My survival story

I was 20 at the time and was at a retreat in Florida where we had fun doing a lot of water sports even though I was not too great at them I still enjoyed it. My friend who I will call Bruce for privacy's sake, was a good friend I met there. Him and I got separated though and we were in kayaks.

I started paddling as hard as I could but I was caught in a current and actually capsized 3 times but due to my training I knew how to right myself back up which was a small win in a game of what could have been death. I paddled for hours but I don't remember how long, my estimates are around 3-4 hours of straight paddling. I gave in after seeing no change in my distance from land. I thought paddling would keep me close enough so others might spot me but it didn't work.

I was dragged to sea by a current with my kayak, swimsuit, t-shirt, sunscreen, backpack with goggles and flippers. I did bring a couple granola bars but only 1 was left before this even started.

My fear was whether those shark stories were true, whether I would be killed slowly or fast. I had a waterproof digital watch which I used to time myself at certain points of the day in order to have some way of knowing what time it was. I then remembered a documentary called Touching the Void where a man used his watch to time 20 minutes for a marking point as a goal. I tried to think of what I could use as a goal because there was nothing out there.

I didn't sleep the first night and wasn't hungry. My body has learned to run on near empty tanks of gas so to speak. I still ate a quarter of the granola bar and could hardly wash it down without water. My camelback backpack was empty from days before the retreat.

The thing that gave me hope were the paddles I still had, even as useless as they were. I managed to enhance them by putting my flippers on the end of each paddle in order to make them stronger and it did make a change but it was hard to tell despite being harder to paddle which was a sign that it was grappling more water and more force.

I paddled 20 minutes then took a 5, this rotation continued for 3 days. My eyesight was also bothering me but even though, I still saw something far away which looked like a land mass. I didn't get my hopes up because I knew if I came crashing down it would be just as bad as anything else.

I paddled very hard though, so hard that my hands were bleeding the entire time which I did drink. I didn't drink my urine though as I remember it was not helpful in survival. For some reason I felt an adrenaline rush as I saw the blood drop more and more from my hands and I felt like nothing could stop me and I got angry which I used as energy. I cursed the sea many times. After paddling for so long I had to let my hands heal a little at night. I love astronomy and could see every star which was a nice way to forget my position.

On my last night of being lost I was bumped by something big, it was a whale and it was not alone. I paddled to keep up with the pack and it seemed as though they slowed down for me to guide me to safety. I made eye contact with one and it winked at me or so I thought.

These whales seemed to have created a bubble of protection and they did so for hours. Every now and then I would try and pet one but they bumped my kayak trying to get closer to me as well lol. I even tried speaking whale for crazy reasons, what else was there to do or who would I talk to?

I had been lost for 4 days and without food for 3. I was able to get some liquid from the blow holes of the whales which rained on me and it was less salty so I gave it a try and it was not bad but I did not do this often out of fear for what could happen if I did consume any seawater.

Day 5 came around, I tried to sleep but the whales kept knocking my kayak. I broke down at that point because I thought they were simply bringing me out to sea rather than into land. Again they kept knocking me until I put my paddle in the water. My eyesight was not good but I saw what looked to be a white boat which I thought was too good to be true, it was a family yacht searching for whales.

The whales that guided me for 2 days decided to put on a display of what seemed like joy by breaching and jumping out of the water. One whale stayed close to the boat until we got to shallow waters where I asked if I could get off for a moment and swim with this gigantic thing.

This was probably the whale who began to lead me to safety and I was in the water for 20 minutes thanking him and he/she allowed me to lay on his/her back for moment and I looked her/him in the eye and she locked onto me. I didn't want to leave them because I wasn't sure I would see them again so before exiting the water I kissed this whale on his head above his eye.

My best friends had put out search parties and called the police but it was the most unlikely of things when I was temporarily adopted by whales and lead to safety. My life now is still about astronomy but I cannot stop studying marine biology as well.

I hope you enjoyed my story.