THE SINKING BOAT DREAM!           DFO 354                   10/75

         1. I DREAMT WE WERE ON A LARGE PRIVATE YACHT, about a 50-foot yacht travelling along a coast, not out in the open sea, because I remember land was very close, visible on our left as we travelled along. Ho was upstairs on the bridge on the upper deck at the wheel wearing a captain's hat & seeming to enjoy very much being in command of this ship.
         2. But I seemed to be exploring the ship, going from deck to deck to see what it was like. We went below the main deck down into the hull into a small engine room to watch the big powerful inboard twin engines operate. I thought at the time it was terribly hot in there, & it seemed to me they should open the windows & doors to air the engines a little more & keep it a little cooler.
         3. I was surprised that there was no railing around the deck, & I said, "This looks to me pretty risky & dangerous, not to have a railing around the deck! If the ship should suddenly tip or there was rough weather somebody could slip overboard. I wonder why it doesn't have a railing around the deck?"
         4. Suddenly the ship made a thudding noise & lurched sharply to the right or starboard which caused the ship's left portside deck to tip sharply downward toward the water.
         5. I thought, "This is pretty bad! It's tipping too far to the left here & I'd better go tell Ho & see what's wrong!" It made such a sudden right swerve of the vessel travelling along at a pretty good clip that it could have thrown people into the water! After this sudden swerve the ship seemed to come to a standstill & righted itself.
         6. We got up top onto the bridge where Captain Ho was with the other folks, & he said, "Something seems to be wrong with the steering mechanism or the engines--the propellers have stopped."
         7. Ho said, "The screw on the right side seems to have jammed or frozen & is not operating. We'll have to go down & see what's the trouble." This was why the ship made such a sudden right swerve, like putting on a righthand brake!
         8. I TOLD HIM THEN, "I THINK THE ENGINE ROOM NEEDS MORE AIR! It's too hot down there for the engines & the machinery!" So we stood waiting for his report until he came back with the sad news that apparently we'd burned out a bearing on the driveshaft of the right hand propeller & we were going to have to get towed to port to dry dock.
         9. The next thing I remember this other boat was towing us into port to this repair dock where the man went over the engine & the machinery to see what was wrong, & he finally said, "Well, that's what happened!--Your engine got too hot & the bearing on the propeller driveshaft burned out & froze." He showed us a piece of the bearing that had burned up & fallen out.
         10. "Not only that", he said, "It's also causing that particular housing to leak very badly, the bearing housing on that side, & you stand a pretty serious danger of SINKING if you don't get her into dry dock or beach it pretty quick!"
         11. We then noticed that the ship had settled so far in the water already that the main deck was slightly awash! As the waves would come along or the ship would tilt the slightest bit, the water was already washing over the main deck!
         12. So we all got up on the bridge with Ho & discussed it & decided to let the man pull us over to the beach & beach it so that he could work on it. We then all got on the bridge of the other tugboat up on the top with the captain, the man who was the repairman, the dockyard man, & he was towing our ship along.
         13. But Ho for some reason or other had insisted on staying on the bridge of our own yacht to steer it & guide it along as best he could. He didn't seem to want to leave his position there. But all of a sudden for some strange reason it seemed that our yacht as we looked at it close behind us seemed to be much much smaller! It seemed to have shrunk until it was only about half the original size & was sinking very rapidly, settling quite low in the water! I called to Ho that I thought he ought to get off our boat because it looked like it might not even make it to the shore!
         14. All of a sudden I saw that Ho was a little boy again, dressed in his sailor's suit with his captain's hat on & acting like a little kid, waving confidently & acting like he was enjoying the ride & having lots of fun playing captain!
         15. But then suddenly the boat began to sink very rapidly, & I looked & there was a rather amazed startled look on Ho's face! He was even a smaller boy now, maybe like five or six years old, & as the boat sank it seemed to dwindle at the same time he was getting smaller!
