“Bobby! Get below deck!” His father yelled.
Bobby came out of his daze watching the weather turn into a storm and ran to the steps that led below deck of the old boat. Below there were portholes where he could see the water splash against them. The boat thrashed back and forth like a toy. He was scared but over the years he has been through similiar situations. But it seemed different. He went to a locker and pulled out a life jacket and put it on for safety. Then he thought about his father out there without a jacket, so he grabbed one and ran up the stairs to nd his dad.
All he could hear was the men yelling back and forth and pulling ropes and tying things down to the boat. He nally found his father tying things down on the port (left) side and ran towards him. With the sound of the angry ocean and wind it was hard to hear anything! The visibility was very low. As he ran towards his dad a wave tipped the boat on the starboard side and Bobby went over the rail and into the water. After yelling for help for what seemed like hours the boat faded away and Bobby bobbed in the sea with his life jacket holding him out of the water as he rode up and down in the furious swells of the sea. Hours went by as Bobby fell asleep from exhaustion when the sea nally calmed. He was on his own.
Lost at sea.
Bobby woke up to a bump in his side. He was unsure where he was until he was awake enough to gure it out. The weather had changed as the once bad storm had disappeared leaving a clear sky and a bright sun burning down on him. He was lucky that his hat had stayed on! Then he felt the bump again in his side and spun around to look but saw nothing. He saw a small island not far away so he started swimming towards it.
In this area not far from his home there were hundreds of islands and some were small and some were big like the one he lived on. This one was fairly small with many other smaller islands nearby. He started kicking his way towards the island as he felt something pushing him in the direction of the island. Spinning around he saw what it was.
Bobby was a boy that was 10 years old. He lived on Melville Island in Northern Australia on the Timor sea. Bobby and his father Robert were sherman. Bobby was young but when you grow up on a boat it’s like walking on land. The teetering back and forth with the waves becomes something expected where the ground only stays still. He enjoyed it.
Bobby would swim with his friends in his small little town and they all knew how to sh and when to sh to get the biggest ones. One time he hooked a sh so big off the dock out over the water that it was pulling him in. He nally had to cut the line after hours of trying to bring the sh in. His muscles were on re and he had to rest and hope to catch that sh another day.
One early morning Bobby and his father went out to their fairly large boat with a few other men to go shing. Sailing out off the island heading starboard (right) the sun was just beginning to come up. By the time the sun had risen and was getting high in the sky, clouds started forming and there was like a dark curtain lowering taking the day away.
Soon the wind was increasing and the waves were growing higher and higher.
Little did he know the adventure that laid ahead. He was alone in the sea.
With its head out of the water it made a snickering sound at Bobby. He was confused. A dolphin had saved him from the sea and pushed him towards an island? At ten years old you have fear about a lot of things.
How to react to this? Why would something that did not know him try to save him? Why would this animal care?
Snickers!
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