I have told you guys a ton about my fear of boats. I don't know if I have ever told you why. It started when my mom and her friend took me on a harmless canoe ride in the Wakulla River when I was 7. For those of you who don't know, this swampy river is filled with gators and water moccasins and all other forms of Florida nasties. The canoe got flipped over because they were laughing so hard. They then couldn't flip back over the boat and there were GATORS! This was traumatizing.

If that were not enough, the first time  a boy showed me his penis was when I was 6 or so and we were on a boat with a guy my mom was friends with and his son the same age as me. I don't think he was trying to be a sicko or anything just more of I have one of these do you? But still, not the best thing that has ever happened to someone on a boat. I later learned that I was named after my mom's childhood friend who was killed in a tragic boating accident, sometimes as irrational as I know this is, I think that this fact haunts me. 

When I was a teenager, I decided to get over this fear, because my best friends stepdad had a boat and I didn't want to be left behind. I was fine for a few summers, but then her grandmother tripped on the dock and busted her knee wide open, and I went vertical after hitting a rogue wave. And then there was that time I sunk a jetski and Christy and I were stuck floating in the middle of the lake for an hour. Me and boats not meant to be friends.

I thought that I should get over this fear now that I live in the land of canals. And that is how after the blogger brunch, I ended up on Lily's dutchman's boat. Which was really sweet of them. To be fair, I totally warned them before we even got on that I have a fear of boats that I am trying to get over. The first obstacle was that you have to climb down from the canal wall into the boat, for someone with ubershort legs, this is hard! 

The boat stalled a few times, which made me a bit nervous. Then these ladies in a pedalboat decided to stop in the middle of a bridge. There was lots of yelling at them to get out of the way, but one pedalled forwards and the other backwards, so we had to slow the boat down significantly, we hit them but not hard, and to be clear, it was their fault. Because we had to slow the boat down so fast, the engine stalled. Lily's dutchman managed to pull off to the side and Lily had to climb under a sailboat to hold the boat from hitting the canal wall. I really didn't see anyway for me to help and where I was, was completely in the way and remember-fear of boats here just got in a very small boating accident, so I thought the best thing to do was to get myself out of the way and to try and calm myself down, because I was shaking.

So, I got out of the way and went into the cabin. The ladies pedaled back over, presumably to offer some assistance, but they just ended up hitting our boat again! Needless to say, fear of boats not over and apparently I am never invited back on the boat again. You know what, I am totally fine with this, I'm just glad I didn't breakdown into hysterics. Does this make me a wimp? Yes, but I don't really care. My name is Kaitlin Hawthorne and I will always be super uncomfortable on boats. Now here are some pictures. 

So tell me, what are you most afraid of? Or have you ever conquered your fears?

Until next time,