Article December 12, 2011 Issue

Ocean rescue – with a psalm at the helm

By Steve Berrie

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

–Psalms 139:7-10

Late one night I received a call from my dad. He said that my brother had phoned him and was in trouble. He was out in the ocean in a friend’s boat and they had run out of gas. Dad said he first tried calling other friends with boats, but because of the late hour, no one could access them. One friend, who was very familiar with the waterways and could navigate through the inlet into the ocean in the dark, had offered to come. The reason I had been called last was because my boat was an antique 18-foot runabout with 45-year-old engines that usually stalled at low speeds and was never in the ocean. But of course, I prepared the boat and left to pick up Dad. 