p) Swim in the Storm - My third flip was in a monsoon on Friday, 7/8/11, on a relatively flat and wide section of river. We saw the storm coming, but I was just expecting rain and had no idea what was about to happen. When the storm reached us, we got hit by a really strong upstream wind and driving rain. The wind whipped up braking waves on the previously relatively flat water and besides the driving rain, the wind blew the white caps off the waves horizontally over the surface of the water. For a few minutes, I paddled downstream into the wind, fighting to stay upright. While I did this, the rafts were blow upstream by the wind separating them from me. My family and friends in the rafts had their own problems and were high siding to keep from flipping in the wind. Wesley said later that he could not put the oars in the water or the water would pull them out of his hands, because the wind was blowing the raft so fast across the water, but he tried to skim the tops of the waves with the oars to keep the raft lined up with the wind.

q) Back in the kayak, I decided I could not keep up what I was doing and turned to the right shore, not sure what I would do when I got there. I felt very unstable in that position with the side wind and sideways to the waves, so I turned upstream thinking I might be able to get to a raft. That also felt very unstable and out of control with the wind pushing me from behind, so I tried to turn downstream again. I think it was in that turn that the wind blew me over. I set up and tried to do an on-side roll but was on the down wind side and the wind wouldn't let me roll up. I was exhausted and out of breath already, and had little confidence in my off-side roll, so I pulled the skirt. I had trouble getting out of the kayak because the wind blew it to the side making it catch my leg and foot, but I continued to fight it and eventually got my foot out. At first I had a hold of neither my kayak nor my paddle, but I could see my kayak moving away from me in the driving rain. I swam to it, wanting the additional buoyancy, and surprisingly, was able to catch it. I found my paddle on the other side of my kayak and grabbed it too.

r) I could see no one at this point and was all alone in the dark, wind, and rain. I yelled several times. I did not really expect anyone to hear me, but yelling made me feel less alone and was one of very few options I had available at that point. Later, Mike said he could hear me yell, but could not tell what I was saying. I could faintly make out plants on the right side of the river in the rain and spray, and tried to swim my kayak and paddle that direction. I tried to get on top of my kayak to get out of the cold water, but could not stay on it in the waves and wind. I flipped the kayak over and tried to get on it again, but that did not work either. I quickly rolled off underneath it. I tried to swim and pull the kayak, but it did not seem like I could possibly move it that far. I made myself keep going. I thought about how my strength would go as my core got colder and I would loose the ability to swim long before I drowned or expired due to hypothermia. Then through the rain I saw muav ledges coming into view on the left, opposite the direction I had been swimming. I changed course and swam that direction. I did not really expect to be able to grab the rock and hold onto it against the current, but as I approached I found that there was an eddy by the edge and I was able to grab the rock and stop myself and my swamped kayak. I worked my way upstream in the eddy, assisted by the eddy current, until I found a small ledge about knee deep below the surface of the water that I could stand up on and still hold my kayak and paddle. I stood on that ledge for several minutes and let my core warm up a little bit before I tried to step out of the water. I put a sling on my kayak that I carried in the pocket of my PFD for flipping rafts so I could step out and not have the kayak float away. I couldn't set my paddle down for fear that it would blow away in the wind. I undid the drain plug, pulled the kayak out of the water, and stood and let it drain. By that time, the wind had died down so I could stand and hold the kayak upright without being blown over.