SS Pacifica

by Coleinger, Ronnie

  Chapter 20 - We Build Anew

  Charlie and his mother, Susanne, returned on Friday night and planned to stay with us for the holiday weekend. While the girls made up beds and unpacked the suitcases, I took Charlie with me to the ocean for a swim. We took our bathing suits to the boathouse to change, and left our cloths in a pile on the floor. Charlie raced me to the beach and then we stood at the water’s edge, looking out to sea. The waves washed up over our legs and began burying our feet in sand. As we stood there talking, Charlie asked, “Stanley, would it be okay if I stayed here for a couple weeks this summer. I promise not to ask too many questions?” I kneeled down to him and said, “I would like to have you stay here with me and you can ask all the questions you want.” I heard a giggle and realized the girls had put on their bathing suits and joined us. Susanne said, “Stanley, are you certain you want to deal with a child while you two are building this new sailing rig that Becky is talking about?” I looked her in the eyes and said, “I hope Charlie can stay with us for the summer. Maybe you could let us adopt him for a few months until school starts. You could come and visit our son once in awhile, if you got lonesome.” I saw a smile form on Susanne’s face, but she said, “We will do this in stages if you don’t mind, Stanley. Charlie can visit often during the summer, but I also have plans for him.”

  Susanne looked at Becky and asked, “Is this alright with you, Becky?” I saw a smile appear on Becky’s face and she said, “You brought plenty of cloths for Charlie, we could begin this summer vacation now. You could pick him up, or we could bring him home whenever you wish. I hope he can spend a lot of time with me, us, this summer.” Charlie ran to his mother and hugged her, then ran back to me and said, “Can we swim now?” I took hold of his hand and asked, “Don’t you wear a life jacket when you swim in the ocean? The rip tides can wash young swimmers out to sea, don’t you know?” He giggled and ran for the boathouse.

  When Charlie returned with his life jacket, I helped him adjust the straps and then we began walking out along the sandbar that meandered out for three hundred or so yards from the shore. As we walked, I saw a hundred or so jellyfish just ahead of us. I quickly picked Charlie up in my arms and carried him to shore. When I put him down on the sand, he asked why I had brought him back to the beach. Just then, I saw a single jellie wash up onto the sand. I showed him the creature and explained that they can cause very painful stings. Just then, Becky and Susanne walked up and asked why we did not go swimming. Then they saw the jellie. Susanne said, “Oh my God, I am so glad you saw the jellies before they stung either of you.” Becky commented that the jellies sometimes bloom near the warm water around the sandbar, but she had never seen them appear in such a clear color like these.

  I took Charlie’s hand and said, “I still need a swim, how about we jump into the pool.” I saw a smile cross his face and he said, “Good, the sharks cannot eat us in the pool.” I looked up at Becky and frowned, suspecting she had instilled her fear of sharks in Charlie’s mind. Becky looked me in the eyes and said, “Stanley, I did not say anything to ruin Charlie’s love for the ocean, I promise.” I walked up to her and took her hand in mine as we all walked towards the house.

  As we enjoyed the pool and then cooked chicken on the grill for supper, I went to my briefcase and found a notepad and mechanical pencil. I carried them to the poolroom and placed them on the table. Once I had written down a couple of notes, I returned to help with setting the table for supper. I showed Charlie how he should properly place a folded napkin to the left of the fork and he showed me another way. I listened to his words about how the creased edge needed to be towards the plate. I considered his words, but I was certain he was wrong. I did not want to criticize him, because his mother had probably taught him the way her mother had taught her.

  While everyone was busy, I went into the den and turned on my laptop. I checked on the Internet and found out that the proper way was to place the fork to the left of the plate, and then place the napkin with the creased edge away from the fork. I decided to print the document and place it on the table, but not discuss it with Charlie. I realized that many cultures and parts of the country did things differently, so I would stay out of Susanne’s business. I would set the table my way when it was my turn and Charlie could set it his way when the chore was his to do.

  As we sat eating our supper, Susanne picked up the paper I had printed and began reading it. She looked up at me, smiled, and said, “I believe I have taught my son incorrectly. Stanley, you do not have to pussy foot around with me. You and I are friends, and you may show Charlie what the professionals tell us about proper table setting etiquette without making me angry.” I looked her in the eyes and said, “It is not my place to upset the delicate teachings you have provided for your son. My job this summer is to teach Charlie where babies come from, how to fish, how to rig a sail, not to pee into the wind, and where to hide his playboy magazine’s so his mother doesn’t find them.”

  I saw a concerned look begin to form on Susanne’s face and then she began to giggle. She stood up, walked around the table, hugged me, and then returned to her chair. She continued to look at me and finally said, “I have forgotten how badly Charlie needs a good male mentor, someone who will actually teach him the skills he needs to survive in this male dominated world, and provide him with some good discipline. Charlie’s Father is a good man, but lacks the ability to pass along what he has learned the hard way about surviving in this world. His idea of discipline is to sit Charlie in a corner and then go play a round of golf while I try to cope with Charlie’s anger and hurt feelings.” Just then, Charlie came back into the poolroom and sat back down. He looked at me and said, “Were you guys talking about me?” I smiled and said, “Yes, but it was all good stuff.” He quickly returned his attention to his solitaire game.

