Chapter 11

Later, when Karl tried to remember how the hours of that night passed, he didn’t recall much of the trip itself. He knew that they spent the night slogging through wind and rain, meeting heavy seas and gusting winds at times, but mostly he remembered the time spent with three friends.

He also remembered brief snatches of the night such as the time they’d been listening to a station on the radio coming from somewhere in the Southern States that was talking about the flu epidemic. Linda had shut the radio off after the station’s third appeal to; “ ... send your pennies, send your dimes, send your dollars and we will pray for your sick and dying. Let ‘God’s Grace, Church of The Air’ be your path to salvation from this abominable sickness of the flesh...”

He remembered all of them trying to calm her as she ranted: “Damn Greedy Son of A Bitch Minister, trying to get rich now of all fucking times and off of the fucking sick at that. Someone should shoot the rotten bastard.”

He and Ely had convinced Keri to take her below and find a bunk, knowing that someone’s love was what Linda needed more than sleep, but perhaps one would lead to the other.

Above all, he remembered talking to Ely for hours while they caught up on each other’s lives. As they talked, the weather gradually eased until the wind had slowed and the waves had lessened. The rain continued to beat down however. Finally, near dawn, they were approaching the three islands that made up the Gull Island group and Ely went below to waken everyone. She wasn’t long in coming back from below, and when she did, she was grinning.

“Even Dad is getting up,” she laughed. “I told him it was going to be quite a while before we’d enter the cut, but he just said he wanted to see the island from the boat.”

Karl frowned. “He’s seen the island from the water before, hasn’t he?”

“I don’t know?” she said questioningly, thinking for a moment. “Oh, sure he has! Remember, we took him over to Saltspring three or four years ago, or was it before that? Anyway, I think we went for their big Lamb Barbeque party.”

“Oh yeah, it’s got to be more than three or four ago. If you recall, the kids ate something that upset their stomachs and we ran out of diapers, so I had to hunt through half the stores in town for cloth diapers,” he laughed.

“Yeah, I remember that. Perhaps it was longer ago than I thought,” she joined in with his laughter. “That’s when you came back with an armfull of flannel bed sheets that Trudy and I tore down to size so we could use them as diapers.”

“Now, what is so funny?” George said from the top of the steps going below. “Even had I not decided to come above deck previously. Your laughter would have drawn me.”

“Hi George, just chuckling about diapers,” Karl laughed, then repeated the story.

As Karl, Ely, and George talked, the others came up to join them. Keri took the helm again to give Karl a coffee break. Then out of the rain and mist, a small rocky island, the first of the short chain, appeared off their port bow. Linda glanced at the chart and was amazed at the depth of water surrounding the whole chain. She glanced at the depth sounder as if to confirm what she’d noticed, then commented on it quietly.

“Yeah, all three islands are surrounded by deep water. George thinks they’re volcanic, but I think they’re just an upthrust, a sort of ledge stood on its edge,” Karl grinned. “I’m not a geologist, but there are several fresh water springs on the island and whoever heard of volcanos having springs?”

“Lots of them,” Linda chuckled. “Haven’t you heard of Harrison Hot Springs? It’s over on the mainland, above Vancouver, and the hot springs are on a mountain that’s volcanic.”

“Well the springs on the island aren’t hot and they’re not loaded with minerals either. Instead, they’re exceptionally pure and untainted. Besides, lots of the islands in the strait have springs and nobody thinks the other islands are volcanic. I’m not sure where I heard it, but someone told me that the springs feeding St. Mary’s Lake on Saltspring Island have been traced back to the Olympic mountains in Washington State and that the stone is sedimentary. Now whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, but Saltspring Island isn’t all that far away from us.”

“Whatever,” Linda laughed softly. “I’m just glad we won’t be short of water.”

“Well if the quake didn’t wipe it out, the cabin has hot and cold running water and electricity, all because of those springs,” he grinned “George’s place is the same.”

“It doesn’t sound much like what a person would usually expect in an isolated cabin,” she smiled.

“Karl calls it a cabin,” Keri chuckled. “The rest of us think of it as a house.”

