When we rose for coffee in the morning we had no idea what lie ahead. We pushed off after breakfast and headed into the swells. We knew only a few miles away was another wind break, which brought us to Cabo Pulmo…the only living and growing coral reef in the Sea of Cortez. However, the swells were now a good 10 feet from trough to peak. As I paddled toward the point bracing almost every wave, I glanced over my shoulder to keep an eye on Jason. He was looking smooth and sure. I looked back once more and all I saw was the bottom of his kayak— he had capsized. I scanned the shoreline and felt at ease knowing it was all a beach run out. I knew I had time to rescue him. I swiftly turned my boat and shouted instructions. Jason wrapped around my bow once I had hold of his boat. I proceeded to do a rescue, which consisted of pulling his upside down boat over my cockpit to let the water drain out. However the waves were huge and Jason had been fishing, so he had some lures on the deck. One lure in particular got hooked on my PFD (personal flotation device), or (life jacket). This was the most frustrated I have ever been in a rescue because, I was hooked to his loaded boat while getting thrown around like a rag doll. I pulled my rescue knife out and cut the bungees on the deck of his boat. The lure was now hanging on my PFD. During the course of all the confusion the back hatch of Jason’s boat had taken on a huge amount of water. I stabilized his boat and promptly instructed him back in it. Once in, I told him to paddle to shore where we could drain the extra water. We paddled in but the waves were so big that they had created a six-foot wall on the beach from crashing. There was no where to land, but we had to. I looked to my side before landing and saw that Jason managed to get out of his boat and hoist it over the wall of sand. I proceeded to land.

I paddled on the back of a breaking wave when it hit the wall. The receding wave sucked from underneath and perched my bow into the wall while my stern was still on the wave behind, the whole underside of my kayak was in the air when I suddenly capsized. The next wave rushed in from behind and drilled me. I was on the sand, so I pulled out of the boat. I grabbed the front haul loop and forced the loaded nose up on to the top of the wall of sand. I frantically reached for the cockpit to haul up the rest when I slammed my thumb right into the hook on my PFD. The hook went clear to the bone of my thumb on my left hand. Blood began to flow.

I was getting pounded by the surf against the wall with a hook in my hand that held my arm and hand to my PFD. I had one hand left and had to get my boat over that wall before I lost the whole thing. I managed with all my strength to push it up to safety and got myself out of harms way. With a bloody immobile hand I looked over to Jason who was now running down the beach toward me. He quickly responded and soon we were trying to get me unhooked. A lady came out of nowhere and offered help. She informed us that up in their palapa they had an E.R. nurse who has dealt with this kind of thing before. We agreed to go up to the house for help. She had to push the hook through the other side of my thumb pad. It was quite a painful experience. I wrapped it up and practiced my grip on the paddle.