Dangerous Shores: Book Three; The End of the Road

by Christine Conaway

  “Well, I guess now we get to find out what’s going on.”

  Chapter Three-The last goodbye

  It didn’t take long before the big Zodiac came flying around the breakwater to where they had anchored. Waves rocked the Annie-C and shaking them up. If they hadn’t grabbed their coffee cups they would have flown off the table.

  “What an asshole,” Frank mumbled. They held on as the boat came closer. A soldier they didn’t recognize was at the helm of the Zodiac. Staff Sergeant was yelling at him when the boat slowed abruptly. They motored slowly up to the Annie-C.

  “Sorry about that. Thought you’d like to hear what happened.” Chuck hollered at Frank and Ellen. He threw a line up to Frank and climbed aboard. When the driver started forward, a look from the Staff Sergeant halted him. “I’ll only be a couple of minutes.” He pointed to another soldier they hadn’t seen before and told him, “throw those bags up on deck.”

  “Yes sir…” he replied and grabbed a bag in each hand. As if they weighed nothing he threw them on deck followed by two more.

  “And shut that motor off.”

  The motor went silent.

  “Dam kids,” he mumbled and sat.

  “Found those on a couple of boats moored in the marina. One was a thirty-six Catalina and the other was a thirty-five Hunter. Don’t know how well they’ll fit but thought you might want to try them.

  “Oh my God, thank you. I can’t believe we didn’t think of it. It doesn’t matter, if they have slides on them we’ll make them fit.” Ellen tore into the bag closest to her. She knew there wasn’t much difference between her sails or the sails from the Catalina 36 with hers being a tall rig. She quit digging when she heard Frank speak.

  “We thought you would be bringing Brian, or was it not him?” Frank asked. He was sure that was who he had heard.

  “He’s pretty wiped out. From what he tells me, he almost didn’t make it. After they left you, Dan thought he had read about a short cut, however he hadn’t paid close enough attention and they ran aground once they went in between the two islands. Apparently, the bigger of the two islands was inhabited by some folks hiding out. They took offense to Dan immediately when he pulled his gun out. Brian said he was like a crazy man, waving the gun in their faces, making threats at them. They took it for about five minutes and then shot him. When Clare jumped into the water to come to his aid, they shot her too. Brian bailed off the backside of the boat and swam to shore. He found the railway and followed it here. He says he didn’t see a soul all the way here.”

  “Oh my God, why would he do that? He didn’t seem that…unstable when we saw him last.” Ellen shook her head, “I don’t understand why he acted like that.”

  “Brian didn’t have a good explanation either. He said Dan wouldn’t listen to him when he tried to convince him to stay with you guys. He said Dan was so worried they wouldn’t get to the other side in time to cross through the locks if he had to wait on you guys.”

  “Where is Brian? Does he have a plan or what?”

  “Don’t even think of it Ellen, I can read your mind. We’re cramped as it is and we have little water as it is. We can’t take on another person.”

  Chuck held his hand up to silence Frank. “Stop, that’s not necessary, He’s going with us. We’ve decided to become the West Coast Militia for the time being. If we find an established or at least an organized military presence when we get to San Diego, we’ll think about rejoining them. If not, we’ll work our way up the coast until we find someplace we want to defend and call home. Until then we’ll make our own way.”

  “I may be wrong but is that even legal? Can you just dis-associate yourself from the army like that?” Frank wasn’t sure he liked what the Sergeant was telling him. They were just going to abandon their posts and go AWOL (absent without leave). In the previous world they would all end up in Leavenworth.

  “Son, to my knowledge no one has declared martial law or no one has issued any orders that we know of giving us guidance, so at this point, we’re on our own. Like I said we’ll see what we find at Diego and take it from there. I know what you’re thinking and it’s not AWOL. It’s merely putting distance between us and the bad guys. We’ve already lost the canal if they even expected us to hold it. When they sent us down here I don’t think they had this in mind. We were never meant to be on our own.”

  Frank nodded; he could see where the Sergeant was coming from. After a moment’s thought he realized he didn’t know what he would do in the same situation. If he didn’t have the responsibility of seeing that Ellen and the others reached Washington, he would have seriously considered joining them.

  As if she could read his thoughts Ellen said, “Please don’t even think it. We need you here with us.”

  “No ma’am, he’s not thinking it because we don’t need him, or have room for him and he eats to damn much for us to feed him. So, he’s all yours.”

  Ellen and Hannah beamed at him, “You put that so eloquently that we’ll keep him. I do want you to keep this in mind.”

  She looked at Hannah, “Honey would you grab a couple of those cards of mine. They’re on the chart table.”

  Hannah went to get them. She returned with a half dozen of the cards she’d had made up for advertising purposes, but they contained everything the Sergeant or his men would need to find the farm.

  Ellen took them from Hannah and looked at the top one. “Well you can disregard most of the info…the email, website and my blog won’t work and neither will my cell phone, but the address will be good whether we are there or not. It is about as secure and defendable a position as you could find anywhere.”

  She handed the stack of cards to Chuck. “You guys will always have somewhere to go. I don’t care how long it takes you or how many of you there are, you will always have a place.”

