SS Pacifica

by Coleinger, Ronnie

  When Becky and the officer returned to the deck, he asked how he could be certain that the hollow walls of the vessel did not have drugs in them. I chuckled and said, “If you would like to join us in the cabin, we can dive three hundred feet below the surface. Doing so will fill all the ballast tanks full of water. Then your brilliant mind can do the calculations to determine how much water is loaded into the hollow walls of the hull. Those calculations will tell you that there is no room left over for drugs in the hull, only water. We also have documents from the Navy, stating that they inspected this vessel and that the walls are filled with ballast tanks, not drugs.” I handed the paper to the officer to read. The officer said, “I should have you towed to port and have the hull disassembled to insure you are not carrying drugs.” I starred the man in the eyes, hoping he would back down. I stepped up within a couple inches from his face and said, “Do you treat everyone you come across at sea to be drug dealers. I have given you documentation from the ship builders, the Coast Guard, and the Navy. They have all stated that the hull of this vessel does not contain drugs. What in the hell more do you need? Maybe you are just a prick to everyone you come in contact with.” The officer said, “I can have this vessel impounded and torn down. It will be a pile of junk when I am done with it. Would you like that, Mister Smartass?” I removed the pistol from my waist and handed it to Becky. I looked the man in the eyes and said, “You have ten seconds to be off this vessel. After that, you will find yourself swimming with the sharks.” The man thought about his position for another moment and said, “Have a great day,” and began climbing down the ladder to the waiting skiff.

  Chapter 34 – Key West Florida

  When the Coast Guard vessel moved away from the Pacifica-Two, we set the sails. Once we were back on course, we began looking for a large shopping center where we could restock the vessel with fruit and vegetables. We had plenty of canned and prepackaged supplies, but we did not want to touch them unless we had no choice; we considered them to be strictly for emergencies. We had cell phone service, so we brought one of the laptops up on deck and used the air card for Internet access. It took us only a few minutes to locate the store we wanted to visit. We wrote down the address and I entered it into my GPS unit. We motored up close to the shore and dropped both anchors. The place we chose had a dozen or so other boats anchored, so we felt comfortable stopping there. Once we had the dinghy inflated, we dropped it into the water and began paddling to shore. We tied up the dinghy under the dock for safekeeping, put our backpacks over our shoulders and began walking the six blocks to the shopping center. We could see the store from the dock, so we did not have far to walk.

  When we entered the store, it only took us thirty minutes to complete our shopping and check out. When the cashier wanted to put our goods into bags, we instead loaded them into the four backpacks. As we walked out of the store, a man who looked to be store security spoke to us. I suspect he had watched us load our purchases into the backpacks. He was probably wondering what we were up to, but he did not ask any questions or check our receipt as we left the store. When we loaded our backpacks into the dinghy and began paddling back towards the Pacifica-Two, we could see two small sailboats slowly making a circle around our vessel. As we carried our groceries up onto the deck and then pulled the dinghy up, we saw the people wave at us. Becky said, “I think we have fans again.” Becky and I took a moment and waved to the people in the sailboats.

  Once we had stowed the dinghy and our groceries, we raised the anchors and set the sails. As we moved away from the coast, the two small sailboats followed us for a couple of miles. As we set the spinnaker, they soon fell behind and we lost sight of them. Becky looked at me and said, “That was the fastest grocery shopping trip we have ever made. The entire trip to the store only took us ninety minutes.” I laughed and said, “I am still pissed over being boarded. I realize that they have a job to do to protect the borders and coastal waters, but they don’t have to be asses about it. I am a United States citizen and I pay their wages with my tax dollars. Now that I think about it, I have decided to fire that jerk who boarded us this morning. He is an insult to the fine men and women of the Coast Guard and Navy.” Becky walked over to me and said, “Husband, I was getting concerned you might throw the man overboard when he implied that we probably were drug smugglers. I am glad you handed him the paperwork and did not physically harm him. I could see the fire in your eyes.”

