SS Pacifica

by Coleinger, Ronnie

  I realized it was going to be a long night. I made myself some peanut butter crackers with honey. We had a dozen boxes of Ritz crackers, but no bread. We had eaten the two loaves of homemade bread we had purchased at our last stop. I made some instant coffee with the hot water I had made for Becky’s tea and returned to the communications desk, hoping to do some writing during the quiet time. The compass was holding steady, but I could feel the tiny movement of the hull. I could tell the sea was angry when I looked out the viewing windows while fixing the crackers. It was obvious that the storm was raging overhead. I would stay awake until Becky was up and feeling better. Right now, the best thing for her stomach was to sleep.

  I walked over to the oxygen monitor to see if it was working. It showed that we had the correct amount of oxygen in the cabin. If the alarm went off, I could turn on the oxygen scrubber system. That would hold us for a couple of days, after that; we had four one hundred pound oxygen tanks in the bow that would keep us safe in an emergency.

  I realized that it daylight on the surface. I could see a tiny glow when I looked out of the hatch viewing windows. The sea had calmed around the Pacifica-Two, so I decided to move closer to the surface and see what was going on. I went up slowly, not wanting to find myself in high seas without realizing it. As the viewing window rose up out of the water, the sunshine was blinding. When my eyes adjusted, I realized that the seas had calmed and the sun was brightly shining. It was a beautiful day on the surface. I opened the hatch and felt the cold air. When I thought about the cold, I remembered that we were still below the fortieth parallel.

  I took the mainsails and rigging up to the deck and set the sails. The light breeze moved the Pacifica-Two easily forward. I brought up the sails and rigging for the foresails and set them. Once the sails were set and we were underway, I brought up the solar panel and began recharging the batteries. When I turned on my GPS, I was not certain if we were still on course or not. It appeared we had drifted about fifty miles too far to the east. I went down to the map and plotted the course. We had drifted way off course last night, so I went up and made a tack and reset the rudder.

  When I checked on Becky, she was awake, but said, “I still do not feel good and it is not just sea sickness. I think I have a fever; maybe I caught the flu while at the marina.” I put my hand on her forehead and realized she was quite warm. I asked if I could get her anything and she said she was okay. I covered her up and filled her glass with water. She needed to remain in bed for a few hours until the fever broke. I took a few minutes and cleaned out the chamber pot. When I washed it in the sea, I realized how cold the water was. The storm had churned up the cold water from the depths of the Pacific.

  I fixed some breakfast and took it up on deck with me. I wanted to keep a close eye on the sails and get all the speed out of the Pacifica-Two as I could to put us back on course. The storm would set us back almost a full day, not that we had any real deadlines to meet. Around lunchtime, Becky came up on deck. She looked pale, but sat down in a chair and talked to me about the storm for a few minutes. I asked if I could fix her anything to eat, she said, “My stomach has settled and I would like it to stay that way. I will fix some toast or something later, for now, some water and tea will do just fine.” She giggled and said, “I am going back to bed after I use the outdoor facilities.” She went down to the swim platform, fastened her safety line and did her business.

  I had slept in the deck chair while the sun was warm, but once the sunset, the cold set in. I moved to the fold down seat in the stern hatch for the night. An hour later, I got cold and had to put on my first layer of fleece underwear. I leaned back against the hull and fell asleep. When I woke, I had to pee. I opened the hatch and stepped out on the deck. While I peed over the side, I realized how cold it was and how bright the stars were tonight. I had not seen the stars so close and bright in quite some time, or maybe I had just not paid enough attention.

