You never think it will happen to you. . . - Day 1 After Lunch
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After lunch we launched and headed south out along the Anderson Pt to the Head where we were met with 4’ seas and 15 knots of wind. This seemed as good of place as any to exit our boats right along the rocks and perform rescues so we did. After several rescues each we started to head back north towards the cars. One of the students started to get a little green under the gills and I too was feeling the effects of the swells. I alerted Leon to this and he diverted us to a nearby rock and had us perform difficult landings to get us off the water and our minds off the up and down motion of the swells. We had to exit our boats and ride the swell up the side of the rick and then latch on and climb up the rock with our boats in hand.
We got back on the water after a short spell and some goofing off and continued our navigation and group leading exercise north back towards the cars. About half way back is when the true incident started.
It started out by my left hand cramping up. I was able to work it out and continued on. A few minutes later my right hand started to cramp and this one was not going away so I called Shawna over and told her what was going on. She very fastidiously ran down all the appropriate medical questions regarding dehydration, nutrition, and medical history. I was impressed,my self being a Paramedic, she was very thorough. So to run down my answers I had drank a half a liter of water before launching this morning and had drank 1.5 liters from my camelback since we launched plus another half liter from a water bottle at lunch. In the water I had NUUN tablets which are flavored electrolyte tabs that dissolve in water. I had a sandwich, apple and an energy bar for lunch. I have no medical problems and do not take any medications.
I did not feel excessively tired or worked but now that we had stopped both hands had cramped and the cramp was working up my forearms. I laid across Shawna’s bow as she called group over to take me in tow.
By now we had been sitting still in the swells bobbing up and down for several minutes with me starring at my hands and I was again starting to feel a little green. As luck would have it, just as everyone was gathering around I expelled what seemed like all of the water I had drank that day along with my lunch. I felt a ton better after the show. I apologized profusely as I tried and failed to miss Shawna’s boat. All of the sea sickness disappeared after I purged and I felt 10 times better.
My hands were still cramped up so we continued with a rafted tow. Shawna & Leon orchestrated a double in line tow back to the river mouth. By the time we reached the river mouth the cramps had subsided and my sea sickness was no longer an issue.