On the foggy fifty degree morning of October 15th in Wilmington North Carolina, I jumped in the steaming 70 degree harbor at around 7:40 am, and started warming up for the 1.3 mile race in the harbor. The average age of the people there were fit, ready to kick me in the face 40 year olds. Yay. I’m 12.

SO, they blow the whistle at ten minutes to warn people, then at five minutes, but as it turned out they were two minutes late. So, with three minutes till the starting whistle, people got frantic, all scrabbling and splashing to be at the front of the pack. You would think all these 40 year olds were a bunch of kindergarteners. Finally,the starting horn blasted across the foggy morning harbor, and the whole beach where we started from erupted in foamy frothy, foam, and no one could see anything. I waited exactly one minute until most people had gone so I did not get kicked to death, then I swam out into the still dim bay.

There were problems immediately. About a quarter of the people in the race had the same idea, so I almost got kicked to death anyway. So far, so good. About half way through the race, jellyfish decided they wanted in on the race. Eventually, there were so many that I thought we were swimming IN them. Because they were moon jellies, they don’t hurt a lot, but once you have six dozen, you start to feel them a little. Just a little. (To give you a little perspective, I sounded like a dying rooster at the end.)

To add insult to injury,(literally) fate decided to add fish to the equation. Nice cute minnows right? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO…NO NO NO. When I felt one touch me, I jumped about a mile.(I admit I have an active imagination, but the jellyfish did not help.) Obviously, they wouldn’t let us swim if they even thought there was a slight possibility that there was a shark, but still, SHARKS!!! To top it off, the wind tripled in strength and I could barely get my arms out of the water for waves. Eventually, I thought I would die of dehydration because of the amount of salt water I was drinking. I probably had a couple gallons in my by the time I finished the race. Finally, I saw the finish line and took of like a sword fish, scorching through the last tenth of a mile, racing like my life depended on it, which it probably did.

I was shell shocked scared half to death, stung a couple dozen times by jellyfish, and I had a serious issue with chaffage. I though things couldn’t get any worse. I thought wrong. 50 yards from the finishing dock, I felt something odd. I looked up and I was no less then 20 feet to the right of where I was ten seconds ago. The tide had started to go out, taking me with it, moving alarmingly fast. I was about ready to throw a temper tantrum, but I thought is wasn’t quite the right time. I put my head down and swam as hard as I could. When I looked up again I was still 30 yards from the dock and about 30 feet to far right. I once again put my head down and swam as hard as I could, which at this point is about the speed of a dung beetle. I did not look up because I knew it would be demoralizing.

I swam head first into the dock.

YAY!! what a way to conclude my race!!!!

Finally, after what seemed like a millennium, I stepped out of the water, and on to the dock, a changed man.

Well, there you have it, that’s the story of my 1.3 mile swim in Wilmington, NC.

Here is the rout I was supposed to take through Mott’s Channel.

At least I was supposed to. I did plenty of zigzagging.( that Photo is from google earth)

Here is me warming up.

Here is me standing in front of the camera smiling, completely oblivious to the terror that was about to befall me.

So that is the eventful story of my swimming adventure in Mott’s Channel.

THANKS FOR READING MY POST!!!!!!

Over the summer, the sixth grade class of Durham Academy Read a book about a lot of water. A whole lot of water. This book about a whole lot of water is in fact called “Finding Someplace” by Denise Lewis Patrick. (Surprisingly not called A Whole Lot of Water). Anyway, In this book of a whole lot of water, 13 year old Reesie Boone is trapped in New Orleans, waiting for her godfather to pick her up before hurricane Katrina did. At her house, she had to decide what she had to bring with here, whether it was a few pictures, or an envelope of birth certificates, or one apparatus or another. So, we received the assignment of filling a paper backpack with everything we would take with us if we had to leave FOREVER…

Additionally, we were asked to create a hero essay about who we think deserves the most glory. Here is mine!

Here is a picture of the book about a whole bunch of water!