They were able to see another island now and Linda noticed that both of them had steep cliffs, streaked with white. There was so much white that both small islands seemed almost as if they glowed in the dusky light of early dawn. Even though the rain had eased from the former downpour, it was still quite heavy with the clouds hanging very low. Everything was scarcely lit by the rising sun, but even though the light was quite dim, both islands were clearly visible.

“These two islands are sure different from any I’ve ever seen,” Linda commented. “Why are they white like that?”

“Birds,” Karl snorted. “That’s nothing, but bird shit. I think half the birds in the strait nest on this string of islands.”

“Oh,” Linda frowned. “Is the island we’re going to like that? I mean, is it covered with bird dung?”

“Oh no! Only the steepest cliffs,” Karl shook his head. “Someone dumped some cats on Gull Island years ago and they went wild. We’ll have to keep old Evinrude inside. The feral cats would probably kill him otherwise. They’re a bloody nuisance. I know they keep the birds down, but they get into everything and they’re vicious as hell. You want to be damn careful of them.”

“I see,” Linda frowned again. “By the way, those islands look completely bare, didn’t you mention a garden?”

Karl laughed and nodded his head. “Yeah, I do have one, now. When I tried to grow a garden at first, the cat’s dug it up. They used it as an oversized litter box, then the birds ate anything that grew from any of the seeds that were still in the ground. Next I tried growing lettuce and plants like that on the window ledges, in pots. That never worked out well either. The lettuce always bolted to seed and I forgot to water dang things. Now I’ve got a fenced and screened garden patch that I use if I’m going to be home for a while.”

“Linda, he’s being modest. He even has a timed watering system,” George chuckled. “His garden must be half a hectare in size. Then he has several fruit trees and a berry patch too. It is my contention that he is a farmer at heart.”

“You never argue when I bring over some berries or a few fresh vegies,” Karl grinned.

“No,” George said seriously. “I suppose that now, since we shall be forced to be permanent residents, it might be best if we start a garden as well. I doubt if we will be able to arrange for a regular grocery delivery for some time in the future.”

“Yeah, that’s another worry. I just hope the power stayed on,” Karl’s forehead creased into a frown. “I didn’t ask you before, but was your freezer stocked when you left the island last time?”

“It was,” Trudy smiled softly. “And so was the pantry. So if the earthquake didn’t damage anything too badly, we’ll easily have enough food to last a year. In fact even if the freezer died, I think we’d be okay for a few months. We have a tremendous amount of dried food and canned goods.”

“That’s good. I wasn’t expecting quite this mob,” Karl grinned. “But I’ve probably got quite a bit too. I usually try to keep my pantry well-stocked.”

“Yeah, as well as that you’ve got the garden, goats, chickens and even an orchard,” Trudy rejoined. “Your cool cellar usually looks like you were preparing to feed an army.”

“Well, you never know what’s going to happen,” Karl sighed. “I do like to be ready for problems, just in case.”

Meanwhile, they had passed the first island they’d seen, they were even with a second and could make out a third island which was even larger, but further ahead of them

“Is that it?” Linda asked.

“Unh huh, that’s home,” Karl nodded. “I think I should take us in.”

“Oh yes, I was going to ask you to do it,” Keri sighed. “I’d be willing to do it, if we were in a dinghy, but I wouldn’t even dare to try with something this big.”

Karl smiled and lifted the cat from his lap to take the wheel as she stepped back. He adjusted one or two controls carefully.

“You did a great job last night,” he grinned at her.”Thank you for all your help.”

“Well, thanks for the encouragement,” she grinned back. “I had some good teachers and this is a great boat.”

“I’m glad you like her,” he smiled, dropping an arm around her shoulders to hug her gently for a second before concentrating fully on his controls.

Karl glanced up at the radar as he took the wheel, then did a double take.

“Keri, did you notice how long that boat has been following us?” he asked, grabbing the binoculars and stepping to one of the windows that faced astern.

“Shit, I never saw it at all. It can’t have been there for long,” she stepped back near the wheel even while looking back over the stern.

“Oh man. It’s a big sucker,” Karl frowned. “I can’t tell who it is, military colours though, so I imagine it’s Navy. George, could you see what you can hear on the radio, check both military and civilian channels. Keri, take the wheel again, keep the throttle where it is and steer the same course we’re on now. Don’t swing to starboard the way we usually would. This heading will take us around the island the long way, on the port side.”

