Rowing for My Life by Kathleen Saville

Author:Kathleen Saville
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2016-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

July 7: Surviving the Grupos de Hormigas and Huaras

“Can you tell where we are?” I yelled to Curt over the crashing sound of breakers too close for comfort.

“Yeah, I think it’s number four, Hormiga Quatro. We’re only about thirty miles north of Callao”—the wind swallowing the last of his words.

“Shit, this is a nightmare. We’ve got to go west before we get sucked in any further.” I began pulling hard on the starboard oar to swing the bow around. “Come on, let’s row together.” Curt tossed the chart into the bow cabin.

Green bioluminescence flashed in a synchronized dance of light as I changed course and pointed the bow westward, away from the Hormigas rock towers. All around the boat, the sea had taken on a luminous iridescent green color. Thousands of pinpoints of light flickered. We were in a sea alive with bioluminescence, billions of microscopic organisms giving off their own light as the waves carrying them rushed toward the rocks.

“My God!” I shouted as the realization suddenly dawned. “We’re in the middle of the rocks already!”

Curt hastily sat down at his rowing station, and together we started rowing at an angle away from the lighthouse, our eyes becoming more adjusted to the darkness. Every time a wave broke by the boat, it sent a shower of green fire across the surface of the sea that glowed for a second and faded to blackness. Each time our oars dipped into the sea, it was as though they were scooping the green fire. Even the contours of the sea floor a few feet below the boat were apparent.

Though at any moment we could hit a rock, tear a hole in the boat, and be swamped or become food for sharks, there was a fantastic beauty about the glowing reef that night.

We talked briefly of anchoring and waiting for daylight to find our way safely through, but the tide, Curt reasoned, could force the boat further onto the reef. The sound of breaking waves came with greater intensity off the bow.

Curt stopped rowing and stood up to look around. The waves were breaking with a green froth of bioluminescence across our bow. But the green fire was appearing in the same places, while other areas remained dark and free of the breakers.

“Hit it on the port, Kathleen,” he shouted. If we could stay in the dark areas, we might avoid the rocks. Just then we saw a thick mass of diffuse green light coming toward us in a circuitous course from the side. Another enormous fish was disturbing the bioluminescent organisms and leaving a glowing trail in the water. As it passed beneath the boat, we could see it was leaving a trail that was longer and wider than the boat!

The light given off by the sea was so bright we were able to cross the line of breakers and row into an area of darker, deeper water. Still, we were cautious and kept rowing into the dawn until, in the distance, the rock pinnacles stood dimly in the mist, several miles off the stern.

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