In a Tight Spot

You may be wondering how I got myself into this mess. Well if that is not one of the most overused, clichéd lines I have ever heard, I don’t know what is, and yet it keeps running through my head over and over. You see, the thing about boats is, they tend to have a lot of small, cramped spaces, and the thing about me is, I am very claustrophobic. So you would think I would avoid boats at all costs, but no, I love sailing, and as far as the claustrophobia thing, I’ve just had to figure it out. It means sleeping in the relatively roomy main cabin instead of the cramped births, and lots of breathing exercises when I have to go into small spaces to do repairs, but I manage, or I did, until I didn’t.

Today I was feeling particularly brave. I had been working to fix up my old boat, but I’d been putting off repairs on the engine because in order to access it you have to lower yourself into this rear compartment that is just big enough to fit one person. Obviously not the greatest place for someone who hates tight spaces, but like I said, today I woke up and thought fuck it, I can do it! So I lowered myself in, and I did my breathing exercises, and honestly once I actually got into the work, I stopped worrying about the tiny little compartment I was wedged into. In fact, when it started pouring rain, I didn’t even give it a second thought when I closed the hatch above me to keep dry. Yeah, that is where it all went wrong, because when I finished for the evening and went to open the hatch to let myself out, I found it had latched itself shut, and you guessed it, you can only unlatch it from the outside. Well that seems like a rather dangerous oversight from the manufacturers of this vessel, I would need to remedy that, but for now, I was stuck, trapped, WORST NIGHTMARE TIME! Cold waves of fear shivered up my spine, as I started pounding my fists on the hull, screaming for help, but it didn’t matter, it was midnight by now and it was the dead of winter, I was sure there were no other crazy people out on their boats to hear me. Then my logical mind peeped up, momentarily hushing my panic brain, of course, I had my cellphone in my pocket!

Thankfully my buddy answered, and of course she would come out and save me, but boy would I owe her. I didn’t care; I would have done anything at this point. I hung up the phone and closed my eyes, you are relaxed, in a hammock, on a tropical beach, I chanted until finally, I heard footsteps, and laughter, she thinks this is funny, what the fuck! But I was so relieved, I couldn’t help laughing too, I was saved!