He stared back through the glasses.

“She’s holding at about the same distance,” he said slowly. “I think she’s assuming that she’s in our radar shadow by following in our wake. Damn rain. I can hardly make her out.”

George had turned the radio up and was monitoring the regular marine traffic channels, but was getting nothing.

“If they were trying to overtake us, wouldn’t they call?” he asked.

“Yeah, that’s what worries me,” Karl said, his face frowning deeply. “I can’t make out much about who or what she is either. I don’t see a flag, I can’t even make out what colour she is for certain, except that she’s painted in drab tones. Since she’s just on the edge of my view and the rain is interfering, the glasses don’t help much. Ely, what can you tell on the radar?”

“Only that it’s directly behind us, running in our wake and staying either at or very near the same speed as we are.”

“Okay,” Karl drawled slowly, thinking furiously.

He dropped the glasses and looked around, checking where they were on the GPS, then looking at the island. Suddenly he looked thoughtful.

“Keri, keep going on this heading, but as we clear the end of the island, swing to starboard so we stay about the same distance from shore as we are when we get off the point of the island. It’ll look to them as if we were going to head for a point off of our starboard bow. Keep the turn gentle and increase the throttle just a touch as you begin your swing, not much, just five percent or so. Ely, once that ship disappears into the radar shadow of the island let Keri know, that will mean they’ve lost us as well. When she tells you that Keri, I want you to bring the throttle to full speed, then cut to starboard so you barely miss the cliffs of the Island as you go by. And I mean I want you to go real close to the rocks. It drops off fast all along there, so you can get close enough to almost scrape the paint on the hull. George, stay on the radio, if anything important comes in while we’re on deck, Trudy can shout at us. Linda, I need some of the powdered laundry soap, just grab the box, and a big plastic canister from the galley. About this long,” he gestured with his hands, then rummaged in a drawer for a moment.

“George, make sure all the CB radios are off would you? In fact, pull the power fuses or the batteries if you can,” he was speaking quickly as he pulled a pair of small walkie talkies out of the drawer and tested them to get a feedback squeal. He reached up to take a small box from another drawer and then stood up and moved to the ladder.

“Be right back,” he called and ran down below.

“Where do you want this container?” Linda called up from below decks.

“I’ll take that and I’ll be right back. Go up top and see if I have any more tape in one of the drawers will you? Black electrical tape. Oh, and dig out the black powder for the musket.”

“All right.”

“What’s he up to?” Linda asked George as she came back up the ladder from below.

“He’s ‘MacGyvoring‘, turning junk into something that he believes we can use to get out of this predicament,” George said firmly. “We’ve seen this sort of reaction on previous occasions. I’m not exactly certain what he is about to do, but whatever it is, I have faith that it will work to our advantage. I suggest that we all stand by, willing to assist if he needs help in any way, but without interfering with his movements or actions.”

“Fine by me,” Linda said, finding a new roll of electric tape and hauling out the red painted, metal box of black powder from the cabinet where it had been stored.

Then Karl came running back from below, carrying the plastic container. He reached into a cabinet and took out several of the old outdated flares from the box that was stored there. Using an old hunting knife, he cut and scored the cardboard casings, particularly near the ends. Placing them carefully, he managed to cram several of them inside the container. He alternated their direction so an equal number pointed one way or the other, packing them as tightly as he could. In fact, he was jamming them into the container so tightly that they locked together.

At that point he looked up and frowned as he looked at them all. “Now, please don’t bump me or operate anything electrical for a few minutes. George, that means the radios too. Keri, don’t move any controls, except the steering,”

With that he placed one of the walkie talkies on top of the flares, sliding the antenna through a hole in the wall of the container. It was minus its case, but wrapped in clear plastic wrap, fastened with black electrical tape. Two wires lead from the radio to what looked like a small, broken light bulb which he handled very gently. Once everything was carefully placed where he wanted it, he opened the red metal box of gunpowder and gently covered the broken bulb with a small amount of the black powder. Then he carefully laid a sheet of newspaper over that. At that point, he grabbed the laundry soap and filled the container to the brim, then glanced around at everyone as he picked up a small can of liquid and slowly poured it over the soap powder. Finally, he closed the lid of the container, taping it in place, then he wrapped the whole package in a layer of plastic and sealed the joints with tape. The only part still exposed was the antenna, but the joint of that and the plastic was quickly sealed with tape as well. Leaping to his feet with the package, he grabbed his rain gear.

