Chapter 7

Karl may have dozed off for a few moments in the next two hours, but he rather doubted it. Instead he felt as though all he’d done was toss and turn in anxiety.

Most of the time he was trying to think of a way to get six people aboard the ‘Skolka’ in near gale force winds, and those people were bound to be bringing along possessions and all sorts of other gear. Most of his thoughts revolved around conditions brought on by being unable to dock, because he was certain the dock would have been destroyed in either an earthquake or a tsunami. He’d watched for any signs of a dock as they has steamed past the first island in the chain, but hadn’t seen anything of the sort. With that in mind, he tried to think of various ways to get George and his family safely aboard while not damaging the boat.

The only lifting arrangements he had on board were the davits that he used for his dinghy and a small, relatively fragile crane, but both were strictly temporary arrangements. The temporary crane was dismantled and stored in a crate on deck, but it wasn’t very strong. It was built of salvaged piping, coupled with a hand winch and was meant to be used to lift forty-five gallon barrels of fuel aboard, but then only if no other method was available. Neither the davits, nor the crane would be able to lift anything more than eight or nine hundred pounds. On top of that, neither of them was stable enough to be used in rough water and both of them would be extremely difficult to use in the dark. That virtually eliminated any attempt to lift anything important, so he certainly wouldn’t trust either setup to lift a person except in an emergency.

That meant he had to think of a way to lift a paraplegic almost six feet, bringing him up from water level to the deck while using only human muscles. George wasn’t helpless, but he definitely wasn’t muscular. He was going to need to have assistance to get aboard, no matter how it was done. That in turn meant that there had to be another boat involved, probably a much smaller one, and in heavy seas, that was going to be a major problem. Each passing wave would cause the boats to move in various directions at various times which was an easy way to get someone hurt or even killed. The only way he could see that they could safely transfer people from a smaller boat to the ‘Skolka’ was to do it in calm water, but calm water was a rare commodity at the moment.

At that point Karl’s mind began to contemplate wilder and more difficult schemes. He wondered if he could anchor the ‘Skolka’ offshore of George’s house and somehow get a rope ashore, then rig a temporary bosun’s chair arrangement to winch people aboard. Then he remembered the partly full drum of diesel tied to the after side of his wheelhouse and he put that together with the idea that oil on the top of water reduced the wave height. He wondered if he dumped that diesel overboard if it would lessen the waves enough, but he had doubts of that.

Finally he gave up trying to think of alternate solutions in utter defeat. Somehow he was going to have to either dock the ‘Skolka’ or else he needed to shepherd George’s smaller boat into calm water to safely manage any transfer. After he’d reached that conclusion, he tried to force himself to fall asleep, but sound of the howling winds outside the boat prevented that. Sleep simply wasn’t possible. All he did was toss and turn, growing more and more frustrated with the situation as time passed.

He could only listen to the howling winds for so long while lying on the bunk though. He knew that Linda would call him if there was any problem, but he felt as if the coming situation was out of his control and he wanted to do something to improve the odds of success. He took the time to shower before he headed for the wheelhouse and found that there was a pot of freshly made coffee on the stove as he passed through the galley. He poured two cups, taking them with him as he ascended the steps into the darkened wheelhouse.

“Hi there,” Linda smiled. “I heard you tossing and turning in your bunk, then in the shower, couldn’t you sleep?”

“Nope,” he answered as he waited a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, then set down the coffee and took her into his arms. “I missed my sleeping potion.”

“Sorry,” she sighed. “But like you said, someone had to watch out for problems if they should crop up.”

“I know,” he said shortly. “But what with missing your loving, as well as just too much wind noise, I simply couldn’t sleep.”

“Yeah,” she snuggled against his chest. “I know what you mean about the wind. I’m glad we’re in shelter. At least you were lying down and resting.”

“Some rest. Most of the time I was trying to think of ways to pick up our passengers safely, but I struck out,” he laughed sardonically. “What does the weather man say?”

“According to him, the storm is lessening a bit, but he hedged his bets by saying it could get worse,”

Karl looked out the windows, his eyes now more accustomed to the lack of light, but he still couldn’t see anything.

