So this post could be all about how great Easter was this year because of pony rides, egg hunts & sailboat rides but it's gonna wind up going much, much further.

We had finished up an amazing day of all of the above. It was really awesome!! The Encinal Yacht Club had a whole day planned with all of the above and brunch so it was cool like that.

The kids had a GREAT time riding ponies while we waited for the hunt to start. Once the eggs were hunted we had brunch and then it was time to get sailing.

Sailed around for a good 4 hours maybe more and now it was getting to be time to wrap it up, the kids had run us ragged. Seriously, we had 6 little anklebiters all under age 6 running around the boat but we all felt pretty accomplished that none had fallen overboard. That was about to change...

We tied up at the dock and the kids were happy to be off the boat and able to run around. As they chased up & down the dock one of the littlest boys, Kostya, and his brother started to wrestle near a coil of hose and I watched as he lost his balance, pitched over the side of the dock and into the Bay.

All hell broke loose... (it's amazing how time slows to crawl in times like these)

His mother ran screaming down the dock, his brother ran screaming past us and I was sprinting to where he went under. The little guy was reaching for all sorts of hands but I could see that Kostya didn't know how to swim as he kept going under. What's worse was that his struggles were pushing him away from the dock and even further out of reach...

I dove in... came up under him and thrust him up and out of the water and towards the people gathered on the dock. They quickly hauled him out and he coughed up a lot of saltwater but he was OK.

So now I hauled my fully clothed, freezing, soggy self out onto the dock, elated that I was able to help. Then I took inventory and realized I had my phone, digi-cam & key-remote all clipped to myself. Aside from the remote they're all shot...

Kostya's parents were beside themselves with gratitude, well actually my whole group was but I'm just happy I was able to make a difference. I've always sworn that if I could help, I would and I'm glad that all Boy Scout training, First Aid courses and swim lessons amounted to something.

So what have we all learned from this?

1) Teach your kids how to swim.
2) If you're boating with children, their life jackets DON'T come off until you're on dry land.
3) Go and get trained in First Aid & CPR techniques, you NEVER know when that'll come in handy...

Well done mate, a few busted bits of replaceable electronics is a small price to pay for what you did

So glad you were there.

Good Work!
Thank God for a happy ending.

littlemissG said:

Damn Kevin you are good

My brother and I both almost drowned as kids. It's scary. Glad you were there.

Wow! Well done mate! You should be very proud of yourself - I know we all are

well done...

nice pic

You are a true hero, god bless you!

WOOHOOO!!!

So great that you were there to help the poor kid out.

Well done

My kids were swimming before they could walk

"life jackets DON'T come off until you're on dry land."
damn skippy - growing up on boats and around water, this comes second nature


First Aid & CPR updated yearly


they edit
[Edited 4/13/09 15:04pm]

Scary how perfection can turn to hell in an instant. So HAPPY this turned out OK. AngelRen

ur my hero 4 2day

Mine was the exact opposite ...glad yours was so great though....well done man!

amorbella said:

Absolutely,Well Done

Nice one, well done.

My hubby and daughter went sailing this weekend too - without incident.
I had to stay at home wth my son while he puked all weekend...

We're glad you were there!!!!

...and thanks for the tips...I've been pondrering the idea of getting myself my own little anklebiter lately, and you'd be surprised how comforting it is to have adults out there who cn give honest, real life, common sense advice

when my sister was litte, she stepped between the boat and the jetty and went riiiiight under. She could swim, but in a situation like that, she couldn't even tell which way was up in that murky water. You just have to watch out 100% of the time for your kids. I'm nervous if my kids are on a pier or next to the water, all it takes is for them to do something without thinking - which is how they do MOST things .

Good Job

Thanks everybody, I appreciate your comments, I just needed to get that off my chest because I never thought I'd wind up doing anything like that.

It's weird because these past days I've had nightmares about this incident and I've lost a lot of sleep (I've slept 8 hours since Sunday...). This bothers me to no end because everything went so well but I just can't get that scene to stop running though my head...

I've lived through my share of misfortunes in life and I never had this kind of reaction, so I'm totally confused. Why would I be having such a subconscious wrestling match over something that turned out positive???

I could understand nightmares about an earthquake or an inferno but a rescue???

RenHoek said:

It's still something traumatic regardless of the outcome. It's a form of PTSD.

How awesome! You, sir are a Super Hero for real.



Kostyas parents are getting you a new phone and cam right?

So to finish off my dramatic tale I wanted to thank you all for your kind words once more, it really meant a lot to me.
I've since replaced my phone (insured) and my camera (better model + on sale ) so that's that.

The nightmares have stopped (thankfully) and I'm back to my same old routine...

and then...

I got a package in the mail!

The parents of the boy I saved had sent me something extra!!!

I now proudly own one of these...



I'll be speechless for much of the week...

mdiver said:

I agree with this despite the messenger (Phil).

yay

Wow! What a story!

Glad everything turned out OK.