“Linda, grab your raincoat and come help,” he ordered. “George and Keri, all radios and electric switches should be okay now, but unless it’s an emergency, leave them untouched for another few minutes, just in case.”

Out on deck, Karl had Linda untie the partially full oil drum that had been lashed against the back of the wheelhouse and roll it to the edge of the deck near the stern. Meanwhile he pulled the old dinghy that Ely and the others had towed behind their boat to the edge of the deck. With Linda’s help, Karl got it over the side and clambered down into it, then he hurriedly jammed the container he had built underneath a seat and tied it in place. With Linda’s help he got the barrel down into the little boat as well. He opened the bung of the barrel and poured about a gallon of marine gas inside. Grabbing the drum and tipping it, he sloshed it back and forth violently by rolling and twisting it, then he tipped it on its side so the liquid was pouring out through the open bung. He doused the whole inside of the dinghy with gasoline, then he climbed back aboard the ‘Skolka’ and allowed the dinghy to drop astern on the end of a long rope.

“Whew,” he sighed deeply. “I think that should do the job.”

“Just what the hell is a plastic container of flares, some gasoline, and a partly full drum of diesel fuel, all thrown into an old wooden dinghy going to do?” Linda snapped.

“Confuse people, I hope,” Karl chuckled.

Just then, the ‘Skolka’ began to speed up and they changed direction drastically. Karl waited a moment or two, then he released the rope on the dinghy. He and Linda watched it drop behind them for a moment or two more.

“Let’s get inside,” he called, running for the wheelhouse

Linda followed hurriedly and was there in time to see him pick up the other walkie talkie.

“Anything on the radio yet?” Karl asked George.

“Nothing, but I don’t...”

“Sh,” Karl grinned. “It’s about time.”

He lifted the walkie talkie to his mouth and depressed the send button.

“Boom,” he said sharply.

Three or four hundred feet astern, his word was magnified several thousand times. A massive sheet of flame erupted and everyone, including Karl, jumped in surprise. In seconds the flame was gone, replaced by a huge, expanding cloud of black smoke, but Karl was laughing almost hysterically.

“Holy Christ,” George whispered

“I always wanted to do that, just once,” Karl laughed. “Now Keri, may I take over the wheel again, please? Oh, and there are no more worries about electrical switches or radios either, Just don’t touch the mic’s, so you don’t accidentally send out any signals.”

Keri, as well as the other women seemed to have been struck dumb, but she moved aside to let Karl take her place. He jammed the throttle as far forward as he could and, although Keri had been steering the boat quite close to the massive cliffs of the island, he turned the wheel slightly and moved even closer.

The cliffs rushed by less than a hundred feet from their side and Karl kept edging ever closer as they passed around the outer end of the island.

“Anything back there on radar yet,” he asked, attentively watching their position.

“Unh, uh. No,” Ely answered, glancing at the screen. “Nothing anywhere.”

“Great,” Karl said softly. “George, anything on the radio? If that bomb I made worked, we should hear something soon I think.”

“Nothing on the regular marine channels, but I might have something on the military channels. Just a second, I was listening in on the earphones so as not to disturb anyone. Here it is on the speaker.”

“Inflatable crafts four and six, ready to deploy sir, “ a voice suddenly came from the speaker.

“Shove off, Lieutenant, although after a blast of that magnitude, I doubt you’ll find much but debris, “ another voice answered. “We will heave to momentarily. The water here is too deep to anchor readily.“

“Yes!” Karl exalted. “I think that’s it, George.”

“What the heck do you expect them to do?” Ely asked.

“Well, I’m hoping that they think we just altered course slightly, and were staying well away from the island. I tried to make then think that we did something stupid and blew ourselves up,” Karl grinned. “If we can manage to get into the channel before they follow us, or pinpoint us on radar, we’ve got it made.”