  I was still angry and had to walk away from Becky. I was not mad at Becky and did not want to say something I would regret later. I decided to walk away from her and sit down on the swim platform for a few minutes. In a few minutes, I heard Becky climbing down the ladder. When I looked up at her she said, “Maybe a cup of hot coffee will help you through your pout.” I looked up into her eyes and said, “I am not pouting.” She giggled as she handed me the coffee and said, “Okay, if you say so.”

  After a few minutes, I calmed myself and decided to send an email to the Coast Guard, expressing my displeasure over our boarding. I went down into the cabin and found my cell phone. I had a good signal, so I opened up my laptop and connected to the Internet through the air card. It only took a few minutes to find an email address and type a carefully worded, yet polite message to the Coast Guard. When I pressed the send button, I figured someone would quickly delete the message as soon as it arrived at its destination. However, I did feel better after expressing my feeling over the boarding.

  The weather was beautiful and my mood seemed to mellow as the day wore on. As we sailed past Key Largo, we turned a little towards the northeast. Our intention was to sail on the east side of Bimini Island. We both wanted to put our feet on solid ground and have a shower. A man we had talked to back at the Panama Canal had recommended this island to us, so decided to pay it a visit. He had warned us that the water around the island was very shallow. When we checked the charts, we decided we would have little problem if we blew some water out of the ballast tanks. We also planned to keep the Pacifica-Two out on a sandbar and use the dinghy to get to the hotel.

  We were about eighty miles from our destination at Bimini Island. The sun was setting and we decided to catch a fish for supper. We were in shallow water, so we took down the sails and tied them to the mast. As we floated along, we started to see fish below us. They were small, but probably good to eat. Within a few minutes, we caught our first fish. We drifted over a sharp drop off and dropped our bacon impregnated artificial worms down into the depths. Becky’s bait had barely sunk out of sight when a large fish grabbed it and headed towards the depths. She quickly brought it to the surface and slid it up onto the swim platform. I grabbed the fish’s tail with a gloved hand. Once the fish no longer flopped in my hand, I carried it up onto the deck. Becky decided this one fish would be plenty since we would be spending tomorrow night in the hotel.

  While Becky put away the fishing equipment, I filleted the fish. When Becky climbed back to the top of the ladder, she handed me a pan and then the camp stove. Within a few minutes, the smell of battered Snapper washed across the sea in the gentle breeze. I debated what to do with the fish carcass, but decided we were not going to swim in the shallow water anyways, so I dumped it into the sea. I was normally not fearful of swimming in the sea, but in these shallow waters, I wanted nothing to do with creatures such as stingrays, sharks and ells. Even the barracuda posed some risk to human flesh.

  As we ate our supper, the sun began to set. When we finished eating, we decided to anchor where we were and get some sleep. We moved off the drop off and dropped one anchor. There were no bugs out tonight, but we still put the screens over the hatch doors. We had a bat fly into the cabin one night after dark. It was probably chasing an insect that flew into the lights of the cabin. It took us an hour to get the critter out of the vessel. We actually had to put Becky’s mechanical engineering skills to work to accomplish the task. We turned off the cabin lights and hung a lit lantern over the hatchway. Within a couple of minutes, the hungry bat follo
wed the light to the hovering insects that gathered around the lantern. That was the first time I watched in awe as my wife grabbed her crotch with one hand and pointed to her head with the other, and then yelled at the top of her lungs, “Me woman. Use brain not brawn.” This playful side of Becky always made me giggle like a teenage boy.

  We sailed into the Bimini Island harbor around noon the following day. We launched the dinghy and paddled to shore. We tied up the dinghy to a small dock and gave the owner twenty bucks to secure the deal. The man told us how to find the restaurant and the hotel. As we walked towards the restaurant, we stopped and talked to some people who had been watching us anchor the Pacifica-Two and row ashore. The man said, “Mrs. Becky, the restaurant food is horrible and the hotel has bed bugs. You two should just stay here with us. We have a small guesthouse with a shower and hot water. The guesthouse had a good bed where you can start a baby growing in that firm belly of yours. We also have the best food you can find within a hundred miles” I watched Becky blush and instantly fall in love with these two people.