“I’m going to switch on some outside lights for a short while,” he said, moving away from her, over to the dashboard and the controls.

“Close your eyes for a second,” he warned as he threw a switch.

The foredeck and perhaps a hundred and fifty feet of storm ruffled water ahead of the boat was suddenly lit up. They were sheltered from the worst of the wind coming over the steep banks behind them, but at the far end of the illuminated area, the waves were already building on the water. He threw another switch and the stern deck was alight as well, now they could see all the way to the towering cliffs that stood on both sides and behind them. Although the windows were somewhat obscured by the falling rain, they could still make out most items on deck and everything appeared to be riding out the storm well.

“Okay, now for the gamble,” Karl sighed softly. “I’m hoping no one is close enough to see our search light.”

He switched on the search light and swung it down the small bay where they were sheltered. On each side, cliffs towered a hundred feet or more above the water level, the rock face broken here and there by trees clinging precariously to the steep rocky banks. Rivulets of water gleamed and glistened as they fell to the water below. The further away from the boat that Karl aimed the light, the larger the waves grew, until they ran away out of sight into the darkness. By then he estimated them to be at least three feet high and their tops were broken by white spume, even though still inside the little bay.

“Not a fit night for man nor beast,” he said slowly. “Not unless you intend to be hidden in a storm while you smuggle people out of the country.”

“It looks bad,” Linda frowned. “If anything, it’s worse than when we were out on the water.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Karl laughed softly, switching off the search light, then the other lights. “It was fairly rough out there before, but you were used to it then. Now it looks worse because we’ve been sitting in calmer water for a while. I haven’t a clue how we’re going to pick up George though. I’m impatient as hell waiting for his call so we can figure out what we’re going to do.”

“You really can’t be planning to try to pick him up out on the water, are you?”

“Well, we can’t get near the shore with this boat and he seemed to imply that there was no other way to get aboard. To be honest, I’d like to see if we could go there, have them meet us on the water and try to bring them back here, using the ‘Skolka’ as wind break or rather as a portable breakwater of sorts.” Karl suggested. “We’ll just have to talk to him, now that we’re here and this close...”

He let his words trail off with a sigh.

“When you talked to him before, what time did he say to call?” she asked.

“About midnight, it’s only ten-thirty now.”

“As impatient as you are, why not try?” she shrugged. “He can’t be much less impatient. If I was waiting for a rescue, I’d be on pins and needles by now.”

“Well, I guess we could try.”

He turned and switched on the night lights in the cabin, then sat down at the radio, switching it on as well. After waiting for a moment for it to warm up and steady down, he lifted the mic. to his mouth.

“Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn’t keep her, but now he’s standing by” Karl said into the microphone.

“Pudding and pie.” George’s voice came booming back immediately, so loud that the radio squealed. “Cut the DBs, huh?”

Karl lowered the gain on the radio before using the mic. again.

“You too.”

“Better?”

“Much, too close for comfort.”

“Oh, where.”

“Jack knifed and storm battered, but fine and floating.”

“That fast?”

“Double time. Storm tossed, tide pressed and fleet footed. You got visitors?”

“No contact. Pigs on the horizon in seventy-two or so.”

“Ouch! Well, with us. They came. We saw. Rain came. We left. Vision obscured. Ident negative.”

“Wonderful for you, damn small chance here.”

“Oh no! Cancellation?”

“Tough with storm. Plus danger walking.”

“Hang time uncertain. Tonight okay, then questions arise; whither will the winds blow?”

“Momento, Mi Amigo. Conferencia.”

“Si mi amigo.”

Karl looked at Linda as the radio went silent and shook his head.

“This doesn’t look good. The storm might be just too strong for them to get out to us and going in close to shore might just be too dangerous.”

“We’re too close and we came through too damn much to just give up,” she frowned at him.

“Yeah, I know, but with our draft we can’t go ashore, and if the storm turns so the wind blows from the south, we’ll be in trouble here.”

“Where is George’s place actually at?”

