April 2: Down to Earth

by Mackey Chandler

  Gunny put his index across his lips, in a shushing gesture. That made sense, everybody else must be sleeping. April sat up and nodded, he went back out in the passageway and turned left to the stairs, what had they called them? So many weird names to remember.

  April used the tiny head in her room and washed her face with a cloth. It didn't seem any cooler than when she went to sleep. There was a low murmur of ventilation fans, but if there was cooling they weren't using it. She sat on the bed and put her shoes back on and followed Gunny up to the place they steered the ship, the cockpit. It was sunken from the deck, with a full stout rail, but there was also an arch that went across, which shaded it in the day.

  There were adjustable awnings that extended the shaded area, even if the sun was low in the sky and there were clamshell doors with big rectangular ports that sealed all four corners of the arch and turned it into a wheel house if there was need. There was lots of open deck to the rear, where the fighting chair pedestals went in the deck and the fish cleaning station folded over the side that the clamshells wouldn't enclose.

  Gunny clipped a line on her although it wasn't rough. In fact they were going noticeably slower than in the daytime, when she was fishing. The moon was low, near setting and there were scattered clouds occasionally obscuring it. It was muggy and she momentarily thought about getting her chilled moon suit but dismissed it.

  She listened carefully as Li showed Gunny the controls. The sails were put away by hand but moved about and deployed by electric motors instead of by hand once they were free. There was an autopilot, that had to be disengaged to demonstrate the manual controls. The passive sensors and GPS made sense.

  Their present rate of progress was lower, not only from less wind, but from the heading where the wind was coming from. Gunny seemed to understand how that worked better than her. She thought it had to do with the keel, but she couldn't picture the vectors in her mind. She'd ask Gunny to explain it latter.

  After the moon went down the night was really dark. She thought they were running without lights, but it looked like there was a light on in the rear. She leaned out over the transom trying to see.

  "What are you looking for? You worry me hanging over the rail like that."

  "I see a light on the water behind us. I thought we were running blacked out. Did somebody flip the wrong switch and turn a light on the rear, uh, stern?"

  Li giggled and in the light from the instruments she could see him grinning at her.

  "No Missy, there are little creatures in the water. When we pass through and roil the water they glow. Each one is not very bright, but there are lots of them. I don't know why they do that, but sometimes they light up the waves on the beach too. Pretty isn't it?"

  "Yes, prettier for knowing how strange it is," she agreed, fascinated.

  They sailed along for several hours, a few soft words passing between Gunny and Li, but no more real instruction. The peace punctuated by something hurling past her head far too close and a solid thump inboard.

  "Incoming!" April warned them, but Gunny hit the deck even before she did. Li hadn't wavered from his duty. She waited but there weren't any more. Li spoke softly and handed Gunny something and he went forward into the dark corner of the cockpit. When he turned the small flashlight on, there was a fish in the corner, dead or knocked senseless, as it wasn't moving.

  A few more soft words of instruction and Gunny took it by the tail, smacking its head solidly over the rail. No doubt it wasn't waking up now. Gunny took the wheel for the first time alone and Li disappeared briefly to return with a cooler. He showed her the fish, before it disappeared whole into the ice. It was as long as her forearm, with exaggerated fins.

  "It is Tobiuo," he explained. "The same name as the ship. "You would say in English, a flying fish. They are very good eating." He had no sooner explained than there was another muffled thud, but this one was thrashing on the deck instead of stunned.

  "Watch me Missy," he took his flashlight back and climbed up on deck. April watched him step on the fish to pin it down, but he obviously didn't put his full weight on it. A small blade nipped its spine behind the head and it joined the other in the chest.

  "You get next one, OK?" he asked her, handing her the little flashlight.

  "Right, she agreed," If she was less than enthusiastic he didn't notice. With a little luck there wouldn't be anymore. Luck held for a long time and then there were three all together. One smacking Gunny in the ear, hard enough to make him swear. April scrambled to get the first two and turned to find Gunny had finished off his assailant and silently handed it to her by the tail. By the time she was too tired to keep her eyes open and went to her stateroom, they had seven in the cooler.

