To read part ten of day five, click here.

Each person got a mesh bag to store their water bottles in. You tied the bag to your canoe with the drawstring, and then you had the fun of trying to actually fit your water bottles in. It always took a while, but I could usually get it in. I only had to ask for help a couple of times… 🙂

We learned how to fasten our windbreakers to the canoe – you tied it in a knot around one of the pieces of wood. I can’t remember what those pieces were called… Wish I could.

The next job was learning how to close the dry bag. We had several – the one with the first aid kit in it, the one that would carry all of our dry clothes, and the one that would carry our food for the day.

Learning how to close the dry bag – this is the one that had our clothes

After that we learned how to fasten the baby seals, and then we were done! With that part, at least.

It was time for our swim assessment. We didn’t have to wear our helmets, but we had to wear our life jackets and booties.

Patrick took his canoe out on the lake. We would have to swim to him, touch his canoe, and swim back. We all waded into the water – it was cold! I had been hoping that it would be somewhat warm, since it was the end of July. I did start to get warmer after I started swimming, but I was still freezing when we got out.

Once Patrick decided he was far enough out, he told us to start swimming. I hung out behind everyone – I had a feeling that I was going to be one of the weakest swimmers (if not the weakest). When I knew I was going to be able to start swimming without getting kicked in the face, I waded out until the water was over my waist. It was SO cold, and I knew I had to start swimming before my toes froze.

I started swimming, grateful for the life jacket. I am not a very good swimmer, and the fact that I could feel things touching my legs was freaking me out. I think it was some sort of plant, but whatever it was it was freaking me out. I let the life jacket lift me up so I wouldn’t have to feel anything, and kept my feet as close to the top of the water as I could. 😀

I was falling way behind. I tried to speed up, but I’m not that fast. 🙂 I was half of the way to Patrick, and people had started passing me on their way back.

Luke said “C’mon Dora, you can do it!” as he passed me. I stopped swimming for a second and turned around to tell him he was doing a great job, and thanks. He yelled at me to keep swimming, so I started swimming again. I reached Patrick and turned around, wishing I could push off of the canoe. My legs were getting tired, but I had to keep going. I couldn’t just stop in the middle of the lake!

There was still a long way back to the shore. I kept swimming, wishing that Patrick hadn’t gone so far out. I was three quarters of the way there when I saw Bruce coming back out towards me. He stopped swimming after a minute or two, stopping next to these two black blobs floating in the middle of the lake.

What in the heck were they? As far as I knew, big black blobs floating around in the middle of a lake were not common…

Click here to read the next part of Day Five.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks to NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*