The lake was small and really muddy. The only viable path through it was through the small patches of reasonably clear water by the east side, but not having noticed that, I and my partner rowed ourselves into the mud.
The swan was large, female and obviously protective of her herd of cygnets, squeaking somewhere from within the reeds. She got real close and made angry noises at the kayak, waving her wings at us. She would swim away and then start an aggressive run at us, literally running on the mud, braking just inches away of our bow. We protected ourselves, the person in the front holding the row as a weapon, the one in the rear trying to frantically row ourselves back to clearer water.
In the end, we were towed out to safety by another, more experienced duo of our group. But I learned to never underestimate a swan.