Day 11
Morning came with more greyness from the dense fog. Kade was the first one up and his rummaging around was enough to waken the other boys. Quinn asked, “What are you doing?”
“Checking my emergency gear. Not sure what we are going to need.”
Quinn responded, “I think you should be figuring out what we are going to eat and how to warm this boat up.”
“You worry about food. I’ll worry about keeping us alive.”
Quinn got up and picked up the box of crackers. It was still dripping with water and he threw it into the garbage sack. He then opened up the refrigerator compartment and the stuff inside was still pretty cold. He took out the leftover fish and rice but did not know if the stove would work. Kade said, “Only one way to find out. Try it.”
The propane stove flickered to life. It had a funny shaped flame from the salt water in the burners but it lit. Quinn started warming up the leftovers and his hands at the same time. When he started making coffee, Kade asked, “What are you doing? None of us are going to drink coffee!”
Quinn responded, “It is for the Captain. I was hoping the smell would help him.”
Johnathan thought it was a dumb idea but Mikey liked it saying, “Might help him wake up. We need to change his dressing after we eat.”
The four boys stood as close as they could to the stove as they ate the leftovers and all wished there was a bit more. Even the small amount of heat from the stove was comforting. Kade said, “We have plenty of the mystery food in the unlabeled cans and maybe we can catch some fish. We will not starve. We need to make a list of everything that still works.”
Quinn said, “You and Johnathan can work on that. I’ll help Mikey change the dressing.” Quinn started looking through the first aid kit but there was no more gauze that was dry. He went aft to the head and was looking through the upper cabinets hoping to find something dry. He came back with a box of Kotex and handed it to Mikey. Mikey looked at the pad and said, “You want me to put one of those things girls use on the Captain’s head?”
“Only dry thing I could find. Better than nothing.”
They proceeded to remove the old blood encrusted dressing which caused a small amount of new bleeding. Mikey held the pad over the wound while Quinn wrapped the Captain’s head with gauze. Quinn tried to reposition the Captain’s leg but stopped when the Captain let out a loud groan. Mikey said, “Well, if he still feels pain there is hope.” When they were finished, they joined the other two midship and looked at their inventory of working electronics. Cellphones times four, one hand held GPS, the small two-way radio they had used when they took the raft out, and several flashlights. The emergency flares and flare gun seemed intact but were pretty worthless in the dense fog. The charts were wet but readable and that was about it.
Kade said, “We can navigate using the charts, and the hand-held GPS and the compass.”
Johnathan said, “Even if we can get the boat off the rocks it would seem more prudent to wait for rescue. We have a crippled boat with a tree lodged in our bent rigging. If the storm the Captain said was coming shows up early we will be at sea in a boat I doubt is sea worthy.”
Mikey asked, “How long until you think we could be rescued?”
Johnathan replied, “Nobody is expecting us until this evening, so nobody will be looking for us until tomorrow.”
“What if it is foggy yet tomorrow? How will they find us and where would they be looking?”
Johnathan thought for a minute before saying, “The slide must have registered on the seismographs. Someone will be coming to see what happened.”
Mikey responded, “Even if it is foggy or stormy? I do not think we can wait that long. The Captain needs medical care.”
Quinn agreed with Mikey and they looked at Kade. Kade was staring at the hand-held GPS in his hand and ignored them while he thought. He looked up and said, “Johnathan is right if the weather cooperates but if it does not, we might lose the Captain. I’m not sure if we can get the boat off the rocks but we need to try. If we can float it and the hull is intact we will try and make our way around the cape. Once in Resurrection Bay we should be able to raise a fishing boat with our hand held.” He asked Johnathan, “When is the next high tide?”
Johnathan said, “About 1 pm.”
Kade looked at his watch and said, “We have 5 hours to get this boat ready to float. I will tie off and go over the side to inspect the hull. Quinn, you need to figure out how to climb the mast and cut that tree free and check the antenna too. Johnathan, you need to plot our course using the GPS coordinates from the hand held. See if you can get us some power from the batteries. Mikey, your main charge is the Captain but we need to try and dry some clothes and bedding.”