  The next time I woke, it was daylight. I made some coffee and went up on deck for a few minutes. The air was still cold, so I decided to fix some breakfast and then put on my warm clothing and return to the deck for the day. As I fixed some oatmeal and toast, Becky sat up on the edge of the bed and said, “I would take a piece of toast if you are making some.” I fixed breakfast for both of us and made her some tea to drink. I sat down on the edge of my bed, across from where Becky sat and started to eat. Something smelled terrible. I realized that the smell was not from Becky or me, it was the chamber pot. I chuckled, moved the pot under the hatch ladder and moved the clean chamber pot next to Becky’s bed. She laughed and said, “Sorry about that, but I did not want to go out onto the deck in the cold. Now that I feel better, I will not need the chamber pot any longer.” I smiled and said, “I would prefer you potty indoors until your legs are stable. You look like a newborn deer when you walk.” Becky giggled and said, “I will quickly recover now that the virus has run its course. I just hope you do not get this.”

  On the twenty-first day after leaving the Beagle Canal, we ran into rain again. This rain turned out to be a perfectly timed thunderstorm. We filled the water jugs and stood out on deck in the rain. The day was warm and we decided to take a bath on the swim platform. I brought up two buckets and two bars of soap. As we washed, the heavy rain rinsed the soap off our bodies. When we were clean, we headed down into the cabin to dry off. The rain continued for two more days. Becky and I had seldom seen rain last this long out here on the Pacific Ocean, but we really did not mind.

  Becky and I caught two fish for supper. They were small but very tasty. After we ate, I tried fishing again, hoping to catch some fish to put in the cool box to eat for the next couple of days. I tied the line onto a large plastic bobber and hung a heavy lead weight on a second line to get the bait down a few feet under the water. I allowed the silly looking rig to follow along behind the swim platform. I sat down and tried to be patient. About twenty minutes later, something jerked the line. I released the drag and allowed some line to pay out. When I put some pressure on the line, I felt the weight of the fish. It took me ten minutes or so to tire out the fish, but eventually I started making headway. When the fish was close to the swim platform, I realized what I had caught. It was a large Pacific Ocean Perch. Our fish book said they were good to eat, but said that the fish normally lived in very deep water. I had caught this one within twenty feet from the surface. The fish was a little over three feet long and would provide food for us for three days. Becky helped me fillet the fish and package the meat for storage in the cool box.

  Chapter 40 – Easter Island – Moai Statues

  I was sound asleep in my bed when I heard Becky yell, “Land ahoy.” I quickly got up and headed to the deck. When I stepped out into the sunshine, the air was warm and smelled really good. When I looked out the starboard side where Becky was pointing, I could see the island. Becky explained that it should be Easter Island. When I looked below us, I could see the bottom of the sea. It was very rocky and looked shallow so I went down and checked the depth gauge. The reading showed that we were in water over two hundred feet deep. When I returned to the deck, Becky was taking down the foresail. I helped her stow the sail and rigging in the cabin, and then hang the United States Flag on the stern. As we steered towards the northeast, we made a long slow sweep around the island.

  We discovered that there were two sandy beaches on the north side of the island. One was Anakena Beach and the other was Ovahe Beach. We chose to anchor off the Ovahe Beach and spend the night. The seas remained calm and the weather forecast for the area called for light winds. When we found a place out of the way, we dropped both anchors. We knew the winds could turn to gale force within minutes. We also lowered the hull into the water to help keep the cabin temperature at an even temperature. The weather here around Easter Island ranged from horizontally blowing snowflakes to sunshine so hot it would cook an egg on the deck.

  We kept the sails attached to the masts. We wrapped them around the mast and tied them securely wit
h nylon rope. If the winds got to bad here along the coast, we could quickly set sail and move out into deeper water. We cooked our supper on the deck. We would wait until after dark to slip down to the swim platform and wash our bodies; we both needed some soap and water. We had a lot of vessels slow and gawk at the funny looking sailboat as they found places and docked in the harbor around us. It seemed everyone was interested in the Pacifica-Two.