“Karl,” she said sharply, staring up at the radar. “There’s another image, probably a boat, just on the edge of the radar screen. It’s well out in the strait and on our port side.”

“Shit!” Karl snapped, leaning back to glance up at the screen.

The radio came to life again.

“YAG319, this is YAG312, come in please. 319 to 312, over.“

“YAG319 here, 312. Approaching your position from east north east. Have you anything further on that explosion you reported? Over.“

“Negative, 319, the captain requests that you advise on your radar observations. Over.“

“Affirmative 312. Suspect vessel appeared to be heading away from your vicinity at approximately ten knots, that is one zero knots, when she faded from our screen while appearing to make a sharp turn to starboard. All that was left behind was a ghost image. Immediately thereafter a detonation was heard and even the ghost image of the vessel vanished from our screens.“

Karl stared at Ely momentarily, then looked at George.

“We must be close enough to the shore that they’re reading us as part of the island,” he suggested

“Well, there is the masking effect of the rain, along with the wind and waves, then too this is a wooden boat. As long as they aren’t using Doppler radar or infrared we just might disappear as far as they’re concerned. We must blend into the background of the island, while the surf against the shoreline provides a background hash that is masking our motion. Of course all of those suppositions are provisional on the fact that they are operating at a distance which allows the relative inaccuracies of their system to induce unrecognisable errors,” George said thoughtfully. “Even our movement could be mistaken as the standing wave from the explosion as it rushes along the shoreline.”

“They’re at least five miles out,” Ely said immediately. “Does that mean anything?”

“Let’s hope they don’t do anything different for ten minutes,” Karl muttered. “We’ll be at the cove by then and once we slip in there we should be okay. At least I hope so.”

“Yeah, if they don’t see us rounding the corner,” Linda smiled. “But we do seem to have horseshoes up our butts.”

“Nonsense,” George said vehemently. “There is little luck involved. Karl assessed the situation, then instigated the appropriate action. He has always created his own luck.”

“Not this time George,” Karl said softly. “I’m no military strategist. As Linda said, we were just lucky.”

“That, my young friend, is half of the reason many battles are won. Someone combines good tactics with great intelligence and has a bit of luck come along. Bingo, they win and the other side loses.”

Karl just shook his head and eased the boat even closer to the rocks. Now, there was only about a boat length between them and the cliff. Linda was watching the passing rock in fascination. She would have sworn that no one could have lived there and from her view, she couldn’t see why anyone would want to. Sheer cliffs, topped with scraggly trees and shrubs, lifted up from sheer rocky shorelines, the overall effect appearing barren and forlorn. Most of the cliff walls were stained with streaks of white and hundreds of birds wheeled in the sky or perched amongst the windswept remains of struggling trees.

“Hey,” she said, suddenly pointing at a tree. “There’s a cat up in that tree.”

“Yeah, a fucking feral cat,” Keri said shortly. “I shoot them when I can.”

“What?” Linda stared at her.

“I thought we told you. Someone dumped a cat and a bunch of kittens on the island years ago,” Keri growled. “We had one tom cat and he must have been a horny son of a bitch, on top of that those kittens must have all been female. Now there are feral cats everywhere. They kill all the birds and the small animals that they can catch. I hate them.”

“But I thought you liked Evinrude, Karl’s cat.”

“He’s different. He’s tame and he’s neutered, I checked,” Keri snorted. “Besides, even if he’s as thin as a rake, he’s big. All the wild cats on the island are little shits, half his size, damn scrawny, sickly things. It’s a mercy to put them out of their misery.”

Linda looked at her as if she were seeing a stranger.

“Linda, I’m sorry to say she’s right,” George said softly. “On the Island, the feral cats have no natural predators. They kill birds, snakes, squirrels, even frogs and when they can, small fish. Karl and I have even taught David and Mary Beth to carry and use pellet guns. Just ask Karl what they do to his flower beds.”

“Flower beds? What do they do, eat the flowers?” she asked as she turned to Karl.

“They like freshly turned earth,” he grinned. “It’s their idea of a perfect toilet.”

“Oh,” she laughed uneasily.

