Seeking Safe Harbor: Suddenly Everything Changed (The Seeking Series)

by Albert Correia

  Seeking Safe Harbor

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  Copyright 2015 by Albert Correia. All rights reserved.

  Proudly prepared for publication by Kamel Press, LLC.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without permission from the author.

  ISBN-13:

  978-1-62487-045-3 - Paperback

  978-1-62487-046-0 - eBook

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2015944164

  This book is dedicated

  to

  my children,

  to my step children,

  and to my grandchildren,

  those now alive and all those to come.

  They are the reason the future is so important.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 1

  ZACH had felt uneasy for over a week, even before they left the island, and the large blip on the radar that was bearing down on them did nothing to ease his concern. Why would a big ship change course to go after a forty-one foot sailboat at two-thirty in the morning? Was it a pirate? Pirates were better known to work the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, but there were some here in the Pacific, too.

  Whatever was on their tail, though, looked too big to be a pirate. The radar blip was huge. He looked back again but still saw nothing. The weather was calm and the water’s surface almost flat, which was why they were motoring instead of sailing, but a heavy layer of clouds prevented light from the moon or stars to sneak through to lighten the sky around them.

  Whoever was behind them wasn’t using running lights, which concerned him even more. Anybody not using running lights out here in the middle of the ocean had to be up to no good. His own lights were on, so whoever was navigating the big ship could see them, and a ship that big had to have radar; they had to see the small boat’s little blip. In fact, whoever it was had changed from a course that was parallel, but several hundred yards to their port, to a course that put them directly behind the sailboat. That had to be intentional.

  Watching the radar, he estimated the big ship’s speed at sixteen or seventeen knots, more than double the rate the sailboat was motoring. The monster ship was catching up quickly. He wished he had the night vision goggles he kept by the charts in a drawer in the salon, but he couldn’t take the time to get them now.

  Zach’s next look at the radar brought a worried, “geez” from his lips. The blip was almost on them, and he saw no evidence it was veering off its collision course. He could now hear the rumble of engines, and when he looked back, he could see a massive object looming near that was even darker than the black night.

  He didn’t have time to warn Stacey and the kids; he had to act now. Because the huge thing behind them was slightly off to his port side, he cranked the wheel hard to starboard, gunning his single sixty horsepower diesel to full speed. The forty-one foot ketch lurched sharply to the right, moving as fast as a small diesel can move a full keel, seventeen-ton craft through salt water.

  Within moments, he could feel the boat rising and their speed increasing as a massive wall of water shoved them out of the way. Holding the wheel as tight as he could, to try to keep control of the vessel, he chanced a look back and saw the side of a massive ship charge by, its thick steel hull not missing them by more than ten yards. He’d never seen anything that big at sea. It was like a skyscraper, and it displaced vast volumes of water.

  The initial phase of the wake from its bow cutting through the water caused a wave thirty feet high. The sailboat, which was no more than a toy by comparison to the huge ship, was atop it. The action of thousands of gallons of water was twisting the small boat at will, turning the bow even further to starboard.

  He knew that if he let it, the wave would roll them and capsize the boat. Still holding the wheel as tightly as he could, he strained to turn it to port. He used every bit of his strength, but it wouldn’t turn. He moved off to the side and pushed hard against the wheel, using every ounce of his weight and every muscle in his legs, his back, and his arms to leverage it ahead. It seemed like an eternity, although it was just seconds, and the wheel finally began to turn.

  He got back in position behind the wheel and continued turning to port. The bow slowly turned left as the boat slipped down the front side of the wave. It was diving, but almost back on course when the bow hit the ocean’s more normal, flatter, surface. The bowsprit dug into the sea and, for a moment, it seemed like they were going to dive deep into the water. As the wave passed, the stern dropped and the bow came up, water gushing in all directions from the freed bowsprit. The boat bobbed like a top dropped from above into a bathtub, but the now relatively calm waters let it settle a little. A secondary wave of the big ship’s wake hit them, but this time it only rocked the boat a little.

  Zach reset to his original course. He would be following the big ship now, but he had no choice. The GPS wasn’t working, and he didn’t know celestial navigation. He’d set his course for the big island of Hawaii when they left the little island they’d been staying on, and he didn’t dare change course. Any slight deviation and they could miss the Hawaiian Island chain entirely.

  Stacey rushed up from the aft cabin, and their fifteen-year-old son, Glen, came up from the salon at the same time. Their thirteen-year-old daughter, Denise, was a step behind him.

