The Paddle Boat

This story takes place in Florida. Actually, to be more exact, we were visiting family in Naples and one beautiful sunny day, we decided to head to the beach. My daughter was with us that year. Now between her and I, I'm not sure who loves the beach more. So, we packed up a few things and headed to the white sands and blue water of the Gulf.

Off we went and it was a gloriously beautiful day. The sand was just as squeaky white as could be, which is pretty typical of the Gulf Coast. We had been there a while, when Jennifer and I noticed that they rented paddle boats. We decided to rent one. We had never done this in the ocean before and thought it would be easy enough.  We opted to pay for the full sixty minutes, figuring that since both of us had good, strong legs, we would be fine.

We pushed the paddle boat out about waist deep...deep enough so when we climbed in, it wouldn't hit bottom. We got ourselves comfortable and began our journey out on the open sea.   Pedaling and pedaling, we laughed saying how tired we were already and we still had another 55 minutes to go!         

"Lets go out there," Jennifer said. We headed in that direction, pedaling, pedaling. Then, we thought we'd better put more sunscreen.  Pedaling and pedaling, watching the pelicans dive into the water and soar back up.  Only moments passed, when we noticed a big batch of sea gulls diving again and again into the darker blue water and coming up with small fish in their beaks.   They were those little tiny shiny ones that glistened in the sun.  The fish would be swallowed in an instant. Then zoom splash right into the water again. Pedaling and pedaling, laughing and talking about what we had done while we were vacationing, it really seemed as if we were getting nowhere.  I mean out there was all this beautiful water of various shades of blue and the shore really didn't seem like it was that far away.

Then our legs were really tired so we decided to just drift a tad. We both stretched out as best we could, placing our legs up onto the side of the boat.  Anyway our legs deserved a rest, so we put our legs up and drifted and drifted.

Somehow, don't ask me how...we nodded off.  We were both awakened...brought back to reality, if you will...by a loud "THUD" and the paddle boat rocked. I said, "Babe, what was that?"

"I don't know, Mom. It sounds like we hit something.  Can you see anything?"

Looking over the edge of the boat into the water, I couldn't see anything. She peered into the water and from where she was sitting, she couldn't see anything either.  We noticed that where we were we could no longer see down to the bottom. 

Then another "THUD" which again made the boat rock.

We were scared...really scared!  Even though she was an adult, using my "mommy voice," I told Jennifer to get her arm out of the water. You see, she loves to dangle it over the boat and had been dangling it over the side. I told her to keep all her body parts in the boat!

to be continued....