astonishing - they all could have died had he not made it….
I understand him ditching the life jacket. I’ve been snorkelling for 70 years….I still recall practising putting my face in the water in the bath tub when I was 8. Opened a whole new world …we lived near Lake Erie so it was a regular thing and I’ve snorkelled all over the world.
I’d never worn a life jacket but when I was 72 and out of practice for some reason I decided to wear one on a guided early evening swim on the Great Barrier Reef which I now live near. Now yeah, out of shape but had snorkelled successfully for a few hours the day before and earlier in the day without issue. But damn I barely made that guided swim….realized to late to do anything about it what a drag the life jacket was. Just the water resistance with it on was running me out of puff ( I had tachicardia if my heart rate got too high). Lesson learned but have not been out on the reef since and sold my big fins with a whinge. Still kept my good mask and snorkel tho….hoping dottor will come out again to visit and we can go out together. We had a magical overnight on the reef 40 km from shore with Magellenic Clouds and a meteor shower. If that closes off my lifetime of snorkelling, so be it but I sure recall that swim with the life jacket….not too old to learn…
I can’t help thinking — he did his absolute best, and his best was utterly amazing. Way beyond anything anyone could have expected. But it still might not have worked. And what would he have had to live with then? Would he ever have been able to believe it wasn’t his fault, even though it wouldn’t have been?
But a lot of stress in the story is on the fact that he saved them. That’s what makes it a feel-good story, after all. And he’s even quoted in the story as saying that while he was waiting in hospital for them to be found
“I had a lot of guilt in my heart. I thought, ‘Oh man, I wasn’t fast enough.’”
People feel that way even about things that aren’t their fault. It’s very common.
Great risk great reward and he went for it on his own with moms approval. I thought losing the life jacket iffy but also understand it from my own experience ….he may not have made it if he kept wearing it as he was swimming against the wind and the life jacket would have hampered him.