  We all watched a movie, and then Susanne took herself and Charlie to bed. As Becky and I sat talking, I retrieved the notepad and pencil from the poolroom table and wrote a couple more notes about the design of the new vessel. As I laid the notepad on the coffee table, Becky said, “I have been using the voice message app on my cell phone to record notes for the last two weeks. Stanley, it seems we cannot keep our minds off this upcoming build. I’ve drawn a rough sketch of how I think the hull should be designed on the new vessel, would you like to look at my drawings?” I stood up, took her hand and said, “Please, I had no idea you were creating drawings already.”

  What I discovered Becky had been working on, were hand drawn pictures and notes for the changes she intended to implement into the design of her second submersible sailing vessel. The vessel would be longer than the Pacifica by nine feet, and wider by four feet providing the Pacifica-Two with a total length of thirty-six feet and a width of fourteen feet. The new hull design looked more like a flat-bottomed oval. Becky had also included four aluminum rails that the hull would rest on when we sat it down on the sandy ocean floor. The carefully shaped rails would run from the stern to the bow, preventing them from slowing the forward motion of the Pacifica-Two. The added rails would lessen our concern of damaging the hull if we happened to set her down on a rock or hard coral, and help reduce sideways slip in rough seas. Becky explained to me that she had designed the rails in such a manner that we could actually set the Pacifica-Two on the concrete floor or on a flatbed truck if we ever needed to. As I looked at the design, I realized this new wider shape and the added rails would help the stability of the vessel as it sailed across the surface of the water.

  Becky had also redrawn the deck area so it was flatter than the Pacifica. That change would greatly improve the work platform. She had added more batteries in the hull to provide for longer submersion time and had added an oxygen scrubber to provide us with fresh air while submerged. She had added virtually every change that we had written down in our logbook into the new vessel’s design. She had both hatch towers raised forty inches above the deck and had added three viewing windows in both hatch towers. She had also added a third s
maller hatch in the bow, specifically designed for rainwater collection. She had rigged up the generators so that all we had to do was surface and then we could start the generators and recharge the batteries; no more hoisting the heavy generators to the deck to charge our batteries. There was one more change that she was considering, but she had waited until now to discuss that option with me. She wanted to have the vessel built in Oahu by the ship builders that had made the upgrades to the Pacifica for us, instead of building the vessel here in our boathouse.

  As we talked, I stood behind her as she sat at her desk and began messaging her neck and shoulders. I leaned down and kissed her ear and neck. She giggled and said, “You have something to say Stanley, please stop nibbling on me and tell me what you are thinking.” I laughed at her words and then asked, “After the vessel is built, have you decided upon an itinerary for another voyage?” She said, “I think we already agreed to sail her up to New York.” I patted her on the shoulders and said, “We could have her built and outfitted in Oahu, just enough to sail her back here and then add the creature features we want here in our boathouse, before we head out on our next adventure.” Becky stood up and hugged me. She said, “Then do we have a plan?” I asked her how long it would take to get the drawings ready to send to the ship building company and she said, “About a week, maybe less if we work together so we don’t miss anything important. I have already put many of the changes into my laptop drawing program; so much of the work is already done.”

  I said, “Just a thought. We could have the company install the propeller shafts for us, and then we could add the motors, propellers, batteries and other accessories here in our boathouse. If the old timers could sail a vessel without propulsion motors, I believe you and I can do the same, especially with the wind to our backs. All we really need is your grandfather’s compass to navigate.” I watched my wife’s eyes become damp and then she snuggled up in my arms. I could feel her warm tears on my face and neck as she cried in my arms. When she moved back, she looked at me and said, “I seem to fall deeper in love with you every day we spend together. We always seem to think the same way and we often feed off each other’s dreams. I love you, Stanley. I love you with all my heart.”

  That meeting in Becky’s office was the beginning of a new adventure that would embed life at sea into my mind so firmly I would never want to live on dry land again.

  When Charlie and his mother entered the kitchen the following morning, I greeted them with coffee and hot chocolate. I watched both my guests smile as they sat down at the breakfast table. I draped a towel over my arm and began taking breakfast orders. As I cooked their eggs and pancakes, I saw Becky peek around the corner to see what all the fuss was. The three of us had been laughing and we must have been a little too loud. Becky sat down at the table, yawned and said, “Husband, the food you are cooking sure smells good.” I walked over to her with a cup of coffee and my pad of paper and asked, “May I offer you a hot cinnamon roll or some eggs for your breakfast this morning?” Charlie began to giggle and I winked at him. As he settled himself, Becky ordered scrambled eggs and wheat toast.