Karl stepped over to the chart table and pointed to the last island in the chain.

“George’s house is here on this island - I think about here and we’re over here,” he pointed a finger at one spot on the chart, then to an island near the other end of the chain. “His house is high on a hill and at least a quarter of a mile from their boat house, which sits right on the shore of the bay, so they have to get down that hill. Next they’d have to get a boat afloat without capsizing it, then get out to us while we stand by in the storm. After that we have to get them aboard and I’d like to do it all without anyone seeing us. Since there are several families living on the island, it has to be done after dark. Otherwise, sure as shooting there are bound to be several witnesses and when you get more than two witnesses, one of them is bound to be a fink.”

“I see,” Linda sighed, staring at the chart. “And we don’t know what they’ve got in the way of a boat or anything, do we?”

“No, just imagine if they have to get through a quarter mile of debris to get to the boathouse, like we had to get through to get down the hill when I found you. That could take a day or more in itself, particularly if George is in a wheelchair.”

“That’s just what I was thinking,” Linda frowned.

Suddenly the radio clicked loudly; “Hibernation is over. The Bear waddles.”

Karl stepped back to it and picked up the mic. answering instantly; “Ah, oui monsieur.”

“Chatter is indicated. The worry is ears. Try happy heaven with the kid’s orchestra?”

Karl frowned for a second, then grinned.

“The conductor needs to wait for the fiddler to tune up, gimme five?”

“Gotcha. See ya later, in the playground.”

Karl moved to another radio, switching the first one to standby.

“All right, what’s happy heaven?” Linda frowned as she asked Karl.

“He meant channel seven. Haven’t you heard of seventh heaven?” he asked.

“And a kid’s orchestra?”

“Citizen band, you know how kids love to play with walkie talkies. George is suggesting channel seven on the CB,” Karl grinned as he switched on his CB radio. “The problem is that this set is old and it needs to warm up, then it drifts a bit for the first few minutes.”

“Then why change radios? We could hear George clearly on the other one.”

“And so could anyone else with a marine band radio for hundreds of miles,” Karl explained. “Citizen band is strictly good for line of sight, maybe ten or fifteen miles at the most.”

“You guys and your codes, and knowing so much about radios,” she shook her head. “It sounds a bit melodramatic to me.”

“It might be,” Karl said slowly. “But, we’re here illegally and we’re planning on smuggling people across the border into Canadian waters. That’s a federal offense on both sides of the border. I’d rather be cautious than caught.”

He picked up another microphone.

“Allee, allee outs in free. Is that a bear up in the tree?” he said slowly.

“Right on. We should be in the clear for a few minutes. Are you safe where you are for at least four or five hours?”

“We should be okay. The wind is blowing over us and down the cut. We’re anchored solidly enough to hang against the winds hitting us at the moment.”

“You are in Cove where Jack carved the pumpkin, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, we got here a couple of hours ago. The cliffs are protecting us from the wind at the moment, so we’re snug as a bug, at least for now.”

“As long as the wind doesn’t turn, right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Well, we’ve lucked out here. We’re at the boat house already. My old Chris was holed, but it was up on the cradle, so the girls did a patch that will keep her afloat for a few hours. The engine seems fine and we’ve got a dinghy sitting on the stern deck if we need it, so we’re going to come to you.”

“Is that safe? That’s just a runabout, a fair weather boat. We can come there,” Karl argued

“Unh uh, we’ve managed to clear the ways on the cradle, but once we launch ... Well, the cable is gone, snapped in two, so we’re tied with rope, but once we’re underway, we’re committed. There’s nowhere here where the wind is broken by cliffs, which means getting onto your boat would be practically impossible. Like I said, we’ll come to you and we’ll transfer to your boat in the shelter of your present moorage. The calmer winds in that cove will make it easier to get everyone aboard safely.”

“I could get the derrick rigged and working, could we run parallel and manage a lift, at least for you?”

“Not in this wind you won’t, but I think we can make it to you with no problem. I’ll stay on the radio, so if we do get into trouble, you can come to us.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if we came and acted as escort, sort of a moving breakwater? We could always come back here for the transfer.”

