James was already way ahead of me, and his powerful strokes easily sliced through the water. Both of us were in this together. I turned my head to look at each stroke to make sure it had the maximum effect. The water was choppy and the wind was at my back, casting up droplets of spray from behind. That meant that I would be going into a headwind on the way back, when I would be already pretty fatigued.
Any other day, we wouldn't have such a race against time, but this day would give us the best chance of completing the mission.
James rounded the bend ahead of me. I caught up to him as he was landing his kayak. "There it is!" he said. "It's still there!"
"Can you get it for me?" I asked.
"Sure," he replied. He was already out of the boat, retrieved it, and carefully handed it to me. I looked at the time.
3:07.
"YES! We are beasts!" I exclaimed. Since we were so far ahead of schedule, James took the chance to do three rides on the rope swing. He's getting really good at diving off the rope, something I haven't figured out yet.
Then we headed back. Stroke. Stroke. Stroke. The wind in our faces, spray washing all over us from the choppy waves, and a relentless pace. Stroke, Stroke, Stroke. Hundreds and hundreds of strokes. Arms burning more now, heart pounding harder, muscles begging for a rest. No rest. No chance. The race against time was still on.
We pulled up to the dock.
3:23.
"WHOA! We're totally gonna make it!" I ran up to get the truck from where it was parked, we loaded the kayaks in the back, tied them up, and roared off. We pulled into our driveway, parked, and jumped out.
3:43.
"Wooohooo!!" We cheered. "We did it!"
It was 2:45 when we left. From leaving the house to getting back, we completed our mission in just 58 minutes.
(See my blog tomorrow for the explanation of what was going on here.)
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