Many years ago we were vacationing at a Mexican resort where guests were entitled to the use of a sit-on-top kayak each day for 1 hour. Our resort was at the south end of a long sandy beach along a broad shallow bay; at the north end of the bay, I could see a small, isolated stretch of beach that I figured might be good for some nude beach time. My wife agreed to watch the kids as I set out on my solo paddle. A hundred yards later I felt safe removing my swimming trunks; I hoped the trip to the north beach would take 20 minutes or so each way, allowing me 20 minutes to enjoy the far beach (and if my trip went 10 or 20 minutes over my allotted hour, I was confident the resort staff wouldn't give me too much grief). As it turned out, it took closer to 30 minutes of what seemed like increasingly strenuous paddling to reach the far beach, which fortunately exceeded my expectations. After a bit of beach walking and body surfing, I knew I was running late and so reluctantly set back off toward the resort. It was then that I realized why my paddling had become more difficult: my kayak evidently had a leak and had taken on a significant amount of water! I dont know whether it was my inexperience or my eagerness to reach that isolated beach that had blinded me to this, but at this point I was burdened with a half-submerged kayak and a long paddle back. The longer I paddled, the more water the kayak took on and the heavier it became. In the end, it was more like a submarine; I knew there was no way I could make it all the way back. I was forced to ground the kayak a long stretch of beach from our resort, and then jog back to provide a slightly glossed-over explanation to the annoyed staff and my worried/exasperated wife. (By this time, I had been away over 3 hours and had returned minus the kayak!) The staff, perhaps realizing that their defective kayak had put me in danger, was much quicker to forgive me than my wife. Needless to say, no more kayaking for me that trip. But when all was said and done, my overriding feeling was one of relief: I had tied my swimming trunks securely to the kayak and so was able to slip them back on before pulling the kayak back on shore. Had I lost my trunks and been forced to jog nude along maybe a half-mile of public beach before getting back to our resort, I might still be stuck in a Mexican prison somewhere.
One time I drove 30 miles to the river, unloaded my kayak and hauled down the trail (rather steep) went back up to get my gear and realized I had left my paddle at home. Did I feel like a duffus.
My biggest penalty for that was a 1-km walk back to the house to fetch the paddle and then return. Plenty of time to reflect on being a duffus!
In November I took my last trip of the season. Had some really warm days and just had to take advantage of some of them. Got to the ramp, unloaded my gear down by the launch area and then parked my truck. Only a few people in fishing area and nobody was close to my vehicle so I opened my truck door and stood behind it to apply sunscreen, usually do that out on the water but since I had like 0 chance of being seen I chose to apply it there. Been getting in and out of my kayak for years with no trouble and for some reason, maybe the sunscreen on my hands this launch would be different. As I'm getting in my left hand kinda slipped a little and my weight shifted and the entire left side of the yak goes underwater. Air was warm but damn that water was cold. After getting water out and getting in my yak without a mishap this time I head out to the main river where I usually do my nude paddeling. The creek that leads out is pretty narrow and I usually leave my shorts on for that part but I could not wait this time, shorts came off as soon as I left the ramp and I laid them on the front to hopefully dry some for my return trip. After all that I had a great couple of hours kayaking nude and enjoying the warm sun.
My second wife and I married late in life so had very different skill and experience sets. I wanted to interest her in the paddling sports so one sunny afternoon I took her out and rented a canoe. The Brazos river runs right through our town and the rental shop was in the downtown area. We launched without incident and paddled north through the city enroute to the city park some 2 miles away. Everything went well. We saw a lot of ducks along the bank including a couple of hens with strings of little ducklings following them and my wife seemed to be really enjoying it. We reached the park and turned south to return to the launch point. Plenty of time, as the return trip was with the flow of the river rather than against it. We had barely started back when a power boat passed us. I am still not sure exactly what happened next, only that I felt the canoe rolling and couldn't counter it so over we went.
I checked on Judy first and she was fine, bobbing along in her life jacket. The canoe was upside down and I decided to leave it that way and swim it to the bank to right and drain it. It had no internal flotation so I removed my life jacket and got it under and inside the hull as it seemed to be trying to sink. The bank there is rocky and has a walking/running path along the top. A couple was walking along and noticed us swimming their way so stopped to help. We reached the bank and the other fellow and I got the canoe drained. They wanted to help us drag the boat up onto the path but we told them that we needed to get it back to the rental shop. They were still shaking their heads while watching two people in their 70's climb back inside and paddle on down the river. We reached the take out point without further incident.
The only thing my wife said was, "You sure know how to show a girl a good time."
I too am 70 and past the white water stage (maybe). I have a 12' sit on fishing yak. Stable with plenty of room for all my fishing gear. Great for the nude tan as all is exposed. Away from the landing and off comes the speedo. Love it.
'The only thing my wife said was, "You sure know how to show a girl a good time."'
I tried a rental double kayak with my wife once. Our lack of coordination with the oars meant our thoughts of getting on are no longer a priority! She wouldn't want me to accompany her nude anyway, so individual solo trips remain the status quo.
At that point, I was still nude. I ended up looking like I was in a mud wrestling tournament. The boat too. After that, I paddled a little further and got in the lee of a small island, rinsed everything off and put on the speedos for the last attempt to the landing. A memorable day.
Ah yes, the more epic, the more memorable. My longest kayak was before my wife got intercepted by the patrol so I went quite a way including crossing near where the fishermen launch their boats with my cap on my head and my swim brief wrapped around a tiedown. :-)
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