Kade went topside and hooked onto the safety line. Quinn lowered the line using a wrap around the winch. Kade had no sooner gone over the side when he called out, “Huge dents but the metal seems intact on this side!” When he reached ground level he had to bend over to inspect the bottom which now looked more like a misshapen golf ball than a sleek sailing hull. The bow showed the scars of many rocks it had hit but again the steel was intact. The port side was in better condition with smaller dents but a lot of them had long gouges in the plating. Kade rubbed his hand along the gouges but could not feel any holes. As he worked his way aft the problems got worse. The prop was all twisted up in the anchor chain and the skeg was bent to the side as was the rudder. He called up to Quinn and said, “Tie me off and try the helm to see if the rudder is operational.” The rudder turned pretty well to port but only about 15 degrees too starboard.
Quinn asked Kade, “How far out of the water are we?”
Kade responded, “Looks like about 5 feet. The tide must be pretty much at the low. How high did Johnathan say the tide would be at high tide?”
Quinn yelled down to Johnathan who responded, “It is only a moderate tide with plus 9.5 feet. The low was a minus 1.5 feet.”
Quinn was trying to estimate the angle of the boat and how much tide they would need to float the bow but gave up. All they could hope was that the 11 feet of tide would be enough.
Kade had Quinn winch him up and when back on deck asked, “Can you sail this boat with the bad rudder?”
“Tough to come about especially if we are going into the wind but I think she will sail.”
Kade asked, “Have you figured out how you are going to climb the mast?”
“I guess you’ll have to winch me up. Would be nice if we had a climbing harness.”
“You mean like we used rock climbing? I saw something like that in the forward storage compartment. I’ll go get it.”
Kade returned with the harness which was a bit small for Quinn but a lot more secure than just tying off to their life vest. Quinn disconnected the mainsail halyard and tied off to the harness. When Kade asked him if he was sure it was a good knot Quinn retorted, “I know how to tie a knot!” Kade had been busy filling a bag with a light rope, the rusty old saw, the hatchet and his best multitool. They clipped this onto the harness and with Kade working the winch, up went Quinn. The tide was low enough that the boat was barely rocking but as Quinn ascended the mast everything was magnified. By the time, he reached the tree that was wedged between the stays and the mast he was 40 feet above deck and it felt like he was on a rollercoaster. Try as he might he could not budge the small tree.
Kade yelled up, “Just cut the damn thing, but don’t saw into the rigging cables.”
The small tree was only about 4 inches in diameter but the saw was anything but sharp. Quinn did his best to wedge himself between the mast and one of the stays but it seemed he moved about as much as the saw did. He took almost 20 minutes to saw through the trunk of the small tree which came crashing down to the deck about the same time that Quinn yelled, “Timber!”
Kade yelled up, “Next time warn me! You almost nailed me.”
“I yelled timber.”
“Well, next time yell before the tree comes crashing down on me.”
Quinn worked the remaining portion free and this time yelled, “Timber!” before dropping it. Kade was watching and had moved out of harm’s way. He asked, “How does the rigging look?”
Quinn said, “The intermediates are nice and tight but the mast is bent above me and the starboard stays are loose.” He had Kade hoist him up higher on the mast and called down, “Everything that use to be on top of the mast is gone. No wind vane and no antennas. I think we can safely use partial sails. I would not trust the rigging for full sails.” Quinn was staring up the mountainside and Kade wanted to know what he was looking at. Quinn said, “That was a heck of a rollercoaster ride we had last night. We plowed a path a couple of hundred feet up the mountain!”
Kade wanted to know, “Any way of fixing the stays so we can use full sails?”
Quinn replied, “Maybe we could use one of the halyards to help stabilize the mast. No way are we going to be able to raise the mainsail to its full height. The headsail should be ok and the staysail if we limit them to about 80%.”
“Well, as the Captain would say, ‘It is what it is.’ Now come on down. We have a lot more work to do.”
When Kade had lowered Quinn back to the deck they talked about what needed to be done next. Johnathan called up from below saying, “You had better figure out how we are going to set the anchor and how we are going to move the boat out into the bay so we can catch some wind.”
Kade asked, “Any luck finding us some power?”
Johnathan replied, “House battery bank still has a little voltage but the engine battery seems to have failed completely. I think that we can run power from the house battery to the instrument panel but I’m not sure how long it will last.”
