To read part six of day six, click here.

That day was getting embarrassing. First I melted down with Jen, then I panicked when Bruce got into the canoe, and then I froze up when I saw the first rapids.

I stopped paddling and stared at the rapids in front of us. All I could think was “I’m going to die, I’m going to die. I can’t do this…”

“Brett? You need to start paddling. We are getting left behind. Brett?”

Bruce shook the canoe to get my attention, and it worked. I realized that we were falling way behind and paddled as best as I could to catch up. We caught up just in time to hear Patrick’s description of the rapids.

The first set was a shallow one, but if we stuck to the V’s in the river we should be fine. We were going to go through the rapids ducky style, meaning we would go one behind the other. In this case you had to wait until the canoe in front of you was half way through before you started.

Patrick finished his speech by telling us to just follow the canoe in front of us, and we would be fine.

“So – who wants to be the canoe behind me?”

Bruce spoke up. “We will!”

I twisted so I could see him. “We will??? Bruce!”

“What? Let’s get this first rapid over with. If we wait any longer, you are going to be nervous wreck. Just get it over with. Besides, you’ll be fine. We’re going to make it through no problem.”

Patrick started paddling. He passed the spot where the water turned white.  He was going a bit more to the left than I would have, and I tried to remember that.

“Brett, make sure you’re watching where he is going. That’s the path we’ll need to take.” I nodded – I knew what to do, I was just terrified to do it.

Glenn told us to go. I said a quick prayer and started paddling, knowing that all of my crewmates knew I was terrified, and that they were all watching me.

We made it about half way before it happened. We got stuck on a rock.

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

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