"Tuesday September 2nd – A more laid back kind of day"    09/04/2003

Got up fairly early, headed to breakfast and then to the activities office to sign up for the sea kayak tour. Luckily there was still room so we got a reservation. Unfortunately we were too late for the coconut dehusking demonstration. I’m determined to crack open a fresh coconut before I leave though so later in the day I found a good candidate and plan to make an attempt tomorrow. The rest of the morning we just lounged around on the beach writing postcards, doing laundry, and enjoying the view, the sounds, and the warmth. The weather has just been exquisite. Not too humid and in the evening it cools down quite a bit. In fact I turned off the AC and opened the sliding glass door in the evening so we could hear the surf and enjoy the breeze.

The Sea Kayak tour was at 2pm. We headed on down to the jetty and it turned out to be only one other couple and our guide, Bruce. The kayaks were the two people variety except for the guide who was in a single. I’m turning the journal writing over to Jeff so he can give you the low down of our trip. It wasn’t pretty…

[Jeff’s version of events…]

Well let’s just say we narrowly avoided an international incident. The Kayak tour consisted of Beth & I, another couple that were in their mid-twenties – Aussies, and Bruce, our guide, As Beth said, the Kayaks were for two people. The person in the front is basically the passenger and helps to row. The person in the back does the steering and also rows. Beth said she wouldn’t mind doing the steering for us. Bruce explained how to raise and lower the rudder, how to use the oars, and about how the Kayaks would float even if they filled with water. He motioned for us to all get in, push off and lower our rudders. He then started telling us where we would be going and what we would be seeing. Unfortunately, Beth couldn’t really see around me, didn’t see where we were headed, and couldn’t get our rudder down. We were headed straight for Bruce. He never saw us coming. We hit him perpendicular (T-Bone’d him, as they say). Flipped him right over. It was not a pretty sight. I’m not sure what I was doing, it all happened so fast. Beth was yelling that she couldn’t get the rudder down and I guess I was looking back to try to help her… I don’t know. He wasn’t hurt though. He is a trained Kayaker and they have to practice rolling over etc. It took him a few moments to get his bearings, get back in his kayak, and use the bilge pump to get all the water out. In no time at all we were on our way.

We rowed out to Purtaboi Island, just across from us (about 800 meters away). Bruce and the other couple stayed well out of our paths. We landed on the island, got out for a quick walk around the beach, and got a short history lesson of the area. Beth asked me to take over the steering of the kayak. Next we headed back over toward Dunk Island to get a tour of the Northern tip area. Beth and I just couldn’t seem to get in sync with the rowing and fell a bit behind the others (which I’m sure made them nervous and had them looking over their shoulders). We did catch up, but the winds were getting a bit high near this part of the island, so we didn’t get to row up to and area that had some caves. We turned our kayaks around and headed back along the shore area where the water was calmer. Bruce showed us around the shore a bit, then we rowed back to the launch point (without incident).

I don’t think he was too mad at us, but he mentioned how he would love it if we would sign up for his waterskiing tour the next day, and how he would show us a good time. And we laughed and laughed.

After our two hour kayaking adventure, we headed back up the beach to our room and got ready for another wonderful dinner (all you can eat for free, but drinks will cost you - $2.60 for a Coke!). The sunset was spectacular, again and we stayed out late on the beach looking at all the stars.

Kayaking along the Dunk Island Shore

A Stingray out in the water in front of our room.

Walking around the Island before dinner

Another great sunset outside our room
(that’s Beth in the water)