Quinn chipped in, “We had better set the anchor as our next step or we will be stuck here. I think I could swim the spare anchor out.”
Kade asked, “How are you going to swim carrying a 50-pound anchor?
“We’ll need to float it with life preservers and I could wear one of the survival suits.”
“Should work. I’ll get the anchor set up and you can get into the survival suit.” Kade used the backup anchor rope to attach the spare anchor and added a few extra knots just to be sure. Quinn finally got himself into the survival suit and looked mostly like a bright orange version of the Michelin Man from the TV commercials. He could not actually walk in the suit but just shuffled along. Sitting down on the aft deck allowed him to slide onto the swim platform. He said, “We are going to have to hoist me back aboard. No way can I climb up with this suit on.”
Kade said, “We can use the boom and one of the winches to haul you back aboard. Are you sure you can reach the water from the swim platform?”
The stern of the boat was hanging over the water’s edge but the only time it was in the water was when a swell came in. Quinn answered the question by just falling into the next swell that came in. As he bobbed on the surface he said, “Seems I can reach the water ok. Lower the anchor to me.”
Kade had tied 3 life preservers to the anchor but when he lowered the anchor it still wanted to sink. He pulled it up and added the floatation ring to the preservers. Now the anchor bobbed right at the surface. Quinn clipped the line onto his suit and started trying to swim. At best, he looked like a rubber duck bobbing in the swells but gradually he moved away from the boat. It worked best when he laid on his back and mostly used his arms to swim. By the time, they had pulled out all of the line Quinn was getting pretty tired. When Kade said to drop the anchor, he was more than ready. Trouble was every time he released one of the floats the anchor got heavier and tried to pull him under. He was wishing Kade had not tied so many knots and let Kade know about it. When the last of the floats was released only Quinn’s head was out of the water. When he let go of the anchor he popped back up like a cork. then he had to corral the floats and make his way back to the boat.
Kade was waiting and had a harness made up for his brother. Quinn slipped the harness over his head and shoulders and Kade tightened up the line. When Quinn gave the thumbs up, Kade worked the winch lifting Quinn into the air until he could grab the safety rail and roll onto the deck. Kade helped him remove the harness and said, “Good job!”
Quinn’s only response was, “I need to eat.”
When they went below they found Johnathan and Mikey with their heads beneath the sole of the cabin trying to trace wires. Quinn got to work searching for something to eat while Kade listened to Johnathan’s plan. They were going to reroute the electricity from the house battery in the front of the boat to the instrument panel. Johnathan finished identifying the wires he needed and came up for a break. He told Kade, “I can get you some power to the GPS and radios but not sure it will last more than a couple of hours. The voltage is down to under 12 volts so the batteries are over 50% depleted.”
“Any way of creating a temporary antenna for the radio?”
“If the radio activates, I’ll work on that next. Have you figured out how we are going to get out of Phil’s cove and into the open to sail?”
Quinn had opened one of the mystery cans and was chowing down on cold beans, he spoke up and said, “If we mount the small gasoline motor onto the swim platform we should be able to move the boat.”
Johnathan asked, “You think it will start?”
Quinn scooped up the last of the beans and said, “Only one way to find out. We will need to mount it as low as we can on the sides of the swim platform and it will be hanging at a funny angle.”
Quinn tried resting but soon chilled and needed to get busy. Kade finished his makeshift lunch of carrots and canned corn before heading topside with Quinn. Quinn was measuring the length of the motor shaft and comparing it to the depth of the swim platform. He said, “It’s not going to reach. We need another way of mounting it.”
From below came Mikey’s voice saying, “How about hanging it on the boarding ladder?”
Quinn squinched up his face as he tried to envision what Mikey was talking about. They released the ladder and dropped the stainless-steel ladder over the back of the swim platform. Quinn used the boat hook to measure the distance down to the normal water line and said, “Might work. Motor will be mounted 90 degrees off but since it rotates it should be ok if we do not push it too hard. Might need to tape it up to keep it in place and use a board to help support it.”
Kade looked at the water level and then at his watch and said, “We have two hours until high tide. See if you can get the motor started and I’ll make sure the anchor is set.”