  While we ate together, Susanne asked what we had planned for the day. I turned the question around and asked if she had things she would like to do and if she would like some time to herself today. She looked into my eyes and asked, “Stanley, are you trying to get rid of me for the day?” I laughed and said, “Actually, I was planning on taking Charlie to the mall with me this morning to purchase some cloths. Would you like to join us, we probably will be gone most of the day, but I would buy you lunch is you wanted to join us.” Susanne smiled and said, “How about if you two go alone and I will take care of some other things today.” I smiled and said, “I sense romance in the air.” I saw Susanne’s mouth drop open and then she smiled. She said, “Fred asked me to join him at the beach today, but I have not given him an answer. Maybe I will join him if you and Charlie can manage without me.” I looked at Charlie and he was giggling again. I asked him what was making him giggle. He looked up at his mother and said, “Every time Mother and Fred get near each other, I catch them kissing.” I patted his arm and said, “Do you like Fred?” Charlie smiled and said, “Yes, he tells me stories and takes me with him everywhere he goes. I think he likes me too.” Susanne said, “I know he likes you, because he has told me how much he likes being with you. I am sorry if we kiss too much, I will try not to embarrass you from now on.”

  I looked at Charlie and he was blushing. I squeezed his shoulder and said, “Remember our talks about boys and girls, sometimes people fall in love and then they want to be together all the time. Maybe Fred and your mother are falling in love.” I saw Charlie look up at his mother and give her a big smile. Susanne looked down at her plate and then a tiny tear ran down her cheek. Charlie looked at her to find the reason she was sad, but saw her smile. I saw the confusion form in his mind, and said, “Charlie, have you discovered yet that women can laugh and cry at the same time?” He looked at me for a moment and then realized that what he was seeing must be normal.

  After breakfast, Becky returned to her office to work on the drawings and material list for the SS Pacifica-Two. She needed an accurate material list for the ship builders and one for us when we returned the vessel to our boathouse to install the upgrades. We wanted the materials ordered and delivered before we flew to Oahu to oversee the build of our new submersible sailing vessel. I realized that the best thing for me to do right now, was to leave my wife alone and let her do her work. She had already built one vessel. All she needed to do to build this second one was to update the drawings and material lists.

  By Saturday afternoon, Becky and I began emailing the drawings and design specifications to Hawaii so the builder could begin assembly. They had promised a quick turn around since their business had slowed in recent weeks.

  We had changed the hull design slightly so we could use plastic tanks between the inner and outer hull walls. The owner said that they had most of the aluminum for the hull already in stock, and the high-pressure nylon ballast tanks were available within a week. Becky had spent a lot of money on the resins to coat the inside of the hull to produce the ballast tanks on the Pacifica, but on this vessel, we had decided to use the flat nylon tanks. The tanks would be accessible from the cabin interior by simply removing stainless steel screws and sections of the walls and floor. This method should prove much more practical than the original design used on the Pacifica. Becky and I had discovered the tanks while visiting a marina one afternoon in southern San Francisco.

  Chapter 21 – Oahu – We Return Again

  After we hugged Susanne and Charlie at the airport, we walked through security and headed towards our boarding gate. The gate attendants called for the first class passengers to begin boarding, and I heard Becky take a deep breath. She turned towards me and I saw a smile on her face that I had not seen in weeks. We were on our way to Oahu to help with the final stage of the building of the SS Pacifica-Two.

  The new vessels hull was complete and painted, and the sails and rigging were in final assembly. The builder had installed one of the generators and an air compressor so we could add ballast water to keep the vessel stable in the water during our return home. Becky and I had increased the width and depth of the dive/steering planes, but had left the length the same.

  This new vessel should be much more stable when running in foul weather. Since our submersible had no keel, as you would find on a normal sailing vessel to keep it stable Becky designed hydroplanes on the hull of the vessel to give the vessel stability so it would not tip over in high winds and waves. Becky located the sailing planes on the bow of the hull, about two feet up from the bottom of the hull. She designed the diving/steering planes so they mounted near the stern, again about three feet up from the bottom of the hull. We needed the bottom of our submersible to be flat so we could sit the vessel down on the ocean floor. A keel sticking down would prevent that maneuver. The new rails she had added to the bottom of the hul
l would protect the flat bottom of the hull when we set the vessel down on the sandy bottom of the ocean. On the Pacifica-Two, Becky added a non-adjustable vertical rudder to the ends of each sailing plane. This six-inch high rudder would drastically reduce the sideways slip of the vessel in rough seas and give us the added benefit of providing a shorter turning radius when running submerged.

  Becky and I had worked hard while we sailed on our first voyage in the Pacifica to see if we could come up with equipment and engineering designs that would allow us to remain submerged for two or three days at a time. We had accomplished some of those design objectives and Becky had included those and any remaining design changes we wanted, into the design of the new vessel. We wanted this new sailing submersible to be able to run just below the surface for six days at a time with nothing more than the hatch canopies above the surface when we needed to charge batteries, or ventilate the cabin interior. The Pacifica-Two had both hatches raised forty inches above the deck and each hatch had three viewing windows. We could easily navigate in stormy or cold weather from inside the stern hatch. We had fold down seats in each hatch so we could sit and look out the viewing windows whenever we needed to navigate the vessel from the comfort of the cabin. I also would wire electrical receptacles at each hatch so we could operate the rudders, diving planes and propulsion motors from either location, or from up on the deck. The remote boxes would have twenty foot cords on them so we could operate the vessel from anywhere on the deck or the new swim platform that Becky had added over the propellers.