AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 47
I was introduced to Klaus, a grizzled Captain of many years who expounded on the features of my ship. I was glad to have an expert at hand that I could borrow skills from in the future. It’s not like I had any experience to know what I was looking at.
It was clean, bigger than I thought, but not huge. It was faster than the one Pete had found originally, cruising at about 14 knots, it also had passenger cabins. The boat Pete had found had room for 80+ Passengers, but they were all with only slightly larger than an airline seat spread over two decks. This one actually had 22 passenger cabins with either a single bunk, a bunk bed, or a double bed, plus additional crew cabins as well.
It also had a moon pool for diving, or dropping a pump hose, a 4 ton capacity crane, and the newest automated station keeping system. When I told the Captain about the sand removal he suggested where the pump should go, and how the pipe to the deck would pump into a container, the excess water then pouring over the side.
“What’s with the sand collecting?” he asked.
“I’m hoping to clear the sand off some wrecks to improve diving for the tourists, and then dump the sand to improve the beach.”
“Where at?” he asked curiously.
“Oeno.”
“Oh, lots of wrecks there. Only reason Pitcairn is still inhabited you know, so there would always be somebody to take care of the people who wrecked on those reefs. Less of a problem these days, but I bet it’ll happen again.”
I just smiled, and nodded. I’d have to check out the wrecks on Oeno now, they might be an additional tourist draw.
The helpful captain had me take the keys to the ship, which included the ship’s safe, and walked me through the registration process. I pulled my summoned laptop out of my backpack, and connected to my phone. We navigated first the Polish website that created an authenticated digital identity, and then registered the boat in my company’s name. I wasn’t going to bother changing the flag of the vessel, at the advice of the Captain, who said it was more expense than was necessary, considering the transfer of ownership fee was cheaper than setting up with a new flag practically anywhere. White and red, nice enough, and the one hanging off the back of the boat looked new.
I had transferred some of my winnings to Amazon, which I then used to purchase a digital cash card, that I then used to pay for the transfer fees. I hoped that it was enough of a fuzzy paper trail to slow the FBI down, considering I used a new German Amazon account. I wasn’t much the expert in hiding funds. I wondered if I could meet some smart German bankers while I was here, and borrow some money moving skills.
The Captain would stay on for the next five days, the time the ship had left in port for modifications, and to get the ship provisioned, crewed, and out to sea, without paying additional docking fees. The Captain assured me that the pump would be installed and tested in that time frame without issue, as it had a standard equipment mount location already for this type of ship.
We shook hands, and I headed down to where the boat sale company had a car ready to take me to a local bank.
Gretchen was there waiting for me, having deposited my payment, and the bank was waiting on my ID and signature to open an account for me, so I could use the local chandlery. That took about an hour, and it was well past lunch, so Peter took me to lunch, I think mainly to invite the attractive Gretchen along as well.
The food was ok, but I found it greasy after my diet of so much fish and fruit over the past week. My skills had reset at 9 am local, which was Pitcairn midnight, so I could easily stop time and fly back, but I decided to find a hotel. There was one across the street from the restaurant, so I thanked Peter and Gretchen, and headed over to book a room. My new credit card, linked to my phone, paid for the room, and I was soon set up in a comfortable room with a single queen bed.
I considered taking a nap, but didn’t really feel tired, so I connected to the hotel WiFi and sent a message to Pete. A few minutes later I had a link that I followed to a video chat with him. He made me point the laptop camera around the room to show I was alone before he came on.
“Where are you?”
“Doesn’t your little video app tell you my IP?”
“Of course not, it runs the signal thru a couple anonymizers, and then to the server, which acts as the hub. My signal is likewise bounced around.”
“I’m in Hamburg, just bought a boat,” I said, showing him a picture from my phone, I had just taken it.
“Nice, need a crew there, or are you going to magic it across the sea?”
“It needs the pump installed first, and I’m thinking of trying to get some cargo aboard first. Probably easier, and cheaper to provision the ship here instead of Tahiti.”
“Ok, well crews are easy to get. I found an international service that can fly boat crews anywhere. Bit more expensive than expected, but they’ll all speak English.”
“That doesn’t matter to me.”
“It does to me, I’m joining you out there.”
“Oh, ok, then. Can you find me a container of lumber to get delivered to the boat?”
“Sure, send me the location and the payment details.”
“Ok, will do,” I paused for a moment, “Any trouble with the FBI?”
“Nah, lawyers got them all tied up over their raid, and no proof you were there, considering that it was obvious from your Casino wins you were in Oregon, not San Diego.”
“It’s not like I could just fly across the planet in a few minutes right?” I said laughing.
“Right,” he agreed seriously, but then smiled wide.
“So how’s the exercise program?” I asked.
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