  “Well I sure do appreciate the gesture. Someday you may look out your front door and see us marching up the road. We’ll see what the west has to offer a bunch of army guys first. Who knows what the future will bring. But, I appreciate the offer. I’ll pass these out among the guys just in case something goes wrong. Tell you what, on the fifteenth of every month at eight pm, turn on that radio we gave you. Leave it on for an hour or so and if we get up that way we’ll just give you guys a shout.”

  Frank nodded, “We’ll do it. I can’t even thank you for all you’ve done for us. So, if we see you in the future I hope we can return your hospitality.”

  Chuck laughed and stood to climb over the gunnel back to his own boat. “I’ve got to get up there and see how Miss Oliva is doing and that new baby. You all take care and be safe.”

  He shook hands with Alan and Frank and gave Hannah a big hug.

  When it was Ellen’s turn he whispered in her ear, “You take care of that marine. You won’t find a better man.”

  She nodded against his chest, and pulled back. “Please come up if you can.”

  They watched the Zodiac leave. “I hope he makes it up there. I have an idea that at some point we could use the manpower.”

  “Well, I hope they bring their own women!” Alan declared.

  All three turned and looked at him, their faces reflecting their disbelief. The air was cleared when all three broke out in laughter.

  “Incorrigible,” Hannah declared and went below. “I’ll send up breakfast as soon as it’s ready.”

  Chapter Four-New sails for an old boat

  An hour after full sunrise they had replaced the mainsail and hooked up the larger of the three remaining sails to use as a loose footed jib. Frank had tied the sail bag to the bottom of the forestay to store the new sail. When they wanted to raise it, the process would be simple to do.

  Alan was on the bow pulling up the anchor. Hannah and Olivia were sitting in the cockpit, with Hannah reading Mutiny on the Bounty out loud to her.

  Ellen had arranged their rifles out on top of the companionway hatch and fixed a bungee across them to hold them in place. If they had rough weather they w
ould move them down below, but until they were well away from land they wanted to keep them handy.

  The Zodiac and cutter had left twenty minutes before. Their departure was heralded by someone blowing an air horn. In no time they had passed out of sight.

  Frank slowly walked the boat forward helping Alan by easing the tension on the chain so he could pull the anchor up easier. Finally, after dunking it in the water a couple times to clean the mud off it, the anchor was resting in the holder and Frank steered them out of the small bay.

  Ellen heaved a huge sigh, in exaggeration. “I didn’t ever think we were going to get out of here.”

  “As soon as we get clear of land, I think we should put up some sail and see what we’ve got. Looks like when we clear land we’ll get a breeze.” He pointed to the ripples on the water in front of them. “Do you want to do the sails or steer?”

  “Sails, I want to teach Hannah how to do it on her own and there’s no time like the present to learn.”

  When Hannah heard her name mentioned she closed the book. “Olivia honey, do you want to go below until I get done helping Ellen?”

  “Okay, can I take the book?” She climbed off the seat, Mutiny on the Bounty cradled in her arms.

  “Sure. I’ll come down when we get done.”

  Ellen explained the new process of raising the sails as they did it. “This is the way it’s supposed to work when you have the proper equipment,” she said as the mainsail topped out. It was a few inches short on the luff, but far better than she could have hoped for. She would remember to thank Chuck next time she saw him. “Now all we have to do is tighten up the clew outhaul and we should be good.” She showed her where to tighten it and cleated the line on the boom cleat.

  “And what is that for?” Hannah asked. She had remained quiet trying to store the information away for later use.

  “It tightens the foot of the sail up so when we use it we get the best performance from the sail. Now let’s see how this jib is going to work.”

  She removed the tattered spinnaker they had been using and shackled the jib in its place. Hannah had already untied the sheet lines and digging through the bag attached both lines to the clew. They were already run through the blocks on the deck so it was now a simple matter of winching the sail up.

  She handed the winch handle to Hannah and asked, “Want to do the honors?”

  The sail went up and once they pulled it tight it wasn’t bad. Not nearly as good as having the roller furling, but better than the spinnaker. Ellen studied it for a minute and said, “I think the next time we take it down, I’ll sew some slides on it. They’ll make it slide up the track on the furling system and make the sail more efficient.” She shook her head at her own stupidity, “I don’t know why I didn’t think to put them on before we pulled it up.”

  The additions of the new sails turned the Annie-C from a draft horse into a sleek gazelle. She heeled over and flew through the water. Neither Alan, Hannah nor Olivia had ever experienced the thrill of sailing with sails that actually worked the way they were supposed to. Hannah and Olivia sat mesmerized by the water flying by. Alan, Ellen and Frank traded off every couple of hours catching naps in between their stint behind the wheel.

  They had decided that as long as they had sufficient wind, they would put some miles between themselves and Panama. Frank didn’t want to have to go close to shore any more than they had to and with the aid of Ellen’s charts he plotted a course to Jalisco Mexico. They wouldn’t be seeing land for at least sixteen days and maybe longer depending on the currents and wind. He figured the most they could make was 95 nautical miles per day if the winds held.

