drowned

About ten years ago I went up to the shack with Carl. By that time I was already deteriorating, but I could still walk and do a lot of things. Carl stayed there with me a few weeks, during which time Paul came for a few days for a visit. Then Carl left, so I was there alone for a while until Bruce came up for a few days, then he left, and a few days later Pat came and stayed for a few days, then Pat and I left.
It was great to be there alone, but it was difficult for me to do the things that need to be done to live alone in a cabin in the woods. By the end of each day I was dead tired and fell sound asleep despite the buzzing squadrons of mosquitos and scratching and scurrying mice.
Since there was no well, one of the things that needed to be done was to take the boat out onto the lake and get water. I would take several large aluminum pots and a couple of gallon jugs and fill them with the yellowish lake water. I'd use that water for washing dishes and watering the mustard greens, which was the only plant the deer and rabbits didn't eat from the little garden patch we'd made. The jugs weren't too hard to fill, I held them partially underwater as they filled up, then lifted them back into the boat. I still had strength enough to do that without too much trouble. Two of the aluminum pots were pretty big though, and instead of using a jug or small pan to gradually fill them, I'd lower them into the water, let them fill, then lift them up and over the edge of the boat. I could barely lift the filled pots, and sometimes had to let some water spill out to make them lighter so I could get them over the edge of the boat.
One day I went out to get water and as I was lifting the aluminum pot, I couldn't quite get it over the edge, so I tipped it over slightly to let some water out, but it suddenly shifted and threw my balance off and I started slowly falling over, towards the edge of the boat. Actually, it might not have been that slow, but it seemed like it. As my weight shifted, the boat started listing. At the same time that I noticed water was coming over the edge of the boat as it tipped over, I felt like I was about to fall into the lake. It couldn't have been more than half a second, but it felt like I had a long time to make a decision about whether to drop the pot, or swamp the boat and fall into the lake. I dropped the pot and was able to right myself and since there wasn't part of my weight and the weight of the water filled pot over the edge, the boat righted itself. I watched as the pot sank and disappeared into the murky lake water. I couldn't believe I'd just lost one of the big pots. Then I started thinking about what had just happened, and what had just almost happened. The last time I had been in water up to my chest, I could barely breathe, and I could barely swim. Had I not dropped the pot, I could have easily drowned.
It was slower, but from then on, I used a small pot to gradually fill the remaining large pot.