Like We Nearly Entered the Baltic Fleet

We are back from holiday.

We camped in the beautiful seaside regions of Croatia, like we did in the last year. Awesome, if you just want to have wonderful summer weather, warm water without any sharks, a camp site in ample shade, and a scenic landscape around you. Not in a camper as you might assume but just in our old family wagon and a tent.

One morning Theo and I pumped up the rubber dinghy borrowed by my friend and formerly stowed it in front of the right back seat of our Volkswagen. Mommy was still asleep so we decided to take the rubber boat to the next pier and we pumped up the rest over there, in salty water. I told Theo to hold the position while I was bringing back the pump to the camping site. I woke up Anna saying “Baby – sorry but we got into our heads to conquer the Baltic fleet and to enter the Spanish armada.” Dozily turning around she answered: “You guys bring back some gold and jewelry, alright?”. “Sure” I smirked.

Coming back to the pier, I saw Theo with a red head rowing in the wrong direction. “What are you doing mate?” I shouted. “It doesn’t work, Daddy” – he shouted back. “No probs”, I said and stumbled into the water over the stony beach.

Five minutes later we where 50 meters away from the shore: me rowing in a very small rubber boat, Theo hanging over the rear end, paddling with the fins on his feet. And talking about everything: “Daddy, why did the Dinosaurs die out?”, “What happened during your time in the armed forces?”, “What is going on with the financial crisis nowadays?” etc…

In the next few minutes we found ourselves drifting away from our island. Becoming aware of it I said “Son, it’s a good opportunity to head back to the bay we came from, ditch the idea about taking over Armadas”. Alone, we didn’t come a yard forwards, swimming and rowing against the stream and the sudden upcoming wind.

Somebody else in a Zodiac, obviously saw our misery. He threw us a rope that I immediately knotted to the bails of our rubber boat. But as soon he gathered ways, I felt that the rubber bails will not withstand the speed of the Zodiac. So I pressed my feet to the front of our rubber boat and took the rope into my hands.

He gathered more and more speed and at some point I was hurled out of the rubber ship swallowing lots of salt water and hearing Theo laughing behind me. My sun glasses were still on my head at this point.

But not any longer when the Zodiac skipper turned his boat around to pick up Theo, our dinghy and me into his custody…

No matter – we survived thanks to the German Zodiac skipper, didn’t enter any Baltic fleet nor the Spanish Armada – but luckily came back and we were really, really exhausted 😉

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