Friday, May 16, 2014

Day 132

Eichenhain sends me supplies as often as I can arrange to pick them up.  The last package included chia seeds, perfect for energy on the go, Dr. Bronner's all purpose biosoap, and four metallic bags with German writing on them.  I opened one of the bags and found dark chocolate.   Yesterday, while inviting my friends to sample my chocolate, I somehow lost the bag.  When I opened the next one, I found a jungle fragrant powder that wasn't even a little chocolaty.  The Internet told me I had a bag full of maca powder, which apparently is the solution to all of life's nutritional problems.  All I had to do was add some to my chia drink.  In bag number two I found hemp seeds, THC free.  And in bag number three, more chocolate.   It's so dark that I can feel the new hairs braking surface on my chest.  Healthy living, here I come.
Day 132:
5/1/2014
In the bay of Thermos there is a shallow red cavern, little more than an overhang.   The radon red rock is warm to the touch and occasionally bubbles rise through the clear blue water from the pebbles on the floor.  A hot spring climbs out of the earth from far below and it heats the sea all year round.   I rolled the Icarus in the hot spring of Thermos, and reveled in my adventure.
Emanuele,  a fellow lover of adventure,  kindly came to see me off, so I rolled once more for his benefit, waved, and left the port into the relentless south wind.
My crossing was only six miles, but it was not easy.   I waited to complete it and find shelter on the Fourni coast before opening up a Nalgene and trying my new maca chia energy drink.  With the vibrations of the Aegean now resonating deep in my bones, and the radiation from the spring still clinging to my skin, I was transformed into Captain Kayak, a neo mythical Greek hero with extraordinary powers.
Asides from my fantastic good looks, charm, exceptional hair, and outstanding paddling and endurance skills, I see dead people.
He was sprawled on small stony beach in a tight bay behind a boulder.  I never would have found him if I hadn't tried to get a picture of the crying goat on the ledge above.
I yelled at him.  Maybe he was only sleeping on rubble with a giant log across his back.  He didn't wake.  The only exposed skin seemed to be his skinny black ankle.   I didn’t look closer.
I backed up and wondered how to be respectful.   Did he fall off the cliff or wash up from the sea?  Where were his people?
I took out my radio on 16 "Pan. Pan. Pan.  This is Solo Kayak on the inner side of the western Fourni island requesting search and recovery.  I found a body - bravo, oscar, delta, yankee.  Repeat ... over."
There was no response.  A fisherman who chatted with me earlier was crossing the bay.   I paddled out to him taking brief breaks between sprints to wave my paddle and blow my whistle.
"What's wrong?" He called out.
"I found a body."
"A body?" He asked.
"Yes."
"A dead body?"
"Yes." I answered.
"Holly shit!"
"Yes."
The fishing boat followed me back to the body.  Though small, the boat was too clumsy and in need of deep water to get to a spot where the body was visible.  I worried that so long as I was the only person who'd seen him, he wasn't real. 
The fisherman called the local coast guard on channel 12.  They don't monitor 16, that's only for emergencies.   We waited.  The ferry carried people between the islands of the archipelago.   When the last of the passengers disembarked, the coastguard commandeered it and came to investigate. They could not get the ferry close enough to see the body, but they called a civilian boat that was smaller and we waited longer.  I wanted to see how they do tricky recoveries here.
Eventually, a fellow managed to get his boat close enough to leap onto some rocks nearby and with a little bit of climbing confirmed for me that the body was real.
Also, that it was on land and consequently a police problem and not a coast guard one.
After I took out the police needed me for a statement, only the fact that I was American would be a problem.  So I waited in the two room station for a couple hours before I got permission to wait elsewhere.
In the evening a coast guard officer found me.  The case had been dumped back on them.
They recorded my story and read it back to me. 
"What religion are you?"  The officer asked me as he took out a book with a cross on the cover.
I was surprised and didn't see the relevance.   "I choose to withhold that information."  I said.
"We need you to swear," he told me.
"Oh, well that's easy.  I'm Jewish and we don't swear."
He didn't know what to do.
"I can affirm for you that I told you the truth."
"Okay, please do that. "
I solemnly stated "I affirm that everything I told you is true."
We were done for the evening and the wonderful officer invited me over for a shower.   His wife made me a salad with cheese from her parent's farm and olive oil from his.  I did not eat it in the shower.

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Nautical miles paddled: 10
Current location: 37.57782,26.479757

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