01 Oct 2022
My boyfriend and I planned a kayak tour for 9/27 at 9:30 am. On 9/26 at 11:30 pm, the company reached out and said that since there were not enough people on the tour they had to switch us to 11:30 am. Although this was inconvenient, we were still excited for our experience. Our group included 5 double kayaks and 2 tour guides. The tour guide explained how to water was rough so we were unable to go into the benagil cave. Intead, we were going to go into a safer cave. After entering the cave with the tour guide leading the group and two other double kayaks, all of our kayaks capsized due to the current and riptide. When we capsized, the kayak hit me in the head twice and I was tumbling through the water for 30 seconds. The cave was dark once we were inside. We were stuck in the cave for 45 minutes trying to determine the best way to get out safely. The tour guides kept stating how they had never seen the current so strong or the waves so big. Eventually one tour guide got out via kayak and called for help. The coast guard and other employees came and got us all out on paddle boards. To say that this experience was terrifying is an understatement. The tour guides did not prioritize our safety and were not experienced with this dangerous situation. We were all refunded for our tour. However, we lost ~$300 in items such as sunglasses and glasses.
If the tour guides checked the tides, assessed the riptide, and were prepared for disastrous situations, this would not have been so terrifying. I reached out to the owner and he apologized but could not do more to compensate our terrifying experience. Luckily this was at the end of our trip since we were so shaken up by it.