SS Pacifica

by Coleinger, Ronnie

  I watched Becky count out a little over twenty thousand dollars to the owners for the work they did on the Pacifica. As we walked into the cafeteria, the room went silent and the workers turned their attention to their guests. The owner told them how pleased he was with the work they had done, and then Becky began shaking their hands. When Becky got to Jill, she hugged her and said, “I do not know how you realized I was in turmoil over the upgrades, but I want to thank you for your reassuring words and assistance. The Pacifica says to tell you thanks; she sails well and is content with her new look.” I watched a tear trickle down Jill’s cheek and a proud look appeared on the two owners faces.

  Chapter 17 - The Adventure Continues

  We returned to Uncle Pika’s guesthouse and packed up our gear. Then, we went up to the mansion and wrote a note to Uncle Pika and Elizabeth for their hospitality. We placed the note and some money for food into an envelope. We spoke to all the staff that were there that day and especially thanked Marilyn for her assistance and care during our visit. As we loaded our gear into the dinghy and headed out to the Pacifica, I think Becky quietly cried as she rowed in silence behind me. After we moved our stuff down into the cabin, I heard Becky up on the deck say, “Father, this life I live if good. This man I call husband loves me just as I am and does not judge me. Thank you for rescuing me from my decision to join you in Davey Jones’ Locker that dark cold night. I miss you Father; I miss your wisdom and your love for the sea.”

  Whenever I heard Becky speak to her father, it made me wonder if she was talking to her birth Father, or to her God. Maybe the answer to the question did not matter. She had someone that she felt had given her life direction and guided her during a time when her mind was unable to cope. Whoever she considered that life force to be really did not matter.

  As we set sail and steered towards the northeast, I fixed supper in the cabin. As I cooked, I discovered another advantage to extending the height of the stern hatch. With both hatch doors open, the taller stern hatch acted like a chimney and drew air into the bow hatch, through the cabin and out the taller stern hatch, providing excellent ventilation.

  Since the sea was calm, I moved the solar panels up on deck and began charging the batteries. Once we had finished eating and had cleaned up the dishes, we arranged the deck chairs and sat in the warm sunshine until the sun began to sink in the western sky. Becky said, “Shall we run opposing sails tonight and try for 120 miles in the next twenty four hours. I would like to spend less time out here on the open sea and more time sailing around the islands exploring and sightseeing.” I liked Becky’s thoughts and said, “Captain, I will help you with the sails.” Becky pulled me close to her and said, “You don’t have to call me captain. Those are words that the repair facility workers use out of respect, but my husband is not expected to use the word.” I pulled her up tight against me and said, “After I watched the magic of you bonding with the soul of this vessel in the dry dock, I feel you are due the respect of the title, Captain.”

  Becky kissed me and said, “Do you sometimes wonder how close to the line between sanity and lunacy, I walk? Sometimes when I look into your eyes, I wonder if you think I may have stepped over that fine line.” I kissed her and said, “I think that we all step over that line from time to time. Some people just find themselves forgetting to step back into the world of reality. You always return from your wonderings, but I have no doubt that your brilliant mind needs to visit places deep within your brain that others do not realize even exist. Your brilliance is what amazes me, not your lapses into the realm of resourcefulness, imagination, creativity, or even into the magic of the sea. Your mind is very healthy my love. Stop doubting yourself.”

  It was now ten o’clock at night and we both wanted to sleep together. I set my alarm for midnight and Becky set hers for two in the morning. We would take turns checking on our position and changing the tack if necessary during the night. With the new higher hatch, we could leave the door open and hear what was going on outside. We set the depth gauge carefully to warn us of shallow water and set the GPS to alarm if we moved outside of a carefully planned route. As we crawled into our beds, I felt Becky reach over and rub my arm. She said, “Do you have to sleep in your bed tonight?” I slid over into her bed and snuggled up close to her. She commented that as we worked our way south after visiting Midway and the Islands below, we should stop in Honolulu to have some tests done to see if I was still fertile. I giggled and said, “We can do that, but until then, I suggest we be careful.” She snuggled up against me and soon fell asleep.

  When I woke, I stepped up onto the deck and found Becky sitting in a deck chair. She had her lifeline attached and her feet were up on the other deck chair. She said good morning to me as I stepped to the stern and peed. I went back down into the cabin, perked some coffee, and returned to the deck. As we sat and talked for a few minutes, she said, “If you look to the starboard side, you will see a Humpback Whale that breaches every couple of minutes. She is eating the krill that she rounds up into a school and then sucks the entire school into her mouth in one big bite. The krill are very nutritious and the whales can put on a lot of fat by eating them. The lactating females eat a lot of fish in one day to keep up with the needs of their calves.” As we watched, two more whales breached and stirred up the sea. Becky said, “You would think that the sea would run out of fish after a time with all the creatures eating each other, but there always seems to be abundance. Nature never seems to get out of balance out here in the Pacific.”