  “What’s going on?” Stacey asked breathlessly.

  “We were almost run down,” Zach told her. He pointed forward. Algae, disturbed by the big ships props, glowed in its wake. That was all they could see ahead. Their boat was
still rocking from the huge ship’s wake, even though the cause of the disturbance was now hundreds of yards ahead of them.

  “It felt like we were being knocked down,” Glen said.

  “We almost were,” his father said. “There’s a big ship up there, and it came through like it was trying to run us down. In truth, a knock down would have been a lot better than what they seemed to have in mind.”

  “Why would someone do that?” asked Denise.

  “I have no idea,” Zach admitted.

  “What’s going on, Zach?” his wife asked again, this time with the sound of distant worry in her voice. “Everything seems out of kilter lately, like nothing is going right and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  “I told you what it is,” Glen said. “It’s war.”

  “We can’t jump to conclusions,” Stacey said. “And how would that explain a ship trying to run us down?”

  “I don’t know,” Glen said, “but the last thing we heard on the radio before it went on the blink was the news that North Korea was planning to attack South Korea and would nuke the U.S. if we interfered.”

  “They’ve been saying that for fifty years,” Zach said, “and nothing has ever happened, except that we let up a little on our sanctions each time. That’s what they’re after again.”

  “Yeah,” Glen said, “but did the radios all go out before? Did the GPS system go out before?”

  “No,” Zach replied calmly, “but we were never on an uninhabited island when we heard it before. Anything could go out of whack out here, and we’d never know what caused it.”

  “Was the ship that tried to hit us from North Korea?” Denise asked. “Or China?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Zach replied. “But it was too dark to see much.”

  Stacey studied him. “You say that like maybe you did see something.”

  “Not really. As I said, it was too dark to make out much.”

  “There’s a big difference between ‘not much’ and ‘nothing.’ What did you see?”

  “Well, it looked like there was a flight deck up above the hull, but that can’t be.”

  “A flight deck,” Denise said. “Isn’t that what aircraft carriers have, like the one we saw in San Diego before we left?”

  “Yes, honey,” Stacey said.

  “Which is why it can’t be,” he reasoned. “There’s no aircraft carrier around this part of the Pacific, and if there were, it would almost have to be American. And no American Navy ship, especially a gigantic aircraft carrier, would try to run some strange boat down. Look, it was dark, and my eye just caught a glimpse of something, and, you know, it was like a quick impression. I’ve seen a ship like that before, the last time was just a week ago, so when I saw something that reminded me of it, my mind interpreted. There’s no substantiation for what is obviously a wild, and wrong, conclusion. Happens all the time.”

  They fell silent. That was probably it, but they knew Zach was as level-headed as they come. It wasn’t like him to see something that wasn’t there.

  They all looked forward, each in deep contemplation. The only thing they could see ahead was a slight trace of glowing algae, and that, too, soon disappeared.

  Chapter 2

  STACEY was at the wheel at a little after seven the same morning when the radar showed a blip ahead of them. She kept her eye on it to see if it was coming or going, and asked Glen, who had joined her in the cockpit twenty minutes earlier, to keep his eyes on the horizon in case something came into view.

  She soon determined that the object wasn’t moving. They were on a heading of twenty-nine degrees, the course from the island in the Marshalls they’d left three days earlier, to the big island of Hawaii.

  The July sun was still far enough to the north to make seeing things in the water difficult at that time of the morning. It was off to the right and not directly in their vision, but the glare forced them to shade their eyes on that side. Neither could see anything yet, so they weren’t sure if whatever was out there was a ship at rest or an island. They had seen the chart for this area and didn’t remember any islands, but Glen went below to retrieve the chart to be sure. He brought it up, shaking his head.

  Stacey had no doubt that Glen was right, but had him take the wheel so she could check it out. They’d learned long ago that there was usually plenty of time to double and triple check everything. When on a more than four-month family cruise that covered many thousands of miles, being thorough, and careful, was a must. She first made sure it was the right chart, and then examined it closely. She nodded. “Okay, we can be fairly certain there’s nothing permanent out there,” she said to her son, “so it has to be a boat of some kind. The question is, why is it stopped?”

  “A fisherman?” Glen asked.

  “Maybe, but I wonder what they could be looking for in waters this deep?”

