Rocky_Road
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2008
- Messages
- 1,798
This happened to me (and two others) just hours ago?.
I invited my neighbor to join the wife and me on a little jaunt out in the Gulf of Mexico. We departed around noon, and the weather was as good as it gets. Everything went as smooth as pie all the way out to my chosen anchor spot.
Once anchored about 5 miles from shore, the wife and friend wanted to do some swimming. This is no big deal?we have swam from the boat just about every trip to this spot. In they both go?.
After a few minutes I became concerned about the ?bride??she seemed to be having some trouble and had drifted a ways from the stern, and our friend Barbara was right next to her and called out that Laura seemed to be ?tiring?. My first response was to grab a life jacket and dived off the stern. I reached her and got her into the vest, and then noticed that all three of us were farther from the boat than just minutes ago. We were all caught in a rip current?.
No matter how hard Barbara and I swam, we were being taken further from the boat. My wife tried to paddle to the boat, but she made less headway than we did. As the boat became a speck?and Barbara and I were totally out of energy?I told Barbara and Laura to conserve what energy they still had left, and look (and listen) for another boater.
This went on for what seemed like forever?and I can attest that I didn?t have much hope of treading water for much longer. Barbara is 10 years younger than us, but seemed to be not far behind. There were no boats on the horizon, and I could only say to them that we weren?t far from the channel, and anyone coming in would have to pass us.
Then we heard?than saw?a center counsel Key West boat hauling for the marina. We waved as hard as we could, and the Key West turned from the channel into our general direction. But he passed at WOT between us and our barely visible boat! We kept waving at him, and then he finally came to a halt. He came around, and picked us up starting with Laura, and ending with me.
The Key West driver had several female friends on board, and he told me that when he first saw us he assumed that we were waving him off for our safety! The female passenger is the one that suggested to him we were waving way too much for that. That is what got him to stop. The real kicker is that he told us that he played ?hooky? from work today to get on the water.
Lots of things learned this day?too numerous to post.
I invited my neighbor to join the wife and me on a little jaunt out in the Gulf of Mexico. We departed around noon, and the weather was as good as it gets. Everything went as smooth as pie all the way out to my chosen anchor spot.
Once anchored about 5 miles from shore, the wife and friend wanted to do some swimming. This is no big deal?we have swam from the boat just about every trip to this spot. In they both go?.
After a few minutes I became concerned about the ?bride??she seemed to be having some trouble and had drifted a ways from the stern, and our friend Barbara was right next to her and called out that Laura seemed to be ?tiring?. My first response was to grab a life jacket and dived off the stern. I reached her and got her into the vest, and then noticed that all three of us were farther from the boat than just minutes ago. We were all caught in a rip current?.
No matter how hard Barbara and I swam, we were being taken further from the boat. My wife tried to paddle to the boat, but she made less headway than we did. As the boat became a speck?and Barbara and I were totally out of energy?I told Barbara and Laura to conserve what energy they still had left, and look (and listen) for another boater.
This went on for what seemed like forever?and I can attest that I didn?t have much hope of treading water for much longer. Barbara is 10 years younger than us, but seemed to be not far behind. There were no boats on the horizon, and I could only say to them that we weren?t far from the channel, and anyone coming in would have to pass us.
Then we heard?than saw?a center counsel Key West boat hauling for the marina. We waved as hard as we could, and the Key West turned from the channel into our general direction. But he passed at WOT between us and our barely visible boat! We kept waving at him, and then he finally came to a halt. He came around, and picked us up starting with Laura, and ending with me.
The Key West driver had several female friends on board, and he told me that when he first saw us he assumed that we were waving him off for our safety! The female passenger is the one that suggested to him we were waving way too much for that. That is what got him to stop. The real kicker is that he told us that he played ?hooky? from work today to get on the water.
Lots of things learned this day?too numerous to post.