  In the morning there was no wind at all. She woke up to an odd noise and came up on deck to see what it was. The sails was hanging limp and every once in awhile a swirl of air would flap them about and make the mast and rigging ring a bit, but it never kept it up enough to get the ship under way in one direction. The clouds were low and you could see the turbulence working in the bottom and it was oppressively hot and humid. She sat on one of the side benches and stuck her public eye where it could watch the whole boat, from the corner of the transom.

  "When we are far offshore and in these latitudes we run a French boat," Papa-san informed his new passengers. If you want to go nude, feel free. If we make port we cover up. I'm putting out a hose here and forward on the deck if you want to spray down, but it's sea water not fresh. I keep a spray bottle full of fresh for my face and hair."

  Despite his declaration, Papa-san was still in trunks and baseball cap. Gunny was in big baggy floral trunks and a perfect white Panama. Li and Taro were nude and what surprised her more, was both had run clippers over their heads for a very close crew cut. Li had thick longish black hair before, no more. Neither had much body hair and were slight in build, which made them seem childish. Mama-san was not nude, she had on a big brimmed hat and sneakers, beside the safety line. Li and Taro, she noticed, handled the sails with no safety lines on them.

  As she was looking at the clouds, they seemed darker in the distance, one of the flying fish left the water sailed clear across the stern of the boat chest high between Papa-san and Gunny. It didn't hit water on the other side for a good twenty meters. April shouted a big whoop of delight, thoroughly impressed. They hadn't really been visible in the night.

  "Heh, they go three or four times that far," Papa-san assured her. "Neat huh?"

  "I thought maybe you'd slap him down as he went past," she told Gunny.

  "It just never occurred to me," he admitted. "I was looking more to duck, if he was going to hit me. We got two more last night after you went to bed. I think we have enough of them for right now anyway."

  "Will you run the engines if there is no wind?" April wondered.

  "Perhaps, no hurry." He worked with Taro to drop the big sail and reduced the area the ones forward presented. He gave the dark clouds approaching not a worried look, but appraising.

  "Is that a problem, the dark stuff?"

  "It could have winds or not. You don't want a big wind to catch you with too much sail out. We can always add more, but it can bust stuff faster than you can take it down. I'm going to sneak a quick peek on radar," he decided.

  "I don't see any hail or anything," he declared in a few minutes. "It looks like a good heavy rain though. We'll catch some of it on a sail for our tanks, if it is steady."

  The deck was textured in the cockpit, but Mama-san warned them she was going to make it slick. She squirted liquid soap on it and a bit of seawater. She scrubbed thoroughly with a soft brush that had a long handle like a mop. When the rain hit the soapy water was gone down the scuppers in a moment. The young men rigged a big tarp, sloped to the cockpit and a surprising stream of water poured off that too. After a few minutes they stuck plugs in the scuppers and pulled out flush plugs in the rear corners April hadn't known were drains.

  "It's clean enough to drink?" April
asked.

  "At this latitude, far from land? I'd drink it without any concerns," Papa-san told her. "But our drinking water is filtered in any case. I'm more worried about water we buy in port. It might be ground water, or rain water collected off a surface that isn't clean. We'll get several hundred gallons the way this isn't letting up. Water costs quite a bit in most ports out here, so free is nice."

  The rain was warm, almost like a shower and April decided to go with the French boat drill and took off her already soaked clothing. It felt weird to think she'd be drinking the water running off her.

  A late breakfast buffet was laid out and people wondered in and took what they wanted one by one. It was too hot to eat much. When the rain finally stopped it was as dead as before. Papa-san fired up one of the two Diesels and steered southwest. He explained when they got wind it would probably take them more east than they wanted. The engine was barely off idle, a low rumble that he explained was the most efficient speed.

