I guess if you live an adventurous life you will meet with some risks. This experience really shocked and sobered me.
In Northern Quebec I lived on a beautiful bay that was 24 miles deep. There were extremely high tides as it was just off Hudson Strait.
The Inuit hunted seals and somebody came in everyday with a few seals. In the summer they were able to go out with a boat and shoot a seal in the water. The seal sticks its head above water to watch you. The seal head is about the size of a saucer so you have to be highly skilled to have success.The nineteen year old Hudson Bay manager wanted to go hunting seals and he talked me into going with him. We had seen Inuit shoot seals and it looked like a good challenge. We borrowed a canoe, motor and rifle. Mistake number one. We didn't know what shape this equipment was in.
Now mistake number two was to go out by ourselves. We had no experience hunting seals. Any Inuit would have been honored to take us out. I was a prairie boy and had no ocean experience so I depended on this Newfy kid to know what we were doing on the water. I was 25 and he probably thought I had some maturity that would keep us out of trouble.
Mistake number three was to go out to the strait when the tide was coming in. The tide came in with a current of 10 - 12 mile per hour current. This meant that it would take much longer to get out to the strait as we were going against the current.
Mistake number four was to go out to the Strait to find seals. There were lots of seals in the bay. We didn't have to go out to the open water.
We got out to the strait and started looking for seals. There was a four foot swell but that was not a problem. We roared around and saw the odd seal. We shot at the seals but didn't hurt any of them. With the four foot swell your boat was rising and falling four feet. Also the seal was moving up and down on the swell. So you can imagine that it's a very hard shot to get a seal.
We then saw an area that had lots of seals so we roared over thinking that we would be in luck with this many seals. Remember the four foot swells. All of a sudden, among the seals we suddenly saw huge black things emerge from the water. My buddy screamed rocks and yelled to reverse and get out of there. If we'd gone in among the rocks and crashed down on a rock the canoe would have been kindling. We were a mile from shore. In the icy Arctic water we would have lasted only a few minutes. Fortunately, we had not gone far enough to be in the rocks. So mistake number five was to not watch for rocks even though we were a mile off shore.
We quickly decided we had enough seal hunting and started for home. We were a couple of sober serious boys for that ride home. Mistake number six was to go home when the tide was going out of the bay so it was a long ride home because we were against the current..
I really was shaken by this experience as there was no room for error. This one experience I will never forget.
We spend all our lives gaining experience which will guard us against dangers such as the ones you describe and then when we have got it all we drop dead of old age. Funny old world isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI think it happens sooner that that. It happens when we get married and have kids.
DeleteI'm sorry to laugh. It would make a good film. 'The Crazy Gang of Two.'
ReplyDeleteThere's always a small thing that riggers the idea for a great movie.
DeleteOh, my! I can see why you haven't forgotten this one, Red. I don't think I would have, either. But then again, I never have killed any animals myself and wouldn't have been out there in the first place. Thanks for telling the story! :-)
ReplyDeleteWe didn't kill anything or even scare anything. I haven't even fished for the last 40 years.
DeleteRed, this was an adventure that apparently impacted your life to a great extent - oh, to be young and foolish and live to tell the tale, eh. Great story :)
ReplyDeleteI've used up a lot of luck along the way.
DeleteWow, this does sound like a harrowing experience! I'm glad you made it back OK and all those lessons were learned without a mishap.
ReplyDeleteYoung males seem to have those close call experiences as they think they are invincible.
Deleteyou cheated death on that one, i think. i think you used up 1 1/2 lives, at least.
ReplyDeleteThere was an awful lot of luck involved in that one.
DeleteGeez - you're even lucky you're here to be posting about your experience! I'm glad you are though. LOL
ReplyDeleteI must say that those rocks wee one of the biggest surprises in my life. It took me a few seconds to realize what it was.
DeleteNever tried the meat. A hard lesson to learn by.
ReplyDeleteSeal meat is very dry if you'r and roast it like a white man. If it's boiled it's better and if it's frozen and raw it's better. The liver is the best I've ever eaten.
DeleteThis story could have ended so unhappily. Glad you survived to become a much wiser person, even though we all have gone through rites of passage in some form or another.
ReplyDeleteIt's the typical example of young males engaging in risky behavior. Now wiser? That may be a big stretch!
DeleteThat's quite an experience Red, but thankfully you survived to tell us about it. Have you ever been back since?
ReplyDeleteI've never been back. There are no roads in. I think the nearest road would be more than 550 miles away.
DeleteYowzers!
DeleteWow.. I think you really do have a little Red angel on your shoulder. You and your friend were very lucky that day.. as were those seals. ;)
ReplyDeletethe seals probably had a good laugh at the two buffoons who nearly did themselves in.
DeleteSix mistakes and you survived! Well done.
ReplyDeleteYour youthful experiences are becoming MOST
interesting. A bit of a mixture of the Wild West and the Yukon Territory of "good old Johnny Wayne" in your blood, eh?
It's mostly a case of being a young male and thinking you are invincible and then not using your head.
DeleteHi Red.
DeleteI don't think you are tennis orientated.
Well I am.
Your female top athlete of the year, the very gracious and Glamours , Eugenie from Quebec, who played Hopman Cup with Milos Raonic, the male, top sportman's of the Year in Canada, is now into the S/Finals of the Australian Open.
So far $500,000 richer!!
She has a fan club of young males, "The Genie Army", of young males, I don't think they are all Canadians.
Well done Mate, Canada should be proud and I now will be cheering the young 19 year old at my most vocal best.
Maybe instead of seal efforts, you should have taken up TENNIS???
Go CANADA, great effort.
Yikes! Boating is not my thing! Well, will go on a boat to go fishing.
ReplyDeleteAll these near misses gives our lives character don't ya know! :) And it sounds like you have a lot of character!
I have not boated or even canoed for a long time. I have my last canoe for sale. Oh I forgot. I canoed down the Vermillion river in Illinois in 2011.
DeleteIt's a good thing that we escape most of our foolish mistakes!
ReplyDeletePhew. You really did have luck on your side that day. I'm assuming that, as you are writing about the loss of your lives, that you haven't got more than five more stories to go!
ReplyDeleteI have said it before, I love your stories.
ReplyDeleteSelf-depracating lessons in life, laughter and wisdom.
What an adventure Red! Kinda scary, but it could be a made for TV movie:)
ReplyDeleteSounds like quite a scary experience! Thank goodness it turned out alright!
ReplyDeleteOh Red now I will never forget it you were very very lucky. Scary. Hug B
ReplyDeleteWOw, that's quite the story!! I bet you learned a lot from THAT.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're alive. I also envy your association with the Inuit. I am 3/16 American Indian, but have never been around Indians except for my 3/4 Indian Granny who died when I was ten and had also never been around Indians (being orphaned as an infant), yet spoke of them as "my people." I have no idea that I would benefit by being "around Indians," yet I feel as if there's a piece of me that's missing by only knowing of them through books and movies.
ReplyDelete