Ok, so I need to practice my typing so I thought IÂ’d pass on this little story I heard last night about a friend of mine.
A guy I know gets a new boat. Big one. 40 footer. Keeps it down south to use for diving in Mexico. His name is Doc.
Last December Doc takes some friends out for a dive. His daughter, her b/f, Grek, and lil Chris.
They drive down the night before and sleep on the boat. Wake up at 2 am and head out of the harbor. Doc is at the helm and Grek is watching the radar. They get out a couple of miles and swing south towards the destination, a favorite dive spot off Baja for some Bugs and probably a little Halibut.
Now they hear something and think they see something so they flip on the bow search light and at about 50Â’ and closing is a 10Â’ wall of water and a huge black thing.
At first they thought it was a cruise ship but theyÂ’re white. Now they think theyÂ’re being run over by a super freighter.
So they come hard to port and full throttle, but nothing happens.
Now Docs wife thinks if he can have this big a boat he can surely have room for a survival raft and she says it doesnÂ’t leave the dock without one. Smart woman.
It is now apparent that they are going to be run over by this boat and start yelling at lil Chris and the b/f to get the raft off the deck. Now they are being pushed and are about to capsize so they yell, “ Get off! Abandon ship” Doc is getting a life jacket on his daughter and himself when the boat rolls and they jump.
They are now under what ever is running them over and Doc thinks heÂ’s going to die and become chum in the propellers. After what seemed to be 45 secs. to a minute they come out from under this thing. And realize they are alive, but what about everyone else?
Now they can see that they were run over by a barge and the boat had become snagged on the tow cable. The cables on these things are ¾ of a mile long connecting to the tugboat.
So Doc yells and finds that Grek is OK so they start to swim to each other and they hear a BOOOMMFFF.
The raft has come off the boat and been inflated by someone so they head for it and the 10” feet of bow still sticking out of the water.
Being in the water is not that big a deal as these guys probably have over a hundred years of diving experience between them. But itÂ’s getting cold. So they make it to the raft and all are accounted for. Doc starts yelling that the raft has a tether to the boat and they are being drug as the boat is sinking.
Now they are fishing around in the raft for a knife thatÂ’s part of the equipment onboard but there hands are numb from the cold. Someone finds it and starts cutting on the line while trying to hold the knife with numb hands. They get the line cut as the bow disappears below the surface.
The next order of business is to find the flare gun and signal the tug. So they fire one off and no response. So they fire another one and still nothing. They decide they better save the last one and wait. After a while they see the nav. Lights on another vessel and fire the last flare. Wait. No response and it disappears out of view.
Next stop, South America.
Now I canÂ’t tell you what was going through their minds but I know what IÂ’d be thinking.
Then after what seemed like hours someone thinks they see red AND green nav lights and after a few minutes they realize they are headed right for them. Takes a while but a searchlight comes on and itÂ’s a Border Patrol boat and they had seen the last flare. The boat comes along side and asks how many on board and they say five. Then they ask how many not accounted for? Zero. Then the BP asks what they were flying because the debris field was huge. They couldnÂ’t believe it was a boat and all had survived.
They loaded everyone and went after the tug and boarded it. Asked the pilot how it was going and he said fine. Asked if there was any thing out of the ordinary and he said nope. Then they told him he ran over a 40 ft. boat and he couldnÂ’t believe it.
Moral of the story? Hell, I donÂ’t know. IÂ’m just bored and decided to share this story to make you stop and think. It sure made me think.
Oh ya, Doc was at the boat show looking for his new boat.