Turning his attention to Nilsson, Clark asked, “You buy into any of these recommendations, Chief Mate?”
Nilsson knew the question was coming and he had carefully considered his answer. He knew that this was a critical juncture in dealing with the captain on this issue. The wrong word now would cause the captain to dig in even deeper just to show who was in charge. On the other hand, he believed that they were more than likely sailing into the teeth of a major hurricane. He picked his words very carefully. “Captain, I agree that at this moment we do not have sufficient information to warrant a course change. This weather pattern is very dynamic, so I do support Second Mate Cox’s proactive efforts to prepare us to make adjustments if warranted as more precise information becomes available. I recommend that we revisit consideration of course changes every hour until we have a clear picture on what the storm is doing.”
Clark glared first at Nilsson and then at Cox. As he rose from his seat, he said, “Very well. We’ll discuss this again in an hour. Until then, stay on our present course.” With that he turned and exited the bridge. He was carrying the copies of the recommendations that Second Mate Cox had given him when she started her explanation. Nilsson interpreted that as a good sign.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
As Moe and I attempted to dry off with the towels he brought from the kitchen, I introduced him to the Prices. I noticed Julia subtly inch closer to her husband as she looked warily at the huge black man in front of them. Moe agreed that the best strategy for them would be to get across the Intracoastal and then plot a route inland and north. I told them that they might want to follow me inland to U.S. 27 and north from there, avoiding the traffic on I-95 along the coast. The last couple of hours had convinced me that I was making the right decision to take P.J. up on her offer to come to Gainesville.
I went upstairs to throw a few things into an overnight bag and take one quick look around to see that I had done everything I could to prepare my apartment. I found myself turning around in circles looking but not seeing. Finally, accepting that I just couldn’t focus, I decided to leave. I took one last look back and wondered what the place would look like the next time I saw it. I’d seen plenty of news footage of the aftermath of catastrophic storms, and it was never pretty.
Moe and I explained to the Prices that once we were outside, they would need to wait in their car until we’d shuttered the back door. Then we would all leave at the same time. Moe told me that his plan was to weather the storm at his house. He offered for me to stay with him. I told him about my offer from P.J. He smirked and said he thought I was making a good choice.
The Prices donned the cheap ponchos they had no doubt purchased in the hotel gift shop and headed out to their rental car. Moe and I turned the last of the lights off and while I locked the door, he dashed for the shed. We had both opted to forego the rain gear as it seemed to have no effect on our level of dryness. When I got to the shed, I realized that without the rain slicker I didn’t have any pocket large enough to carry the screw gun, so I stuck it in the waistband of my pants as if it was a Saturday night special. Moe and I were now experienced at maneuvering the shutters through the howling wind, so we successfully navigated our way to the back door. It was as we were climbing the four steps to the rear landing that disaster struck. I slipped on the rain-slick steps and lost my balance and consequently my grip on the plywood. The gusting wind was too much for even Moe, and the plywood lifted into the air like a feather. It sailed across the back of the building glancing off the roof of the shed and was last seen headed north toward Fort Lauderdale. Moe and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and headed toward our cars.
As I was reaching my car, I saw a figure jogging from the direction of the marina, through the driving rain, toward me. As he got closer I realized it was Justin. He called to me through the howling wind, “Are you guys leaving? Can I catch a ride with you?”
It took me a minute to process his presence and what he was saying. After all, until twenty-four hours ago, I thought he was dead. Then, the last time I saw him, he was going to take his boat somewhere in Fort Lauderdale. He shouldn’t be here, but then again it’s Justin, so you never know. I replied, “Yeah we’re leaving. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a hurricane coming.” I gestured toward my car and added, “Jump in.”
Once we were both in the car, I said, “I thought you were staying in Fort Lauderdale?”
Justin replied, “I took the boat to a slip in Fort Lauderdale. I came back last night to help secure the boats that remain at the marina. Johnny was going to come back and pick me up, he called and said that the streets are flooding and the cops aren’t letting anyone cross the Intracoastal coming this way. You can leave, but you can’t come back.”
“Where are you going to weather the storm?”
He looked at me with a lopsided grin and said in a tone uncharacteristically meek for Justin, “I hadn’t planned that far ahead yet.”
I couldn’t help but blurt out, “You’re shitting me. Our resident warrior hasn’t planned ten steps ahead?”
“I don’t know about the warrior part, but yeah, I haven’t planned ahead. To be honest, I expected the storm to turn and miss us, or just bring some wind and rain. I really didn’t expect it to hit us directly.”
I said, “But you moved your boat anyway.” I found myself questioning everything Justin told me, but I guess I’ve earned that right.
He cocked his head as if attempting to observe me from a different angle and replied, “Yeah, Johnny was convinced for the last few days that we were going to get a direct hit, so I moved the boat more to appease him than anything else. Turns out it looks like he was right.”
Just then a gust of wind rocked the car. I said, “We should get out of here. We can make our plans when we get to higher ground.”
Justin nodded and replied, “Don’t know how high the ground gets in South Florida, but at least we can get away from the storm surge.”
