The Key to Calmness in Crisis

Friday, June 24, 2022

Well, here’s the story you have been on pins and needles waiting for, part 3 of Tim’s saga: What could possibly go wrong? What indeed!

After my first 2 boating “successes”, which both happened to involve being towed back to shore, I decided the key to my success did not lie in the idea of sail power, but rather in the words of the immortal Tim the Tool Man Taylor, “More Power”!

A 6hp outboard motor I picked up fit the project well. I have no clue what brand it was as a previous owner (probably ashamed of its performance) had erased all markings related to its origins. It started up…sometimes… so it was just what I needed to make my 12ft. inflatable seaworthy.

With the small motor strapped on, we headed out toward Rabbit Island, a small island that does not resemble a rabbit, nor does it have any rabbits on it (though legend has it that at one time it did, until they ate all the vegetation and killed themselves off) which is just off the North-East coast of Oahu, not far from Sea Life Park and Waimanalo. After only 20 minutes of pulling the starter cord, the little engine purred into life and with oil and gas dripping steadily from the half-sealed float bowl, my adventurous brother and I began our journey seaward toward Rabbit Island.

This being a test voyage (I never have any other kind), we determined to take things easy. I had my oars along, and we made a remarkably uneventful trip around Rabbit Island (only stalling once). With this huge success ringing in my heart, I determined the time had come to set my eyes toward the horizon and a BIGGER boat! Assured now that my problem all along had been a lack of power, I knew the course of action which I needed to follow.

Over the next year I watched the newspaper and kept my eyes open for a boat befitting my newfound ability to overcome the little obstacles the sea might put before me. It needed to fit in my meager budget as a poor Bible College Student. Then I found the perfect vessel for me. My father and I went to inspect this sturdy boat as it sat in a garage out in Waianae. The owner assured me it was a good investment. It only had slight dry rot and he had done the major work on it himself. Primarily he had replaced the entire transom. (It never crossed my mind to ask “why” he needed to replace the entire transom). It came with 2 100HP 1972 Evinrude outboard motors, both attached to their own fuel supplies (made from old beer kegs). At 24 ft. long I figured my father’s minivan could pull it and I made the decision to buy it. I had grand dreams of voyages to the outer islands.

That week I began work on my latest project. Now mind you I had already built a small wooden boat (you can read about it in part 1) so how much more difficult could this be? This one only needed repair, how bad could that be? Only-too-soon I discovered the answer to that very question. Over the course of the next 18 months I tore out all the dry rot, which included the entire cabin, much of the bow, all rails, several internal supports and anything that was not completely encased in fiberglass. Once all the bad portions had been removed I set about rebuilding. Replacing each of the parts, and even enlarging the cabin so that it was large enough for me to easily stand upright in.

Next came the all-important decision of what colors to use: white for the hull, bright red railings and (of course) battleship gray for the cabin. My mind had not been idle during the months I spent working on this project. I had studied more books on sailing, taken a Coast Guard auxiliary class and learned everything I could, especially about distress signals and rescue procedures. One of my favorite parts of the Coast Guard class was learning how to take a bearing off of 2 points and triangulating your position on the chart. I took every precaution I could think of: 2 Motors, 2 fuel sources, 2 ignition sources, 1 anchor with 30ft’ of chain and 200ft of ½” nylon line, and a sea anchor, as well. For distress and rescue I had a VHF radio (registered with the FCC), CB radio (with all 40 channels) along with flares and flare gun, distress flags, dye markers, food and water for 3 days, plus a pole for pushing us along in shallow water (this was replacing those “useless” oars). Just in case both ignition sources on the outboards failed, I had a pull cord so that we could manually start the engines.

My crew, my college buddy Bruce, who had even less boating experience that I did, and I headed off with the boat in tow toward Sand Island Boat Ramp (Just outside of Honolulu.) As we launched the boat into the water, I made sure the drain plugs were in place and ran through a battery of tests to make sure everything was running just fine. We had plenty of fuel on hand, 1/3 in the main tank with 2/3 in reserve. I then fired up the starboard engine which started without a problem, purring away. The port engine gave me a little more trouble, it turned over and over and over, but would not ignite (note to self: If something goes wrong at the beginning – STOP, don’t proceed…). Since we were not planning on going far, we decided to proceed with the test and just leave the harbor, head 1 mile east toward Diamond Head, then return. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this mirrored the path I’d taken in part 1 of this little “saga”. Since the one engine was running smoothly and we had plenty of fuel, we headed out to sea.

