I thought I knew how cold salt water would be, but putting your hand in the water does not compare to putting your toes all the way up to your neck in the water. And I thought Kana was cold.
I slid into the water and my body stiffened, my back arched, and I started to lose sensitivity. The water was so cold it was painful. I thought I would pass out.
I had little time to find open shore not blocked by rock barriers. I swam the best I could, but being three years younger than Milo, I'm not the strongest swimmer, but my le crawl is high point for a twelve-year-old.
You would think with all the saltwater surrounding the rocks they wouldn’t be covered in green slime; they would be washed clean. But the slime on the rocks made climbing ashore a chore. No joke. And impossible.
I wasn't too worried, even if a sneaker wave tried to pull me out to sea, I could back float and swim parallel to the current and swim free. But I was worried about the cold. Papa said it was too cold to swim in the ocean. And I didn’t believe him.
How I got to shore, I don't know. I wasn't aware of much of anything and functioning on instinct. But I made it to shore.
To be truthful, I was scared. I can't breathe underwater. And my hands are useless against a shark's double row of teeth. I swam gasping for air from the very beginning, rotating my torso as I swam to breathe.
The smell was pungent, like decaying seaweed; after being washed out to sea from Bandon Beach I didn't think I could hate the taste of saltwater anymore. I do. Luckily, I found a low outcrop of slimy stone that I was able to climb upon and rest, and again I thought of my stupidity at Bandon Beach. Seagulls cried in lamination as if mourning my pending doom.
I made it around a palisade peninsula that is shaped like a boot, and once around the boot's la claque I was floating in a safe, calm harbor. I had been fishing from the boot's heel before sliding to the rocks below. A rookie's mistake.
But without the mistake, I wouldn't have discovered the hole in the side of the rock palisade on the harbor side of Rock Boot Peninsula. A cave that went further back than I knew. And I didn't want to get lost. The cave went far back and branched in two different directions. Caves don't get much light and are too dark to see in after a certain point.
Exploration would have to wait. I need to finish smoking the fish. I wouldn't want to disappoint you and Grandpapa with childish behavior. I will update my map to better define Sea Lion Sand, Rock Boot Peninsula, and La Claque Cave.