As I drove us to the restaurant, we discussed what we each had accomplished and what we planned for tomorrow. Becky said, “I know have all the life jackets, fire extinguishers, flares, a lifeboat in their proper locations and the vessel’s name stenciled on both sides of the bow. All I need for an inspection by the Coast Guard is to dig out the life boat that is stored somewhere along the wall of the boathouse.” I told her that I had tested the deck lights and they were ready. She said, “I will call the Coast Guard Office first thing in the morning and work out a schedule with them. The officer I talked to said that he only needed an hour or so notice.”
Becky asked if we needed to purchase a good GPS for the vessel or if our handheld units were sufficient. I looked at her and said, “The new fish finder we purchased has a GPS unit built into each camera. I have already activated the unit on the port side. We are ready to go. We will keep our handheld units ready in case the new system fails”
I told Becky that I would concentrate on getting the remaining equipment properly stowed in the proper locations and the cabinets labeled, while she did her captain chores. Then we could test all the motors after all of our company departed the boathouse. I then remembered that I had not finished wiring the second generator after we mounted in the rack beside the first one. The intake and exhaust pipes also needed to be connected. Becky said she would pipe the generator after I finished wiring it.
I looked at Becky and said, “Today is Thursday, I think we may need to go on a grocery shopping trip on Saturday and move the Pacifica-Two out of the boathouse on Sunday, if we have good weather.” Becky giggled but did not say anything. I could tell she was excited, but did not want to commit to a date just yet. She had been disappointed before when she thought she had a set departure date. We needed a good shakedown to insure the electrical systems all worked as planned. We already knew we could dive and surface with this vessel, but now we needed to know if we could safely run below the surface and for how long.
I had brought my notebook with me to the restaurant. We made notes of everything that needed to be completed and anything that we thought needed to be double-checked. We wanted nothing left untested or left behind. As I was talking, Becky put her hand on top of mine as we sat at the table waiting for our food. When I looked up at her she said, “We have forgotten one important item, we have no spare propellers. I have plenty of pins, but no propellers.” I wrote a note at the very top of my list and circled it. I realized that the woman had possibly just saved our butts. I also added two more motor couplings to the list. If we damaged a propeller by hitting something, we could damage the rubber insert inside the coupling that joined the motor to the drive shafts. At that point, we began discussing other spare parts we needed, things that were hard to find anywhere but here in the States. I added a spare drive controller for the propulsion motors to the list, just in case lightning damaged one of them.
By the time we got home that evening, we were both exhausted. I headed for my bedroom and was under the covers just past eleven o’clock. I had no more than got comfortable when the door opened and I realized Becky had entered the room. I heard her giggling as she crawled under the covers with me. She snuggled her warm body up close and kissed me goodnight. Within a few minutes, she was sound asleep. I wondered why the girl had joined me in my bed tonight, but her presence was very welcome. It was then that I saw the lightning flash around the edges of my window shade and heard the sound of rumbling thunder.
When I woke in the morning, the warm body that had slept with me last night was gone from my room. I got up, dressed and prepared myself for another busy day. When I opened my bedroom door, I could smell the coffee. When I stepped into the kitchen, Becky was reading the owner’s manual for the fish finder unit. I kissed her on the cheek and said, “I had a visitor last night in my bed. I hope you will not be jealous.” She giggled and said, “Your lover’s bedroom had a huge spider on the ceiling. She could not possibly sleep in there until her prince cleared the room of critters in the morning.” I laughed and said, “I thought maybe the storm made my lover join me in my bed.” She looked at me and said, “That could have been it, but she really did see a spider.”
I took a sip of my coffee and then walked down the hallway to Becky’s bedroom. When I opened the door, I expected to see a rather large spider. What I saw was a spider no larger than the eraser on a pencil. I disposed of the monster and headed back to the kitchen. When I walked in, Becky was cooking eggs and bacon on the stove. She turned to me and said, “I thought I would fix a good breakfast for my prince. You did do battle with the monster in my sleeping chambers to protect me, you must be starved.” I chuckled over her words, but did accept the kiss for my efforts.
