Have you ever noticed how we always reach farther than we should? It is the apple on the next branch, it is the next job in line, it is casting another ten feet. We always want to reach just a tad bit farther than we can. In fact, Ms. Sommerville, my high school English teacher wrote in my senior album, “A man’s reach should always exceed his grasp.”
In Hawaii, this played out for me in the form of a gut wrenching need to get a bit out from the shore to go fishing. I had no hope of ever buying a boat to go fishing so I schemed about this that or the other thing. I actually obtained about 4 huge truck inner tubes and tried to figure out how to put them together in a usable raft. (Eat your heart out Steve McQueen (Papillon)) No way. Then, I got a nice little blow up boat. Success was at hand!
I carried the boat over to the beach a scant 300 feet from my house. I huffed and puffed and finally had it blown up. I think the inside part was about three feet wide and the length was maybe eight feet. I loaded all my stuff up and headed out into the little bay off my beach. Wow, theory and practice. I got out about three hundred feet from the shore and discovered this little blow up boat did not really tolerate any kind of movement. As a matter of fact, when I sat in the middle, the ends folded up over my face and the back of my head. When I moved to the back or the front, the balance of the boat would butterfly up from the unoccupied end and I felt like I was trying to “hang ten.”
Realizing this was another failed theory, I decided to head for shore. Now, it got really, really fun. It had been so easy to get out but reversing the process was not going quite so well. The little paddle was fit more for a bathtub in my house than for God’s bathtub–the Pacific Ocean. Then, the wind picked up and I hit the trade currents. The harder and faster I paddled, the further away from Maili I seemed to be going. Madly searching my tackle box, I discovered I had left my high blood pressure pills at home.
After about fifteen minutes, I believe I was nearly a 1000 feet out from the shore. Way more than I wanted to “reach.”
I was truly becoming afraid. I just could not reverse my movement. I began to search my mind for alternative options. How about abandoning everything and swimming in? How about trying to make for the eastern shore of the bay? Swimming was not really viable as it was too far. I felt the eastern shore, about a mile away, was just too far to make as I would pass the point of the Island and be out into the ocean. I checked my tackle box and was further discouraged. No Samoan Dictionary! Do Samoans speak English? Would I make it to American Samoa and not French Polynesia? Fear gripped my soul, but fortunately it also made me sit back, take a deep breath and open my eyes. God gave me the clarity to see I was working against my mother–nature that is.
I began to time my paddling with the action of the waves. I found if I took advantage of the wave action, the wave would help push me against the outward currents towards the shore. Gradually, I began to work my way back towards the shore. About 30 minutes later, I shakily drug my almost useless rubber raft up the beach, let the air out and went home.
No Tuna, Papio, Ulua, Sharks, or even a rock fish. But, I did not have to learn Samoan either! I did learn to wait on God, to watch my surroundings and work with nature rather than to fight against it. These are lessons that apply across so many aspects of life. I have tried to apply these principals in my life and sometimes I do, other times, I am looking for that Samoan Dictionary.
PS. If you ever want to read a great book about a sail boat trip from Oahu to French Polynesia, check out Nevil Shute’s “Trustee from a (or the) Toolroom. It is a great book. The journey described would have been much better had they taken along an Emmrod Gulf Master II and an Emmrod Kayak King to do their fishing along the way. They did not have the Internet, but you do! Check them out at www.whybuyemmrod.com, www.mycompactfishing.com, www.emmrodidaho.com
