PVCC Puma Press: March 2004

"If we make it out of this alive, I'm going to marry her," thought Josef Loew as he watched Lisa Falconer keep swimming despite her injuries. "She hasn't complained since this happened."

The original plan had been to sail around the island and come back in time for lunch. They would have been close to shore. They wouldn't be in this life-threatening predicament.

What a welcome relief it had been the day before when Lisa and Josef had finally arrived on Boracay Island. No more bumping along at 15 miles per hour on pot-holed roads. No more sitting wedged in a Philippine jitney, four to a seat that was supposed to hold two people. No more piles of chickens and severed cow legs stowed in the back of the jitney.

Boracay was a backpacker's paradise. They rented a grass hut on the sparkling white sand beach. Small boys ran up palm trees to pick coconuts for them. They relaxed out on their balcony that evening and enjoyed the view, cold drinks in hand.

The following morning, Lisa and Josef went to rent a boat with Erik and Karl, two 20-something German men they had met shortly after they'd arrived.

The locals had a long row of hand-made sailboats called "paraws" lined up on the beach. The paraw is a cross between a catamaran and an outrigger canoe. They're standard transportation for the islands. The boat that they selected was 12 feet long and painted blue with a large white sail.

It was February, the end of the southern hemisphere's summer, and the weather was sunny and warm. As the boat left the shelter of the bay, the wind picked up. Unbeknown to the sailors, it was the tail end of the Northeast monsoon, called the "amihan."

Since the wind was so strong, Josef thought that it would be easier to sail in a wide circle away from the island rather than trying to navigate around it. The boat was soon skimming over the ever-increasing waves as they headed out to sea.

The first sign that anything was wrong was when they started to take on water. It wasn't a lot. Judging from the cut-out bleach bottle they found in the bottom of the boat and used for bailing, it was probably a regular occurrence.

As they left the clear turquoise water surrounding the island and entered the deeper dark blue sea farther out, the waves got higher. The boat was taking on more water; they had to bail a little faster.

The wind increased. Josef decided that they'd better turn around and head back to shore. They prepared to turn the boat into the outward tack.

Lisa moved to the front of the boat, near the mast, to avoid the sail as it swung around for the turn. Suddenly, she lost her balance on the slippery side and splashed into the waves.

But Lisa hadn't fallen away from the boat. Her foot was caught between the rough boards of the home-made paraw. She was being dragged through the water as the boat continued out to sea. Josef and Erik dropped the lines and scrambled to help her. They had to be careful not to all rush to one side and capsize the boat. No one was remembering to bail.

Eventually, they managed to jerk Lisa back on board. As she lay gasping for breath on the side of the boat, she looked up. A huge wave was coming towards them. Before she knew it, she was back in the water. But this time, when she pulled her head above the surface, she didn't see the boat. She saw only the crumpled mast sinking beneath the waves and Erik's clove cigarettes bobbing on the sea and floating away.

The others had also managed to claw their way to the surface. If they stretched, their toes could just brush the wooden hull under the relentless waves. There was a long moment of silent disbelief while they struggled to understand just what had happened.

Lisa looked back towards the shore while treading water above the submerged boat. The trees on the island looked so small, just an inch or two visible in the distance.

It was getting cold, being half in and half out of the water. "This is how people die," Lisa thought to herself.

The wrecked boat and its water-treading companions continued to drift with the strong wind and the outgoing tides. It was getting harder and harder to maintain contact with the pontoon. Lisa wondered if the boat would finish sinking or stay partially afloat.

The trees now looked like green smudges on the horizon. They had to make a decision. Should they continue to drift with the boat in the hope that someone would notice they were still gone and come looking for them? Or should they try to swim to shore? Did Eric and Karl even know how to swim? Could Lisa make it with her injured foot?

They decided that they'd either all stay or all go. If they left, Karl and Erik would swim together directly through the oncoming waves towards the island. Lisa and Josef would follow a slightly more parallel path to conserve Lisa's energy. Whoever got there first would send out help for the others.

Lisa looked at the disappearing trees. She was already getting tired trying to cling to the boat. Who knew what the right decision would be? She turned to the others and said "It's a good day for a swim."

The three men smiled at her and repeated, "It's a good day for a swim."

