Sir, —
One of my hide-outs in the Philippines is Tablas Island; we were there last week to be immersed in beauty, rowing a banca (small fishing boat) towards blazing sunsets in the evenings, and morning prayers floating in the crystal-clear Sibuyan Sea as dawn broke.
Standing in the sea up to my waist, a small creature approached, encircling my legs — eager to take a bite. I let him try and then shooed him away and realised it was time to relate this story — that of the sailor Webb Chiles’s survival.
His boat sank off the coast of Fort Lauderdale 33 years ago at 3am, and he was left floating in the ocean, in the darkness, waiting patiently for the sea to take him, all desire to survive spent. As he waited, he felt something on his left thigh; it was a small fish taking a nibble. This small and seemingly insignificant creature catalysed his attempt to swim for shore.
For several hours then he swam, battling fatigue, thirst, and waves, until he saw a light.
An anchored trawler was nearby, and he shouted for help and was brought aboard. He had travelled more than a hundred miles north by then, to Sebastian Inlet, swept along by the Gulf Stream. An astonishing rescue story in itself — but the outcome was far more extraordinary, when you think about it.
What a gift, to receive an extension of life beyond that moment! In the more than 30 years since, he met the love of his life, circumnavigated the globe a couple of times, wrote books, and had a great many of the joys, sorrows, and adventures that make for life — a life that could so easily have been missed or lost.
It’s not the ocean that is benevolent though, but the one who watches over it and us, who knows the day and the hour of our departure, and holds the rudder of our life’s journey (gently), continually wooing us with the offer of the ocean of his mercy, and the intimacy and union that flows from that to our eternal destiny beyond this mortal coil.
He sent Jonah a whale that taxied him back to shore: the rest of us may have to sail, row, or swim!
Yours, etc.,—
Mr Stephen Clark
(Manila, Philippines)
