THE RIDE OF MY LIFE

As an informed and responsible boater, I still shudder every time I think of an adventure I had last summer.

My friend called from Lantzville to invite us for a "cruise" on his brand new yacht. It was a Sunday morning, gloriously hot, and we hadn't seen any of the Islands beyond Ballenas. Sounded like a fabulous idea!

I realized, too late, that I'd made several assumptions. First of all, I assumed that everybody cruised sober. Wrong. I assumed that since my friend had owned many boats, he knew about navigation. Wrong. I also assumed that going for a cruise meant seeing some things. Wrong again. And, of course, I was so dazzled by his gleaming $200,000 machine that I didn't think to ask any questions.

We had no sooner left the harbor-limit marker behind at Snaw-Naw-Aws Marina, than my friend opened the throttles on those twin Chrysler four-hundred-odd engines. My husband made his way up to the bow immediately, where he stayed for the remainder of the journey - wind blowing through his hair, oblivious to the scene unfolding in the stern. As soon as I caught my breath, I managed to stammer to my firend, "You are familiar with the waters around here, aren't you?" "Oh, yeah," says my pal, "you just stick to the middle of the channel."

Well, that may occasionally be true, but one look at a chart of the area from Ballenas Islands along the coast toward Nanaimo would tell any fool that you need to know a tad more than that. It was then I realized, in a blur of water-spray, fear and landmarks whizzing by, that my beloved friend was half-cut.

Frozen with fear and the dynamics of this particular friendship, I remained unable to speak. For the most terrifying twenty minutes of my life, we "cruised" around the Lantzville area.

I was never so glad to be safely tied up back at a dock when we returned. I wanted to kiss those pile-ons. I certainly said a silent prayer of thanks to my guardian angel. And I vowed never to put myself in that position again - friend or no friend, I'll be more cautious, and more vocal, in the future.