  Becky walked down the stone path to where the couple on a porch sat. She quickly struck up a conversation with and discussed the guesthouse a little more. Becky said, “How did you know my name, old man?” He said, “You and your man’s faces are plastered all over the front page of every newspaper around here and on the evening news. I would recognize that boat you anchored out there, anywhere.” As I followed Becky down the steps, I heard her begin talking to the old man again. She said, “Old man. I just might take you up on that shower, hot water and good bed. But I am not certain I want a child suckling my teats while sailing the high seas.” I watched the man’s face form a smile as he stood up to shake our hands. Then he took Becky’s hand and said, “You may change your mind about the child once you tire of tempting your fate with Davey Jones’ out there on the high seas.” The old woman stood up and punched her husband hard on the shoulder and said, “Old man, sit down and mind your manners with our guests. This fine woman is not your play toy.”

  I instantly began to laugh and said, “I know exactly how those punches to the shoulder feel. The bruise on my shoulder just healed a couple weeks ago.” The old man began to laugh and said, “My shoulder has never healed. We have been married for forty some years and my shoulder has had a bruise on it ever since we walked out of the church.” Becky said, “I have tired of addressing you as old man and old woman, could I be so bold as to ask what name you go by?” The man nodded and said, “My true name is Walter James Haggart III. This fine woman sitting beside me goes by the name of Kathryn Lynn Smith – Haggart.”

  Becky looked the old man in the eyes and said, “Glad to meet you, Walter James Haggart the third.” Then she looked the woman in the eyes and said, “Glad to meet you too, Kathryn Lynn Smith – Haggart the first.” Kathryn smiled and said, “Oh, what a mind. You remembered our names after hearing them spoken only once.” I chuckled and said, “Becky has a photographic memory, I call it telepathic; as she sometimes punches my shoulder before I even get to speak the words.” Walter began to laugh and soon was holding his sides. Kathryn said, “I think it is time us girls fix lunch. These men are getting quite out of hand.”

  Becky asked the price for the guest room and meals for one night and a day. Kathryn said, “We get sixty for the guest house, but the meals are free if you help cook and clean the dishes after the meals.” I watched Becky’s face light up. She walked over to a rocking chair and sat down. She said, “How about sixty for the room and twenty for the meals; and we help you prepare the meals and clean up. I will not discuss my offer any further with you.” I saw the old woman’s face light up as she said, “Child, you and I are going to get along just fine. Maybe you will decide to stay a second day after you relax in a rocking chair around a bond fire tonight.” Becky said, “Time will tell.”

  Becky opened her backpack and took out some money. She counted out eighty dollars and passed it to the woman. Then she leaned back in her chair and slowly rocked. I walked over and sat down on a deck chair beside her. As we sat and talked, the woman said, “We have not eaten lunch yet. Let’s fix those sandwiches and eat in the gazebo.” She pointed her crooked first finger towards a circular building on stilts along the edge of the forest and said, “The gazebo has screens to keep the bugs out and it is cool and wonderful during the heat of the afternoon.”

  Walter spoke to Becky and said, “If you leave your baggage, Stanley and I will take your belongings to the guest house.” Becky sat her backpack beside my chair, and then leaned over and kissed me. I smiled as she walked away. Walter stood up and I picked up the backpacks and joined him as he escorted me to the guesthouse. When I stepped inside, the house was small but the huge sliding doors facing the sea gave a spectacular view. Heavy blue curtains were drawn back to let light and air into the room. I sat the backpacks down on the floor and checked out the bathroom. This guesthouse would be perfect, probably better than the hotel we had planned to visit. Becky could take her hot shower and relax here in style. Walter said, “The gas fired water heater will provide plenty of hot water; you will not run out. If the room would need heat or cooling, the thermostat is on the wall by the bathroom door. The furnace and air conditioner unit is located on the roof.”

