurrying back to shore, duhh, cos it looked terribly menacing (and it was!!!). And so, I was happily sailing back, going as fast as a little pebble skipping on the surface of the water when lo and behold, the wind came to an abrupt stop! This was all while I was about say just over a kilometer away from shore.
So, I used my sail as a fan and started pumping it like mad trying to get back to shore but 5 seconds into that, torrential rain hit. I had say 20 meter visibility, and needless to say, I couldnt see shore no more. to compound that (and here's where I thought I was screwed) there was lightning. Not your normal every couple of minutes, but rather, clouds only an apartment block high, every 4 second type of lightning. I put down my sail and sat on my board, thinking... I'm screwed. Half an hour of drifting later, and thank my lucky stars I didnt get hit by any lightning / ships / coast guard / ferries, the lightning eased off.
Just before I lost sight of shore, I saw the wind change direction to an off shore-ly direction, and so, I got up again, and started to surf. Upwind of course. After say an hour of aimless surfing, mind you, it was still 20 meter visibility, i realized i was going nowhere. I heard planes in the distance, and started going toward the noise, cos the sailing center's right next to the airport. Another hour of aimless surfing before the rain eased a tad, and when I saw trees in the horizon, I was pretty darned happy! Took me 45 mins to get close to shore.
This I have to emphasize, to thank all those involved in getting me back. All the boats in the sailing center and neighboring Ministry of Education's adventure camp were out looking for me. Took them an hour and a half to get me. Special thanks to Bow and Alvin (who had blue lips from the cold) for finding me!
Anyhow, I will add another part soon, about how this has affected my belief system.
So, I used my sail as a fan and started pumping it like mad trying to get back to shore but 5 seconds into that, torrential rain hit. I had say 20 meter visibility, and needless to say, I couldnt see shore no more. to compound that (and here's where I thought I was screwed) there was lightning. Not your normal every couple of minutes, but rather, clouds only an apartment block high, every 4 second type of lightning. I put down my sail and sat on my board, thinking... I'm screwed. Half an hour of drifting later, and thank my lucky stars I didnt get hit by any lightning / ships / coast guard / ferries, the lightning eased off.
Just before I lost sight of shore, I saw the wind change direction to an off shore-ly direction, and so, I got up again, and started to surf. Upwind of course. After say an hour of aimless surfing, mind you, it was still 20 meter visibility, i realized i was going nowhere. I heard planes in the distance, and started going toward the noise, cos the sailing center's right next to the airport. Another hour of aimless surfing before the rain eased a tad, and when I saw trees in the horizon, I was pretty darned happy! Took me 45 mins to get close to shore.
This I have to emphasize, to thank all those involved in getting me back. All the boats in the sailing center and neighboring Ministry of Education's adventure camp were out looking for me. Took them an hour and a half to get me. Special thanks to Bow and Alvin (who had blue lips from the cold) for finding me!
Anyhow, I will add another part soon, about how this has affected my belief system.
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