STEPHANIE and Sumant Patra were enjoying their honeymoon at the Beachcomber Holiday Park, but did not realise that their romantic honeymoon was about to become exciting.
Stephanie from Idaho, USA married her sweetheart Sumant Patra of Melbourne recently and the couple decided they would spend their honeymoon in a family member’s cabin at the Beachcomber Holiday Park at Potato Point.
On Tuesday last week, the couple decided they would go kayaking on Tuross Lake.
They planned to launch their kayaks from the boat ramp at Tuross and paddle around and explore the estuary.
Wearing lifejackets, carrying water and snorkel gear they set off from the boat ramp. Stephanie headed east towards the ocean.
“I was having fun,” Stephanie said, “I was heading towards the ocean and as I came around a bend I saw some rapids, thought this will be fun and paddled on.”
In the meantime, Sumant had been furiously waving at Stephanie trying to call her back.
While he was waving a wave came along and knocked him off his kayak.
“It was lucky that I was wearing a life jacket or I would have gone under,” Sumant said.
Finally, he managed to attract Stephanie’s attention and she turned her kayak around and started paddling back to him.
“I was paddling against the strong current of the outgoing tide, it was much harder,” Stephanie said.
Stephanie made it to within a metre from where Sumant was in the water when a wave overturned her kayak also.
Stephanie managed to make it safely to the beach, but her new husband was being carried out into the ocean.
“The current was taking me out into the ocean and it seemed like a long time before I felt the waves starting to take me in,” he said.
“I thought I was a gone and the next time I saw Stephanie would be in heaven.”
In the meantime, Stephanie had managed to get a man on the beach to help. He got in touch with emergency services and then got his surf board and paddled out to where Sumant was.
“He told me not to panic and that I was alright, he showed me I could stand up on the sand bar that I was now on.
“I felt a lot safer knowing that,” he said.
By then the Tuross Head Marine Rescue crew had launched their boat to come to the aid of Sumant.
With a bit of difficulty they managed to get him on board and were able to return him safely to Stephanie on the beach.
Five hours after the couple had set off on the kayaking adventure they returned to the boat ramp.
Although they hadn’t explored much of the estuary, they were happy to have survived their ordeal.
Stephanie and Sumant were full of praise and thanks to everyone that helped with the rescue.
Unfortunately, the couples run of bad luck didn’t stop there.
The next day they were returning to Potato Point after a trip to Moruya for supplies, when they collided with a kangaroo causing considerable damage to their car.
One positive: it extended their honeymoon at Potato Point a little bit longer.
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