Our captain motored to Pink Beach, near Komodo Island, for us to snorkel at 7am. We pulled up beside several other boats and tied up to them. People on the other boats were eating breakfast but mum & I climbed down the ladder and straight into the water. No one else was in the sea yet. We needed to fix our gear - our mask & flippers needed adjusting so we said we'd swim to the beach, fix everything there and then start snorkelling. We were probably half way between the boat and the shore when we were suddenly aware of an Indonesian guy in the water close behind us making funny noises. We thought he was commenting on the coldness of the water & suddenly it dawned on us that he was in trouble, was not a good swimmer and was panicking and needed help. Mum swam to him to help and as she did, in a flash in my head i knew that it was dangerous to go to a drowning person in deep water because that person could end up drowning their rescuer in their panic. The man reached out for mum and was on her back in a second. (mum is 65). I'm thinking Oh my god what can we do? He needed a life ring or something. i looked underwater and could see that they were almost at a big boulder of coral. In a second they would both be able to stand up. I started yelling STAND UP STAND UP STAND UP. But the panicky splashing continued. I was racking my brain for the Bahasa word for stand up and it just didn't come to me. Neither mum nor the guy felt the coral underneath and they went past it into much deeper water. Finally this guy's friend swam up and helped mum and got his friend to stand on another coral outcrop. Thank god my mum was ok. We made it to shore and sat there puffing and panting. The other guy was helped back to his boat by his friend. For a minute there I thought I'd be taking the plane home alone, without my mum.