There was a brief silence from the radio.

“How long would it take for you to get here?”

“Probably an hour or more, by the time we get steam up,” Karl frowned, checking his steam gauge, but knowing that he’d let the pressure fall to standby, so even as he was talking on the radio he fired the boiler to bring the pressure back up to running pressure.

“And how long to beat back there with us? At least another hour and a half, or maybe two hours, right.”

“I suppose,” Karl admitted.

“Cap’n Jack, you jus’ stay wheah you is. You bin runnin’ the risks ‘til naow, you res’ up. Ah’s got this show undah mah wing and Ah’s planned it all out. You jes set back an’ reeeelax, Mammy’s on the way.” The voice on the radio was now female with a heavy and very fake southern drawl.

Karl had to laugh. “Are you sure, Mammy?”

“Yep, now shush yo mouf, we is gonna be busy heah foah a bit, so’s we cain’t talk, but we be back showtly. Give us til ‘bout midnight or so ta git this thing ova ta yor neck o’ ta woods. We’ll call ya back then. Ova an’ out fer naow.”

The signal cut off.

“Damn that woman,” Karl growled, setting down the mic. and standing up to pace to the back of the cabin and stare out the window at the cliffs behind them.

“Who was that anyway?” Linda asked.

“Hm?” Karl said turning to look at her.

“That woman, on the radio, who was she?”

“Oh, that was Ely, George’s oldest daughter.”

“Was she putting on that voice?”

“Oh the voice was a put on, but she’s black. Well actually, she’s brown, light brown, like coffee with lots of cream. I guess you could say she’s half and half; her mother was black and George is white. Her sister, Keri, is far lighter, her skin looks like cream all alone in the cup.”

“What are they like? Are they pretty?”

“Hell, they’re beautiful,” he laughed softly. “At least to look at. Ely is the older of the two by a few months and more of a natural leader, while Keri is more of a follower. Well part of the time, but she’s the rebel of the two. Ely is willing to take her time to dot every ‘I’ and cross every ‘T’, while Keri often takes short cuts to get things done just as soon as possible. Ely trained as a nurse, but she at one time she even owned a fishboat, so she’s self-sufficient and a reliable person to have around. Meanwhile Keri has worked at several different jobs, and she’s willing to tackle almost anything, but what she best at is piloting a plane or even a helicopter. That’s the one thing she does where she refuses to take shortcuts, because she knows it could kill her and her passengers. As far as boats are concerned they were both my students, so I’d trust them on board almost anything that floats.”

“Both of them sound quite competent,” Linda smiled as he paused.

“Oh sure, they’re competent, but sometimes ... sometimes Ely is so damn certain of their ability that she becomes overconfident. This time that overconfidence might be getting them into deep trouble.”

“As if we aren’t in trouble ourselves,” Linda gestured toward the raging storm outside the windows. “We had to sneak in and we had a rough ride getting here.”

“That’s exactly what I mean. We had a hard enough time getting here and in finding this bay, but this boat is designed to handle rough weather. They’re in a runabout that isn’t built for big waves and on top of that, they’ve had to do a patch job on it, just to get it to float.”

The radio broke up their discussion.

“Whoopee, What a ride, but we’re under way,” George’s voice spoke again. “Ely just slashed the ropes holding us to the top of the marine ways and we slid into the water like we were launching a ship. We must have been doing ten miles an hour when we hit the water. Thank goodness we went in bow first.”

“How are you doing?” Karl asked.

“It’s rough, but we’re handling it. We can’t make much speed in these waves, but the patch seems to be holding quite well, so we’re not taking on much water. We’ve got five bodies that can bail the boat if need be.”

“Keep an eye on that patch, it may start leaking from the pounding it’s getting in these waves.”

“Aye, aye Cap’n.” George answered. “Now don’t bug us. We’re busy.”

“I’ll just bet they are,” Karl sighed as he put down the mic. “Damn, I wish I could get close, just in case they need help, but we might miss them in the dark, then what the hell would we do.”