They shoved off from the submerged boat. Lisa had only swum a few strokes when a lash of fire seared her thigh. She looked down. She couldn't see the jellyfish, but she felt their burning tentacles. Despite the bites, she and Josef would not be able to go back. The paraw was too far underwater; they couldn't see it anymore. With intense pain in her thigh and a throbbing foot, Lisa continued to push ahead through the never-ending swells.

As if the injuries weren't bad enough, Lisa had to urinate. She knew that she shouldn't. This was the sea where the local Borocayans went shark fishing. The urine would attract sharks. She tightened her muscles and kept on swimming.

Lisa was hit by the slap, slap, slap of the relentless waves. She could not let any doubt about whether they would make it creep in to her thinking. Although there was a big door labeled panic in her mind, she was determined to keep it shut.

Slap, slap, slap. The trees were a little bigger, maybe two inches above the horizon. They lost sight of Erik and Karl. Lisa had to pretend it was an adventure. She didn't want Josef to think she wasn't brave. She told him every bad joke she had ever heard.

Slap, slap, slap. Six-inch trees showed above the swells.

"What would they tell people when they got back?" Lisa wondered. "Would her mother grasp how serious the situation had been?"

They talked about what they'd tell their friends. Josef rolled out his old line, "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Lisa kept swimming, her leg now numb from the jellyfish bites. Little did she know that Josef was falling more in love with her with each stroke. Although they'd met two years ago, they really hadn't spent much time together. Lisa was still living in Calgary, but Josef had left Canada and had been working in Oman for the last six months. Lisa knew there was an attraction and that things were warming up, but she didn't think that it was serious yet.

Slap, slap, slap. A little more green.

They'd been swimming for hours. "How were Erik and Karl? Had they made it to shore?"

Lisa and Josef had been paddling side-stroke so that the waves would hit the back of their heads rather than their faces. Lisa suggested they switch to the back-stroke. They tried the breast stroke. They tried the back butterfly. They tried anything that would distract them from thinking about what might happen. They concentrated on moving closer to the trees.

Slap, slap, slap. The trees were quite a bit larger.

And what was that coming towards them? It was a sail. They saw Erik and Karl's concerned faces. Their friends had made it. Erik leapt into the water and helped Lisa into the boat that they'd borrowed from a local fisherman. Joseph hauled himself over the side. They turned the rescue boat back to shore; it actually wasn't too far away.

Once they'd landed the boat, they jumped up and down on the beach laughing and crying while they hugged in a tight circle on the sand. The fisherman who owned the rescue boat looked at them and smiled. These foreigners sure were crazy sometimes.

Adrenaline spent, they still had to hike back through the jungle to the village. Lisa's ankle was black and blue and swollen. Angry red gashes dotted her thigh. Supporting Lisa by an arm on each side, the foursome slowly hobbled down the path.

They couldn't stop talking the whole way back.

"Can you believe it?"

"Isn't it incredible that we made it?"

"It's like being reborn, a new beginning."

When they arrived, it was already dinner time. The weary group collapsed onto chairs pushed into the sand at a local beach restaurant. The beer and the fresh prawns had never tasted so good. The sunset had never looked more beautiful. Sleep had never seemed so peaceful.

The euphoria was short-lived, however. The next morning the owner of the paraw came to Lisa and Josef's beach hut with another man. He demanded to be paid for the cost of the boat.

Lisa was livid. "We could have drowned out there and you'd be in a lot of trouble right now!"

The men pressed their demands. Lisa and Josef were not going to get off of the island until they'd paid their bill. The men's machetes convinced Lisa and Josef they should settle. They gave the men $50. Josef was so anxious to leave Boracay that he immediately chartered a small plane to take them to Manila that day.

Did Josef follow through on that promise he made to himself in the middle of the Sibuyan Sea once they got back? Yes, Lisa and Josef have been together now for almost 20 years. They live on a boat in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Lisa says, "We remember the accident sometimes when we're talking about near-death experiences. I know that this sounds incredibly trite, but it's difficult to describe the joy we all felt — that life is so precious, and being alive is just a gift. I can begin to understand those extreme sports guys."

Lisa reflected a bit more on their experience. "I feel proud about how we behaved in a situation of extreme adversity. The thing that I remember most is how calm we all were. It's the calm that comes when facing the inevitable. Either we were going to make it or we weren't."