As we sat eating, Becky’s cell phone began vibrating around on the table. She picked it up and read the text message. She said, “The officer with the Coast Guard will be here at half past eight this morning to inspect the vessel. We might make that schedule you proposed yesterday after all.”
It was now quarter to eight and Becky was getting nervous. I patted her hand and said, “Pour yourself another cup of coffee and head out to the boathouse. I will clean up the kitchen and meet you out there. If I am needed before then, you can always send me a text message.” I did not have to say another word; Becky headed out the door to tend to business.
When I entered the boathouse, I could see the Coast Guard Officer standing on the deck beside Becky. I found the phone number for the electronics store I had purchased my equipment from and ordered a spare motor drive controller and inverter. When the order was complete, I joined the others on the deck. The officer handed Becky some paperwork and soon departed the boathouse. Becky looked at me and said, “All our hard work paid off. The officer was pleased with everything.” When I went down into the cabin, I found a novel length book with current radio frequencies from around the world lying beside the marine radio. There was a sticky note on it from Becky stating that the owner of the marina had sent it to us free of charge; I was impressed. The price on the back of the book was twenty-seven dollars. The man must have been pleased with our expensive purchases. We had purchased our marine radio in Oahu and we had explained that to him. He seemed unconcerned since we had always purchased our radios from him in the past.
When I stepped out on the deck, Becky had moved the portable ladder around to the bow. She was busy air brushing the numbers through a stencil she had punched out on her fancy machine, directly under the name Pacifica-Two. It only took her five minutes to complete the painting on the first side. I helped her move the ladder around to the other side of the vessel so she could finish the painting. Within a few minutes, the paint job was complete and the new numbers looked great.
When Becky had finished cleaning her airbrush and put it away, she walked over to me and said, “We are almost ready to sail, my love. I am so excited.” I said, “Are we ready to do some testing. I am anxious to test all of the electrical systems.” Becky smiled and said, “Let’s get to it. I sense a grocery shopping trip in our near future.”
Becky and I had worked nonstop for five hours. We had missed lunch, but we had completed our tasks. We had two items still on order and both should arrive yet today. The motor drives I had ordered would arrive sometime before five o’clock. The company had a delivery truck in the area today that would drop off the package. Becky and I needed to make a run to the marina and pick up our scuba rescue tanks and regulators. I figured we could get some lunch then. As Becky stepped up to the van for our drive to the marina, I saw a smudge of dirt on her cheek. I walked over, wiped the tiny spot with my handkerchief and then smiled. She said, “I should have showered before we headed to town.” I kissed her and said, “Other than the spot of dirt on your cheek, you are perfect as usual.”
After we had stopped at the marina and then eaten lunch, we decided to go to the grocery store. We decided to reverse engineer the grocery list, by simply writing down each item we bought. We kept the list organized according to
food groups, like vegetables, fruit, packaged meat, baking items and such. When we reached the fresh produce aisle, we both laughed and decided to simply take what we had to the boathouse and begin organizing it in the vessel. Then we could see how we had done. There was no reason to purchase perishable items until the very last minute, just before we set sail. As we checked out, I noticed that Becky placed a Hershey candy bar on the checkout stand. I picked up two more and placed them with the one Becky placed there. She looked at me and smiled. She knew I understood the reason for the chocolate.
As we drove into the boathouse, Becky said, “I need a few minutes. I will come back and help you with the groceries in a few minute.” I placed the groceries into some empty totes and then loaded everything onto a pallet. Once I had lifted the pallet up onto the deck with the hoist, I began carrying the groceries down into the cabin. I began stocking the cabinets closest to the floor, hoping to keep the weight evenly distributed on both sides of the vessel. I wanted the heaviest items closest to the floor. This helps keep the vessel upright during heavy storms, and upright was the only way Becky and I wanted this vessel to remain. We had stood on the ceiling of the Pacifica in the past and never wanted that to happen again.
