The sinking ship!

The excitement didn't end with the races. Shannon and I were on the roof of the boat to get a better view. We had to go through a narrow water level control gate and, whilst our captain had waited her turn, another boat pushed past us and knocked us into the gate. There was a huge crunch! At first all seemed OK, then suddenly the boat was leaning over and we realised it was damaged. We then realised it was serious as the boat started to lean rather alarmingly and we were heading rapidly for the shore. We could see everyone else piling out onto the front end of the boat and getting their life jackets so we ran to the front and jumped down to join them. The back end of the boat was sinking and we just got to the shore in time, so luckily no swimming involved!
This was all happened very quickly, less than 10 minutes. It caused great excitement for the locals and within 5 minutes 2 boats had turned up to rescue us and get us back to where the bus was, including the local governor in his speed boat, who had been been watching the races.Read more