25 September 2005

On The Crest Of A Wave

Had a rare phonecall from BigSon the fisherman today, who mentioned he had taken a couple of days off recently, owing to a rather large wave.

I forget the name of the game they play, but apparently it goes like this:

When a boat is heading out to sea, at a certain point the sea bed drops off with ravines and all that. At that point there are always very large waves because as water rushes in towards land and reaches the edge of the ravine, the beginning of the more shallow stretch, it hits the undersea wall and crashes upward like a mini tsunami.

The idea is that two men are up top by the wheel house to see the boat safely over the wall of water; if you hit it just right you can ride up quite smoothly, but there is always a drop at the other end. 'The game' is to then jump into the air, timing it to match the moment when the boat begins its fall. This leaves a great deal of space between the jumper and the deck and is apparently great fun, and as close to weightlessness as you can get, given gravity etc. (Not my idea of fun at all, but he seemed obliviously happy.)

On this particular day, however, they misjudged the size of the wave they had ridden - instead of flopping back down and foamily continuing towards shore, it decided to curl back on itself and come down on top of the boat - whilst BigSon and his friend were in mid air.

He managed to grab the wheel house, his friend grabbed a metal chair bolted to the floor, which the wave promptly ripped off it's bolts. BigSon hit himself on the wheelhouse, then was landed on by his friend, and then by a load of previously bolted down metal fixings. Then, because most of the swell was back in front of the boat instead of behind it, they were carried backward toward shore and went through it all again.

Two days off, no doctor, still with what he calls a 'slight headache' a week later, and he thinks its all hysterically funny.

Sometimes I have to wonder why God thinks I'm tough enough for this....................

7 comments:

Doris said...

Sounds like fun I think! I never was in such rough waters but did a stint in my life as a boaty person. As for being mum listening to all this... ooo-er! ((Hugs))

birdychirp said...

oh god - red wine is the only answer...

Doris said...

By the way - I didn't think the injuries were fun! Just the jumping game :-)

jane said...

why did he even tell you about this? and its only boys who will do this in the first place, then tell us about it later, as though it wont affect us emotionally. ugh.
the game reminds me of something i used to do when riding elevators, but of course on a much milder scale. when going down & right before it'd stop, i'd jump up in the air & come down after it stopped (i think) it just gave you kinda an upside feeling. cheap thrills.

jane said...

why did he even tell you about this? and its only boys who will do this in the first place, then tell us about it later, as though it wont affect us emotionally. ugh.
the game reminds me of something i used to do when riding elevators, but of course on a much milder scale. when going down & right before it'd stop, i'd jump up in the air & come down after it stopped (i think) it just gave you kinda an upside feeling. cheap thrills.

Le laquet said...

Really funny! And you his "poor sainted mother" worrying about him and him playing "STOOPID" games like that - sell him back Cheryl or swap him for a goat - then at least you wouldn't have to cut the back lawn!

DC said...

Ha ha - boys will be boys - but then so will men (be boys).