  "I can get you a fusion power plant if you want," April offered. "A couple liters of heavy water should last you years and all the auxiliary power you could want."

  "And how big is this power plant," Papa-san asked, skeptical.

  "About like yea," April said defining less than a half cubic meter with her hands.

  "The whole thing? Enough to push this boat?"

  "Yeah, four of them will push my ship at nine g and power to spare," she said.

  "Hell yeah, we'll gladly take one of those."

  "You might put a laser up on the mast while you are at it. You got all that power. It would give you something to argue with, if somebody gets too frisky with you out here."

  "This area is pretty safe," Papa-san assured her. We have an old .50 caliber over there in a locker, if we do run into a problem. But it's true there are places in the Caribbean and around Africa, especially up toward the Middle East I'd rather not go. Over around Indonesia, South East Asia, I wouldn't go unless I owned a frigate. They have some serious pirates and some of the heavily armed government boats aren’t above a little piracy on the side."

  The rain passed, but the wind didn't pick up. There were high scattered clouds, that frustrated them by scuttling along, but the wind on the surface stayed calm. The GPS showed them making a jog to the west while they stayed on the same heading so Papa-san backtracked a little and found a current carrying them southwest at a bit over four knots. They eased out of it after a couple hours and fired up the engine and found it again. The next time they made a big circle they had lost it, so they headed south again under power.

  Mid-afternoon a breeze came up strong enough to spin the long cylindrical wind turbine, mounted in front of the main mast. Papa-san didn't get excited. It had spun before from a brief gust. After it kept going several minutes, he trusted it enough to let out the triangular sail all the way forward. He cut the engine and added a bit more sail, Taro helping out on the deck to let them loose. It took about a half hour to get all of them up and adjusted. They weren't going as fast as yesterday, but better than they had with the Diesel.

  Supper was cold stuff, brought out to the cockpit on a plate to eat. Nobody wanted to stay inside. The wind eased off at dusk, but didn't die entirely. April took a shower and before she could get all sweaty again she donned the moon suit and slept in it, cool and comfortable.

  April woke to a pitching movement, that threatened to toss her on the floor. The day was bright already and the boat was making noise. She used the toilet braced to keep from being thrown off. It was a bizarre experience to her. She went above with the suit on and was clipped on a safety line before she could step foot in the cockpit.

  The front of the wheel house was sealed up and the spray periodically hit the ports as the bow cut through the waves. They were going really fast and the water foamed and was near the rail on one side. Papa-san was at the wheel with a big grin. It was exhilarating. She re-posted her public eye where it could record the action. She was using it as a vacation cam now.

  "I had the radar up a few minutes. It's going to get rougher than this," he warned. "If you going to stay up here I want you to change your suit color to a bright safety color and put a floatation vest with a tracking device on."

  "Even with a line on me?" April asked surprised.

  "I'm a belt and suspenders sort of guy in this weather."

  Li and Taro were out there, with lines on for the first time she'd seen and soon there were only two small sails up at the bow. The boat wasn't tilted over as far but it was still plenty fast. They kept getting sudden squalls of rain, that seems to blow so horizontal April wondered if it was really falling back in the ocean. There seemed to be a lot of lightning behind them and that's what finally made her decide to go back below. She left the eye to record it though.

  Gunny didn't look like he was interested in food. Mama-san Lin was making some sandwiches for the topside crew. It was warm still, but the wind chilled you even at this temperature and Papa-san called down he wanted slickers. The sails trimmed, Li and Taro swung the clamshells of the wheel house shut on the rear and dogged them down, before the wind made it too dangerous to move them. He ran the radar again, but the roughness of the sea limited the range severely. It would have to be a big boat, really close, to get a return in these waves. The wind was picking water up off the tops of the waves in sheets and flinging it in the air.

  "Is this dangerous?" April asked Mama-san, when the pitching got particularly nasty.

  "Not yet," she answered with a smile. "Papa has not even put out a sea anchor to stabilize her. I believe Tobiuo is stronger than you think. She is graphene and Buckey tube composite. She will bob up from a rogue wave, that would demast and crush a ship of thirty years ago.

  "What is a sea anchor?"

  "It is like a fabric bucket with holes, that trails behind the ship and pulls on the stern to keep us straight and increase our drag."

  "Oh, it's like a drogue parachute then," April said, understanding it quickly.

  "Your bunk has a net that raises along the edge. You might not be able to sleep, but you can still rest," Mama-san suggested. "I'm going to."

  "I'll come get you if I can't figure it out," April agreed. It was simple, but folded under the edge of the mattress. April had a couple extra pillows and lined them up against the bulkhead. She lay for a long time and fell asleep eventually, but a different noise or motion would jar her awake occasionally.

  When the storm ended it seemed the calm actually woke her, it was such a big change. It was not light yet at all and she went back to sleep gratefully.

  * * *

  Another day of much less exciting sailing, brought them to the atoll Papa-san had promised. They dropped all sails and loitered at anchor for a couple hours. Then when the tide made the ocean flow into the lagoon he fired up the engines and shot through the gap using the GPS to hold to the center of the channel. Taro stood on the bow to watch for any obstructions, but they acknowledged once he started he was committed and likely nothing could be done if there was a problem.

  April asked if they could not have sent their rubber dinghy through, with a handheld radio and then follow. Papa-san said yes, but Taro saw much better high on the bow, than down in a dinghy in the turbulent flow. And if he did decide the ship should not come in they'd have to wait until the tide was running the other way to recover him. April concluded they just didn't have the patience to do it the safe way. She wanted to say something sexist about male ego, but refrained. Probably that was good. Mama-san seemed to be watching her with interest.

  The men went to a great deal of trouble to anchor them securely, with multiple lines. Li explained the extra care was as much to make sure they didn't damage the coral, as to see them safe. The water was shallow and clear. This was not a nature preserve, like several others they might have visited, but Papa-san was especially careful of it, because it had less biodiversity than the others, both on the land and in the water. He attributed that to its isolation and the fact it had much les
s rainfall than the ones to the south east.

  They repaired a few small leaks from the storm, maintained the French boat custom, relaxed and enjoyed the sun, called Home briefly and April learned how to snorkel. She had to be talked back into the water, after seeing her first reef shark. She learned to spear fish and clean them too.

  "I was going to Samoa," Papa-san told them over dinner, after three days of lolling about. "But I feel we are so in the dark . There might be warrants or other trouble, waiting for us there. I am inclined to go directly to Tonga, were the political situation is more certain. Are you going to lift from there for Home?" he asked April.

  "Yeah, I think I've done as much damage as I can down here," April admitted. "Gunny what are you going to do?"

  "The offer still open to find me a job?"

  "Yes and we have a labor shortage. I don't see that as a problem."

  "Then I'm ready to try a new place, without extradition to North America. I have no family responsibilities, my kids are grown and I'm not interested in being caught between factions playing power games."

  "How about you Papa-san? What are you going to do?"

  "You still want your young men rescued don't you? I thought I might be of assistance in that matter, while I lay low and see what works out with both Wiggen and the Chinese. Perhaps with you gone they will have no interest in me. If we should decide to move off Earth there is still plenty of time for that."

  "Do you feel safe to travel in North America? My lieutenants are in Maine. I can get word to them if you want. I expect them to check their communications, when I miss the first rendezvous. But I don't want to just add you and your folks to the list to be rescued."

  Papa-san got a happy smile. "Tell your young men to meet this ship in Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Isle, Maine on the second weekend in July."

  "You are going to take this ship that far?" April asked big eyed. "That's like half way around the world. Can it handle that sort of a trip? I mean, that's on the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Pacific, right?"

  "Yes, if I hurry I can round the Horn before the season closes. The wind and currents are good for a fast passage. It gets windier in March and the rains start up. Much smaller ships than this have gone through the Drake passage."