The horse and the boat

Oddly, just prior to a career switch March 2003. 

I was on a boat. Fairly big boat, maybe the size you'd see on the Great Lakes. But not huge. The boat was changing course in the middle of the trip, so along with some other people, I had to change ships while the two boats were at sail. I stepped out onto a platform about the size of a backyard deck. The other boat had a similar platform you had to reach, but smaller. The boat I was being moved to swung out a rocking horse suspended from a cable. The idea is the person grabs the horse as it swings out at them, mounts it quickly, and hangs on as the horse boomerangs back across the open water between the two platforms where it came from to the new boat. If you don't control the horse correctly and land just right on the new boat's platform, the horse swings past and drops into the water, taking you under with it. The cable does bring you back up but you're soaked. I watched this happen to the girl before me. I was wearing a wool sweater so I was concerned about this but ultimately I was worried about failing it. I wanted to land the horse on the smaller platform and survive the ride. While I fretted, the boat that was changing course continued to move away from the boat I was supposed to go on, increasing the span of water between us. I wasn't supposed to stay on this boat. It wasn't going where I wanted. The new boat swung out the horse at me and as it approached my grasp, I woke up.