         16. Suddenly as we were towing it along it sank beneath the clear water & to my amazement Ho was still sitting there underwater in his small cockpit like he seemed to be stuck & couldn't get out, & he looked at us so helplessly & pleadingly!
         17. I thought, "My God, if he doesn't get out of there quick he's going to get caught underneath that thing! He's got to get out of there quick! He can't hold his breath much longer!" By this time I was already standing on the railing just ready to dive in to rescue him, & all of a sudden at that moment it seemed to my amazement that he looked like he'd shrunk clear down to just a tiny baby!
         18. I was just diving in when I guess the excitement of that moment, the fright of that moment, seeing him there trapped in that boat & me preparing to dive in to save him, so frightened me like a terrible nightmare that I suddenly woke!
         19. I remember feeling when we were first cruising along with Ho upstairs as captain that he seemed to be a little too confident. I felt that he was being a little TOO bold & OVER confident in his abilities as a sea captain when he was just sort of playing a ROLE & really WASN'T the captain of the ship, or at least he wasn't apparently the REGULAR captain.
         20. I JUST HAD THE FEELING IT WASN'T HIS REGULAR JOB & he didn't really know what he was doing when he was trying to do something which was above & beyond his ken of experience, & I was a little concerned about him. That was one reason I was sort of prowling around the boat investigating the situation & making sure everything was all right & had already discovered the engine room was too hot, which was apparently what caused the bearing to burn out.
         21. So it could be a warning to any of us: Don't be too overconfident about some of your projects for which you may not have sufficient experience & knowledge & need better preparation & more thorough investigation, a little better knowledge of what you're doing. The fact that there was no railing on the main deck seemed to me like there was a lack of preparation of the boat--it wasn't really ready to sail.
         22. The fact that the engine room was all shut up & not really being aired like it should showed lack of experience in navigating such a vessel so that the engine would overheat & burn out a bearing, causing it to spring a leak & sink.
         23. His turning into a baby must've meant I was supposed to have pity on him like a little child, as again he'd shrunk to very small personal capabilities because of the size of this problem that he just wasn't able to cope with himself.
         24. I hope you're not riding some sinking boat in which you could get trapped & have to be personally rescued because of your not following my advice & going some place else other than I've suggested.
         25. I hope you haven't gotten onto some project that's going to turn out to be a sinking ship because of your lack of obedience & knowledge & experience in that area. I was very apprehensive on that ship all the time, like it wasn't properly built, it wasn't properly crewed & it wasn't being managed properly & you were considerably overconfident about your abilities to operate it.
         26. So I do trust you will all pray very seriously about whatever you have in mind or whatever project you're engaged in, that it doesn't turn out to be a sinking ship that will dwindle to almost nothing & in which you yourself will dwindle & be trapped & in need of emergency rescue by us personally.
         27. So that's the story of the sinking ship! God bless you & may the Lord have His way & help us to learn to obey. The most important thing any crew has to do is learn to obey the ship master. Even the captain has to learn to obey the ship master, or the owners of the ship, those who are really in charge. On this ship you were sort of getting out of hand & somewhat running things your own way.
         28. So folks, let's try to obey & learn to follow leadership & follow suggestions, learn to respect authority & not get ourselves involved in something that's too big for us that we can't handle without help, & especially out of God's Will, something that's our own idea & not the Lord's, & even against advice that has been given. Amen?
         29. God help us to avoid trying to operate any sinking ships or any ships that are bigger than we can handle, that we might cause to sink because or our inexperience & not asking for assistance or more help or a crew that knows what they're doing--or even possibly we shouldn't be on that ship at all!
         30. I hope you'll take it to heart & avoid any such possible projects that might end in disaster, such as the sinking ship.
         31. God bless you & keep us all & help us to avoid sinking ships that we don't know how to run or that are running too fast or too hot or unsafely out of God's Will! In Jesus' name.--Amen?