“I am pinned, reverse, reverse, get me out” I screamed to the captain, he reversed and nothing happened. The mangrove had snapped and was stabbing me in the chest. The current had got us and we were pinned into the mangroves, the tree wrapped around our rigging, trapping us further. The captain slowly mosy’d on down to where I was pinned to the safety lines and tree, he snapped the branch, freeing me

” Let me do it, you deal with the tree” I was furious, my chest was all scratched up, I stormed back to the tiller,  slammed her into reverse, got some momentum and then drove forward on full power, taking out the mangroves, tearing holes in our safety netting and snapping all the fishing gear hanging off the back of the boat. Finally the last branch snapped and speared into the water as I drove off down the creek.

The creek was so narrow, that we couldn’t turn around, we got stuck sideways to the current and that was the end of us. The mangroves entagled themselves around us trapping us further.  The mighty Eos needed some fury behind her to get her out, after being pinned down I was certainly furious. I didn’t care how many trees I took out.

The whole process had been a drama. A boat was sitting ontop of our anchor, so I had to drive up and slide along there fenders to get our anchor up, then turning around was a hopeless effort when your boat only reverses to the right ! We were certain to fail. I just wanted to get out, I was sick of the mangroves and needed to take the kids to stretch their legs. I was a woman on a mission and those mangroves paid the ultimate price.

After just over a week we escaped the mangroves and headed to the big smoke to fill up on food and wine for christmas. Even kept a mangrove branch and turned it into our christmas tree. Just to remind us, that we were spending Christmas in a cyclone area and would most likely see the mangroves a few more times in the coming months.