Me and the 3 guys I went to Lamu with, decided to hire a boat and take a little adventure. The captain came to the house we rented, and for a relatively inexpensive fare, stated he would pick us up at 9am the following morning, take us out on his boat where we would fish for our lunch, to the beach where he would prepare some side dishes and BBQ our fish, take us snorkeling, to the ruins, & give us time to lounge on the white powdery beach, sailing us home after watching the sunset. Deal!
We paid our deposit and the next day, woke with excitement to go on our trip. I carefully packed up my money, sunscreen, towel, video camera, digital camera, extra memory card, my trip journal, and whatever snacks and water I could fit in my day pack. When he arrived, I was a few minutes from being ready and we agreed to meet down by the boats, near the donkey hospital. (yup, there's a donkey hospital!;))
At the boat we were greeted by a sweet boy who was probably in his late teens. He worked with Captain Shea on this two-man crew, and I unfortunately, through language barrier, didn't quite get his name. We loaded onto the 20 foot dhow boat and headed out to sea. The warm sun and a desperate desire to soak up some rays made me ditch my New Seasons t-shirt and attempt to get some color. I tucked my shirt in the netted pouch on the side of my bag which was hanging about chest-level off a pieced of wood where the captain placed it. The wind and the waves of the Indian Ocean caused this seemingly frail boat to tip from side to side, with the edge of the boat daring within inches to take water on.
As we got further out to sea, the boy on the boat took a long wooden plank and wedged it between the floor and the wooden ribs along the inside of the boat. The plank extended diagonally across the inside of the boat and rested on the upper ledge of the other side, reaching about 5-10 feet out and over the ocean. The sail was opened, extending to the left, and the boy climbed out onto the plank on the right. We were told this was for balance, to keep the boat from tipping. Hmmm.
After some time went by, one of the guys I was with wanted a chance out on the plank. This made me a bit nervous, but I tried to let go a little. He climbed up there with some visible nervousness, but ended up settling down nicely on the end of the plank, holding a tiny black twine rope, which was supposedly to help with balance. I took a few photos of him, and soon another guy wanted a try. Climbing up there, he seemed much more nervous than his predecessor and I was nervous he was going to fall. He did, however, make it to the end of the plank and sat down, feet dangling above the water. As the boat tilted from side to side, his feet splashed into the water, and I actually felt my adventurous side twinge with a desire to have a go at it.
As he got more and more comfortable, he got a bit more daring and ended up standing on the end of the plank........bad timing. A gust of wind came and the left side of the boat tipped way down next to the water, causing the plank he was standing on to tip way up in the air; that combined with wet feet is not so good. His foot slid and he started slipping down the plank. He did not jump off into the water as instructed by the Captain if something should go wrong, but instead tried to jump from one side of the boat, through to the other side of the boat and into the water. Hmmmm. Miraculously, he did not totally smack himself into any part of the boat causing himself bodily injury. He did, however, hold onto the black twine for balance as he was dragged through the water. The other problem? Oh, the captain had let go of the sail in order to help the boat correct itself, but as the David fell through the boat, he ended up catching the sail and hanging onto it. My head screamed, "LET GO!", but unfortunately, it was too late.
In a matter of a split second, the boat was taking on water. It came rushing in the side and I looked out to the bags hanging on the post in front of me as we took water on. In the fraction of time I thought about grabbing it, I still believed the boat would correct itself. I was mistaken.
Water gushed faster over the side and within a matter of 5-10 seconds the boat was under water. I reached for my bag and tried to pull it off the post as it sank into the water, but I couldn't get it to budge. My hands were fully extended below the water tugging at my bag. All I kept thinking about were all those pictures and videos and my cameras. When I was unsuccessful, I dove under the water, still trying to get it free. I realized that it was hopeless, and as the fear of getting tangled and going down with the ship entered my brain, I decided to go back up to the surface.
The entire boat sank; 30 foot mast and all. The only think remaining was that long plank which floated in the water. We grabbed onto it and I noticed abnormally large cockroaches floating in that water around us, some of them on our backs and hands, as they tried to keep from drowning. The unfortunate event compelling these creepy creatures to come out of hiding and try clinging on for safety. I tossed my hand in the water to rid myself of a couple. I am an animal lover, but cockroaches simply disgust me, and I admit I felt relieved when they all finally drowned.
Looking around, we could not see any land, but there were mangroves on either side of us. I thought to myself, worst case scenario, whether or not the mangroves would support my weight if I climbed on them. For a second, the dramatic side of me heard the theme from Jaws play in my head as I realized I was that I was holding onto a plank in the middle of the ocean with my feet dangling below me. Shark, fish, kelp, whatever, I just kept repeating in my head, "Please, nothing touch my legs! Please, nothing touch my legs!"
After a short time, we spotted a couple of boats in the distance. Although the captain shouted out to them in Kiswahili, I still felt it necessary to shout, "Help! Over here!" a few times, as though my English screams would be more effective in some way. Lol! ;) I remember whining, "My bag! My bag!" a few times, and as I look back on it, I wonder how irritating I sounded or if we were all just in shock.
When the boats arrived, we all swam over to them. I pulled myself onto one and out of the water, feeling hopeless that my bag was gone forever. All those pictures! My whole trip! Ugh! We climbed over the rough brick the boat was transporting to Lamu and tried to stay out of the way. It was quite rough on my bare feet and I found myself feeling teased by the recovery of one but not both of my sandals. I didn't understand how one floated, but the other didn't. (It probably got caught on my freakin' bag! ugh!)
