Trouble on the Yacht

The wonderful thing about this story is that I was on a yacht.  A big, gorgeous thing, and I was in love.  In love with the sky, the ocean, the yacht music, the friendly, super-efficient crew, the fresh, fishy breeze in my face, my legs crossed and resting on the rail with toes wiggling, the churning wake, the sun shimmering on the waves.

I overcame my fear of heights and clambered up the ladder to the Captain’s bridge for a good view.  Clutching the rail I edged along it and carefully plopped down next to him to enjoy the ride.  We were cruising, heading waay out into the Gulf aiming to get into some seriously deep water for fishing.  We’d caught a lot of fish by this time - 40-50 pound amberjacks, which are aptly nicknamed sea donkeys for their good fight, and lots of 10-15 pound triggerfish.  We were now aiming to get past a shelf into a deep trench where we could catch some weird, deep-living fish.  We were definitely living one of my ongoing life dreams.

All of a sudden we were overcome by a heart-stopping, ear splitting SCREAM of a blast and an overwhelming BOOM that literally stopped my heart!  I was sure something had rammed us and the horrible rending sound was our boat being shredded and literally torn asunder!  The screeching blast and deep sounds erased all else and the ship responded to the core with vibrations of its own. Not one to panic I looked to the Captain for assurance.  My belief is that if the captain is fine, I’m fine.  The look of overwhelming terror on his face did not reassure me.

Adrenaline racing, we frantically looked about to see what on earth was happening when we noticed a fighter jet flying low, away from us, skimming the waves.  That joker had divebombed us!  What we experienced was the scream of his jets and the sonic boom when he shot back up!  Shakily, I looked over to the captain, who was a bit pale, and asked him if this had ever happened to him before.  His response was no, never.  I can only imagine how low that bad boy flew.

Everyone on the yacht had been well beyond terrified.  As our hearts slowed to a normal pace we stumbled around checking on each other.  We continued on our way and I pointed out over the ocean to that same jet, already a few miles away.  He had another yacht in his crosshairs.

Apparently we weren’t the only ones that would have a big surprise that day.  

This second pic shows that we did indeed survive.  Here we are, sun setting, coming in from our incredible day on the Gulf.