  After the sun set to our starboard side, we put on our robes and headed down to the swim platform. As we quietly bathed, we realized the man and woman in the next sailing vessel were also bathing. They were trying to be quiet and discrete just as we were, but the occasional giggles seemed to echo on the quiet beach. While we dried our hair on our deck, the man on the boat beside us said, “Sorry if we offended you. We needed bathes and tried to not be seen.” I laughed and said, “That is okay. We were also bathing and tried to not offend our neighbors.” The man said, “If we need bathes tomorrow night, we will let you know so we all get them over at the same time instead of hiding like children.”

  When we woke in the morning, we packed our backpacks with water bottles, some prepackaged tuna meals, four apples and some raisins. I saw Becky slide her pistol and two ammunition clips into an inside pocket of her backpack. I slide my Buck-hunting knife into my backpack. I saw Becky watching what I packed. She walked over to the cabinet, retrieved her hunting knife and placed it into her backpack. I chuckled and said, “Are we contemplating stealing one of the Moai statues. We have a lot of weapons packed for this trip.” She giggled and said, “I somehow don’t feel safe in this part of the world. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know. I seldom feel apprehensive anywhere else we have traveled.”

  We dropped the dinghy into the water and paddled to the shore. We flipped the dinghy upside down and drove a metal stake in the ground to keep it from blowing away in the wind. There were a dozen or more other dinghies there and no one else seemed concerned about someone stealing them.

  We wanted to walk to the Anakena Beach since we had heard such wonderful things about it. The beach was just a short distance away. Once at the beach, we decided to walk a few miles and get some exercise. We decided to walk northwest and see as many Moai statues as we could before we needed to head back to the Pacifica-Two for the night. We talked to many people along the trails, sometimes we struggled with language issues, but everyone here was having a good time. We found out that the ceremonial platforms the Moai statues sat on went by the name, Ahu. I had seen the word in front of the statue locations on the map but had no idea why it was there. We knew that it was very disrespectful to walk on the Ahu; we had seen that warning on the Internet. We got some great pictures of the Moai statues; some toppled over, some in the quarry, some incomplete, some with topknots. There are 887 Moai statures on the island. I lost track of how many we took pictures of, but each one was different and forced my mind to wonder about the people that built and moved these incredible symbols of their Gods.

  Today was Tuesday and tomorrow was supposed to be another beautiful day. We planned to slowly sail around the island and take pictures of the statues with the high-powered camera lens. Becky and I both were excited about being here on this island and wanted to take as many good pictures as possible of the trip. The visit to this island was one portion of our adventure that we could share with Charlie and Susanne when we got home. Some of the pictures we took were amazing.

  During the night, the winds picked up and so did the wave action. Within another hour, the boats around us began motoring out of the shallow waters. When we had a clear path out, we followed suit. Once we moved out into deep water, we realized how bad the winds really were. The winds were coming out of the west so we motored towards the east and around to the leeward side of the island, hoping the island would protect us from the gale force winds. When we were out in water over three hundred feet deep, we decided to submerge. We closed the hatch and moved inside. I steered the vessel while Becky began filling the ballast tanks with seawater.

  When we were down a hundred feet or so, the Pacifica-Two settled down a little, but the currents circling the island were very strong. We realized that the currents were moving us due south if we turned off the propulsion motors. Becky moved us closer to the surface and I sent the antenna up to the surface. Once I had a good GPS position, I reeled in the antenna and we settled the vessel back down to one hundred and fifty feet. The water was much calmer down here and I hoped Becky’s supper would remain in her belly. I got two Dramamine tablets from the cabinet and a glass of water. When I stepped up to where Becky was plotting our position on the map, she looked at what I had in my hands. She looked at me with a disgusted look and then said, “You are right. I should take the medicine while I still feel well. It does little good once I am puking the tablets back up before they enter my blood stream.”

