Jet Ski Joe. Part Deux

Continued from the post below: "Jet Ski Joe"

The sun was getting low in the sky as we roared away from Shell Island heading directly into the blindingly bright sun, which made it very difficult to see the ski ahead of you. Combine that with the salt water splashing on your sunglasses and seeing became a relative thing. As we approached the inlet to the Gulf of Mexico the seas became much rougher. Joe and I flew through the sky a couple of times over ever increasing waves. But I got to tell you he held on just fine. By the time we caught up to the rest of the group they had all stopped to watch a bunch of Dolphins jumping out of the water towards the sky. We had several Dolphins swim within a few feet of our watercraft. They were amazing to see up that close. There were other people watching them from a huge catamaran. We crept out further into the gulf following the Dolphins fins. The waves were now about six feet in height and we were about a half mile off shore, bobbing up and down in the surf.

Then it happened. As the group pulled away in front of us, Joe started to slip to the left as a wave hit us from the right side. My first reaction was to gun the Jet Ski and get us righted. As I gunned Joe’s death grip was holding onto my life jacket, and that, combined with the power of the wave, we both went into the ocean. Now normally that may not be all that bad. Joe has a special life jacket that by design keeps his head above the water because he cannot do that by himself. For whatever reason we didn’t have that jacket with us. As I hit the water my first thought was “I have to get to Joe!” We were close enough when we fell in that I was almost right next to him. His face was under the water as I grabbed him and he was starting to panic. “Joe, you’re alright”, I told him. “You’re alright.” The task for me at this point was to make sure that his head stayed above water. Why I didn’t have immediate flashbacks to the Jaws movies I don’t really know, because I have been afraid of swimming in the ocean ever since I watched those flicks. So hear we are, in the Gulf of Mexico, trying to hold Joe’s head above water and what does Joe do? He starts to laugh, at which time I accuse him of wanting to fall off the jet ski so he could swim with the dolphins, which brings more laughter. As we joke, we make our way back to the jet ski and I hang on to Joe and to the ski, rising up and down with the large rolling waves. It was at this moment that I notice the sun was beginning to set; the bottom of the sun was touching the water as Joe and I were in it. It was beautiful.

The brief moment of chaotic peace was suddenly interrupted with the arrival of Eric, our tour leader. I tell him that we are OK and we spend the next few minutes trying to figure out how we are going to get Joe back up on the ski. Finally Eric ditches his ski about ten yards from us and swims to our ski. He jumps on and with the help of the waves I push on Joes butt as Eric grabs below his arms. We manage to get Joes rear end on the rear footpad of the jet ski. In doing so we pulled his swim trunks down off his behind. I can sense that Joe is concerned about it so I try to get them righted. At this point other members of our group are beginning to drive too close and crowd around our ski so Eric stands up and screams at them to all back off and give us some room. The catamaran is also coming very close asking if they can help, and giving us advice, which would be great if Joe could walk, but he can’t. Eric tells them that Joe is paralyzed and to move off. By now Eric has gotten Joe on the seat but he was backwards, so I pull myself out of the water and get on the Jet ski with them. The plan was for me to help can turn Joe around, then I would move in front and we will be on our merry way.

But that isn’t what happened. To be continued…