I backed out of my parking spot and we formed up a three-car caravan. I was leading, the Prices were in the middle, and Moe was bringing up the rear. For the first time I noticed what Owen Price was driving. It was a Mini Cooper. Cute car for a honeymoon in South Florida, but not my vehicle of choice when evacuating an approaching hurricane. Too light weight and too little ground clearance for the flooded streets we were going to need to navigate. I noticed Justin turned in his seat, looking out the rear window, and couldn’t help but believe that he was thinking the same thing. He asked, “Who’s in the little car? I recognized Moe getting into his car, but didn’t know anyone was even in that car. Thought someone left it in the lot because they were afraid it couldn’t make it through the flooded streets.”
“It’s a young couple, honeymooners, that couldn’t get a flight out. They’re going to follow us away from the coast.”
Justin replied, “Okay,” but from the inflection in his voice it was obvious he had serious reservations about the Mini being able to go very far under these conditions. He wasn’t the only one.
Recalling Marge’s statement about being unable to reach a bridge across the Intracoastal when she went north from Cap’s Place, I turned south. Immediately, I felt the flowing water buffeting the car and impacting the handling, and I was driving a much larger and heavier vehicle than Owen Price was. I looked in the mirror to see if he was able to navigate the turn into the flowing water. The Mini seemed to jump sideways as it entered the current on the street, but it gained traction and turned to follow in my wake. My attention was jarred back forward as a large palm frond crashed into the windshield and over the top of the car. It startled me and I nearly lost control.
Justin said, “Whoa there. You watch the front and I’ll keep an eye on the young couple behind us.” He turned in his seat to focus out the back window.
The street was as dark as night with the street lights providing only a dim illumination through the heavy rain. The palm fronds were joined by additional unidentifiable pieces of
flying debris. There were no other vehicles on the street and I stayed in the very center. At least as close to the center as I could calculate given that at times the flowing water obscured the curb line on both sides of the street. We passed through a dip in the roadway with water rooster-tailing along both sides of the car. I started to think about the route ahead and attempted to recall any significant low areas. Funny how you can drive a route daily and not really pay attention to details. I tried to recall any locations between us and the next bridge where I had encountered significant pooling of water during summer downpours. My analysis was interrupted with Justin saying, “Damn it. There they go.”
I looked in the mirror but didn’t see the Mini Cooper. I hit the breaks and turned in my seat to look. I couldn’t see the car anywhere. Looking farther back I could see Moe’s car stopped in the center of the street, but I couldn’t see the Prices anywhere. I asked, “Where the hell are they? What happened to them?”
Justin pointed out the rear side window on his side of the car. “They’re over there. They washed completely off the street. They’re over there.”
Following his point I spotted the Mini Cooper in the center of an open area between the street and the Intracoastal Waterway. It was sitting at an odd angle to the street and seemed to be cocked awkwardly as if one back corner was in a hole. I looked around and recognized the area as a seldom used parking lot located between two ten-story condo buildings. I believe that at one time a third building stood on the site, but it had been razed and nothing built since. The lot was occasionally used for overflow parking from the condos but otherwise empty. I exclaimed, “How did they get out there?”
“Looked like the current caught them in that last low spot and just washed them up there. We’ve got to get them out of there before they wash into the Intracoastal.” Justin was already unfastening his seat belt as he continued, “Back up, but not into the deep area, and we’ll wade out to them.”
I backed down the center of the street as far as I felt I could without water entering the car doors. Justin and I got out into the raging street. Justin called to me, “Come over here, Jack, and lock arms with me. The two of us will be more stable than individually.” Using the car to steady myself, I got over to Justin and we linked arms, my left to his right, so that we could steady ourselves as we slowly trudged toward the Prices. The howl of the wind made it almost impossible to communicate, and we both flinched when a transformer on a pole nearby exploded. We were only a few feet from the car when I noticed Moe approaching from the other direction. He was also wading toward the Mini Cooper. Moe looked much more stable on his feet than I felt.
The three of us converged on the driver’s side of the car. The vehicle was pulsating as if trying to free itself from whatever had interrupted its journey to the Intracoastal. Owen lowered the window. He looked terrified. Even with the wind howling, I could hear Julia screaming in the background. A loud crack like an oversized firecracker, immediately followed by a prolonged crashing sound, drew our attention back toward my car. A huge palm tree was resting in a deep crease across the roof of my car. After a round of curses from the three of us, Moe said, “Looks like everyone rides with me.”
Justin said to Owen, “We’ll get you out one at a time. Your wife first. Open the sunroof and have her climb out that way.”
Owen seemed to take forever fumbling with the controls for the sunroof and I began to wonder if the electrical system was shorted out in the water, but it finally opened. Slowly, Julia Price rose up through the roof of the car. The shift in weight distribution caused the car to tremble violently. Julia cried out in terror, but I couldn’t understand what she was saying over the noise. Moe worked his way past Justin, who was holding on to the driver’s door, and braced himself against the front corner of the car. The bobbing motion seemed to subside a little.
