I am not sure what to call it…but sitting on the shore and looking back I remember being at the wheel of that seine boat, following the fleet home – then veering intentionally off course and finding myself in dangerous shallow waters…it may have been luck, perhaps even divine intervention, but somehow we were saved. Forget that I should never have been alone on that bridge and green as hell…forget that I was charged with traveling a very unforgiving inside route to Prince Rupert from the fishing grounds…and image the only instructions given were to follow ‘that’ boat in front of me – as if the pointing finger towards dozens of boats ahead was clear enough direction. Consider also that the vessel in my command was not particularly new or fast…and that the distance between us and ‘that’ designated pilot boat – all of them for that matter – quickly grew to have very little meaning to my navigation…and I, not knowing any better steered port toward open ocean, and what I mistakenly believed to be deeper water. I felt better and reassured and then to my terror that depth sounder squealed and alarmed…10 fathoms…6 fathoms…2 fathoms! The VHF radio also came alive…DB5 where are you going?…Skip (my father and captain AND quite sound asleep below deck) is everything okay!?!? I was overcome with the full realization that I had made a massive mistake…I knew I was in trouble, and peering over and looking down into increasingly clear water and watched ominous black boulders pass underneath in rapid succession…my hands trembled and I could literally feel my heart pounding in my chest and finger tips. I cranked the wheel starboard as fast as I could…not slowing down, not checking any charts – just afraid…and headed back toward the shoreline, and the fading white foam and wakes of the boats I had been following. Somehow…I missed every jagged rock and sand bar that would have crippled that old girl, and sunk us all…a fate I am sure that would have not ended well. So I don’t know what you call that…the invisible hand that keeps us safe and out of harms way, but it has been my companion on more than one occasion for sure…enough times that it feels like an old friend, and I am incredibly thankful for it.
“I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you’re prepared for it.” – Denzel Washington
About Lawrence Lewis
I do a number of things professionally...but most of all and the true purpose of what I do through "my work" is to provide for my family, be a good husband and great father, and try to make a difference as a world citizen...I guess it's not much more complicated than that 🙂
Hehe 🙂
Awesome!