Deep-Trouble reports: Day 1

This is part of a 4-days journey report
Day 1:

• Lamma (PKT) ->
• Tung Lung Is. ->
• On Gong ->
• Nam She Wan (sunset, called Fred to report location) ->
• Ko Lau Wan (nearly crashed into bed of rocks) ->
• Dan Ka Wan (dark landing)

So far, so good. The only trouble on the first day was the fact that I had a humongous big head and imagined that I was incapable of such mundane things as screwing up, running into rocks, or dying.

Could have landed comfortably in Nam She Wan at sunset but decided against it, mostly because I saw a fishboat with lights on and was a worried that it could be I.I.

Would have taken me all of 3 minutes to paddle around the rocks just outside of Ko Lau Wan, but had to wonder what it's like to get in trouble, so decided to paddle right between the rocks...

The task seemed simple enough. As the swell fills the gap between the rocks, I will ride the current joyfully and shoot rapidly between the rocks, and enjoy the adrenaline rush as I go. There is nothing to it, just time it right and it should be just another joyride.

I meant to study the water movements first. There was a pattern to the cycle. It went up then down a little, up a little, down a little...

Except it was dark and it was difficult to study the swell movements until you are too close, and then suddenly you are commited to it, whether you like it or not.

I was already too close to the rocks when a chill ran down by spine with the new discovery: The two rocks were joint at the bottom, you don't get to find out until the water recedes particularly violently for the fourth cycle ... and then the water swells back up to fill up the void rapidly and violently. If I had entered the passage at the wrong moment, I imagined I would be slammed against the bottom where the two rocks meet, and then suffer the swell that pours violently back over the rocks.

It has nothing to do with skills, or making the right decisions, or good timing, or virtue of any sort. I was just very lucky that I got sucked into the rock at the right time. The bottom of the rockbed appeared in front of my eyes momentarily before I was swept forward with a particularly forceful wave, it washed me ahead with so much force, it was all I could do to keep my paddles from slamming against the rocks as I was hurled through the passage. It was over before I had time to ponder about options and solutions. After I came out to safety, I even convinced myself that it was fun, it was daring and it was a great advanture, but if I were to be honest, it's just another one of those immensely stupid moment in your life that no one in her right mind would want to brag about, ever.