Chapter 4. Tuska Sails

Compiled by Irene in part from the logs of Captain-Monsignor Angel on “Tuska.”

Before the “Tuska” sailed from LA for the Yucatan, the nerds on board were already busy setting up their computer/communication/drone center and honing their skills. All were excellent drone pilots, at sea their “graduation exercise” was a flight plan that ended by landing a high speed drone in the open drive-on/drive-off “side door” of the ship while it was under way. There were 5 young pilots who accomplished this feat with the small high speed drones. Other nerds worked on computer, communication, radar and navigation suites. This equipment that made up the command center took up the largest room above “Tuska’s” main deck, just below the bridge.

In Panama, besides picking up Martin and Irene, the ship picked up a pair of the valuable Red Cloud drones and an ultra-light amphibian aircraft which could carry 2 people.

The aircraft was a Polaris AM-FIB (for Amphibian), a well-balanced combination of a lightweight boat fitted with a large hang-glider wing plus a pusher propeller, creating a legal ultralight aircraft that can operate from the water with two people aboard. It is a clever, well considered design.

After they exited the canal most of the nerd’s flight practice was with the large long-endurance Red Clouds, which could exhaust several pilots during a long mission. Red Clouds were lighter-than-air balloons with wings, they used high-power fueled engines (from RC aircraft) to get over a target quickly. The wings gave lift to haul the fuel burned in the first stage of a flight - up to 30 miles with no winds. However, once stopped the fuel-burning engine could not be restarted in flight. On station the balloons could loiter for many hours using silent electric engines to keep position. The Red Clouds were large, but silent overhead, they were painted to blend with the sky.

Their big downside was that they had to find favorable winds or a safe location to land after a mission. The electric motors could hold station without using much power but could not move too far against the wind, so plotting out the initial ‘burn’ for the flight was critical.

When “Tuska” approached the bay a fast drone was dispatched from “King” to follow the gravel road to see if anyone had arrived at the Aztex site or was coming on the road. After circling the parking lot and the field the drone continued to the junction of the road and the paved highway. There it was landed so the camera would show any traffic that turned down the road. This drone was painted to blend with the ground and would be recovered after the party.

Friday August 22, a few hours after the drone showed no activity on the road or at the camp, “Tuska” arrived on station, it passed about 5 miles from the quay and launched a Red Cloud on a photo mission, taking pictures with both a medium resolution digital camera and a high resolution film camera of the road from the quay to the camp. Then it dropped down to take detailed low-level film pictures that would be used to produce a map of the entire Aztex camp. Next it rose higher and began to take pictures of the marsh from the planned mortar areas to the sea. It completed the photo run and returned with the film to “Tuska” which was waiting offshore from the marsh. The Aztex crew preparing the grounds was scheduled to arrive Friday afternoon.

The film pictures provided a large, very detailed map of the Aztex camp.

During the afternoon “Herbie,” now with Coche and Teti aboard, joined “Tuska” at sea. The command staff had many questions for Coche. After first insuring that the girl was of age and willing their biggest question was a route through the marsh to a firing position. They could not tell Coche they were going to shell the Aztexs, so they posed the question as historical research, as if looking to find another Mayan site located in the swamp. They said they had copies of Vatican documents from the 1500’s that showed a port used by the Mayans and the Spanish to reach the pyramid. The old port was in what was now the swamp.

They talked about how much the Caribbean had changed in the last 500 years. For instance, Port Royal was founded two years after Columbus first landed in the New World. That city was once the center of trade in the region until an earthquake and tsunami wiped it out and sank it under the sea 200 years later, taking in so completely that we don’t know exactly where it sat. (In fact, the sand on which the city rested became saturated similar to quicksand and flowed like water into the bay after being shaken by the quake, taking the city with it, so the actual location really can’t be settled with certainty.) No matter, the harbor is so good for ships that modern Kingstown was built on another side of the same harbor, where it will share Port Royal’s fate some day. It is a sign of how humans adapt ... or don’t. At that location earthquakes and tsunami’s regularly try to take that new city beneath the waves, and the locals selling “Port Royal” souvenirs act surprised each time “an unexpected disaster” happens.

The master of the “Tuska,” like the masters of the Cousin’s other ships, was addressed as “Monsignor.” This practice dated back to the formation of the shipping company by Bishop Foxe in the 1500’s. Coche understood the term so the Monsignor’s presence lent some credence to this as a legitimate Vatican project. (To be clear, it wasn’t.) The bishop originally selected the term for this very reason. Irene took the lead in most discussions. Captain Martin, who can be intimidating, was not in the room, but was listening.

Coche was very open in providing information to what was described as a “preliminary survey.”

First Coche was asked about the history of the area. He explained that when the Spanish came the land was different, they cleared the land and farmed the area. That meant taking the trees from what is now the marsh. The land was higher, hence dryer. There was good water from a river. Then, about 150 years ago, there was an earthquake that changed the landscape. An irregular area about 10 miles deep and 7 miles wide sank or eroded significantly, creating the marsh. (Presumably a layer of sand under the soil was saturated by the river and moved to sea, dropping the land.) Today most of the marsh is within a few inches, plus or minus, of sea level at high tide. The river was swallowed completely, going underground 10 miles inland. Quickly the sunken land turned into a tropical swamp or marsh where the thorny plants were very dense, choking all else. In the dense brush spiders and snakes became dominant, nothing larger could pass.