  Becky looked at me and asked if I was hungry. I said I was and that I would fix breakfast while she stood watch. She laughed and said, “You are a good man. Could I request two fried eggs and toast for my breakfast?” I smiled and said, “You can request anything we have on board the Pacifica, how about some fresh fruit for that temperamental belly of yours.” She giggled and said, “Yes, please.”

  When I brought up our breakfast, we sat in the deck chairs and laughed over Becky’s uncle seeing her bare butt and thinking her birthmark was a handprint. Becky confided in me that her high school gym classmates had teased her horribly over the birthmark whenever she showered with them. Some said it was a sign that she was still a virgin, some said it was a curse, some even said it was the markings of the devil. She told me that once she had cried in her mother’s arms over the teasing and her mother had said, “Let me show you something, Child.” She pulled her panties down a little and turned around. Becky giggled and told me that her mother had the same birthmark on her butt as she did. Only her mother’s had faded a little with age. I sat quietly listening to Becky’s story and realized that my wife was no different from the rest of us. Her peers had bullied and tormented her over something as simple as a birthmark.

  As I thought back on my youth, I remembered my peers had tormenting me during my high school years over my skills with electronics. They applied the geek label to me, even though I had to struggle to get passing grades in high school. Their bullying eventually moved into the classroom. The teachers did nothing to help the situation; they simply chose to ignore the harsh words spoken by my fellow classmates. I once took the words of a classmate to heart and decided to punish him for his actions. When he walked out into the parking lot, I confronted him and the two smartasses who often accompanied him. I told him to stop calling me names. He walked up and pushed me to the ground. When I stood back up, he punched me in the stomach. I was furious with his actions and pounded the living crap out of the bully. His two friends quickly vacated the area; they wanted nothing to do with anyone who could stand up for his themselves. The problem was that I was the only one who actually paid for the confrontation. The principle called my parents, who grounded me for two weeks. The bully and his friends laughed over the incident the rest of the school year. However, no one pushed me too far after I proved I could fend for myself.

  As we washed the dishes, made the beds, and cleaned up the cabin, the southerly wind picked up in intensity. We realized that the waves
had changed direction slightly and now the bow was pounding hard on the wave crests. We made a tack to port and reset the rudder position and that helped considerably. Becky got out the sextant, checked our position, and wrote down the information. Then she handed me the sextant and said, “It is your turn to check our position and see if we agree.” I did as she wished, but it took me a couple minutes longer. When I handed her the paper with the coordinates written on it, she read my notes, and then turned both notes around so I could read them. They were identical. She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.

  As the sun warmed the air, Becky said, “I would like to take down the sails and have a bath, and then we can resume our voyage.” I agreed, and we lowered the sails and tied them to the masts. As we connected our lifelines and swim rings, Becky stripped down, but instead of jumping into the water with me, she sat on the deck and watched me wash. When I had finished with my bath and returned to the deck, she jumped into the water to wet her skin, and then quickly returned to the deck to wash her body. When she finished cleaning herself with the bar of soap, she jumped back into the water, rinsed, and got right back out. As I stood beside her and dried with a towel, I said, “I now understand your desire to love me last night even though you were very tired.” She smiled and said, “My bath tomorrow will be from a pan of water on the deck after you have finished bathing. Mother Nature has come to visit again.”

  For the next few days, we would use the tiny wood burning stove on the deck to burn everything that contained blood. We would dump Becky’s chamber pot only while running under full sail and watch carefully for any sign of the oceans predators that Becky so feared.

  ***

  When we were within a few miles of the Musician Seamounts, we slowed the Pacifica and moved forward slowly. We used our handheld GPS units to find the correct place to look down and see the top of the huge extinct volcano and crater. We drifted around the area and explored for over an hour, but saw nothing, which was what we expected to see. However, we did log into our journals the day, time, GPS coordinates and wrote down some comments. We both commented on the fact that it was exciting it be sitting over an extinct volcano in the Pacific, which may have formed from the same hot spot in the ocean that now forms the chain of Hawaiian Islands. As we hoisted the sails and got back underway, we began to get excited about arriving at the Midway Islands. We carefully trimmed the sails and rudder and tried to gain as much speed as possible.

  We sailed for two more days before finally reaching the Midway Atoll. We sailed around to the northwest side and carefully moved the Pacifica towards the southeast across water that was only four fathoms deep at best. We worked our way to the edge of the deep lagoon in the center of the atoll and anchored the Pacifica in seventy feet of water. The sun was setting by the time we dropped anchor and the gentle rolling waves inside the atoll were a calming sight. We could hear thousands of birds, dolphins and seals in the distance. We dropped a fishing line and soon caught our supper. As we cooked over the camp stove, we began to see the northern lights glowing in the sky around us. They faded in and out and turned from blue to red as we watched.

