Chapter 41

“Michigan?” squawked Surprise, “What are they doing in Michigan?”

“Hold on there, missy,” her private investigator said, “I said they registered the cat as homeport Pentwater, I didn’t say they were there.”

“I’ve been paying you big bucks to find my sibs,” Surprise pouted, “And you tease me. So ... where are they then?”

“They Were in Tokashiki Harbor having the engines replaced,” John Jakob Smith said.

“What the hell? Those Cummins diesels were only six years old,” I said. “Wait. Tokashiki?”

“Okinawa.”

“What were they doing in Okinawa?”

“According to the Harbor Master in Naha, heading to Taiwan.”

“What about Tokashiki?”

“Tokashiki is an island off Okinawa. It happened to be in the way when the engine broke ... just lucky I guess,” Smith said. “They’d have been in real trouble in 40 m0re miles.”

“How so?”

“They had an unusual weather window ... Easterlies ... perfect for Taiwan but the worst possible for returning to Okinawa. JW was pushing 27 knots when one engine developed a loud tick. Since they were from the same batch ... consecutive serial numbers ... both engines were pulled for testing. The bottom end of the noisy one grenaded during the test run-up at the boat yard. Big holes in the concrete. The other engine developed the same tick 20 minutes later.”

“I see,” and I did. 40 minutes or less and the bottom of the boat under the engine would have been a big hole. Trying to save her with the other engine would have blown that one, too. I gave it a think.

“They replaced the engines,” I surmised.

“Not exactly, I mentioned the work for the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency in Osaka? The Diet realized they were responsible for the engines demise ... and had them replaced with Military Specific Turbo units. Closer tolerances, special metals ... three or four times the cost. Tokashiki ... and, for that matter ... all the reasonably remote islands keep a stockpile of replacement parts and pieces, just in case.”

“They got better engines ... free.” You might say I pouted. “New Zealand didn’t do that for me.”

“You volunteered ... they were drafted.”

“Ah.”

“While they were at it, the boat got all new electronics.”

“Mil Spec?”

“Mil Spec.”

“They can talk to me?”

“They could if you had your radios upgraded.” Jingleheimer said. “Your boat is old. Everything is analog. You don’t have forward scanning sonar. Your radios barely work. Old old old.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll fix it.”

John Jakob got a hefty bonus for the heads-up and I contacted B&G Electronix.

A completely redesigned helm station featured B&G Navigation system with radar and interfaced autopilot, an Icom VHF, and a CD/DVD player/tuner/multimedia Clarion marine stereo, took two B&G techs a week, 45 hours. Electronics hookups these days are complicated—dealing with new equipment and special components that adapt older wiring to new is not typically a DIY enterprise. And the final cost of $32,000 for the redesign was cheaper than a new boat.

My new SatNav made JW sound like he was standing next to me.

“Surprise?” he said. “Where are you?”

“Funny ... I was just going to ask you that?” I said. “Where are you?”

“Sailing for Hong Kong. After that, Da Nang, then haul-out in Cam Ranh. Fix what needs fixing at the shipyard. Maybe stay a couple of weeks. Head for Singapore.”

“Why that way?”

“Fishing.”

“Okay. I can see that. Then what?”

“Phuket, across to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Repair what broke crossing the Bay of Bengal, up to Goa. Wait for our escort. See Suez, Malta, Gibraltar, places in the Med we’d like to see.

“Portugal, then the Azores, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Lawrence River, Niagara, Pentwater.

“West Virginia, Frogmorton. Be bored, do it again. Sound good?”

“Wait for me?”