Day 41 - Running Sea

Running sea is what the indigenous people call surfing the sea in a dugout log canoe (they call it dory even when it doesn't have the sail on). One beautiful afternoon in Bangkukuk Taik (aka Eagle Point), we decided to go surf the big waves. The five of us fit perfectly in the canoe, but no more.
When we started pushing the canoe into the water on the sandy beach, the three foreigners (Amelie, Jerome, and me) saw that water was coming in from at least five big holes in the canoe, so we told our two local friends, Guthri and Ronald.

Guthri: Don't worry, Ronald is a professional.

Ronald went into the woods and came back with a piece of rock and wood. Jumped into the canoe, he started hammering the clothes that were already in the cracks back in to seal the hole, but the waves were still hitting the canoe, so the water kept coming in while he was hammering the cracks tight. We were only 2 feet away from dry sand, but they refused to push the canoe back to do the sealing job there.

Guthri: OK, we done. Let's go! Get in! Get in!

As we pushed the canoe deeper into the sea (we're at about knee-deep right now), water started gushing through the cracks.

Me: Uhh.. Guthri, it didn't work. We should probably go back to the dry sand and try to seal it again...
Guthri: No no no. We keep going. Keep pushin. Get in! Everybody get in!

So all five of us jumped into the canoe.

Guthri: Paddle! Paddle! Quick!

 As the little canoe struggles to rush though the waves into the sea, the water level inside the canoe rises only higher and higher. As we were almost a kilometer (or half a mile) away from the shore, a wave came and swallowed our canoe...

Here we are, in the sea without life-jackets, with our canoe upside down filled with water.

Jerome: Uhh.. Guthri, what do we do now? How do we get the water out of the boat?
Guthri: Don't worry, man. Watch our trick.

Guthri and Ronald got to each side of the canoe and started rocking the canoe violently. 20 seconds later, the canoe is back on the top of the water.
Guthri: See? I tell you not to worry.
Amelie: We should seal the cracks again. Where's the rock and the wood?
Me: We lost everything when we almost lost our boat...
Guthri: Jump in! Jump in!

As expected, we got into the canoe, the water started gushing into the canoe again.

Amelie: Do we turn around and go back now?
Guthri: NO! NO! We cannot turn around. Keep going!

We looked at each other and just kept going towards the waves.

I wish I was able to capture some pictures during this exhilarating adventure of surfing in a canoe while trying to keep as much water out as possible.

I didn't bring my camera because I knew I would be wet - but little did I know that we would be so close to sinking our boat so many times...

Found this image on geckoadventure.net. It looks just like the one we were in.