7 Lessons From A Sea Rescue

Life is full of lessons if you pay attention. There is an unexpected lesson around every corner, and sometimes, they are meant for you. You can read about stories in the news but, strangely, they have a different impact if you were there.

Recently, I took a cruise with my family. My wife and I joked before the cruise about how much food would be available and how we couldn’t break our exercise routine. On the first morning, we went to the gym together and did our workout routine. But, on the second morning, I was up early and decided that I would just go to the front deck of the boat to take a walk and shoot some footage of the water.

Once I was down on the front deck, I took some pictures and took in the beauty of the ocean. But then, to my left, a few hundred yards out, I noticed there was a small boat. This was a sea day for us. This meant that we would be sailing all day until we reached Curacao the next morning. So, I immediately wondered why such a small craft would be that far out. I snapped a few shots of the boat.

As I walked back to the deck door, I heard a small group of cruisers talking about this little boat. They pointed me to a lower deck where a ramp was just closing, and a small rescue boat from the cruise ship was being pulled in. There were two men, wrapped in blankets, being hustled into the cruise ship.

About a minute later, the captain’s voice came over the ship’s announcement system.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you may be wondering why we have stopped our journey out here in the middle of the ocean. Don’t be alarmed. There is nothing wrong with our ship. However, we were notified of a boat with some engine trouble drifting out in the ocean, and so we stopped to pick up the passengers.”

He went on to tell us about the plight of the men. They’d been out on the boat, drifting for more than three weeks, surviving on fish and ocean water, more than 300 miles from St. Lucia where they had originated.

[Read more about the rescue here]

I didn’t have to be on the deck at that time, but for some reason I was. My mind immediately began to think about the lessons in this rescue.

Here are a few:

1. Even when you get bigger, don’t ever neglect to notice the smaller ships who are having trouble along the way. — This smaller boat wasn’t noticed by the ship’s captain but by a young boy who happened to be looking through a set of ship binoculars at the time.

2. Sometimes you must be willing to leave your small boat to truly live. — The cruise liner couldn’t take their boat along with them. So they had to leave their fishing boat out in the middle of the ocean. What if, in spite of the danger around them, they didn’t want to leave their boat? Some times we miss out on ‘life’ because we hang on to the small ‘comforts’ we know, even in the midst of danger.

3. Sometimes you’re out in the middle of the ocean, and you feel like nothing is going your way. But then a cruise liner appears out of nowhere. — “Cruise ships come this way all the time. They were bound to be rescued.” They were out there for three weeks, scrapping to survive. For them, this cruise liner came out of nowhere. Hang on.

4. Take the adventure, expect an engine failure, trust that there is a rescue. — Three men left on the fishing expedition. Two hung on and made it. This is a story they will never forget and an experience that will forever shift their lives. Some experiences will be great, and others will be growth. We can never have either if we don’t take the adventure.

5. You’ll never experience bigger if you only stay by the dock. — The moment when you look out from the cruise deck and see nothing around you but ocean is one of the most mind shifting experiences there is. You realize the land which makes you feel comfortable and safe is a small section of what exists. The ocean represents a greater expanse. I think about the courage of early explorers setting sail with no satellite coverage, no GPS or mapping software to guide them. The courage to sail off into the blue with nothing but a dream seemed crazy to many. But, that same courage and the discoveries which resulted set the foundations for many of the things which comfort us now.

6. Boats were meant to sail. Dreams were meant to fail. Both only meet success if you put action to them. — It doesn’t make sense to have a fast car if you never step on the gas. It doesn’t matter if you have a diamond chandelier in a room which remains dark. Who cares if you have a golden voice if you never open your mouth to sing?

7. The tools you have at your disposal may serve another purpose. — The men went fishing with rods and bait. They may have been doing it for sport, or they may have been doing it to sell. But, the fish ended up being what sustained them. And the same water which took them adrift also kept them afloat and hydrated.

Life is unexpected. But, you must live it. Staying still and standing in your comfort zone doesn’t do you any good. The real adventure, the growth experiences and yes, even the danger, lies out on the ocean.

**Note — I don’t want to ignore the fact that one of the men didn’t make it. Condolences to his family.