Party...... Boaaaaat...... Life!

A whole bunch of friends got together on Saturday to celebrate Mitika's birthday (I think her 25th but I can't be sure). The plan was to go to the Marina, get on to a boat, drink alcohol, eat food, chill in the hot tub and make merry. Sid and Amit were the principal organizers of this soiree and they did a stellar job at stocking up for the event. We loaded up the boat, got all the right people on board, fired up the barbeque and off we were into Nickerson Marina.

Groups formed once the boat set sail; some of us hung on the lower deck, made margaritas, conversed and worked the bbq. The rest went to the upper deck, applied Sun Block and got into the hot tub. No one soul could help but marvel at the natural beauty around us - the shimmering water, snow-clad Mount Rainier and later in the evening, the captivating orange glow in the sky as the sun set. Ahh, it feels so good to get out and breathe the fresh air...

Midway through the boat ride, it was time to drop anchor and take a dive into the lake. The boat was equipped with a slide and one by one, we swooshed into the lake water, which surprisingly wasn't cold at all. Some slid, the others just jumped from the decks; it didn't matter how you got in but once you did, you didn't want to get out. How could I be missing out on this? Hmm, I can't swim all that well I told myself but that was no excuse - they made life jackets for people like me. So I put on my trunks, an orange life jacket, got psyched up to jump in and dove into the lake from the back of the boat. And then, my life jacket come off...

To say that panic ensued would be an understatement. Thanks to Rutu and Thibaut (pronounced TIBO) for taking turns in calming me down. Wait, they saved my life practically so they deserve a lot of credit here. There were a whole bunch of others who tried to get me back to the boat but as the winds caught up, the boat drifted further and further away from us. Saif tried to get me to the boat too but the more we tried to get to the boat, the further it drifted away from us giving us the impression that we weren't moving forward at all. We got back only thanks to the kindness of another boat's captain who came to our rescue. When he was done picking us up from the water and headed towards shore, there were Saif, Nikhil, Anuj, Tibo, ES, Sucheta, Uma and me on his boat. I don't have enough words to express my gratitude to these seven brave souls who risked their own safety and jumped in to get us out.

Some of the people were in shock for a couple of hours after the rescue mission was complete. As for myself, I was just glad that I had been given another chance. I wasn't going to spend time ruminating over other possibilities and eventualities. I'm alive and I'm going to make the most of it. No point wasting this chance, is there?