It all started with a 60 dollar exchange - and I don't mean pesos. The guys put the leather strapped body harness on me; explained how I would pull very hard on the yellow line; and, after about 5 minutes, the ride would be over. Simple enough, right?
Oh my...It was plenty windy, and being a sailor, I felt pretty comfortable with the entire deal. However, I took off very quickly and got to about 500 feet above the Pacific in less than 3 seconds. Very fun. Then, things went sour. I started to drift further and further away from our shoreline, and it seemed as if I was in the air for 20 minutes or so. I thought it was great, they were giving me my money's worth! Au contra ire!
The wind switched and I was going further out to sea, attached to a line and a boat that could not keep up with the wind. After what got to be about 40 minutes, I started to feel a little sick to my tummy and was wishing I could come back to dry land. Nope. Not the way it was going to turn out.
By the way, reliving this sucks.
So, I watched this tiny boat beneath me turn toward shore, and with that, slack in my line and I started to fall to the water. I could not see anything behind me, which was probably a good thing because I was very far from shore. The waves were about 7 feet and were crashing into the shoreline, as well. More slack, and I felt myself falling backward and hit the water rather quickly. I did have a PFD on, but still plunged in over my head and swallowed a pretty good gulp of sea water. I came up, and saw the boat about 50 yards from me.
The thing is, I go pretty calm in a crisis, which proved to be saving. The boat came closer, I paddled and stayed above water, but there was a tugging at my back, so it was difficult to get anywhere. Finally the boat was nearly within reach, but coming at me way too fast. I braced myself and tried to push it away, frightened that the propeller would get me, only to realize I was going to get hit. I pushed as hard as I could, but still got conked in the right side of my head. At that point, one of the Mexican men- Hector- (there were two) swam to me and tried to help me toward the back of the boat. He seemed petrified and was yelling all kinds of things in Spanish. Again, I stayed calm and swam to the stern of the boat, which was rocking and rolling so hard it was difficult to get anywhere. Finally, I was at the stern and Christopher, who was on board grabbed my arm and tried to pull me onto the swim platform. Something kept pulling me away from the boat. More yelling, and more trying. I was getting nowhere. Every time I would try and get on board, the waves and pulling sensation occurred. At that point, I figured out that the sail was caught in the wind, waves and water were still attached to the harness and pulling me down.
I hollered, "ALTO". While holding onto the boat, I slipped off the PFD (sounds dumb, but I am a great swimmer, and felt confident about doing this), told Hector to release the harness and the line with the parachute attached and after he did so, I slid onto the platform and climbed into the boat. Hector came onboard, gathered the line and chute and then we headed for shore.
About 50 feet from shore, I had to jump off the stern and swim to shore. The waves were REALLY high and strong at this point, but going in the correct direction!
Onshore, my poor husband Fred, Richard, Kim, Roanne, Sharon, and about 20 resort personnel were there. I think it must have been terrifying for all of them, maybe even more so than for me. I'm pretty bruised on my arms and legs and my head has a goose egg, but all is well.
I have dreamt about this for three nights. I have thought about how dangerous the situation was. Richard told me our friend Rickey came in for a crash landing and hit the side of the yellow building! His brother-in-law got dropped in the resort swimming pool.
All I could think of was...SHARKS!
Post Script...I can pretty much say I won't be parasailing again.
2 comments:
omg, I laughed till i thought I would cry you are so funny, (not the situation of course, I cant even imagine) but your story is funny, cant help it, LOL. sounds like your having quite a time and really having fun, after you survived the sailing part. Brave girl.. not me. but they say ..no guts, no glory, this story you will remember forever. thanks for the laugh. cant wait to have dinner with you and fred and our dogs and laugh some more.
love you and miss you terribly.
nowak clan
Thank goodness I wasn't there watching the entire event take place. I'm happy you're home safe and sound.
I think you should stick to cruisin'. =)
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