Wednesday, August 4, 2010

DAY 5 NOTEBOOK

What tidbits happened during Day 5?

Police check us out. On Chimibong's beach, I officially signed my first paperwork related to The Jeju Big Swim. The police handed me papers and I signed my name (pronounced "Suh-tee-buh" in Korean). We met with two officers and the - spelling and explanation is probably not correct - ochunggae, the person in charge of the surrounding waters in a designated area. Good people. Photo below.


Ilchulbong's washed-up waste along a cave. Heaps of plastic crap nestled in a concentrated area. I've never seen a picture of this in any of the brochures. My paddling duties and operating a camera don't always jive.

Cell phone succumbs to water. Five days and a lot of calls being fielded on the kayak yields a finished cell phone due to prolonged water damage. It's currently being revived in Jeju-si by the close of business Friday. From now on, I am not taking any calls onboard, just keeping it sealed for emergency purposes. Don't call us, we'll call you.

Police deny our donation. For all their troubles, I attempted to give one of the two marine police officers 100,000 won as a donation for fuel, but he declined, saying he was a government official. However, they did accept our handwritten thank you note. It took him a minute or two before he realized there was money inside our folded-up piece of paper. Once he saw the money, he refused, handing it back.



Drama. If you've read this far, you deserve to know the paddler got very upset at the swimmer, for a number of reasons, but we have made amends.
We will keep on going, and stronger than before.

Hatch cover proves reliable. For the past four days of swimming, the kayak's hatches have proved watersealed. So, I am blaming the KBS cameraman during Day 1's adventure for my leaky mishap. I have to blame someone, right?

Sherrin's neck chafing. The swimmer has some nasty sores around her neck from her wet suit's contact with her neck skin. She is generously applying special ointment to combat any infection, but it looks as if this will only fully heal once we complete the swim.

More donations. Thanks again to these three people for offerings: Yang Gi-jeong (repeat donor, who also provided the first-aid kit), Kim Eu-na (Sherrin's student), and Jang Jong-hee.

Mystery donors. Who are you Jang Jong-hee? Who are you Choe Nak-chul?

Up-to-date. The blog is officially current!

-Steve

No comments:

Post a Comment