While staying at the marina in La Cruz the kids all enjoyed riding bikes around the docks. The Kenta Anae and Heavy Metal boys all had normal boy bikes that they would graciously share with the other kids, and we got out our folding bike to also throw into the mix. One day Alex came back to Exodus, not quite in tears but definitely on the verge and visibly shaken. He said, “I fell in the water with the bike.” Since the kids were young I’ve always tried to teach them “first things first,” meaning that when something happens we always check that everyone is OK before we start assessing blame or scolding. So, my immediate reaction was to ask him if he was OK or if he was hurt. The tears are getting closer now, and he assures me he’s ok, but he couldn’t save the bike. He lost it and it’s now sitting on the bottom of the marina floor. At this point I almost start laughing, but I knew it wasn’t yet appropriate for that. Thankfully, Tim jumped up without leaning into him about how it happened or how he needed to be more careful. He just started brainstorming ideas for how to retrieve it. The first thing they did was go over with the depth sounder to see how deep it is. If I recall correctly it was about 11 ft deep, and at this point Alex starts to visibly calm down, because he realized the bike wasn’t really lost, he could dive for it if he needed too (except for that alligator that had been spotted in the marina waters!). The first thing Tim tried was magnets. We have very strong magnets for retrieving metal objects that have been dropped overboard. He could get the magnets to attach, but it was difficult to keep the bike oriented properly while raising it, and the magnets would detach. So, the next thing he tried was the boat hook, which wasn’t quite long enough. Then one of the dock workers came over and suggested we could use a small anchor, and we had a claw anchor for our dinghy, so Tim lowered that down, and the third time was the charm. He retrieved the bike by hooking the anchor claw under one of the bike cables. The bike got a thorough fresh water rinse and WD-40 bath, and seems to be doing just fine.
A conversation with Alex afterwards revealed he had simply lost his balance while going slow, and he treaded water for a little while holding onto the bike, but he couldn’t hold the bike, keep himself afloat, and reach for the dock. So, he sacrificed the bike, a wise choice, I told him. I told him that I worry about so many things out here, but him falling off the marina dock with the bike and drowning simply wasn’t one of them. It was totally off my radar. Truth be told, he was so upset, not because he was physically shaken at all, but because he was worried about how much trouble he was going to be in for being careless and losing the bike. We also talked about how he was likely going to take a lot of ribbing from the other kids about it, and his best tactic would be to just smile and laugh along about it. Making a couple jokes at his own expense could also diffuse it, which he did, and it did.
Right after Tim pulled the bike up one of the other kids said something like, “Geez Alex, that was the stupidest thing I ever saw.” At the point Alex was still more concerned about how much trouble he was going to be in than engaging in banter with the kid, but Brenden piped up, sticking up for his brother saying, “Well, it’s not like he did it on purpose!” That was nice to see.
Gresham Family Exodus 