I carried the two scuba rescue tanks and regulators down into the cabin. Fred had built a divided shelf for the two units so they would stand upright in the compartment. I drilled holes and installed screw eyes in the front of the wood cabinet, and then attached some bungee straps to keep the tanks inside the storage compartments. I faced the gauges out so we could see them each time we climbed the stairs. These two air supply tanks could be the difference between life and death if we could not get the vessel to the surface. I hoped that we would not be so deep that our lives would be in danger. The bends are a diver’s worst nightmare. The life raft was located directly below the scuba tanks, just in case.
When Becky returned to the boathouse, she had two cups of hot coffee with her. I sat down in a chair beside the workbench and slid the other chair up close to mine. When she sat down, I could tell she did not feel good, but I kept my observations to myself. I asked if she would stand watch while I opened up the boathouse canal door that gave access to the sea. She smiled and said, “I will put on a life jacket and get everything ready. I will not get into the water unless you are in trouble.” I nodded my understanding and said, “There is no rush with this project. We will slow down and take our time. Once the Pacifica-Two is out of the boathouse and properly moored, we will make a decision when we wish to begin the shakedown run.”
Becky said, “While I was in the house, I walked past the picture of my Father. Seeing that picture reminded me that we had forgotten one very important ritual. We must glue a penny to the deck before we move the Pacifica-Two out of the boathouse.” She pulled out a brand new shiny penny and headed to the workbench for some glue and sandpaper. Then she went up on deck and sanded a place just below the mainsail mast so that it was clean. Then she spread a little epoxy glue on the spot and pushed the penny into place. When she stood up, she smiled and said, “Father always said that a penny on the deck would keep us safe. As a child, I always believed his words, until the shark bit off his leg.” I began to laugh and realized I should not be doing so. I turned around to get control of myself. When I turned back around, I said, “I am sorry to laugh. It is not funny that your father lost a leg while doing what so pleased him in this world, but the way you said it just made me laugh.”
I walked over to a cabinet beside the workbench and pulled out two life jackets. I placed both on the concrete floor near where we would be working and then found a large life ring. If something went wrong while I removed the seawall planking, I did not want a rogue wave or rip tide to sweep me out to sea. I put on my life jacket, connected the lanyard to a metal tie down ring in the concrete and entered the water. Becky pushed the button and the huge roll up door began to move upwards. When it stopped, the daylight entering the boathouse was blinding, but our eyes soon adjusted to the sunlight.
I had removed these timbers before and I knew the proper procedure to get them up onto the boathouse floor with little difficulty. Becky had moved the fork truck so the forks were parallel to the canal. As I slid each timber up onto the concrete floor, Becky positioned them so they rested on the forks. Once I had all the timbers up out of the water, I climbed up and finished moving the timbers onto the forks. Becky giggled and said, “I will move the timbers to the side so they are out of the way until we need to close the canal back up. I can at least do that.” I walked up to her and kissed her cheek. She smiled and began moving the fork truck to the back wall of the boathouse. I knew that in a couple of days, Becky would be back to her normal self and work circles around me.
When Becky returned, she climbed up onto the deck and I untied the Pacifica-Two. Becky began pulling the heavy mooring ropes up onto the deck while I climbed up to assist her. I headed down into the cabin and powered up the propulsion motor drives. Then I plugged in the remote control box so we could operate the propulsion motors from the deck. When Becky said she was ready, I started the motors at a very low speed and felt the vessel begin to move. Becky carefully watched while I slowly backed the Pacifica-Two out of the boathouse. As the vessel cleared the boathouse and was out a few feet into the entrance to the canal, Becky yelled that I could speed up a little until we reached the sandbar, another football field length behind us. Once we were over the sandbar, she yelled for me to stop. Then I heard her release the bow anchor. It rattled as the heavy chair ran through the pulleys. Once the anchor was set, Becky lowered the stern anchor. We had designed the Pacifica-Two so that the bow anchor was on the port side and the stern anchor was on the starboard side. This arrangement gave us good control when we anchored the vessel in heavy seas. We had learned this lesson from the Pacifica.
