A Friend in need..

After a long day of sailing.. I was with a great group of old and new friends eating dinner at the sensational StFYC Grill Room enjoy the exchange of stories of the day. Adjectives like, "augured in", "pearled", "ejected" were just a few of the terms that summed up the day for some of us. Others in the group had a stellar day of top five scores in there respective fleets. Kevin was in 3rd place overall in the tough Standard Apprentice Master fleet (35-44), Chuck was moving up in the equally tough Standard Grand Masters Fleet (55-64). Both these fleet are packed with World and Olympic champions from around the world. Russ was in 4th place overall in my fleet which is arguable the hardest fleet. He is a world class sailor in many different classes and travels all over the globe racing for St. Francis Yacht Club. Our entire group was beyond tried from a long day of high speed planning around the bay but happy about surviving it's challenging conditions. After dinner, we were all heading for the door when we were confronted with some sort of terrible accident that just occurred in the club parking lot. I was walking out a little behind my friends to see two fire trucks and two police cars with all their emergency lights spinning. A small crowd was standing there as they were putting someone into the ambulance. "What happen?" I ask someone in the crowd.. I was horrified and shocked to hear one of my good friends and a sailor from our SoCal group had been hit by a car in the parking lot. I was able to speak to him in the ambulance and told him we would take care of everything at the scene and would meet him at the emergency room. Our whole group went into immediate crisis mode and shifted all our energy to getting our teammate the care he needed. Five of us drove to the San Francisco General Hospital that was located across town to assist in any way possible. The San Francisco ER on a Saturday night was like what I 'd imagine a wartime MASH OR would be like. People on stretchers lining the hallways. A packed waiting room with no place to sit. We were lucky in that an excellent orthopedic surgeon was on staff and took him right in for x-rays. The good news that night was that his injury may now be as serious as first thought and his doctor said the chance of a full recovery are very good. No broken bones were seen in his initial x-rays. It was getting very late and the five of us still had a championship regatta in the morning. There was no need for all of us to stay... I volunteered to stay on to drive our buddy home. I also had the later afternoon start (2pm) and it made the most sense.. on top of that I have a pretty good working knowledge of how hospitals/clinics work because of my job at DISC. This turned out to be very helpful in getting his paperwork completed in the minimum amount of time. We got back to Russ's house pretty late (2am) and I setup our injured friend downstairs to avoid him climbing any stairs. The next morning we got him on his way back to LA (his wife flew in) early and the whole group rallied to get his gear and boat broken down and ready for travel. Jorge was car topping his own boat but had a trailer hitch on his car to tow an extra boat back to LA. This whole event was a complete flashback for me and my own experience of getting injured in the UK last September at this same regatta. I badly fractured my collar bone which required surgery back in the states. What I remember most about the whole event is how my friends and even friends I didn't know came to my aid in my time of need. In some ways I was feeling that I was getting to repay this incredible act of friendship and kindness extended to me a year ago. Anyone of our group would of done the same. It truly represents what these Laser Master World events are about and what keeps me coming back. Speedy recovery my friend.. We all look forward to seeing you out on the water soon. Peter