It was my very first jet boating experience, and it turned out to be total wreckage.
I navigated the new Yamaha Waverunner XL and a rather sharp high-speed turn, now that was unintentional, I’m not some sort of a pro at jet boating, but I guess my best friend Lance is.
“Hey Peters, can you beat this?” He shouted at me excitedly and did a mini-cyclone turn which sent water jets splashing everywhere, and we were actually on the Malibu Beach in Miami.
“Way to go Hamster” I muttered under my breath and zoomed ahead, you are probably wondering if he does look like a hamster, but the answer is just No: but Hamilton does behave like a hamster enough to earn it as a moniker.
“C’mon don’t be mad, it ain’t my fault that I’m so good at this” he shouted back at me, but I wasn’t listening to him, at least not anymore.
My eyes were fixated now on something, something huge which was not quite right, Hamilton hadn’t seen it quite yet, and we were far away from shore, like pretty far off.
I killed the engine of the jet boat and stood caught up in awe, watching the thing which wasn’t supposed to be right.
“Uhmm.. Hamilton??” I called out to him, luckily for me, he now wrote close to me, but his back was turned to the thing that had risen over 16ft above us, “is that supposed to happen?” I asked pointing at the massive wave.
“What?” He snapped at me and whirled around, and I saw his mouth drop open in utter astonishment.
Neither of us had ever seen such a massive wave like that in our lives, I started the engine of my jet boat and looked ahead, we seemed to be the only ones out in the sea.
“Run!” Hamilton screamed at me, “Run if you don’t wanna drown and get eaten by sharks from Shark Tale Peters.”
I zoomed off, and Hamilton followed thus with the massive wave behind us, I was starting to get scared, and I even imagined so many things.
What would it be like to get drowned or even eaten up by a frigging whale, or get tossed to another side of the world like through the Bermuda Triangle or something?
“You gotta go faster!!!” Hamilton yelled at me, but his voice was drowned out by the rushing and crashing waves.
The sky overhead had long turned dark, and the squall was only beginning, “Can’t you hear you clearly!” I said diverting my jet boat sharply to avoid a wave.
“Go faster, or you’ll get caught up!” He shouted at me and this time I heard him rather clearly.
One thing about my jet boat was that it was more than just a powerboat it sucks the water from under the boat through an intake and into a pump-jet inside the boat, then expelling it through a nozzle at the stern, so mine was a bit more than just unique.
I propelled forward and nearly hit capsized, but I was determined.
The waves crashed down Hamilton, and I was taken rather aback, my heart basically flew into my mouth as I glanced around frantically, drops of rain were starting to fall drenching up my shorts.
“Hamilton?!!” I called out, “where the hell are you?” But there was actually no reply, and it was then that I knew that I was now alone in my predicament.
When the reality of it all hit me, we had been quite close to shore already, but he was nowhere in sight, and I was starting to panic.
Even though Hamilton could be a jerk sometimes, he was still my best friend, and I couldn’t even imagine losing him, tears mixed with rainwater cascaded down my cheeks as I called his name a few more times hoping that he could hear me, but all that lingered on was just sheer silence.
I navigated my jet boat forward towards shore, and the entire beach was deserted, as soon I got out I sank on my knees and cried.
It had to be some nightmare I said to myself, and Hamilton couldn’t be dead he was frigging good at skiing, much less jet boating which usually came easy for him.
I could imagine myself being interrogated by the Coast Guards and MPD, I could see myself narrating the incident to them and crying like a buffoon, and worse still I could I even tell his parents.
But while I was still contemplating all these things, I suddenly saw Hamilton burst out of nowhere, his jet boat had been parked out a little further down the shore, and he had seen the worried look on my face.
He laughed so hard pointing at my face, “Dude, you should’ve seen your face, you we’re frigging scared, you don’t have to be though, I’m like Poseidon.”
“The heck with you Hamster, and I wasn’t worried about you, you’ve always boasted about knowing the sea quite well, and I was hoping you had got chomped up by a whale or something.”
“You wish buddy, now; did you learn a thing or two?” He asked me eagerly.
“Nothing really, you were just showing off your jet boating skills” I replied.
“Technically, you were supposed to watch and learn, and I guess you too much of a numbskull to learn anything anyway,” he said grinning.
I grabbed a bit of sand and hurled it at him, and he also did the same, “Is that all you got Peters?” He teased sending another handful of sand at me.
“Quit calling me Peters you damned freak!” I shouted at him laughing, but in reality, I was more than relieved.
We hurled more sand at each other for a while before we headed back home, but not before storing up our jet boats, the rain was still drizzling, and it looked to be a rather cold evening.