Once we had properly anchored, I added seawater to the ballast tanks until the vessel sat low in the water. This would help keep the Pacifica-Two from bouncing around as the waves moved past her. I moved the dinghy up onto the deck and began inflating it. Within a minute or two, we had transportation back to shore. I brought up two paddles and tied them to the dinghy with the small ropes that the manufacturer had sewn into the nylon. We closed and padlocked the two hatch doors before Becky began climbing down the ladder to the water below. I passed her the tie down rope for the dinghy and then let it slid down the hull until it was in the water. Becky tied the rope to the ladder and climbed in. It only took a couple minutes to paddle to the boathouse canal and carry the dinghy up onto the concrete floor.
When we stopped and looked at each other, Becky was smiling from ear to ear, and was soaking wet. The waves had twice splashed over the tiny dinghy and drenched us. I said, “We can use the larger fishing boat to take the last of our groceries out to the Pacifica-Two. There is no sense getting this wet each time we make the trip.”
Becky looked at me and asked, “Is there really any reason to leave the canal open? We have tested everything on the Pacifica-Two, and we sailed this vessel from Hawaii. If we leave the canal open very long, the fish will get in and then we will have to deal with that issue.” I told her I agreed with her and went to put on my life jacket.
We decided to eat an early supper and rest for a few hours. Becky had picked up a DVD movie that she wanted to see, so we decided that once we finished with supper, we would shower and have a couple beers while we watched the movie.
The movie turned out to be pretty good; it made Becky cry. When we decided to go to bed, Becky said, “You could sleep in my bed tonight. I would like your company.” I took her hand in mine and said, “I will protect you from the monsters that roam you room in the dark.” She giggled and said, “It was just a little spider.” I rolled my eyes and walked with her to her bedroom.
When I woke, it was just getting daylight. Becky was still soundly sleeping, so I quietly crept out of the bedroom. As I sat at the kitchen table eating my oatmeal, I turned on my laptop to see what was going on around the
world. I had not seen the news for days and hoped the aliens had not invaded us. As I watched CNN, I discovered that we had landed another rover vehicle on the planet Mars. Some of the pictures the rover was sending back were incredible.
As I scrolled the pages, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I almost jumped, but managed to contain myself. Becky said, “I think our Pacifica-Two would do nicely as a platform for humans to explore Mars. I may send a copy of the drawings to NASA.” I giggled like a little girl over her words. Obviously, my wife felt better this morning. She leaned down, kissed my neck and then said, “Have I told you lately that I love you?” I turned to her and said, “Not often enough. I think your mind has been busy pleasuring your second lover, the sea.” She whispered in my ear, “I will make it up to you in a few days.” I patted her hand resting on my shoulder and said, “We can make love on the Pacifica-Two while the dolphins sing their love songs.”
The following morning, Becky met me before sunrise in the kitchen. I giggled when she walked in, fully dressed, smiling the most beautiful smile. She walked up to me and asked, “Why are you up so early?” I chuckled and said, “I should ask you the same question. You seem dressed to meet your lover. May I fix you some breakfast?” She said, “This morning, I am going to have a banana, some juice, and a slice of toast. I will fix my own breakfast while you finish yours. I am anxious to get underway. I am about to burst with excitement.” I watched my wife as she wiggled her butt while dancing in front of the toaster. I loved this side of her. I loved her love for the sea. She lived in a world, which most humans would not find exciting or even welcome. Becky loved the sea, she lived to feel the cold salty water touch her skin, and she lived to feel the power of the waves pounding the beach on a windy day. The girl’s body consisted mostly of salty water; and in and around seawater was where she was comfortable.
SS Pacifica Page 34
