I'm confused i thought every story was a narrative just from different pov's.
Being a wiser person than you were back then can invoke a feeling of regret or even laugh at yourself when you are relating a story with hindsight. You can tell the story in a tone you would if you were telling a story to a friend. I struggled with the first person until i did it that way then i wrote a prologue around it.
Sorry, tbc, I mean a separate
external narrator. In first person, the narrator is generally the person telling the story, whether in past tense (this happened to me) or present tense (this is happening to me right now).
You can of course frame a story around someone recounting events that once happened to them, but (to me, anyway) that adds distance. Which I personally would find jarring, because the beauty of first person is its
closeness. For the duration of that book, you
are that person.
Basically, there's regular past tense, where your boat showdown would play out in real time. The narrator (your MC) doesn't know who the bad guy is. Then there's your framework where the narrator is essentially a different character; someone who does know who the bad guy is while the in-the-moment MC doesn't.
eta: Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to read. Read lots. Read widely. Read thrillers and suspenses and whatever else and really think about how the authors manage to convey tension (and POV!).
eta 2: Yes, time and distance colours events differently. The problem is, you're not trying to evoke regret etc, you're apparently trying to evoke tension. And that is something that generally fades over time. Does that make sense?