Historia real por Jorge D. Méndez Ríos – 23 de noviembre, 2020.
Bueno, mi nuevo hobbie desde el año 2016 es el WindSurf. La tabla con el mástil y uno va de pie. Nos fuimos todos, con mis papas a las bellas costas del caribe panameño. En ese momento estaba pasando el Huracán por el norte de Panamá, pero yo no sabía. Así que me dije, “Necesito algo de adrenalina”. Así que subí a la tabla, y navegué hasta la mitad de la canal que esta entre una isla y tierra firme. En medio, no pude sostenerme y me caí. Cada vez que trataba de levantarme, me caía y ya mis brazos no aguantaban. Como ya me ha pasado cosas parecidas varias veces, y mis papas piensan que me ahogo, me decía a mí mismo “Como hago para que sepan que morí contento. Tal vez manteniendo la sonrisa” Ja!. Bueno, gracias a Dios no había corriente, pero sí mucha brisa. Porque si hubiese habido brisa, quedo en mar abierto facilmente.
La cosa es que decidí nadar con la tabla hacia la orilla más próxima, y después de media hora, cuando ya estaba como a 100 metros de distancia de los corales para salir caminando, viene un velero enorme y no me veía y me iba a pasar por encima. Así que le hice señas para que supiese que yo estaba ahí. Me vieron, y comenzaron a dar vueltas alrededor mío. No podían detener el bote porque sino podían encallar con los corales que estaban cerca. Así que me tiraron la cuerda, y yo intentaba agarrarme de la cuerda, por un lado, y de la tabla por el otro. En ese momento parecía que la solución era peor que el problema, porque me estaba arrastrando el bote y estaba peor de cansancio. Bueno, logré amarrar el windsurf al velero y me monté. Me dijeron que no podían llevarme a la orilla porque podían encallar. Así que les dije que no se preocuparan que me dejaran cerca de otro bote. En ese momento, salía una lancha cerca de la orilla, y mi papa en un kayak a rescatarme. Y el windsurf se soltó. Lo primero que se me ocurre es volver al agua. Así que les dije: mil disculpas por el estrés y el tiempo perdido, mas una de las jovenes, me dijeron, ” no te preocupes, fue algo de emoción para el día”. Así que le hice un “fistbump” al capitán y me tiré al agua y nadé al bote rescatista. Me subí al bote, y luego mi papa también. Al tratar de subir el kayak y la vela al bote, fue un enredo, la brisa movía el mástil y nos golpeó varias veces. Pero luego, gracias a Dios, logramos llegar a la orilla.
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Well, my new hobby is Windsurfing since 2016. The board with the long mast while you stand. We all went, with my parents, to the Panamanian Caribbean coast. At that time, one of the Hurricane of the season was passing-by north from Panama, but I was unaware. So, I said to myself, I need some adrenaline rush. Immediately, I put the mast and the board together and jumped into the ocean. I got on the board, and navigated to the middle of the canal between an island and the mainland. In between, I couldn’t hold on and fell. Every time I tried to get up, I would fall and my arms could not hold anymore. As similar things have happened to me many times, and my parents concern is always me drowning, I said to myself “How do I make them know that I died happy? Maybe keeping the smile while I drown”, I said to myself. Ha!. Well, thank God there was no current that day, but there was a lot of breeze. If there were currents, I would have end up in open sea easily.
The thing is that I decided to swim while pulling the board towards the nearest shore, and after half an hour, when I was already about 100 meters away from the corals to walk out, a huge sailboat was coming toward me and he couldn’t see me. I thought they were going to run over me. So I waved my hands for them to notice me in the water. They saw me, and began to circle me around. They couldn’t stop the boat because it could run aground at the nearby corals reef. They threw a rope at me, and I was trying to hold on to the rope with my right hand and to the board with the other. Remember that the boat was still in motion, so basically, I was kind of turned apart. At the time it seemed that the solution was worse than the problem, because I was dragged by the boat and I was more fatigue. Well, I managed to tie the windsurf to the sailboat and climbed into the sailboat. They told me they couldn’t take me to shore because of the coral reefs. Kindly, I told them not to worry about it, and that they can drop me near another small boat. At that moment, a 10-feet boat was leaving shore, parallel to my father in a kayak, both on their way to rescue me. The knot that was holding the windsurf board got untied. I was not sure what to do, but what came intuitively was to jump into the water again. I then asked the crew to apologist me for the stress caused and the wasted time, but one of the girls told me, “don’t worry, it was worth the excitement for the day.” So I bump fisted the captain and jumped in the water and swam to the rescue boat. I got on the boat, and then my dad too. While trying to get the kayak and the windsurf mast into the boat, it was just a mess, the breeze moved the mast and hit us several times. But then, thank God, we made it to shore.
Autor: Jorge D. Méndez Ríos