  “We’ll soon find out,” he opined. “It’s dead ahead.” He reached below the seat and unlatched the door to the storage bin under his seat, looking for binoculars. The first case he pulled out was for the night vision goggles. “A new spot for these?”

  “Yes,” Stacey replied. “We thought they were convenient, as well as safe, being with the charts below, but we learned last night they have to be even more convenient.”

  He nodded. They were always learning something. He replaced the goggles and pulled out the 10x35mm binoculars, the ones they used for long distances. Things kind of bounced with them, but whatever was out there was a long way off. When closer, they’d use the 8x35mm binoculars, which weren’t as powerful but were easier to keep focused.

  Stacey folded the chart and set it on the cockpit seat next to her. Glen locked in the autopilot and took a seat across from her. Both turned to face the bow, their eyes glued to the water in front of them, He used the binoculars, and she looked with bare eyes. Up until a few days ago, coming across another boat out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean had been a pleasure, but now that the radios and GPS had lost their signals, and after what had happened just hours before, they were leery of what lay ahead.

  He saw it first and pointed to the spot.

  She saw it, too, but it looked like no more than a little dark spot on the water to her. He steadied the binoculars and focused in, then whistled.

  “What?” Stacey asked.

  “It’s really big.”

  She stood and looked at the radar for the first time in several minutes. “You’re right. This blip is a pretty good size already, and we’re still miles away.”

  They continued on for several minutes more, with Glen’s binoculars constantly pointed at what was up ahead. Finally, he said, “Mom, that’s an aircraft carrier.”

  “An aircraft carrier? You must be mistaken. What would an aircraft carrier be doing here, just sitting around doing nothing?”

  “Look for yourself.” He handed her the strong binoculars.

  She looked, adjusted the focus, and studied the ship ahead. She held the big glasses as steady as she could so she could get as good an idea as possible of what was out there. When she was sure of what she was looking at, she handed the binoculars back to her son. “You’re right, as usual.” She started back toward the hatchway and ladder leading down to the aft cabin, where Zach had been sleeping for the past two hours.

  “Mom, are you going to bed?”

  She stopped, turned to look at Glen, checked her watch, and then came back to sit where she’d been before. “No, I don’t think anyone is going to be sleeping much today. Unfortunately, that includes your father, who’s only slept two hours in the last thirty-six. I’ll let him sleep a little longer, but something’s very wrong and we’re going to need him up here very soon.”

  Chapter 3

  STACEY let Zach sleep another half hour, and by the time he got to the sailboat’s cockpit, he was able to get a good look at the aircraft carrier with the 8x35mm binoculars. He went over the whole ship and after a couple of minutes, his binoculars followed something down from the fligh
t deck to the water. He focused in on a spot at the waterline.

  “What is it?” asked Stacey.

  “They’ve lowered a boat.” He swept the area for miles on either side of the aircraft carrier with the binoculars. “There’s nothing else out there.”

  “What does that mean?” asked Denise. By now, all four of them were on the deck, three looking at the big ship from the cockpit and Glen forward on the bowsprit, watching the carrier with the more powerful glasses.

  “No way of knowing at this point, but they could be coming here.”

  “What for?”

  “That, honey, is another of the questions I have no answer for at the moment,” he told his daughter.

  Glen, who had been engrossed in what he saw in the distance, hadn’t heard their conversation. He called back, “Hey, dad, they’re sending a launch our way.”

  “Can you get a good look at it with those powerful binocs?”

  “It’s still pretty far away, but it looks like it’s more than a small shore boat. Maybe forty or fifty feet. I think they’ve got a gun.”

  “What?”

  “I can’t be sure, but it looks like a bazooka, or rocket launcher or some other kind of weapon attached to the deck on the bow.”

  Zach and Stacey stared at one another. What had been the family cruise of a lifetime was turning into a nightmare. “What do we do?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “We get out our two little weapons and wait.”

  “What can we do with a .30 caliber rifle and a pistol against a rocket launcher and God knows what else they have?” she asked. “We should have brought more weapons.”

  “I didn’t expect to be confronted by pirates out here, let alone the U.S. Navy.”

  Zach went below and came back with a lever action carbine and a 9-millimeter automatic handgun. He handed the pistol to Stacey.

  “I can take that, Mom,” Denise said. “I’m a better shot than you.”

  Stacey smiled at her daughter. “You are that, but a thirteen-year-old girl shouldn’t have to be defending her life like this.”

  “Maybe not, but it looks like that’s the way it is.”