The "Mother" of all Advice

BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER

Well I wish I would listen to myself.  Right now I'm typing on the first Mac that I ever used.  It's about 8 years old.  Since then I have gone through 2 others.  And yep,,,,,didn't back em up.  First one I lost about 3500 pictures and now my last one (that messed up yesterday) is at the Apple Hospital.  It has about 4000 pics on it.  If any of you have any prayers left (and I know this sounds so superficial) but please pray that my hard drive is not damaged.  It will be like loosing stuff in a house fire to me.  I'm devastated that I didn't take my own advice.....

The good thing is, that I got to look back at all the photos on this computer!  All 2,500 of them.  Not backed up I might add.  Boy am I dumb.

Anyway, some of these pictures brought back many memories.  One in particular.  Now if you don't think there are Angels out there watching over you, just listen to this story.

We have a boat that we keep down in Ft. Lauderdale.  It's a nice little sport cruiser named Moby's Deck.  (I know, I know)  We named it after our precious dog Moby.  We've had it for about gosh 6 or so years now. Anyway it will go pretty fast for the size of boat it is, and it will go in really shallow water which allows us to tour places like the Abacos.  Well, Callen's senior year in high school we took her on a trip through the Abacos.  When I say this trip was blissful, I'm not kidding.  It was one of those unforgettable trips that W and I got to spend with our youngest.  Just W, me, our wonderful boat captain Pete, and Callen. 

 We went to all the outer islands, and did everything possible there was to do.  Well, the next to the last day we were headed back to Freeport.  We decided to go out into the Atlantic Ocean.  Now, when I say there was not a boat in sight ALL day I'm serious.  None, notta, anywhere to be found.  We had the ocean to ourselves.  All of the sudden a sea of wild dolphins started jumping with us as we were traveling.  We were going about 25 knots.  Callen and I were hanging over the front of the boat as the dolphin would gently turn to look at us. It was such an amazing sight....there were hundreds of them!

The sun was at 3:30 and was blindingly bright.  We made the turn to go back into the Abacos still going at about 25 knots.  Callen and I decided to take a break.  I went down into the salon and watched (of all things) "The People's Court",  Callen decided to take a nap in the VIP suite.  I'll never forget that show I was watching!  This girl with fingernails AT LEAST 3" long was pointin her finger at the judge sayin something like "I don't know what yo talkin about Judge".  Anyway, we had just made the turn into the Abacos, sun directly in our face and WHAM!  I was thrown clear across the salon,  Callen came flying out of her room.  I looked out the back to what looked like a Nascar wreck.  Smoke everywhere.  Pete and W came down from the upper deck where they were driving and I heard some very disturbing words.  There is a certain string of words that you say when something like this happens.  Well, if you haven't guessed by now we hit a reef.  An "uncharted" reef I might add.  Yep, going 25 knots. We were all looking around like "what the Hell just happened"?  Callen, in her innocent wisdom says"maybe we should put on life jackets"  (still no boat in sight) and the only island was a deserted one about a mile away.  Enter in thoughts of Gilligan"s Island. (I wanted to be the movie star)  Pete checked the engines and we had lost one and the other one was barely going.  (I don't know all that boat lingo)  hey, I just ride on it okay?  Anyway, we were sputtering to say the least taking on water in 20 ft. of water,  going about 1 knot.  A boat went by way, way in the distance.  We were probably 30 miles from Freeport with small islands at least 10 miles in between.  What do you do?  Well, miraculously we saw a blue dilapidated fishing boat in the distance.

We sputtered over to them as close as we could get.  They were pretty scary looking I'm gonna admit.  But, we had no choice, they were our only chance.  They were conch divers from Moore's Island in the Bahamas all donning black wet suites.  Pictures of Natalie Holloway ran through my mind.  My beautiful, blonde 18 yr. old child was going to be taken and sold.  Well, they had about 10 skives (is that what you call those things?)  boats hanging off of the one blue boat.  We were on our Satcom trying to get help.  Did not want to call a Mayday because there are certain rules regarding that that we didn't want to enter in to.  Anyway, 10 conch divers in their black lagoon diving suites came rushing over.  By this time water was coming over the back of the boat, the Captain's quarters was half full of water, and the engine room was starting to take on water as well.

We were all getting pretty nervous.  I don't know what "W" was more nervous about, Callen being taken and sold or us sinking, or pirates taking our boat and killing us.  All of those scenarios where definitely possible.  Angels were around us.  These wonderful, wonderful men took control.  Our pump was not working....bad news but right now we were in about 3 ft. of water and were resting on the bottom of the ocean.  But,,,,it was gettin dark.  The captain of there boat was named "Spiderman" yep.  and I'll never forget one of the men.  He was missing an eye and the other one crossed his face.  You would have to go to one side to talk to him.  As I feel terrible about being so critical, it made for a great story.  Anyway, they started bailing water.

and bailed

and bailed

and bailed

about 30 thousand gallons....

We got the water manageable and were somewhat floating.  Pete donned his wet suit and went down under the boat to pull a "Mcgiver".. He hammered rags into the holes in the boat until we were completely floating.

At this point, I'm pulling a Martha Stewart and offering to make sandwiches for the 10 men that were helping!  I was also looking for one particular anxiety drug that we didn't have on board, downing a few vodka and 7 ups and offering my under aged child a few cocktails to calm my fear with me.  She wouldn't drink anything for fear of being kicked outta school!!!  Dang, Callen.

So, here we are floating, now what.  It was dark.  It was also a full moon.  The divers towed us by the light of the moon around reefs for what seemed like 10 hours. We gave our saviors all of our money and let them have all of our fuel.  It was about 1 in the morning when we reached the nearest island.  The boat was a total disaster.  Stuff everywhere, just gross.  But we did have power!  Callen and I took a dramamine and fell asleep. W and Pete took turns dozing off as we were docked. I awoke about 6 to Pete talking to a Bohemian man with a Boson Whaler.  He said "I have a boat!" I will take them to an island and they can get on a plane and fly to Freeport!  So, I did a happy dance!!! and went and woke W and said, "come on, we're goin to Freeport" but we can't take anything.  He thought I was crazy.  He got up and soon realized that we Could take some luggage and that this young gentleman was serious and there WAS a plane leaving from another island about 2 hours from that time.....So, I packed my big fat Louis Vuitton luggage...(hey, I wasn't going to leave it okay?) and threw it in the boat.  Now this was a tiny boat so I had to sit on my luggage! Now my nickname was "Lovey"  The guy takes us to the island, Pete stayed with the boat (which by now the insurance company had sent a barge out to get it) and we got to this deserted island to get on a plane

(they literally got a bath scale out to weigh our luggage....and us)

since W's a pilot, he got to help fly the plane....and I'm serious about that

we met some missionaries from Nassau on the plane and told them our story!  They said that the night before they had a vision that someone was stuck at sea and they had prayed for us.

and then we landed safely in Freeport

I will never forget the Angels that surrounded us.

Have a beautiful Saturday y'all!

I'm heading home!

kb