March 20 Dhinghy flipping adventure in Hanga Roa....

I guess I won't get any pictures posted any time soon...my camera was drowned along with other important items. Yes, my friend Sherry and I got flipped in the dinghy head over heals through a monster wave we couldn't avoid....timing departure (back to Infini) for that 'break' in the series of waves didn't work out when trying to return with a huge load of provisioning we had just done. I grabbed the bigger bags, using them for floatation, only to have them ripped from me when the next wave hit. There were many surfers around who came to help. The feeling of being a human tumbleweed in big surf is something I hope to never repeat. The dinghy was upside down, and Sherry eventually reached it, and managed with difficulty to right it. Engine and tank still intact! They got to shore before me....the Navy people were there to see if we were OK. The surfers gathered what they could...our oars and dinghy seat, a few of the now mostly empty shopping bags we used; Sherry got her sandals back, my Teva's are history. Also gone: our Standard hand held VHF, tiller extension, Sherry's credit cards, both our sunglasses and Sherry's regular glasses, my well used Franklin Translator that I was going to put the French chip in soon. We dried out all we could and a wonderful lady from a nearby restaurant dried our important papers...my passport, etc. M and Dave went out in Dave's dinghy to try to look for any floating stuff when they finally heard the news, and managed to retrieve a bunch of veggies, but no credit card wallet. The surf was too high for them to come into shore and help. The Armada took our Tohatsu outboard and cleaned it out, delivering it back to us at the boat later in the afternoon. We waited all day for the breakers to lay down, and when they weren't getting any better by 5pm we asked a returning fisherman to take our dinghy aboard his launcha, and Sherry and I got a ride back to our boats thru the big surf (M says we were airborne, but he couldn't get the camera out in time for a picture). So, another lesson learned the hard way....surf can be really dangerous here (and elsewhere). We're both fine; a bit battered and bruised, but nothing serious. We still have our dinghy and outboard, oars and most of our valuables, so we feel very fortunate. The people here were great, and the Armada was concerned and very responsive. Thank you all!

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