Isobel Asks The Internet

XV - The Boating Lake

My friends and I ran into our enemies during a watersports excursion! Did we deal with the situation in the right way?

Hey everyone!

So, the other day Heini, Katie and I all had a day free of plans and we decided to find a stimulating pursuit to occupy our time. We are all big fans of spicing up our days with various activities, and so we all kept a catalogue of brochures EACH that we could flick through when we needed some inspiration. Whenever we went to a location where there were leaflets, we would always take one per person of every single variety. Then, we would insert them into our respective catalogues upon returning home. This meant that we could browse our options with efficiency.  I invited Heini and Katie to come over to my apartment at 7am; they had both brought their catalogues, so we all started looking for ideas while drinking some (high quality) espresso.

While we were turning pages and discussing our options, one leaflet stood out to me; it was for a nearby boating lake where you could hire different types of boats, and row or drive them yourself. This would be PERFECT for us as we are all very athletic. Heini is also a freelance lifeguard, so she had lots of experience with water! We decided that this was how we were going to spend the day.

As soon as we got to the boating lake, we saw that there was an information desk. We are all 100% against misinformation, so this was very encouraging. There was a display on the desk that listed the different types of boats that you could hire to take out on to the lake, and we held an informal decision-making forum between the three of us to decide which of the available vessels we would be gracing with our operation. We were SO tempted to get a high-speed motorboat, but Katie was slightly hungover from a library science panel she had chaired the previous night, so we decided to go for a kayak instead.

As soon as we had made our decision, we were shepherded over to the kayak storage area so we could ready ourselves to make entry into the water. In line with health and safety regulations, we had to wear lifejackets as the boating lake could be SO deep (in places) and there were also occasional riptides and whirlpools to be on the look out for! I fastened mine over the forest green halter-top, satin dress I had selected for this outing. Before guests are allowed to go out on the lake unaccompanied, they are supposed to have AT LEAST one hour of safety training, however due to my excellent reputation in town, we were allowed to to go out on the water immediately. We launched our three-person kayak on to the surface of the lake and set sail (with paddles).

It went SO well to begin with. We had arrived at the boating lake early, and on a weekday so we basically had it to ourselves. It was quite a windy day, so there were occasional currents that threatened to capsize us, but we all had high levels of technical precision and were able to navigate ourselves out of any potentially sticky situations. We did notice another group on the other side of the lake in an inflatable boat who seemed to be having a more difficult time, but other than that we were basically free to do what we wanted.

About half an hour into our boating excursion, we decided to stop on an island in the middle of the lake to hydrate and take in our surroundings. To our surprise, there were many ducks on the island! They all came over to us, and quacked encouragingly; I am very good with animals and they were totally at ease around us. After we had finished stroking the ducks, we went over to our kayak again and saw that the group in the inflatable boat had sailed closer to us. When we saw who was in boat, we were FLOORED in shock.

It was Brindie, Debra and Marlene!

I was disgusted to see them here after everything that had happened recently. What's more, they were dressed SO inappropriately; none of them were wearing lifejackets, and it seemed like the inflatable boat they were in was designed for two people (and there were three of them). This was incredibly disrespectful to the staff of the boating lake, and I wondered if we should confront them, however this decision was made for me as I could see that they were purposely sailing towards us (quite slowly, as they were very bad at rowing). 

They all looked PISSED to see us and were screaming. They even shouted that they had a bow and arrows! This was probably an empty threat, but I recognised that it would be safer for us to get into our kayak and sail towards them as our boating skills far outstripped theirs. We got into our kayak and approached them.

As soon as we pulled up next to them Brindie was yelling all like "what the FUCK how dare you come here after everything that has happened" which was so rude. Debra was also screaming, although Marlene just looked confused. The three of us recognised that the situation had become threatening and was in danger of escalating further, so we needed to take action. We stood up in our kayak and jumped on to their inflatable boat. This was supposed to just intimidate them but we were all wearing heels and so we punctured their boat! (omfg)

We quickly jumped back into our kayak, however Brindie, Debra and Marlene were not as quick as us, and their boat sank! We weren't sure what to do at this point. We weren't in danger, and we were still fairly close to the island with the ducks so (in theory) they should have been able to swim to safety. At this point, we knew that there was nothing we could do, so we rowed back to the visitors' centre so we could get a hot drink at the café. We ordered three chai lattes, but instead of giving us three separate mugs, they gave it to us in one HUGE mug to share. This was confusing but I didn't question it. 

While we were drinking our latte, we overheard one of the health and safety team saying that there were a group of people MAROONED on Duck Nest Island (which I assumed was where the ducks lived) and apparently the ducks were behaving very aggressively towards them. This checked for Brindie, Debra and Marlene, so we were reassured that they didn't drown. 

Could we have done more to help in this situation? Should we have ordered something different from the café?