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to spend the night exactly where itwas. We turned our attention to theshore and looked towards a quickhike out. There was a thick greenlayer of trees and low shrubs liningthe small beach. On either side ofthe beach, the growth extended outinto the water which would haverequired a swim to access the farside. We began to pick our waythrough the foliage and things soonbecame messy. The sandy beachtransitioned to a swampy puzzleof unbelievably dense, overgrownjungle.Photo by Daniel NorrisUsing the weak flashlight on hand,our forward motion was slow atbest. My flip flops were now disappearinginto knee deep, thick gooeymud, while my hands were workingovertime solving the branch puzzlethat blocked my path. After about30 minutes of painstakingly slowprogress, hunger, and darkness, -full-blown frustration had set in.From the boat, it seemed as thoughthe road was not that far, less than amile or so. But now surrounded byblackness, our movements becamea prisoner to the path of least resistance.Finally, we saw a light anda break in the brush. There was aboat. It was the Coastguard! Andthey were shining a light directlyon our sailboat.ered levees. I was really regrettingdumping my pockets beforeI left the house. My cell phonedidn’t make the trip and a quickcount showed that all three of ushad made the same mistake. Wemanaged to flag down a boat inthe dusky light, a couple of fishermanheading in for the day. Theycouldn’t get close enough to help,due to the shallow water we werecurrently standing in, but we askedthem to please call the coast guardwho were stationed only a mile orso upstream. They made the calland moved on their way.We decided to abandon ship. CaptainKurt threw the anchor, just incase, and we gathered our belongings,including a flash light fromthe “emergency kit” and locked upthe boat. The tide was droppingfast and the boat was going to haveWe brushed off the fact that we justmade a complete circle through thejungle because we thought we wererescued. We waded out in the waterto get closer to the large Coastguardboat, yelling our explanationover the loud roar of the engines.We were asked to keep our distanceand were told that we wouldnot be able to board the boat. Theycould not get the large vessel closeto shore due to shallow water andprotocol did not allow us to swimAdventure World Magazine May 2009 56