John R, thinking more about your scarey incident at sea, I am reminded that too often, we forget that we need to practice/train for worse case scenerios. Most of the time, there is never an incident, but what if there were? What if my kayak began taking on water from a small crack, and I was too far out and the currents were strong? What would I do? Should I have packed that life jacket which I keep in the car? What if I, like you, get dumped out in deep water? Will I be able to climb back on? The last time I fell off my kayak was when I was riding a decent wave onto the beach. It dumped me hard, face first, onto the hard beach sand. Ouch! ... but what if I were way out and a Shark dumped me? Would I be able to calmly get back on my kayak?
We need to be able to handle those tough, and hopefully rare, situations that are not common. I think we can apply this to all aspects of life. Thanks for the gentle (on my part) reminder. Again, glad you made it back.