Free Man on the Ice by Rex Saunders Page A

upside down and let the water
     drain out. Next, I took my two socks and wrung the excess water out and dried
     them off as well as I could. I wrung out my socks again, put them back on, then
     my boots, and my feet felt nice and warm.
    I sang out, “Help!” three or four times, just in case there was another boat
     around that might hear me. But that didn’t work. There were no other boats
     around.
    I didn’t worry much, because I was just talking to my wife no more than half an
     hour ago. She was always nervous about me being out in the boat, because of my
     heart condition, so I figured she’d be contacting somebody soon after I was
     supposed to be home. I had brothers and friends with boats. My brother Wade had
     a 35-foot longliner and my friends Alvohn and Tim Pilgrim had a 40-foot
     longliner, so I knew she’d have somebody on the go. And she did. The first one
     she called was my brother Wade, and Wade called the Coast Guard. Soon there was
     a big crowd looking for me. I would be okay, she thought. I was on this ice pan,
     just walking around, singing out andpraying that someone would
     find me soon. There was a lot of daylight left yet; the sun was high in the sky.
     I figured it was around four o’clock when my watch stopped.
    I just kept walking around the ice pan, hoping to find something from my boat,
     but nothing could be seen, except for my wool cap that was on a small piece of
     ice about a couple of hundred feet away. I just kept saying to myself, “It won’t
     be long now before someone will find me, because I told Irene where I was.”
    A short time later I saw two longliners. They were a long way from me, but it
     made me feel better knowing they were looking for me, for sure.
    Then I heard a helicopter. By this time it was dark. I heard the helicopter
     long before I saw the lights. When I saw her first, she was circling the ice pans
     scattered around the water. Then she came and shone the light all around the pan
     I was on, but the crew didn’t see me. That was very discouraging, but I said to
     myself, “At least they’re searching in the right place for me, and they’ll find
     me by and by.”
    Then I saw another helicopter coming. She was coming straight toward me and I
     thought this and the other one were looking to spot my boat. They’re not
     looking for me on the ice, I thought. They’re shining their light all
     around the ice pans for something in the water. So I went to the edge ofthe pan of ice, and sure enough, she came, and the big light
     was shining on the water only twenty or so feet from where I was standing. The
     rays from the light shone on the toes of my two boots. If they had just raised
     the light another couple of feet, it would have shone right in my eyes.
    Another time I saw a helicopter coming, and she went around the ice pan I was
     standing on. All at once, she turned around very fast, and I said, “Thank you,
     Lord. They saw me,” but she just stopped in the air for a minute or so. I went
     to the far side of the pan to give her room to land to pick me up, but she went
     on again.
    The wind came up from the northeast and it started to rain. Then the rain
     turned to snow. Then it turned back to freezing rain, and all I could do was
     walk around the ice pan and pray and keep looking for lights of boats or
     helicopters . . . something. I had to stay in the lower part of the ice because
     the big waves were rolling in and hitting it, and the wind would take the spray
     from the water and bury me right over. I thought I would never make it through
     till morning.
    An old hymn, “Till the Storm Passes By,” came to mind, and I began to sing.
     “Till the storm passes over, Till the thunder sounds no more; Till the clouds
     roll forever from the sky, Hold me fast, let me stand, In the hollow of Thy
     hand; Keep me safe till the storm passes by.”
    I was very thirsty, so I dug a hole in the ice with theheel of
     my boot and found water. The