I wasn’t really expecting much from the low tide, yesterday, so I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the creek to find the tide was quite low. I arrived late, and I forgot my dry bag with my extra clothes and sunscreen, among other things. I didn’t want to load the boat back onto the trailer and drive back home. I had a long sleeve shirt, so I resolved to make the trip without some of my optional gear.
When I got to the canal that would take me to the mud spot, it had very little water in it, so I had to walk my boat a good deal of the way, though waist deep mud. I probably should have kept my shirt on, as my unprotected shoulders burned pretty quickly in the intense sun. You can see the beads of sweat on my body in the photo on the left.
I did remember to bring some bamboo pieces to enhance my little bamboo structure, but the twine I planned to use got left behind in the dry bag. I improvised with some cord I had in my boat. After I finished lashing bamboo pieces, the tide was even lower than when I arrived. The only thing to do was to get covered in mud and wait for the tide to come back in. Imagine being forced to hang out in a bottomless mudpit to avoid sunburn while awaiting an incoming tide.
I did have camera gear, but my JVC camcorder had some kind of audio problem that got worse and worse. I think it was heat related, but the audio I was planning to use in the video was pretty much trashed. I have only muted audio from the GoPro.
In addition to hanging upside down by my man parts, as pictured on the right, I jumped in the really deep mud and horsed around a bit, while up to my neck in sunblock 2000. I had camera’s running most of the time, but I’m not sure what I’ll salvage from the video. The last thing I did wasn’t on camera. The tide was coming in, and I really wanted to revisit a spot where there is a smooth, strong log, buried deep in the mud that I can just reach to get a rope around it. There, I can use the rope to pull myself under and tie myself deep enough that I can barely break the surface for air. It’s a pretty fantastic experience, and I relished it for a few minutes before freeing myself and loading up the kayak to make my exit.
I put together a teaser/trailer from the video. The audio isn’t very good, but I wanted to share some highlights. I’ll plan to post the video somewhere for people to download.