Adventure on the High Seas

"Hey, we're on the pontoon near the sunken island and the boat is dead. Can someone come help us?"

That was the walkie talkie call I received at 4pm this afternoon.

As I've blogged before, the pontoon is dying a slow and painful death. Our Assistant Program Director just got it running again this morning after our weekend adventure. So this wasn't surprising and it wasn't the first time. Well, actually, it was the first time it's happened with kids, but during training week, some of us had been in it when it stalled and just one canoe was able to tow us back to shore.

Today, however, was WINDY. The waves were intense. But I figured two canoes would do the trick... Four of us fought the waves and made it out to the pontoon, ready to tow it back in. No worries...

Oh, but did I mention that the pontoon was also sinking. Not Titanically or anything, but the lower half is definitely deeper into the water than was normal. So me, J, A, and S spent about a half hour standing in the water up to our waists, pulling at the pontoon to get it straight, roping the canoes onto the pontoon, pulling the canoes to get them straight, fighting with the canoes as they SMASHED against the side of the pontoon, fighting with the massive pontoon that was being tossed around the waves like a toy, getting soaked up to my chest. It started out as a fun adventure but got really frustrating as I realized there was NO WAY, no possible way those two canoes were going to pull the pontoon. An entire fleet of canoes wouldn't have budged the pontoon. It was a cute thought though.

Eventually we drifted close enough to shore and we were able to get is to a dock. I walked up to the house it belonged to and met the owners, who were very nice, albeit surprised to see me emerge from the water into their backyard, soaking wet and out of breath. We helped the kids climb out and we sent two counselors to canoe back to camp and get the van. It was about a two hour adventure in total.

After our (very late) dinner, we sat down to de-brief. I wanted to make sure none of the kids were traumatized. However, it turns out this was the highlight of their week so far. We have a full group of adventure loving campers. So then, no one is traumatized. Well, I'm kind of feeling traumatized as we have a dead boat and a canoe docked across the lake and no plan for getting them back. UGH! That will be my adventure for tomorrow.