I Lost My Pants

Don't fret, my pants were lost only for a little while. There was some drama on the high seas the other day. I was taking my afternoon excursion to the beach and marina when I happened upon two guys and a girl visibly wet and the two guys had no shirts on. Under normal circumstances this would not be that abnormal; however, it was only 40 degrees and extremely windy. Other people were hanging around helping put a canoe on shore. I thought I would stick around and eavesdrop to see if I could find out what was going on. I didn't have to eavesdrop very hard because there was a guy on his boat on a cell phone talking loudly about how he rescued some capsized canoers and some were still missing. That explained the wet and shirtless people. I went up to them to find out what happened and if they needed anything. They told me their story of how they started out from Everglade National Park in Everglade City and were heading to Pavilion Island to camp overnight. The waves got really big and capsized their boat. They lost all of their supplies and none of them were wearing life jackets. There were six other people with them but they had no idea where they were. They were in three other canoes. One of the guys was telling me his tale and how at one point he was "done". They didn't speak very good English so I had a little trouble following them. I realized that by "done", he meant dead or at least almost. Luckily someone out fishing found them and brought them in.

First of all I can't believe that the National Park would rent canoes to them and give them a permit to camp when the weather was so bad. It was so windy that the bay in front of our condo had waves. If there was waves in the bay, then the Gulf must have been terrible. Secondly, what part of "life" jacket don't you get. Yes, life jackets can be cumbersome and a pain to wear, but you damn well better believe if I was in a canoe in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico I would be wearing one. Hell, I wore mine in two feet of water on my little kayak adventure. If I fall out of my boat, I want to be alive when the sea monster comes to eat me. In my conversation with the trio it became very evident that what they needed was something to keep them warm. I figured that out from looking at their blue lips. I went home and got them some blankets. Blankets won't make you that warm when your clothes are wet so back I went to look for something for them to wear. Joe and I don't keep a lot of clothes down here so we didn't have much to choose from. I had to give up my favorite orange sweats and Joe gave up his favorite fuzzy pants. That was ok though because we were helping out our fellow man.

The rest of their party was located unharmed and they were all reunited about 6 hours after the beginning of their ordeal. I went back to check on them before they left and told them I was glad they were all ok and not to worry about the clothes. What was I gonna say? "Can you please strip and put on your wet clothes so Joe can have his favorite fuzzy pants back". I assured Joe that I would buy him some new favorite fuzzy pants.

The next day later in the afternoon, we came home to our blankets and clothes neatly folded by our door. That was sweet! They made a special trip back here just to bring us our old ratty clothes and blankets. What a happy ending. Everyone survived and Joe got his fuzzy pants back. It's a Chokoloskee miracle.