Well it happened, I capsized my canoe on Friday and I'm here to tell you that the water is cold. Very cold. 30 min or so into fishing one of my fishing rods was heading over the side of the boat so out of reflex I reached to grab it and sent my self and all my stuff straight into the water. After the initial how did I end up here moment I calmed myself down and started to attempt to get back into the canoe, which was now swamped with water. Let me tell you that is no easy task, no matter how easy they make it look in the boat safety courses. After 6 or 7 failed attempts I decided it was time to start yelling for help, I had passed another boat when I went out and knew they would be within earshot possibly. But after 10 min in the water I couldn't feel how cold the water was and knew I needed to make some choices. If I stayed in the water much longer I was going to run the risk of becoming hypothermic and that would be no good. As luck would have it though as I was starting to get myself all the way into my life jacket I heard the boat motor coming and started to flail my arms and yell again. A couple minutes later two men on a small bass boat appeared and pulled me from the water. Now in typical Vermont fashion as they pulled up along side me in the water the older of the two men asked "Cold in there dad?" Which even in the moment made me laugh a little. He explained after they got me into the boat that his son, who was probably in his mid 30s had heard something and thought it was either a seagull or me. When he asked the son if he could see me in my canoe and the son replied that he could not they knew I had gone in the water.
You know I have for years watched shows like Deadliest Catch and heard people talk about how fast cold water can kill you. And while the water in Lake Winona where I was is not as cold as that it took a lot more out of me than I was expecting.
So what have I learned from all this, where your life jacket all the time when in the canoe, and practice getting into a swamped canoe and know how best to do it. While I knew the motions and had seen it done over and over in videos there is nothing like good old fashion practice to really prepare you to actually do it.
I have to admit I did cheat on this experiment last week and bought a lunch at work. Things have been hectic at home and I was unable to make a lunch for myself for 4 days and so on the 5th day I broke down and bought one. I'm convinced that the nature gods did not like that and that's why I ended up in the water.
Weekly grocery shopping came in as usual at around 50 dollars and now since the incident I believe I will use the savings to buy myself a real fishing boat. Early spring swimming adventures are for the birds.
Fishing and hunting have been slow going over the last couple weeks, with weather being a major factor in not producing much meat. I'm hoping things will turn around soon since the meat stores I bought are all but gone and red beans and rice have become more of a staple than I was anticipating. Here's to hoping that the worst of the accidents during this experiment are behind me and some good luck is on the way.
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