Good Samaritan

Sunday afternoon, just as G was getting unharnessed and about to call it a day - we heard a ruckus over on the next dock. We heard a woman laughing, but still she sounded somewhat distresses. I looked over to see two women floating in the water, then pulling themselves up on the dock. Then I saw a man - who was also in the water. Lucky for all of them they were wearing life jackets, because all the energy they expended laughing so hard would have made it THAT much harder to pull themselves out of the water without a ladder.

THEN I heard a familiar engine sound - much like what our jet skis sound like after they come out of the water. We gun the engines to get any water out of their systems before bringing them home. It sounded just like that, and I quickly noticed an overturned jet ski in the water next to these people's slip. A-ha! Three people in the water due to a capsized jet ski about to sink I presume!

We stared at this train wreck for a moment, Gary looking on somewhat sympathetically as memories of a sunken jet ski of his own flashed before his eyes. I encouraged him to go over and help. He hesitated, but then the good samaritan in him kicked in. He grabbed a pump from inside the cabin and double-timed it over to the next dock to lend a hand.

What's the old saying about "no good deed goes unpunished" - ? He offered a hand to help the man, who was STILL struggling to pull himself out of the water. The man's ego probably got the best of him, and he refused. So G turned his attention to the semi-floating jet ski which they had somehow managed to set upright. Two other people, who were part of their boating party, remained upright on their own jet ski - and blocked any shot I had of the capsized one...



He proceeded to instruct the boaters to get a power cord, and he would pump out their engine compartment. Somehow this got the attention of the marina deckhand Adam, who joined this growing group to see if HE could lend a hand. AFter about 10 minutes of watching this from our dock, all seemed fine and I went below deck to grab a soda.



When I came back up, Adam had gone to get the marina's pump out boat and with a long hose and nozzle pumped the rest of the engine compartment. I saw the man give Adam a tip. He only shook G's hand. NOT that he would have accepted a tip, but STILL! About that time Todd, the dock master, came down to join this growing circus. From my vantage point it looked like he smacked the man on the back with quite a macho jab to the ego. At that, G took his pump and came back to the boat. To gloat. A little. ; )