There is nothing like cheating death on Easter Sunday. Our buddies Courtney and Rick, four Italians from another sailboat, dad and I all hop in the water taxi with Henry, a local tour guide and cruiser favorite. He took a quick liking to dad and named him, �Valentino�. I don�t know why but it fits, no?

The plan was to snorkel lava tubes located at a point on the other side of Isabela about 20 miles away. There has been a large swell creating 30-40 ft waves. This condition has been predicted to intensify through Tuesday and we were going out anyway. We were not only the fastest but the only ones not wearing life vests. Hmmmmmmmmm...

The first location was too dangerous so we opted for plan B. We wound up swimming in a lagoon with tons of tortugas. The visibility was similar to swimming in a dirty fish tank, but it was a beautiful day and we got to check out our snorkel gear. Dad tried out his new john boy that he got in San Cristobal and I squeezed into the wet suit that I haven't been in since I was 12. We both were snorkel sheik.

Well on the way back the adrenaline started to flow. We had to full throttle through some breakers to get into the turtle lagoon, and the weather was supposed to calm down later in the afternoon.

Well, it didn't.

Ours was the first skiff out, and with no warning, only an exclamation of, �NO MOVING!� we ripped back out into the open sea. Dad and I were in the front and two rows of three behind us, then Henry at the wheel. We were taking waves and going at least 10 ft off of the water holding on to our wooden benches so as not to fly out of the boat. The bow was at probably a 45 if not 60 degree angle coming off of those waves. There was a 30lb rusty danforth that was not tied off in anyway that became airborne with us each time before we hit the water with a spine crushing SMACK! We made it through relatively unscathed, knowing we were all going to be sore the next day. Henry made it up to us by showing us some local wildlife at a trail near our anchorage. However, getting back to the Sora was super sweet. I immediately popped dad a beer, took a couple of ibuprofen and slurped down a much needed martini.

Cheers to �swell� holidays
Cass

this is a picture of my death grip and the other boats with us. Wish i could have gotten a picture of the boat in the air, but I was busy trying to keep my ass on the boat!