  As we walked back to the main house to assist the girls prepare lunch, Walter opened a refrigerator by the back door and offered me a cold beer. He said, “Help yourself to a beer if you and your lovely Mrs. Becky care for one and I will show you where the fixings are if you wish to have coffee or tea. The misses and I are normally up by six in the morning. We have breakfast here in the kitchen around seven thirty if you two are up that early; I assume you will be up by then, since you live on the sea. We can take my four-wheeler to the store and purchase groceries and supplies if you are in need; before you leave.”

  As we stepped into the kitchen, we heard the girls giggling and acting like schoolgirls. Walter turned to face me and said, “Thank you and Mrs. Becky for staying here with us. Kathryn loves company and loves to cook.”

  We carried our lunch out to the gazebo and sat our food on a round table in the center; a cool ocean breeze rustled the screens that surrounded the structure. As we sat down to eat, I paid careful attention to the couple’s home. It was a very sturdy concrete block building with a poured slab roof. They had built the house into the leeward side of the raised road, which acted as a buffer to allow the winds to travel over top the house, protecting it from the winds fury. I realized when we first arrived that there was a motor home parked on a driveway near the south side of the house. The sparsely decorated home seemed almost portable. It looked as if they could load everything they owned into the motor home and move out if a strong storm approached

  As I studied the layout, Walter spoke to me and said, “I believe that engineering mind of yours has figured out that this is not our home during hurricanes. We only returned a few days ago after the latest storm passed south of here. Kathryn and I built this place many years ago and it remains strong and livable after many hurricanes. The manufacturer calls the motor home you see sitting over there a toy carrier. We use it to transport our belongings to the mainland before an approaching storm gets to strong. A ferry brings supplies to this island and carries passengers back and forth. We, as do many other people who live here, pack up our stuff and move to safety during the storms. The building you see, can weather a storm with no problem and we would be safe here from the winds, however, the storm surges can and often do put this island under water.”

  I looked at Walter and said, “The inconvenience of the storms forcing you to move for a few weeks each year seems inconsequential compared to the beauty and excitement of living on this incredible island, in this incredible home.” Kathryn said, “Your words are true. Living here is magical at times. Only those of us who are one with the sea can truly appreciate life here on the Bimini Island. You two lovers are part of the sea, one with the sea.” I saw Becky stir in her seat and look down at her pl
ate while she ate. Kathryn noticed also and said, “Something stirs in your soul young lady. I can see it in your body posture and your eyes tell of a long history with the sea.” Becky looked up into Kathryn’s eyes and I saw a single tear slide down her cheek. She never lost eye contact as she said, “My father was a sea captain on a tug boat most of his adult life. He lost a leg to a Great White Shark and lived to tell the story. He later died of old age, but before his death, he melded his young Daughter to the sea, to a life that I cannot step away from or ignore. His oneness with nature, with the creatures that swim below us, with the wind and stars, now fills my heart and soul with a love I do not fully understand. The dolphin’s pulled me from my own destructive darkness shortly after my father’s death. Now they join me at sea and sing to me whenever my troubles seem unbearable, unmanageable: whenever my mind turns to sliding unchallenged into the sea. Stanley and I created a child, which was unable to survive in this world. The dolphins sang with me during those troubled times. They also sang to my lover who now sets before me at this table. Those dolphins bonded our love, mended our broken hearts over the loss of our unborn child and gave us hope for better times. I am certain of only one thing as I travel down life’s highway. I will spend the rest of my days on or near the sea. I feel in my heart that one day Stanley and I will adopt a child and calm its nightmares in the rocking chair of the rolling seas. I pray those times will come.”