“Couldn’t we see them on radar?”

“Possibly, but they’d have a tiny radar profile and they were quite insistent that we stay put. There might be some reason that they don’t want to mention on the radio.”

They sat in silence for several minutes, Linda petting the tomcat and Karl fussing with the short wave radio.

“What are you doing?” Linda asked as he scanned slowly across the dial, but with the sound turned low.

“I was just checking for local radio traffic,” Karl explained. “I’m hoping that the local authorities are asleep at the switch, but I’m listening just in case.”

“We’re across the first gap between the islands and in calmer water again.” George’s voice announced. “Keri and the kids are bailing since we took on a fair bit of water as we hit the higher waves. It came in from a freak wave over the stern and you were right, the patch is leaking a bit, but we’re all okay, even if we are slightly shook up. Be sure you stay where you are. Keep radio silence, but be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.”

Karl listened to him and reached over to the boiler controls, adjusting one or two slightly before he spoke.

“George has to think someone can either see or hear him,” he said. “I really don’t understand.”

“I think you should just trust him,” Linda suggested.

“I know, but they’re family, I want to be out there helping them.”

“I understand,” she smiled, touching his hand. “Knowing what little I do about you, I see you as more of a man of action than a couch potato. You don’t seem to like waiting, so I can understand why you’re edgy.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he said slowly, going back to scanning the radio bands.

Linda stood and sighed slowly.

“Okay, I’ll admit it; the waiting has gotten to me too. I’m going below and making sure we’ve got everything ready. I was wondering what you think, should I leave the table as it is, or make up the bunk there?”

“I’d leave the table up for now,” Karl advised. “After fighting their way here, they’re probably going to want to warm up and I’m not even sure we’re going to need that table as a bunk. I don’t know who will sleep where or if it matters. We’ve got two spare bunks and while we’re under way we won’t be using the captain’s berth much, so we can share it, probably with Ely and Keri I would imagine. They’ll be the ones on the wheel when we aren’t.”

“You mean we’re going to take longer getting back than coming down here?”

“Oh yeah, first of all we have to beat our way back against the weather, then we have to avoid well-travelled routes and be ready to hide somewhere if need be. Which means we should travel at night or in heavy weather if possible, hopefully with lots of cloud cover and rain. On top of that we’re heading for Gull Island, which is further away than the bay where you were, so it will take almost twice as long to get there as it did to get here. Figure anywhere from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, depending on what sort of problems we run into.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, slipping below. “Then I guess taking shifts makes sense. I’ll go check the bedding on all the bunks so everything is prepared.”

After Linda was gone below, Karl switched on the forward lights and stared out into the blackness. The wind was blowing over them, unable to tear at the boat because of the shelter of the high cliffs around the bay. Even then he could see at least foot-high waves less than a hundred feet from their bow. The rain was coming down in sheets now too, making visibility haphazard at best. One second you could see a hundred feet or so, then the next instant you could hardly see past the bow of the boat.

He checked to make sure their rain gear was at hand and was tempted to pull it on, then decided he didn’t want to be overheated when he did have to go out on deck. He knew that he was simply anxious, but there was no way for him to calm himself. He was worried that something was about to go wrong and felt that he might not be able to help his friends. Right at the moment he was forced to wait and he found that extremely hard to do in the conditions they were suffering through.

He forced himself to sit down in front of the radios and spent some time again searching the bands. He was listening for anything he felt might be related to them, paying particular attention to the bands where he had heard anything official or even quasi-official. He even turned on an old police scanner that he’d had sitting on the shelf, unused for years, and listened to that, but heard nothing relating to the local island group.

Finally he tuned to the weather station to hear something that related to him and the others.

“ ... moderate to strong north westerly winds with some heavy rainfall until tomorrow evening with a possibility of storm force winds tonight and a possibility of rising winds and heavy rainfall in the early morning. An incoming low pressure system has brought on a general small craft warning throughout the whole of the forecast region with a possibility of extremely heavy rainfall. If the trough deepens as expected there will be a strong possibility of gale warnings by tomorrow evening and extreme weather conditions for several days...”