Quinn looked the motor over. It had gas in the small tank but since it was a two-cycle motor there was really not anything else to do. With the motor hanging on the rail he pulled out the choke and gave the starting cord a pull. It coughed once but that was it. After a half dozen, false starts the motor actually started with a cloud of blue smoke. He shut the motor down and started releasing the clamps holding it to the rail. He told Kade, “If you can get this rail mount off we could attach it to the ladder and the motor would be more stable.”
Kade tied off the line he was working with and took a look at the Allen head screws that were clamping the mount to the rail. He took out his multitool but nothing wanted to engage the screws. He went below and started looking through the tools stored beneath the benches. The Allen head wrenches were pretty rusty and he needed to file them clean before they would fit into the recessed head of the Allen head screws. Once the clamps were free it was a matter of spacing them to fit on the ladder. They lifted the ladder back up and then needed to argue about which side was the right side for the mount. Only after they had again lowered the ladder did Kade concede and admit that Quinn was right.
After they had the motor secure Kade asked, “Are we going to have to sit here to drive this thing?”
“Until we get the boat pointed in the right direction. I think t
he helm should work then. Did the anchor set?”
“It dragged about 10 feet but now seems stuck.” The water had risen enough that the aft portion of the boat was now floating and banging against the rocks with the swells. Kade checked his watch again and said, “Still a half hour to high tide. Think we should wait or try now?”
“Let’s give it a try.”
Kade yelled down for Johnathan and Mikey to come topside. Johnathan said, “I need to complete this wire connection and I’ll be right up.”
Kade waited impatiently for Johnathan and when they were all topside said, “Quinn is going to tie off and run the outboard motor from the swim platform. Johnathan, you and I are going to man the winch together. Mikey, you are the spotter. We need to know if we are budging the boat.”
They worked as a team but no matter how hard Kade and Johnathan cranked on the big winch the boat did not budge. Johnathan took a minute to look at the angle of the anchor rode and said, “Maybe we should try the port side winch. The angle would be straighter.”
As they were moving the line to the port side, Quinn decided to start the motor. It was only a 5 hp motor but it would add a little to the pull. Johnathan and Kade put as much tension on the line as they could and Quinn had the motor at full throttle. At first nothing happened but with the next large swell the boat shifted and Mikey called out, “We’re moving!” Ever so slowly the steel hull scraped over the rocks with every swell. The last few feet were a sudden drop as the bow fell from the rocks on the shore and into the water. They were floating free.
Quinn cut the motor to protect the prop from the anchor rode and joined the others in a celebration. High fives were interrupted when Johnathan said, “I think we had better check for leaks.”
They all went below and as the others checked for leaks, Mikey checked on the Captain. He was laying at an angle on the berth with his eyes open. Mikey yelled out, “He’s awake!”
It seemed to take the Captain a long time to speak and Mikey had to bend down to listen. His first words were, “Is my boat okay?” This was followed by, “How is the crew?”
Mikey was trying to explain what happened but the look of confusion on the Captain was obvious. Kade interrupted to say, “Sir, the Sea Shanty is afloat but damaged. The crew is intact.”
The Captain seemed to nod off to sleep and then woke saying, “I think you had better get me to the hospital.” Then he was asleep. Mikey did his best to cover the Captain and support the broken hip before joining the others.
Johnathan was wanting to spend more time checking the boat but Quinn was insistent that they leave ASAP to get the outgoing tidal push. He explained, “There isn’t going to be much wind and we need all the help we can get to make it around Aialik Cape. If we are lucky we will pick up some wind for the run up Resurrection Bay.”
Mikey chimed in, “We need to get the Captain to the hospital!”
Kade did not put the decision to a vote he just announced, “Quinn, prepare the outboard motor. Johnathan, you and I will pull the anchor. Mikey, you have the helm. I will relay Quinn’s instructions.” Not waiting for any more discussion, he said, “Let’s get the Captain to the hospital.”
The tide was slack and it did not take much effort to raise the anchor. With the anchor, secure, Quinn started the little outboard and the boat ever so slowly started to move out of Phil’s Cove. There were chunks of ice everywhere and Johnathan said, “Plenty of blue ice for the Captain. I just wish he could be enjoying them.”
When the boat had built up a little forward momentum Quinn asked that the helm be turned a bit to port. Kade relayed the instruction from Quinn who was bent over steering the outboard. Mikey did as asked, but Quinn said it was a bit too much. When Quinn was happy that he had the motor properly aligned in order to maximize the thrust of the little engine, he called up for some duct tape. A bunch of tape seemed to hold the engine in proper alignment and he stood up and stretched his cramped muscles. Johnathan was not happy with the compass that was now sitting somewhat askew on the panel. He brought up his smartphone and activated the compass function. It seemed that the ship’s compass was now reading about 15 degrees off.
Johnathan said, “I have my phone set to magnetic north and I think it is right. If we add 15 degrees to the compass reading it will be close but we will have to check it again when we round the cape.”
As they cleared the opening to Three Hole Bay the fog grew thicker and they lost sight of land quickly. Mikey asked Quinn to take the helm and went to check on the Captain. There was a slight breeze coming off the glacier and Quinn said, “Get the headsail up and let it out to port. We will be running downwind but a little extra push would help.” When the headsail was, up and let out fully he had the staysail put out to the starboard. When Johnathan asked about the main, Quinn said, “Let’s see how the rigging handles what we have out first.”
Johnathan checked their speed on his phone and said, “We are making 3.2 knots over the ground.”
Kade asked, “Will that get us around the cape before tide change?”
Johnathan responded, “It should.”
Quinn said, “I think we should save our outboard motor fuel. Shut off the engine and let’s see how we are doing.”
Kade climbed down and shut off the small motor. Johnathan said, “Speed has dropped to 2.1 knots.”
Kade asked, “Can we still make the cape by tide change?”
Johnathan was punching numbers into his phone calculator and said, “We need to make at least 2.5 knots if we are going to make the cape by slack tide.”
Quinn said, “Let’s raise the main and see if that helps. Someone is going to have to watch from the stern so we can reef the sail at the second set of stays. I do not trust the mast above them.”
With Kade watching, Mikey and Johnathan raised the main sail and set it full out to starboard. The mast seemed stable enough and the reefing ties were secured. Quinn had been distracted and his course was off, but after he corrected it they were making 2.8 knots over the ground. Johnathan pointed out that they would lose the tidal push as slack tide approached. Quinn replied, “Then, we will start up the outboard.”
Johnathan said, “We could save about a mile of travel if we cut in through the Chat Island Narrows.”
Kade asked, “Would we lose our wind and are you sure we can control the boat in the narrow passage?” Without waiting for an answer, he said, “Let’s stay outside of the island.”
Time went by and the only real indication they were moving was the sound of the small bergy bits of ice scraping the side of the boat. They had a lookout posted for any large ice chunks but with the thick fog it was mostly hoping they did not hit anything. Johnathan had finished his wiring project and turned on the power to the radio and the GPS. The GPS came up but the radio refused to cooperate. He tried the backup radio and all they heard was a bunch of static. Kade said, “Johnathan, maybe you should spend some time and see if you can make some sort of antenna for the radio.”
Quinn asked Kade to take the helm so he could get something to eat. Quinn opened up a can labeled with a “C” and discovered some chicken soup. He looked for more of the soup but the next can he opened was carrots. The third can was some more soup so he dumped all 3 into a pot and heated them up. He dished the soup up into 4 bowls and brought them topside to share. It wasn’t a lot of food but better than nothing. Kade tried to man the helm and eat but was having trouble maintaining course. The sails started to flap in the gentle breeze. Quinn finished his soup and took over the helm saying, “Let me drive or we’ll never get there. He added, “I checked the barometer. It’s falling.”
As slack tide approached, their following breeze died away. The sails were stowed and Quinn fueled up the little outboard. It didn’t want to start and just belched out blue smoke. After about the 10,000th pull on the starting rope the engine caught and ran fairly smoothly. Quinn was complaining about old gas when Kade asked
him, “How much more fuel do we have?”
Quinn replied, “The gas can is empty. The only other fuel is labeled for use in stoves. Something called naphtha.”
Johnathan said, “Naphtha is a highly-refined petroleum product. It might work as a fuel but we would need to add some oil to it.”
Kade said, “I’ll look for the oil. Hopefully, we will not need it.”
They were again making headway and as they rounded Chat Island Kade let out one of his trolling rigs. Quinn objected saying, “Kade, we don’t have time to fish. We’re on a mission.”
