National Adult Literacy Database

June 29, 1998

Our story this week was written by Johanne Broussard, from Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Johanne is a single parent, with a young daughter. She left school in Grade 10, and it was only later that she realized she needed more education to find work. A few years after her daughter was born, she decided to upgrade her education. She has since completed her Grade 10, and has been studying towards obtaining her GED. Johanne has completed a Personal Care Worker Program, and is now hoping to find work in this field.

My Frightening Boat Experience

by Johanne Broussard

It was a beautiful day during the summer, and I was down on a weekend trip at my parents' cottage. We had decided to go way out in the ocean. There was my mom, dad, myself and my daughter. Going out to the island, it was a bit rough. We went to the island for a picnic and to pick foxberries.

Finally, we got to the island, docked the boat onto the sand and tied it securely. Then we were very hungry so we ate our picnic and relaxed for a bit. Then my parents went to pick foxberries. My daughter and I went exploring for shells.

It was about 5:00 p.m. when we had decided to head back home. We started the boat, went out of the cave from where we were and started out. To our amazement, the water was so rough that is was tossing the boat all over the place. Many times I felt like the boat would tip over. I was extremely terrified, and everyone thought that we weren't going to make it back into the harbour.

We finally made it to the shoreline. At last we thought the terror was over, but is wasn't over. My father had steered the boat too close to the rocks. I could see the bottom of the ocean floor. The waves almost smashed us against the rocks and the motor almost hit he bottom of the shoreline.

I yelled at my father, "You get away from the shoreline! Are you trying to hit the rocks?" Was I ever angry! I said, "This is the last time I will ever go to the island in this little boat!" My father turned really pale with fright. I was yelling, my mom was yelling, my father's eyes were big as grapefruits. The funniest part was that my daughter was sleeping. Here I was hanging onto her life jacket for dear life. If she had fallen overboard, I would have jumped in after her.

We finally got to the mouth of the harbour and a big sigh of relief came over us. Everyone in the boat started to laugh because we couldn't believe that we had survived that terrible experience.