A Miracle Weekend That Ended In Salvation - pg. 1

Dedicated to my son Le Grande Jacob Ahlers II, who was so instrumental in leading me to God.

It was the week of the Columbus Day Holiday, and I arranged to take a couple of days off from my work as a City of Cape Coral Policeman. Joan and I chose that day, a Thursday morning, so that I could have the weekend to catch a big fish! We would leave on a small fishing trip to the Jimmy Connors Tennis Courts, Restaurant, and Towers, to fish a deep hole that lies just in front of their main buildings. If the fishing is poor, we can just lift the anchor, and move the boat a short distance to the Sanibal Bridge and Causeway -- both locations are only about 25 minutes from home and offer good results on most days.

This day was an exception, as we did not catch anything at the Towers. So we moved after a while and fished the Causeway. At both locations we were shut out, and after a few hours in the sun we decided to head for home because we knew that on the way home we could stop at buoy 89, another deep hole fishing spot where we had great success in the past, and only be a short 10 minute ride to the channel markers that leads us to the Rim canal that runs around Cape Coral's waterfront and our canal entrance, which takes us home for the day. (This has been the normal, short fishing day trip, on many occasions, for several years, with many different relatives, and boats.

We fished buoy 89, for a period of time, and when we had received enough of a buffeting about from the other boats racing by, as marker 89 is very close to the main intercoastal waterway. We pulled in the fishing lines, hoisted the anchor, called it a day and headed for the barn. As I moved forward a few minutes approaching the marker leading to the canal that takes us to the Rim canal, Joan, riding in the front of the Gull Hull water skiing boat, yells back to me that I am dragging something be hind the boat!! I turned to look around, to see that I was dragging my new yellow bait bucket behind me.

Not wishing to stop at the entrance to the canal, I turned around to continue on my way home. After all the bucket is only worth a few dollars! When I turned around, not having slowed down a bit, a canal marker appeared just in front of me on the port side of the boat. I turned the wheel to starboard as hard, and as fast as I could to avoid what was going to be a very serious accident if I struck the pole head on! When I hit the pole the boat was leaning well over on the starboard side, with the port side up in the air striking the pole. Almost the entire length of the hull slid along the pole. We were not hurt, as I continued running the boat at the same speed, not wanting the boat to sink, so far from shore in deep water, I wanted to reach the Rim canal, and lower water, as I heard water gushing around in the bottom of the boat.

As I approached the Rim canal, I had to slow the engine down as we had to make a sharp right turn to access the canal, and that's when the motor started to sputter and miss, as the water rose to wet the wires. I steered the boat with the little momentum I had left to the edge of some one's lawn, turned off the motor, and had Joan go to ask the owner for the use of a telephone to call my Father to come and pick us up as I tied up to a Palm tree and sat in the boat.

The water slowly went up in the boat, as it was sinking into the sand. The boat touched the sand in about 3 feet of water. My Dad picked us up and let me off at our house, and we had a nice meal for dinner and were talking over the events of the day when the doorbell rang. It was my neighbor, Frank Salvaggio, inviting me to go deep sea fishing with him the next day. I said yes! in a moment on one condition -- that is, if you show me how you catch the big sharks as you told my brother Winston and I about in the past! We shook hands and agreed to meet at his home at 7 AM. the next morning.

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