The CB came to life again for an instant, and he heard someone seem to draw a deep breath, then it went quiet again. He leaned forward, tense and worried, then reached up, pointed the searchlight down the channel of the gorge, and snapped on the switch. He couldn’t see much more, but remembering the difficulty they had finding the entrance, he left it turned on, but turned its beam quite high, focussing it well above the waves.

“Light seen. That you, Cap’n?” George asked.

“Yes,” Karl answered immediately.

“Thanks, we’ve found the entrance, so cut the light. It’s in our eyes.” George ordered firmly.

He switched the searchlight off and flipped on all of his deck lights instead. Instantly he could see a very weak running light far down the inlet, but coming toward them.

“Linda,” he called as he stood up and started to finally put on his rain gear. “I think they’re almost here.”

“Coming,” she called.

They had hardly gotten into their raincoats and out onto the deck when they caught a glimpse of the smaller boat coming out of the rain. A figure was standing at the bow, holding a line and they could hear the engine, but it wasn’t running smoothly. It was spluttering and gasping, then when the boat was only a few feet away from them it died. The figure on the bow gave the coil of line a mighty heave and it arced through the air, but was caught by a gust of wind. Karl had to stretch as far as he could to reach it, but as soon as he had his hand on it, he braced himself against the handrail and gave a mighty heave. As soon as he gained some line he passed one end to Linda, who helped him heave the boat against the wind. In a moment or two, they had the smaller boat tied off against the bumpers at the ‘Skolka’s’ side.

Linda looked down into a mid-sized runabout with a cabin forward. As well as the trim figure of a woman on the forward deck, there were five other figures aboard. A man who looked to be in his eighties sat on the seat just aft of the cabin, holding his arm about a small boy who held a pair of canes. Opposite them sat a pleasant looking woman who looked to be about forty and at her side Linda saw a small girl. Standing at the wheel was a tall dark-skinned woman. Everyone was dressed in rain coats, but all of them looked wet and tired.

“Hello Karl,” George’s voice sounded weak. “Am I ever glad to see you!”

“Hello George,” Karl grinned. “I’m glad to see you too.”

George heaved himself to the edge of the boat by sheer strength of his arms. The two women in the cockpit were instantly at his side, steadying him.

Karl grabbed his boat ladder and hung it over the side. George grasped it immediately and with the help of the two women from below, as well as Karl and Linda above, he was soon on the deck of the ‘Skolka.’ Bracing himself against the handrail with one arm, he held out his other hand to Linda.

“Good evening, young lady, my name is George and my family has insisted that I would be more of a liability than an asset in the present operation, so they rudely told me to ‘get to hell out of their way.’ Therefore I find I must ask your assistance to guide me to the wheelhouse. Once I am ensconced within it’s shelter, you will be free to return and assist in the rescue and salvage operation.”

Linda had to chuckle as she introduced herself to him and helped him into the wheelhouse. Once he was sitting on a stool in the wheelhouse, he ordered her back on deck, refusing her offer to help him any further.

“There are sufficient aids to my stability to assure my safety and mobility within the confines of Karl’s vessel, Linda, but thank you for your kind attention,” he said gruffly. “Now your assistance would be better appreciated in aiding my motley crew in the transfer of personnel and our salvaged baggage to the safety and shelter of this fine craft.”

Linda grinned at him, in a way he reminded her of her own father, but was far more talkative. To his surprise she leaned over and hugged him briefly before rushing back outside.

On deck, Karl and a young woman were rapidly packing bags and parcels out of the way as those still in the boat passed more bulky objects their way. Linda joined in, but in only a few minutes the flow of packages had dwindled and died. Then the older woman and the two children climbed the ladder to join them on deck.

Karl asked Linda to get everyone and their gear inside and swung down the ladder into the smaller boat. So, grabbing an armful from the load on the deck, she opened a hatch dropping down into the aft end of the cabin and led the way inside.

She glanced up the passageway as she came down the ladder from the deck. George had managed to move down to the galley and was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee.