What a catch Donnie

They say the captain goes down with the ship

Patrick was still kinda hungover when he climbed on deck the next day. They ran out of fish so he had to catch some for breakfast.

"Are you hungry,friend ? Don't worry, breakfast will be done soon."

/Later/

He gasped when something started pulling on the fishing line.
"There we go!" he pulled out the fishing rod but his smile died when he saw what he had caught.
"What the hell?" he said looking at a pair of antlers in confusion. The next thing he caught was a striped jacket. "Where the heck does this stuff belong to??"
He got even more concerned when he pulled out the part of a drum kit out of the water.
"Who in his right mind would throw that into the sea?"
he asked the seagull that was sitting on the reeling , starring into the distance.
Patrick was kind of confused about that. The seagull usually reacted immediately when it heard his voice. But it didn't look at him once.

Something else has caught its attention.

Patrick looked in the same direction to see what was so distracting.

There was a strange silhouette at the horizon.
He quickly grabbed his binoculars.

He saw a white closet floating in the water

The thing at the horizon was a ship.

A sinking ship.

"Holy smokes!!" Patrick exclaimed almost dropping his binoculars. He put them on the carousel horse and ran over to the steering wheel.

"We have to help them!"

He turned the boat and  steered it to the sinking ship as fast as possible. People in life boats were waving at him. Some were crying. Some were shivering.

This part of the ocean was awfully freezing.

Patrick let the people climb on his small boat .
One by one.
One of the survivors seemed oddly familiar.

"Patrick?"
"Joe?"
Patrick recognised the man who used to be his classmate. They both hugged.
"Dude, you saved our lives! We probably would've ended up freezing to death without you!" Joe said happily.
"Hey, hurry up a bit!" another man said.
"Calm down forehead." Joe said and helped Patrick to pull Brendon onto the boat.

Soon everyone was saved.

And everyone was dancing and singing.

They celebrated being still alive.
Patrick wasn't  celebrating with them.

He watched the ship slowly sinking  in the distance. 
"Hey, what's wrong?" Joe had suddenly appeared next to Patrick.
"I wasn't able to save everyone" Patrick whispered without looking away from the tragedy.

"Yeah, you couldn't save everyone. but you saved us! You didn't actually have a reason to do that but you did it anyway. You're a good person. Don't forget that" Joe tried to comfort him.

"Hey, is that a seagull?" Joe asked pointing to the small animal in Patrick's arms.
"Yes it is. Could...could you excuse me for a second?"
"Sure."

Patrick walked over to the other side of the boat. Everything was quiet here.
"Here we are my friend." he said to the seagull.
He was about to set it free. Its wing was all healthy again. It really hurt to let go of someone who meant a lot  too you. But seagulls belong to nature. They need to fly around or dive into the ocean to catch fish.
A single tear left Patrick's eye.
"Please take good care of yourself my friend."
He threw his hands in the air and let the bird go.
It flew along with a flock of other seagulls.
Patrick watched them with his hands in his pockets.

"So long my friend."

He suddenly noticed a small man standing at another place of the reeling . He didn't dance with the others. He seemed...
lost.