  Becky was using the readings from Grandfather’s compass and the speed of the vessel from the fish finder to keep a careful plot of our position. We did not want the current to push us into the island or shallow water. We had shut off the motors and only the currents were moving us along. Becky was working the calculations of our position every fifteen minutes, so I paid careful attention to her calculations. I picked up a pad of paper and began working the math on my own. I needed to insure my calculations jived with Becky’s every time. After the third time I did the calculations, I felt comfortable performing the task. Why I had never learned this task the first week out at sea, I had no answer. Becky had always performed the calculations and I let her. That mistake would never happen again. I would insure I did the math and plotted our position on the map ahead of Becky. Then she could insure my work was accurate every time.

  We spent the night with the heavy currents pushing us towards the southern end of the island. When we knew it was daylight on the surface, we decided to blow the ballasts and slowly rise to the surface. We hoped the high winds had passed, but that was not the case. When we got to within fifty feet of the surface, we sent the antenna up and turned on the marine radio. It only took a few minutes to realize that the National Weather Service had issued gale warnings for the area. They predicted the winds would continue for another twenty hours.

  We decided to turn towards the northeast, towards South America. Within a few hours time we should be able to locate the northerly flowing currents along the coast. It was obvious that we were going to have to run submerged for another day or so. We hated moving closer to the continent where we knew hundreds of pirate vessels roamed the seas, but we could not continue to travel south any longer.

  Once we turned, we only traveled a few hours until the currents turned and began pushing us towards the north. The water remained deep so we did not have to worry about running into another vessel. We had the depth minimum and maximum alarms set to warn us if the water depth changed too drastically. These northerly flowing currents should hold until we got close to the equator.

  We had taken turns with short naps, but around midnight, we decided to check out the weather on the surface. As the bow hatch broke the surface of the water, we realized that the high winds had passed. Since it was dark, we decided to raise the sails and push the Pacifica-Two out of these pirate-infested waters. Once we were under way, I turned on one of the generators to recharge the batteries; we both realized that we probably would need to run submerged again very soon. If we were harassed by a pirate vessel, we might have to submerge for a few hours until they gave up the pursuit.

  When Becky came up on deck with me, she had her pistol strapped to her waist and her knife strapped on. I chuckled, but soon realized she had based her decision on good judgment. I decided to follow her lead.

  After about an hour, the skies cleared and the stars shone brightly. The winds changed direction and became southerly. Becky looked at me and asked, “Shall we?” I chuckled and said, “You question gives me some options. I am guessing that you are asking about the spinnaker and not sex.” She giggled, kissed me and said, “The sp
innaker would move us farther out to sea where we know it is safe in much less time.”

  Once the spinnaker was set, we turned a little more northwest and set a course for the Galapagos Islands. The trip would take us around fourteen days if we pushed hard. Our water jugs were full and we had plenty of food. If the weather held, we would only stop long enough to bathe and fish. We could sail twenty-four hours a day. If the winds held in their current direction and speed, we could run the spinnaker continuously, allowing us to make 120 plus miles a day.

  For some reason, we were putting a push on our return home. I think Becky and I both wanted to be home before Charlie’s Father died. At least we hoped for that to occur.

  Chapter 41 – The Death of Charlie’s Father

  On the fifteenth day after leaving Easter Island, we saw the Galapagos Islands off in the distance. We steered towards the island of Santa Cruz, which was located near the center of the archipelago. Our port of call would be the town of Puerto Ayora. We planned to anchor in the bay overnight and then do our shopping in the morning. We found the location of a store where we could purchase the food and supplies we needed on the Internet. We still had plenty of cash left aboard the Pacifica-Two, so we would not have to use our credit cards. Becky reminded me that we also had over 7000 pesos aboard that we could use to purchase our supplies.

  When we entered the bay and dropped anchor, we soon discovered that the water around us was alive with fish. We decided to catch a couple of them for our supper tonight and lunch tomorrow. We planned to eat breakfast in one of the large hotel restaurants, being very careful not to drink the water or ice cubes, and to eat only freshly cooked foods. We did not know if there was a problem with stomach ailments after drinking the water or eating uncooked foods here on the Galapagos and we did not want to find out the hard way.