One of my favorite movie directors is Michelangelo Antonioni (perhaps best known in the US for Blow Up). L’Avventura is one of the films that established Antonioni as a significant director — at the Cannes debut, people booed the film, always a sure sign of something good and original. The film is about a group of people who go to an island on a yacht, where one of the group disappears. The rest of the film is about the search for her.
So, anyway, Suzana and I took our friend Samina out to one of the local islands, Isla Espiritu Santo, for a three day outing. While there, we enjoyed the scenery, slept late, and took our two kayaks out for some water fun. I should, perhaps, mention that both kayaks currently have “issues”: one has a slow air leak, that takes days to deflate; and the other has a slight water leak — it won’t sink, but you end up sitting in a puddle of water after a while.
On the second day, Samina and Suzana took the kayaks out while I took a shower.
When I finished the shower, twenty minutes later, I looked out to see how far they’d gotten. They were nowhere to be seen!
I looked in all directions. Nothing! I got out the binoculars and scanned the coastline. Nothing! I’m not the sort to panic, but my heart rate was, shall we say, elevated above a normal functioning level.
It didn’t make any sense. The kayaks are bright orange, easy to see. One might possibly have sunk, but not both. They might conceivably have been driven out to sea by the tide, but I should still be able to see them!
I considered raising the anchor and motoring around looking for them, but that’s hard to do single handed. I considered calling the other boat in the bay to see if they’d seen them, but it seemed unlikely they would have. I considered sticking my head in the sand, but for that I’d have to get to shore somehow.
While trying to come up with some other unworkable alternative, I saw a bit of movement out of the corner of my eye. Grabbing the binoculars again, I managed to locate them, right up next to the rocks.
Though less than half a mile away, they were small enough and camouflaged by the rocks so that they were nearly impossible to see. But they were fine, and headed back to the boat, both having a great time and quite happy.
I didn’t mention this experience to them until we were back in La Paz a couple days later… I don’t know if they noticed at the time how happy I was to welcome them back aboard Gardyloo.