“It’s not funny unfortunately,” Trudy piped up, surprising everyone. “I’d love to have a flower bed at the house, but the cats would just ruin it, so I’ve never bothered. Karl tries, but then he has that damn wolf to help him keep the cats away.”

“He’s not a wolf,” Karl laughed. “I’ve told you. He’s a cross between a coyote and a Bouvier. And, he’s as gentle as hell. The kids love him.”

“Hmph,” Ely snorted. “He loves you, and David, I guess, but he barely tolerates the rest of us. I think he lives on cats.”

“You mean he eats them?” Linda said in surprise. “Don’t you feed him, Karl?”

“I try. He usually won’t eat dog food, only raw meat,” Karl said carefully.”I thought I was going to have to get rid of him when I got the first of the goats, but he guards them as if they were his family. He’s the same with the chickens.”

“Is he dangerous?”

“Not to any of us,” Keri grinned. “He’s as close to me as anyone except Karl and David. He loves to hunt with me. But I don’t know what he eats. It isn’t cats though. He loves to kill them, then he just walks off as if they’re of no interest to him, that is if he doesn’t cock his leg and piddle on them as if they disgust him.”

“Then you have no cats in your houses?” Linda asked.

“Oh we’ve tried. The kids had a pet cat for a while, but it got out and the feral cats killed it. Karl even had a cat until last year, but I think it died of old age,” Keri volunteered.

“The dog didn’t kill it?”

“Oh heck no, they slept together; on a rug at the end of Karl’s bed if it was cold, or out on the front porch in mild weather.”

As they had been talking, the boat had been moving rapidly around the island.

“I think we’re home free,” Karl sighed softly as he adjusted their heading to swing around a small point. “Anything else from the Navy, George?”

“Not one word about seeing anything on their radar,” George answered.

They turned into what appeared to be a small bay with sheer walls. Karl cut back the throttle drastically as he steered toward a small notch that appeared at the top of the cliff and he glanced from side to side, lining the boat up in an extremely fussy manner. It wasn’t until they were coming from exactly the right direction and were only about a hundred yards from what looked like a continuous cliff face that Karl swung the nose of the boat slightly. Then as if by magic a channel suddenly appeared out of the seemingly solid cliff before them.

Linda stared in surprise as the rock face seemed to part to show a narrow stretch of water. Even now, near slack water at high tide, tidal rips ran along the outer edges, showing small swirls and ripples in the water surface. In a moment they were headed into the narrow opening and Karl eased the throttle into a more open position for a few seconds. Their speed increased slightly and Linda felt her heart in her throat as the rock walls slid past. She stared ahead at a sheer cliff. There seemed nowhere to go. Karl swung the wheel hard over into a turn and after a few seconds, he reversed engines momentarily, cramming the wheel hard over in the other direction while opening the throttle. He had to, in order to slow the boat before it hit the blank wall. Everyone stared as that rock face seemed to slide by, only inches from the bow of the boat.

No one spoke, but Karl had to smile at the group sigh as the boat missed the wall. He eased forward, heading down the channel again. He steered the boat carefully, keeping it well away from dangerous looking swirls and eddies along the bank as they crept steadily forward. Now they were almost crawling around bends and down short straighter sections. Then off to one side and just ahead of them, the rock had a different colour. Karl noticed it instantly.

“Damn, there’s been a rock fall,” he said in a low voice, almost a whisper, as he reversed engines for a short time to slow them even more.

The water ahead of them appeared to be surging, almost boiling. Just then the depth sounder screamed.

“Oh shit. Keri, how deep is the water? I can’t look over there right now,” he barked impatiently.

“It’s okay. The alarm was set at fifty feet,” she answered almost instantly. “The bottom’s almost thirty feet down. I’ve shut off the alarm.”

Karl had slowed the boat to a creeping pace, barely cresting the oncoming current.

“Thank you. Call out the depths as we move,” he ordered. “Ely, Linda, and Trudy, get out on deck with boat hooks and if I need help, be ready, but don’t push us off unless I ask for it.”

“Eighteen feet,” Keri said loudly as the other women rushed out on deck.

“Only tell me if it gets to be less than ten feet,” Karl modified his earlier order. “Remember that we draw between five and six feet. After that we’re clear.”