  Hannah and Olivia moved their reading down below to the V-berth because they couldn’t stay sitting on the seats on deck. All of them were surprised that neither of the girls suffered from sea sickness.

  The same could not be said for poor Alan. He had been okay until he went below. Within an hour he was back topside hanging over the rail. Ellen took pity on him and brought him a can of ginger ale and some saltines. She didn’t want him depleting his body fluids to the point he would need real medical attention.

  She went down, hung a lee cloth from the settee berth and sent him to it with a gallon zip lock. He would sleep and hopefully his sickness would end on its own. Until then it would be her and Frank standing the watches. There was no way they could expect Alan to contribute anything as long as he was suffering.

  As long as the wind held, they were going to sail as fast and as long as they could. They changed shifts in two-hour increments, because standing behind the wheel the constant adjusting of balance wore a person’s knees and back out in no time. With the wheel tightened down so it could not turn freely offered some relief, but it only worked well with properly balanced sails.

  By the fifth day of tacking they were all bored. There was nothing to see but constant blue water and sky.

  While they had no G.P.S. Frank was doing his sightings every day. He thought they were covering ninety nautical miles a day as an average. By staying thirty miles offshore they were able to take advantage of being on the outside edge of the prevailing current. Had they gone out farther, they would have been fighting the southerly Aleutian Current. Without using their motor, they would have made little progress against the current.

  The wind had been steady out of the north-east sometimes, switching around to only the east. They were able to hold a beam reach most of the time with an occasional tack.

  Ellen was on watch the eighth morning when just before sunrise she saw a shadow interrupting the flat horizon. If they didn’t change course it looked to her like they would meet whatever it was sometime later that day. She’d point it out to Frank and see what he thought.

  She was past getting excited every time they saw something in the distance. By the time they had reached whatever it was it always proved to be floating junk. They had found a row of seats, Frank said they were from an airplane. Hannah had almost hit another partially sunken container, and there were lots of dead fish floating on the surface.

  They’d spotted what they thought was the hull of a submarine, but turned out to be a huge humpback whale. The side of him that was floating up was covered in weeping open sores. Frank said it had either rolled over with a wave and fish had been feeding on the down side or the whole body was covered in open sores.

  They talked of the possibility that it had died from radiation poisoning from toxic water after the Fukashima meltdown. Ellen had remembered hearing about the toxic levels of radiation making its way to the North American coast. But Frank had dispelled that idea. He’d read an article on the level of toxins in the water five years after the earthquake and resulting tsunami, and while they were higher than normal they were not toxic.

  Now they wondered about radiation poisoning from somewhere farther up the coast. Frank tried the handheld radiation units Chuck had given them, but the light had remained green. They decided to test every morning and evening to be on the safe side.

  They had another more pressing dilemma. They were getting low on water. They were down to the five gallons in the hot water tank and two cases of sixteen ounce bottles, plus a couple of gallons they’d taken from the island.

  Chapter Five-Sighting a ship on the horizon

  Ellen woke Frank when her shift was over and pointed out the silhouette on the horizon.

  Frank used the binoculars to study the shape. “It looks to me, like it’s a cruise ship. When we get closer we’ll be able to tell more.”

  “I thought as much, the big boxy shape didn’t look like a freighter to me. I can’t imagine being stuck out here in a floating box with no way to get to land.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Right now it might just be the safest place, depending on how many people on board and if they caught the sickness or not, and how much food they have. They have their own desalination plant, so water won’t be a problem for them.”

  “Do we dare approach them?”

 
“I’m thinking on it. We have a dozen empty water jugs, no water maker, the water tanks are empty and not a cloud in sight. You tell me?” Frank continued to watch the ship. “I would say they have no propulsion and the lifeboats are all still hanging. I think we’ll wait until we get closer to make a decision.”

  By late afternoon they realized the big boat was indeed moving, but not from any motorized component. She was drifting south with the current. She wasn’t moving fast, just enough that if they wanted to cross paths with it they would have to change their heading. After a vote, they set a new course that would let them intersect with the ship after daylight the next morning. Frank pulled down the jib and put a reef in the main. His idea was to continue moving but not at a pace to collide with the ship in the dark.

  They were sitting in the cockpit after eating dinner, Olivia was playing with a length of line with Ellen’s knot book on her lap. Alan was showing her how to tie different knots.

  “I really hate to bring this up, but it needs to be addressed. We no longer have the two gallon jugs of water. When I went in to get dinner fixings, there was a puddle of water on the floor. Apparently they were rubbing on something and both jugs had leaked out most of their water. All I managed to save was about a quart between the two. So we need to figure out our water problem. Without water I can’t fix any of the freeze dried or dehydrated foods.” Hannah sat waiting for someone to say something and she hoped they wouldn’t put the blame for the lost water on her. She was the person who went into the aft cabin the most so it would be logical for them to come to that conclusion.

  Frank leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. He sighed heavily as if he’d come to a difficult decision. “Well that does help with the decision whether or not to approach the ship. I’ve been toying with the idea of not getting too close. But with our water shortage and no rain in sight, we need to see if we can at least get water from them.” He looked at each of them to see their reactions. To his surprise, the one who he thought would have something to say sat quiet, nodding her head in agreement.