We sat on the boat, and I felt the sun start to redden my back. Logic would tell you to turn around and face the other way, but I felt compelled to watch the area where the boat had sank. We were lucky enough to have a boat passing through with a man diving for lobsters. That meant he had goggles and was able to dive down looking for things. He kept coming up with new items, and as everyone's bags had been recovered but mine, I was hopeful and disappointed all at the same time. The boy from the boat was carting items back and forth from the diver to the boats which had stopped to help. We offered and tried to help, but they wouldn't let us. It felt pretty lame to be sitting there watching folks swim back and forth trying to salvage what they could from an accident that was in large part our fault.
As my outlook turned grim, I looked up and saw the boy swimming towards me with my bag. YEAH!!!!! I wanted to kiss him! (for me that's big!) I took my bag from him and thanked him profusely as he turned to swim back for more things. I immediately took everything out and laid it in the sun, hoping to dry everything out. As I peered down at the equipment, I saw the salt water had already started to corrode the metal parts of both cameras & there was a large quantity of water floating in the screen of one.....not very promising. I slapped some sunscreen on and crossed my fingers.
When we finally headed back, I realized that I was wearing a bikini top and shorts as the boat was approaching the shore of highly Muslim town. Luckily, I had a jersey in my bag to compensate for my lost t-shirt. I would have looked naked in a town where most women are covered in black from head to toe. Plus, I think it would've come off as disrespectful.
When our feet were firmly planted back on the ground, the captain asked us if we would be willing to provide the remaining balance of the trip to help him pay to get his engine looked at, to pay the men who helped, and to pay to try to have his boat recovered and towed back to shore. We, of course, coughed up the balance of our less than $10 per person trip, plus extra. This poor guy! We got back to the house and I think we were all in a bit of shock and disappointment. I took the time separate and tear out each one of my journal pages and lay them out separately to dry. I'm glad I thought of it, cause it really would've sucked to lose my journal on top of ruining my cameras!
We didn't really do anything else for the rest of the day. I probably should've dusted myself off and gotten on any boat that was willing to take me to the beach, but I was a bit shaken and a little depressed about it all. I decided I would stay on an extra day and get my beach time the following day. I checked on and made arrangements to fly for 2 hours instead of traveling by bus and train for two days. The $150 USD seemed worth it after all that craziness!
The next morning, I woke up, excited about my day at the beach. The sun, unfortunately, had different plans in mind. The overcast in the sky, which gave hints that it wanted to go away, ended up remaining the whole day and even released a downpour on the island a few times.
Captain Shea came by in the morning and chatted with us about the terrible events of the day prior. He stressed that it was a very bad thing and that he was frozen in fear. His boat did not resurface like it should have after they removed the mast, engine and all the weight, and they had to spend more time and money getting the boat out. He said he had to stay with the boat all night so that it wouldn't float away before they got all the water removed enough to get it close to a dock and tied off. He asked for 500 more shillings ($6 USD) to get food for him and his family, since he spent all the money on the boat recovery and our rescue. He explained that it's low season, and in a month, it would be fine, but we were his first trip this month. I went to get money, but he left with cash from one of the boys before I got back. That made me sad, but I was pleased when I saw the young boy from the boat and was able to give him some. After all, he did a ton of diving and carting of items from the wreck to the boats.
The two Scotsmen, David and Stuart, left for their flight, and Rich and I checked into a hostel room with 2 beds and a rooftop which you could see the ocean from. Walking through town, many people recognized us as the first people to sink on Captain Shea's boat. Everyone expressed to us how very bad this was & when Rich and I went to lunch that day, we found out why....A young pupil of Captain Shea's came over to our table and told us that Captain Shea has been a great captain who is well respected on the island. That he is an older man, who teaches the younger ones how to sail. He informed us that Captain Shea has never sunk a boat, and that nobody on the island has in a long time....that the last time, which was a long time ago, a captain and his boat totally disappeared, seemingly having sunk, drowning the captain. He told us that the fisherman take this as a very bad sign, and that the pupils of Captain Shea, feel that this is bad luck. This information made me feel terrible. My heart went out to the captain, his reputation, his family and his pupils. Even now, I remorse, wishing I had done something more. The captain left us, agreeing to take Rich out on a boat ride with some other tourist the following day. I was slightly surprised, considering the whole "bad luck" thing, but was happy that Rich would get his fishing day in the end.
Lounging around another day without getting to be in the sun was a bit depressing, and I found myself wishing I could port myself home. The night dragged on, with no interest in dinner & another round of traveler's diarrhea.....that would be the 3rd time this trip! Ugh! I decided to start taking the antibiotics I had gotten before I left for the trip.
The next morning, I said goodbye to Rich, who was leaving on his newly booked dhow trip and started packing for my flight. After I loaded up my bags and slung the backpacker's pack on my back, I still had put on my regular school-style daypack, which needed to hang from my front. Coming up the narrow, unevenly spaced, tall, twisting staircase was luckily harder going up than going down, but it still left me wishing I had packed less. Off to the airport, and back to Nairobi I go!
Even though I was already aware of this incident, reading it was like a book. It got my heart rate going and I was very hooked to find out what was going on next. It was very castaway like- especially the part about no land around you (very SCARY!!) I'm so glad you're home though-with or without pictures :)
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