  Just as we were beginning to enjoy the spectacle, the full moon began to rise from the east. The bright light from the moon soon dwarfed the northern lights, but the moon lit up the calm water of the atoll and we began to see and hear the wonders of this magnificent place on Earth. As we sat in the deck chairs, we began to see things moving in the water around the Pacifica. We got up from our chairs and stood along the edge of the deck toe-kick rail. As we watched, I saw a huge head appear out of the water and it looked up at us. I laughed over what I saw. It was a huge turtle, I mean huge. Its shell looked to be over three feet in diameter and its head was as large as a softball. Becky stepped back from the edge of the deck and whispered, “Stanley, move back, it might jump up and bite you.” I laughed at her and said, “This turtle is too large to jump, let alone jump up onto the deck and bite me. It probably has never seen humans before and is wondering what silly creatures’ burn their fish over a fire before eating them.” Becky giggled and said, “There are more of them around us, maybe we should just leave and let them have this place.”

  I calmed Becky, and we secured the Pacifica for the night. As we crawled into bed beside each other, I heard a gentle thump on the side of the hull. I heard Becky take a deep breath as if startled and then relax in my arms. I whispered in her ear, “If you are not comfortable here with the creatures of the sea, we can raise the anchor and move away from the deep lagoon.” She rolled over and said, “I would like to move. I fear little, but if the turtles decide to climb on top of the planes, they could easily damage them. The turtles are very heavy.” I thought to myself that her worries were silly, but I knew that she would get little sleep this night with the creatures so near. We got up and raised the anchor. There was a gentle easterly wind, so we raised the mainsail and allowed the Pacifica to move slowly towards the west. I checked the depth with the fathom rope that I had made back at the boathouse in California to be certain we would not ground the vessel. Once we moved out of the atoll, we found another shallow spot and anchored for the night.

  When we woke in the morning, we climbed up onto the deck and both stood in amazement at the sight we saw. The atoll was beautiful. It looked like an extinct volcano with the outer edge consisting of shallow water, with a deep dark blue lagoon in the center. Towards the south were the islands of Sand Island, Spit Island and Eastern Island. Our maps showed that the two large islands had runways on them, but we could not see them from our location. We pulled out some of Becky’s newer maps and discovered a warning to sailors that stated we could not enter the atoll without a permit and a hull cleaning. We were shocked to discover this information. I had enough signal on my Blackberry to get on the Internet, so I began to research the warning. I soon discovered that we were in restricted waters last night. With the new information, we decided to sail around the outer edge of the atoll. We wanted to see the islands and the best way to do that was to sail around to the south side of the atoll. Our maps showed a shallow reef that circled the atoll, and we planned to follow the reef around to the south.

  The trip around to the south took us about two hours, but the time flew by quickly. There were seals, dolphins, sea turtles and thousands of birds that we later discovered were albatross. We decided we had seen enough around two in the afternoon and began sailing down the Hawaiian ridge towards the Hawaiian Islands.

  We found bad weather before sunrise and it turned really nasty. The waves were running over twelve feet high and the crests were far apart causing the Pacifica to follow the waves in a sickening pattern. The water depth below us was over six hundred feet deep so we decided to take down the sails and submerge in an attempt to get some relief from the stomach turning waves. Just getting the sails down into the cabin took all we could do. By the time we lowered both masts and pinned them in place, we were exhausted. Once we had submerged to a depth of eighty feet, the sea settled around us and we were able to stop the persistent vomiting that had stricken both of us. Becky and I were seldom seasick but the wave action along with the islands being in sight seemed to be very unsettling. At first, we thought we might have eaten something that was spoiled. However, once we were in calm water, our stomachs quickly returned to normal, as normal as possible after two hours of vomiting. Sick or not, we had to stow the sails and rigging in the cabinets. We did not want anything flying around in the cabin and injuring one of us if we happened to capsize or roll in the sea.

  Once we were submerged, we were not certain which way was north. Grandfather’s compass was swinging wildly for some strange reason and we did not want to risk sending up the antenna into the heavy waves on the surface to operate the GPS. We finally determined an approximate direction to travel by the movement of the sea floor on the fish finder. It said our direction was true south, but we did not necessarily believe it either. I dug out my old reliable hunting compass from my backpack and opened it up. I
t set nice and steady and showed our course to be true south. I laughed and said, “When all the sophisticated equipment fails, just dig out the old reliable six dollar Kmart compass.”

  Becky giggled as she set the depth gauge alarms and began turning out some of the lights that were draining the batteries. We would need all the battery power to run the motors if we had to stay submerged for any length of time. As it was, the current was moving us along. By setting the steering rudders carefully, we could move along without using the motors. If the current changed later on, we would have to resort to running at least one of the motors to keep us on course and off the reefs.

  We turned on one of the battery lanterns and turned off the last cabin light. I checked to make certain we had turned off all the electronic equipment, except for the depth gauge. Then I crawled under the covers with Becky. She snuggled up close and I heard her say, “The Sea is unhappy tonight. It will allow us to pass through the storm if we keep our wits about us, do not panic and show it respect. Those that travel without heeding the seas warnings will suffer the wrath of Mother Nature’s fury this night.” I pulled Becky closer and kissed her neck to comfort her. As she settled in my arms, I felt her fall asleep. I did not intend to sleep this night, not until I was certain we had passed through the storm safely.