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=> stirring times...

Posted by pancho (Guest) - Friday, June 16 2006, 20:06:57 (CEST)
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...had quite a bit of adventure yesterday I hope never to see again...all turned out well...but it didn`t look like it at the time.

...went out to a remote beach where there`s a newer restaurant a little further down the beach...a hotel restaurant. Sat down at a table, in the sand...ordered a Margarita and enjoyed the hot afternoon. The water was a little rough, more than usual...this time of year the tide comes in much higher, so when it recedes there is more turbulence...but even more dangerous, there are strong currents sweeping in and then out to sea.

A woman ran up to where I sat yelling that her son was being carried out. The kid (I found out he was 18 later) had shouted that he couldn`t make it back to shore...and of course he`d been taken out to where he couldn`t touch bottom. I saw his head, thought he was okay, just waiting it out, but his mother had panic in her eyes and said her son was in danger of drowning.

There was no one else on the beach nearby...the waiter was back in the kitchen and for all I knew he was the only other person...there were a few people way down the beach but that was it. The look in the woman`s eyes meant serious trouble was on her mind so I went down to the water...a few waves were now washing over the kid`s head...he didn`t look too secure plus which by now the current had taken him out way too far.

I took off my shirt and dove in, what else could I do?...swimming was a bit tough against the waves...I knew this was trouble....it`s hard enough to rescue someone in a calm pool or lake..it`s another thing in the ocean when the sea is rough and you`re fighting waves...it`s hard enough to keep yourself afloat...making it back to shore carrying another exhausted swimmer is pushing the odds too far, it`s the stuff of movies, not life.

As I swam closer to him I yelled at him to float on his back...not to fight the current...but he just remained floating upright...maybe too tired or he couldn`t hear me. The best strategy I had was to swim up close to him, but not too close...people in a panic can easily overpower and drown you...I was going to tell him to relax and float...that the two of us would just let the current take us where it would...always moving little by little to its edge...till we could break free.

The water is warm so there`s no risk of hypothermia...in reality you can float for hours, especially in salt water...in fact it`s hard to sink unless you INSIST on exhausting yourself through useless attempts to break free of the ocean....just go with it...no matter what, sooner or later the kid`s mother would have found someone with a boat where all the restaurants are clustered and he would have come for us...or we could have taken a more oblique path back to shore.

But I wasn`t sure how aware the kid was..or if he`d be able to do as I said. Just as I got near him, a young fellow from the restaurant appeared next to me with a body board...he was having a hard time with the board against the waves, so I kept swimming...as I got there another guy showed up with a kyak and things looked better...they struggled to get the kid, who was near as tall as I am, into the kyak..which I thought was a mistake...why risk it...just have him hang on and paddle back slowly...he didn`t need to be taken ALL the way into shore..just far enough to touch bottom...and sure enough, with him in the kyak, it tipped over and all three of them disappeared from view...they popped up though and once again started struggling to get into the kyak, only this time they were pushing the kid in, while remaining in the water...a much smarter move...I gave them a push back....they left...and there I was, gentle reader, even further out, couldn`t touch bottom and now yoors trooli had to fight his way back!!!

I did it by waiting till waves came, then gently dog paddling in with them...took a bit but here I am to tell the story. The mother was near to panic...as white as a sheet and hadn`t moved since I left her at the water`s edge...the waiter had to stop the woman once from going in after us...he convinced her that she could do nothing more out there to help and might become another liability...but she was a wreck.

She forced a reward onto the two fellows...they worked at the hotel and hadn`t even bothered to take off their tennis shoes...so short was the time left....apparently they lose a goodly number of swimmers each year...they had the board and kyak on standby...but I didn`t see anything I could have used as a float...so I determined to buy a good one today plus thirty meters of nylon rope and always have it handy at the beach...I could have tossed such a line to the dumb kid and no one would have had to risk drowning...besides the dumb kid.

Needless to say I was pooped...hadn`t swum in quite awhile plus which all the exercise I get these days is pounding these friggin keys. All I`d had to fortify myself had been a strong Margarita...my head was pounding...arms felt like wet noodles but oh, sweet Jesus, how GOOD the sand felt when my toes finally landed. Not to mention the cold beer, waiting for me, which I`ll always cherish...more than all the rest I`ve adored.

His mother called me her hero...said I saved her "baby`s" life...I say baloney...I only got near enough to him to make up his "last words", in which, I would have reported, he`d told me NOT to save him...to save myself instead...to tell his mother he loved her and to give me anything I asked for from then on...but he didn`t drown.

It could have gone the other way in a matter of a minute or two more. Someone up there likes me...not enough to have taken Nimrod to a watery grave ten years ago...but enough.

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