According to plan we motored along the coast toward Diamond Head. Once in front of Waikiki Beach, we turned around and began the journey back. About 5 minutes after turning for home the engine ran out of fuel. No need for concern, 2/3 was kept in reserve. I added the fuel, turned the key and … nothing happened… no purr, not even a sputter. I held the key down and turned to see if the engine was doing anything, only to have my buddy ask, “are the terminals on this battery supposed to melt when you start the engine up?” I quickly discontinued applying pressure to the key and went “aft” to see what he meant. There sitting in a liquid state were 2 pools of molten lead which, at one point, had been the posts on the battery. Obviously, this did not look quite “right”. Removing the cover from the engine, I spotted the problem; the starter motor had never dis-engaged after we started the engine before leaving and had burned itself out.

Not dissuaded, I turned to my third option (the second being the engine which did not start at the beginning of the trip), the pull cord I had fashioned. I placed it around the fly-wheel of the engine, took firm hold of the handle with both hands and putting all my considerable weight into it, I pulled as hard as I could. The fly-wheel turned ¼ of a turn, not even enough to think about starting. For the first time I wondered if maybe I should have practiced this ahead of time. After 2 more, equally disappointing, tries I realized the futility of this method for starting the engine. To this day I wonder why they even have those “deceptive” slots on the fly-wheel for hand starting a motor this large? I learned that starting a 100hp motor is much more difficult than a 6hp motor.

Meanwhile my buddy (who never gets flustered over anything) had thrown the sea-anchor over to keep us from drifting further out to sea. It was in almost exactly the same spot I had been stranded in with my 12’ inflatable sailboat from my first adventure at sea. More power was not the answer for a successful voyage.

As I looked around, the idea of once more being towed into shore was not a favored alternative, nevertheless, I picked up the radio, turned to the emergency channel and called for help. Within moments a voice crackled back “what is your location?”

Now this I was ready for. I pulled out my maps of the area, my compass and other charting tools, took a bearing, took it again …. and again. It’s a lot harder to do this on a pitching boat than it was in the classroom, I began to realize.

The voice crackled back again, “Can you give us your location?”

“Just a minute” I replied. “I’m trying to triangulate our position for the first time.”

The voice once again asked, “Can you just tell me what you see?”

“I see the hotel with the rainbow on it,” was my reply.

“We know right where you are and will be there in approximately 20 minutes.”

Meanwhile Bruce had taken a stack of cards out of his pocket with scripture verses on them. He carried them with him everywhere to work at memorizing during a free moment. He handed me one to work on.

Now there was another issue about boating that did not set well with me – Seasickness. Just as a hint. But memorizing scripture verses from little slips of paper in tiny print while tossing about in 3 ft. swells is not the best way contain your lunch in your belly. I quickly gave up on that idea, and left him to continue studying by himself, while I looked to the horizon.

Before the Coast Guard had even left port, we heard another voice chime in on the radio “We’re just off your bow and will be glad to lend an assist.” So, the Coast Guard was called off and these friendly folks threw me a line to tie off and prepare for another of my usual “return” trips via someone else’s hospitality. Upon arriving back at the pier, I offered them the only thing I could think of as my way of saying thank you (after all I had spent my last dollar just filling the tanks with gasoline). “Would you like the remainder of my fuel? I’m not planning on using it again…”

“No thanks, just glad to help,” came their reply.

Through all this my buddy never complained or showed any sign of concern. However, he did happen to mention one thing, “Please don’t invite me next time…”

I understood, I was not sure I wanted to invite myself next time. Boating and I do not mix well, thus I have left the “captaining” (is there such a word?) to others who are much more qualified and have a disaster record that is less than 75%!

Bruce’s calmness through the crisis impressed me, Mari. He could have reacted in panic and frustration but he didn’t. I think the key to his peace of mind is mentioned in the story: He was always memorizing the Word of God when he had a chance. Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Moreover, Joshua 1:8 declares, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Then also John 15:7 states, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

Bruce was hiding God’s Word in his heart. Thus, when he needed it in difficulty, or crisis, he had it. God’s Word was the key to keeping a clear head and trusting in the midst of frustration and even danger.

Are you hiding God’s Word in your heart? I have to be honest here and say I am not doing it enough. I make the excuse that the older I get the harder it is to retain what I memorize. That’s bogus! I am learning we become what we convince our minds that we are. Excuses are a way of accepting laziness as the norm. We are only hurting ourselves and missing out on so much God has for us when we hide His Word in our hearts.

I need to pray for a change of heart and mind along with the power of the Holy Spirit to enable me to overcome wrong thinking and get back to memorizing on a regular basis.

What about you?

Blessings, Mari