Here are some things I would bring…

 

1) I LOVE READING

-The Lord of the Rings series

-The Mysterious Benedict Society

-Into Thin Air

Thief Lord

-Book Thief

-Black Hawk Down

-The Splendid and the Vile

2)BLANKET

-Blanket

-Blanket

-Blanket

3) Communication

-Battery pack

-Things to charge including AirPods, an Apple Watch, and an IPad.

4) Games

-Exploding Kittens (lots of them)

-Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza.

5) Toiletries

-Comb, for combing

-Toothbrush

-Contacts

-Glasses

-toothpaste(can’t forget that now can we)

-Soap

6) Nourishment

-Freeze dried blueberries

-Freeze dried Mangoes

-Freeze dried strawberries

-Freeze dried Larabars(just yanking your ankle)

7) First Aid

-First Aid

8)Flashlight

-Flashlight

9) Family Photos/Journal

-Family Photos/Journal

10) Extra Clothes

-Hat

-t-shirts

-sweat pants

-Shorts

-socks

-Sweat shirts

-PAJAMAS(that’s a must have)

-An expandable French designed bullet from the civil war( not sure what category to put that in).

11) Two jade hippos from Africa

-Two jade hippos from Africa.

Here Is A Picture!!(-:

Pictures courtesy of me

A few short weeks ago, The sixth grade of Durham Academy traveled to the far reaches of North Carolina, to a camp called Camp Kirkwood, smack in the middle of nowhere. Little did we know, we were heading towards doom…

Meanwhile…

Zeus the thunder good was vacationing on the beaches of Florida, having a grand old time. While he watched the sun set, he whistled to himself with the water lapping at his toes. At some point, he eventually dozed off on his beach towel listening to the rhythm of the waves crashing against the shore. However, he was not aware of the fact that the tide was rising…

On the bus, I was starting to get sleepy, and the humming of the buses motor was a perfect combination of my sleepiness to conk out. I was asleep for about 30 seconds when there was a colossal bang as the bus hit a tremendous crater in the road. The entire bus was shaken up like a soda can in the hands of a five year old. So much for sleep.

Back on the beaches of Florida, Zeus woke up in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.( the tide had risen and floated him out to sea.) When he realized everything that he had brought to the beach was at the bottom of the ocean, he said several things I will not repeat. He threw a dramatic temper tantrum, which immediately caused a tropical storm to come out of nowhere. (Of course).

Idealia, the category three hurricane, was barreling Across South Carolina at a whopping 125 miles per hour, leaving behind it a path of chaos and destruction at about the time of my pathetic excuse for a nap. (Off to a great start.)

by the time we arrived at Camp Kirkwood it was drizzling. By the time we went to bed, it was pandemonium. The next morning, it was still pouring. Rain lashed at the windows and thunder and lightning flashed and rumbled. The sky maintained the ominous color black, and rain continued with no sign of a stop. But, I’ll skip the first two days of horror, because they were horror, however, they say that third time’s a charm, and that really applied here.

I awoke on the third day to se brilliant sunshine streaming through the dusty window. The sky was blue from horizon to horizon, and the day was passed kanga jumping, zip lining over the sparkling lake(more of a pond), kayaking, and canoeing as the sun reached its peak. One turtle, try to sun itself on a log got frustrated because we kept going by it and scaring it into the water. Eventually, it worked up the nerve to try attacking us. About half way to our boat, it chickened out and turned around. On kanga jump, I think my science teacher Mr Robbins had the most fun. He bounced around the blow up trampoline, screeching and flying several feet in the air.

I think that for the most part, this camping trip was to improve team building skills and to get to know each other better. All in all, this trip was full of terror, thunder, chaos, but most of all, fun.

Across the lake/pond view of camp

 

Kayaking on the lake/pond

Kanga jump!

Zip Line!!!

 

Photos courtesy of Mrs. Richardson, Mrs. Donnelly, and Mrs. Williams

Thanks!