Justin reached up and grabbed Julia under the armpit and pulled her the rest of the way out of the car and across the roof. With a firm grip on her arm, he lowered her into the flowing water. Turning to me, he said, “Jack, can you get her back to Moe’s car?”
“Yeah.” I took a firm hold of Julia’s free arm and put my other arm around her waist to support her and use her to steady me. Justin released his grip and Julia and I began fighting our way in the direction of Moe’s car. We had only taken a few steps when she stepped in a hole and staggered. We both had to fight to keep her head above the water. Using the utility poles as markers, I figured we were about two-thirds of the distance back to the street when we were both struck from behind and knocked face first into the water. I knew all I had to do was stand up as the water was only knee deep, but I felt as if a huge weight was holding me down. When I first put my arm around Julia, I had grabbed ahold of the belt of her shorts. Now, underwater, that was the only hold I had on her.
I finally realized that if I could raise up, even on my knees, my head would be above the water. I thrust up and back with all of my strength and finally broke above the surface, gasping for air and choking out dirty water. I learned that we had been knocked down by a cluster of palm fronds and had become entangled with them. That was what was holding us under water. I pushed at the pile of fronds with my free hand and pulled Julia up with the other. I had a firm grip on her belt, but she was doubled over at the waist and her head was still under water. I got one foot under myself and used all of my strength to drive myself back to a standing position, pulling Julia with me. Her head broke the surface of the water and she repeated the coughing fit I had experienced seconds earlier. Once Julia had regained some semblance of normal breathing, we resumed our trudge toward Moe’s car.
We reached a utility pole near the sidewalk and braced ourselves against it to rest. It was then that I first looked back to see how Justin and Moe were doing. It was difficult to see with any clarity, but I believed I saw Owen emerging from the top of the car. Moe was still bracing himself against the front corner of the car, keeping it from rotating and taking sail from whatever it was lodged against. Suddenly, the vehicle seemed to lurch up, probably from the sudden shift of Owen’s weight, and Moe appeared to lose his footing and stumble. The vehicle spun violently, knocking Moe underwater. It evidently dislodged itself from whatever was holding it and began moving sideways toward the Intracoastal, knocking Justin down and Owen out of sight in the process. The car spun twice more before tumbling over the bank into the Intracoastal. I couldn’t see any sign of Moe, Justin, or Owen.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Exasperation dripped from her voice as Second Mate Cox spoke. “You realize that we are soon approaching the point of no return, don’t you? We need to make a turn soon if we are to get behind Grand Bahama Island without ending up broadside to the front edge of the storm.”
Chief Mate Nilsson replied, “That’s correct if the storm doesn’t turn and head north. If we turn, and it turns in the next couple of hours, we’ll end up in a worse situation than if we continued on our course along the coast. It’s still a damn crap shoot.”
“I disagree, Chief. The prediction models are tightening up. The majority have it making a direct line for South Florida and building to a Cat 4 or Cat 5. If we continue on our present course, we’ll sail directly into it. We must take evasive action now, or at least damn soon.”
“The problem is that all three of your recommendations have us bearing east to, or around, Grand Bahama Island. You saw the captain’s face when he saw the cost figures for even the most conservative route. I thought he was going to blow a gasket and end all discussion right then and there. Frankly, I was surprised that he was willing to meet with us a second time to discuss even considering a course change.”
With a wave of her hand, Cox said, “That was just to appease you, because it was your suggestion that we meet again in an hour. But you saw how that second discussion went. He isn’t giving my recommendations any real consideration. You heard him, he said we need not meet to discuss it again unless his precious Mariners’ Weather Services comes out with a ne
w prediction. He’s still convinced the storm is going to turn north. Well, even if it does, it’s so damn big that we’ll be caught between the Bahamas and the mainland without enough room to go around it. We’ll have to go through it. It’s suicide.”
“Whoa there, Mate, it’s not like the captain has no experience out here.”
Cox interrupted, “I know, I know. I’ve heard all of his sea stories, just like everyone else on board. It’s not that he’s not experienced, it’s not that he’s indecisive. Just the opposite. That’s the problem. He’s made a decision relying on faulty information and his experience tells him he’s right. Experience is what happened yesterday, based on yesterday’s information. Every hour we have additional information available and we must be willing to make new decisions based on this new information.”
Nilsson looked sternly down at his young second mate. With a calm fatherly tone, he said, “What you say may be true, but he is the captain. If we can’t persuade him to change his mind, his decision stands. You do understand that fact, don’t you? He is the captain and we follow his orders.”
“Aye, aye, Chief.”
As Nicole Cox sat down at the plotting table on the bridge to again refine her recommendations in preparation for one last effort to convince the captain to change course before it was too late, she thought of her parents. She wished she had taken the time to visit them before she started this twelve-day rotation. It was only a three-hour drive for her, but she’d decided she was too busy and that she could make the trip the next time she was off. Her dad’s health was starting to decline and she had made a self-promise to visit more often, it’s just that lately she was so busy on her days off and there was always the next leave. Now, for the first time since she had embarked on her career, she wondered if she would see her next leave. A hollow feeling opened in her stomach.
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