Boating Misadventures...

Our young friend Gabe (14) is an avid spear fisherman and finally took my friend Ashley and I out to the coral reef near here to learn how to fish. For some reason this fisherman insisted on starting out at the insane hour of 6:30 am on a Saturday. I protested loudly, but still went along. Gabe and his sister Hannah (10) met us on the road with the tractor and trailor and we headed for the water. The little green metal boat was fitted with the outboard motor and the small air filled raft was lashed to it to drag behind. We got about halfway to the reef when the engine cut out and wouldn't start again, so we rowed the rest of the way. We had a splendid time snorkeling about and looking at the coral and fish. Unfortunately, most of the coral is dead and the fish were pretty small and the water was kinda murky because of a few waves now and then. We didn't get any fish, but we had fun anyhow. The funniest moment was when Ashley opened up the massive umbrella and said, "look I'm like Mary Poppins!". At that moment a little breeze caught the umbrella and pulled her right over the side of the boat! :) She screamed and splashed and the rest of us nearly fell out too we were laughing so hard!

Finally we started rowing back and singing songs. (the motor still wouldn't run for more than about 30 seconds at a time) We were still about a half mile or more from shore and singing boisterously when the drama began. We were not paying any attention to the large wave approaching from the rear. At the moment the wave hit the little green boat, Hannah decided to stand up in the boat and clap her hands. So the boat lilted, then tipped, then rolled almost all the way over. It righted again but was filled with water and started sinking immediately. Ashley and I jumped out of the raft and swam over to hold up the boat. It was all a blur of kicking madly to keep the boat and motor from sinking to the bottom of the ocean, while throwing all the snorkeling gear, spear guns, clothes, towels, etc. into the raft as the cooler floated away. Gabe got into the raft and leaned over the edge to unscrew the motor from the metal boat while Ashley and I swam with all our might to keep the boat near the surface. We somehow got the motor into the raft and after multiple failed attempts at flipping the boat to get the water out, we finally hoisted it mostly onto the raft and flipped it. That worked pretty well and we bailed the other five gallons of water out with little plastic cups while still treading water next to the boat. (note to self: bring a bailing bucket next time) Once the major drama was over and the cooler had been rescued, we put on life jackets and flippers and pushed both boats all the way to shore. Talk about a hard swim!

So, our near disaster turned into a great adventure, AKA 'Missionary Impossible'. I just thank God that no one got hurt and we didn't lose anything!