RE: [Paddlewise] Embarassing exits

No wet exit, but embarassment enough in this little tale. Unlike some of my
tales, this one actually happened.

I was paddling with my friend Rob through the canals of Utrecht, my home
town in the Netherlands. The sun was already down, and in the twilight we
paddled a small, shallow canal, just outside the city, between a highway and
a graveyard. I had overlooked a branch of a tree hanging over the water. I
felt it touching my face. I heard a "thok" on the rear deck, maybe a little
splash, and noticed my eyesight had become blurry. My glasses were gone!

The water was shallow enough to wade in, so I took off my pants, got out of
the boat (In an OldTown Loon this is possible!) and tried with my toes to
find my glasses in 30 centimeters of mud and garbage on the bottom. No luck,
of course not, but I just had to try. When I gave up I was cold to the bone
and it was completely dark. Rob brought me home, where I started looking for
my spare glasses. First thing I found was a pair of prescription-sunglasses,
that lead me to my diving mask, that in turn gave enough eyesight to find
something decent. In my mind, I had written off my titanium frame, with
double-anti-reflection, scratch-resistant, extra-light glasses. I was
already thinking of what kind of glasses to buy next, where to go, what
insurance to bill...

But no. I knew it was hopeless, but I felt I had done not enough to retrieve
my beloved glasses. I went back the next day, in full daylight. I did not
own a wetsuit then, so I dressed in fleece. I felt awkward, in full view of
a highway, swimming fully dressed 10 meters from a graveyard. I promised
myself not to take any skulls or bones that I might encounter and prayed
nobody would stop to ask what I was doing. I found a tree that could have
been the one: It was hard to say, since the night before things had been too
dark and blurry to actually see any details. While smoking a last sigarette
I decided to start looking in the most shallow spot, downstream of the tree.
I went in, found the glasses in about 10 seconds, saved my victory-dance for
later at home and left the site of this embarressment as fast as possible.

These days, I tether my glasses.

Niels.
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