Near Death on the High Seas by Cecil Kuhne

Author:Cecil Kuhne
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307389305
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2008-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

I had the same reaction, though a hundred times stronger, when I was swept overboard in a gale off Durban as Marie-Thérèse II lay hove-to.

I found myself in water made very light by the millions of bubbles of foam from the enormous breaking sea that had capsized my boat. In a flash, I had glimpsed the cabin hatch cover, ripped off its tracks. With an opening like that, and her keel out of water, Marie-Thérèse II could only go to the bottom. Yet I felt no despair, no bitterness. I just whispered to myself “This time, old man, your number is up.” And I remembered the page on destiny in Wind, Sand and Stars, on the absolute need to follow one’s fate, whatever its outcome. I, too, was going to end up like Saint-Exupéry’s gazelle, whose destiny it was to leap in the sunshine and die one day under a lion’s claw. Yet I regretted nothing as I floated in the warm, very light water, making ready to peacefully leave on my last journey.

Marie-Thérèse II had righted herself before shipping a fatal wave through the big opening. I climbed aboard easily, with the hatch cover. Then I pumped for five hours straight, glad to start living again.

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