Kade responded, “You are the one who is always hungry. If I can catch us a salmon trolling around the cape we can have fresh fish without slowing us down.”
“Last time you tried that something big broke your line. We are not stopping for your fish.”
“Fine. If I hook something big I will cut the line.”
They did not have to stop the boat because the motor quit. Quinn tied off and climbed down onto the swim platform. The built-in gas tank was empty. He called up, “We had better try that naphtha stuff. Kade, did you find any oil?”
Kade went digging in the storage locker and came up with a quart of two cycle engine oil. The directions were mostly rubbed off but he could make out something that looked like “mix 50 to 1”. He asked Johnathan how much to add but Johnathan needed to know how much fuel was in the can. Kade said, “Seems almost full.”
Johnathan said, “A gallon is a bit over 4 liters so let’s call it 4,000 cc’s. A fifty to one mixture would then be 80 cc’s or about 3 ounces.” Kade could not figure out how to measure 3 ounces so he just poured a couple of glugs into the naphtha can and shook it up. He handed the can to Quinn who did his best to not spill any of the fluid. When he put the cap back on and pulled the starter rope the engine started right up. It smelled kinda funny but it was running. They were on their way again.
About the time their GPS said they were rounding the cape, Kade began yelling, “Fish on!” He pretty much dragged the fish aboard with the heavy hand line and Mikey netted it for him. It was a nice 8-pound silver salmon.
While Kade cleaned his fish, Quinn had Mikey and Johnathan raise the sails again. With the incoming tide came a new breeze. This was a quartering breeze from the south east so they needed to track into the breeze to maintain course. As the breeze freshened and the tide starting flowing in harder their speed increased to 3 knots. Quinn had Mikey take the helm while he stored the motor. It seemed to be getting dark early but with the thick fog it was hard to tell. Johnathan volunteered to cook up the salmon, mostly because nobody really wanted to take the helm. Quinn had the best feel for the boat and they trusted him. Kade went below and looked through the Captain’s cabin for more of the wild rice stuff. He found a half case stored below the Captain’s bunk. So, while the fish and rice were cooking they sailed on at their 3 knots. Every now and then one of the boys would turn on their phone hoping for a signal. Nothing.
They ate in shifts as the fish came out of the frying pan. Mikey was the one that heard the sound of a motor. Kade grabbed the flare gun and ran topside. He fired one of the flares and watched as a small circle of light lit up the fog. They could still hear the boat but it seemed to be getting further away. Johnathan used the mobile radio to call out, “Mayday, Mayday.” He just got static as a response. Kade fired one more of their flares and then gave up saying, “We had better save some of these.”
Kade said he would take the first watch and the rest went below to try and get some sleep. Mikey checked on the Captain who seemed to sense his presence and opened his eyes. It took a minute for him to focus and then he said, “Mikey, right?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Where are we?”
“We’re coming up on Cheval Island.”
“Is it dark out?”
“Almost, Sir.”
“Sailing all night?”
“That is the plan, Sir. We were hoping to raise another boat when we rounded the cape but our flares were not seen.”
The Captain asked, “Can you find me a bucket? I think my bladder is about to burst.”
Johnathan, who overheard the Captain was on it and brought the only bucket they had. The Captain did his best to turn on his side and emptied his bladder. Then he lay back both relieved and also hurting from the movement. He said, “I could really use a drink about now.”
Mikey said, “How about some water and some salmon first?”
“I suppose that is a better idea.”
Quinn brought the food and some water. The Captain ate slowly but he ate. He was not doing as well with the water and Johnathan brought up a bottle of his whiskey and poured just enough in the glass to give the water some color. Now the Captain was able to finish his water and was soon back asleep.
Kade finished his watch and wrote in the Captain’s log before falling asleep with Johnathan at the helm.
Captain’s Log
Day 11
This is Kade, acting Captain of the Sea Shanty. We were able to re-float the Sea Shanty and despite the tremendous damage to the boat have made our way around Aialik Cape. The Captain has regained consciousness but remains very sleepy. We are sailing under reefed sails hoping to get into protected waters before the approaching storm hits. We have been unable to make contact with our small radio or flares.
Alaskan Sailing Adventure Page 11
