Chapter 1

It took a lot of pissing and moaning and begging and, finally, some reasoned arguments before Dad would agree to let me take Angie, my girlfriend, and Jean, her sister, on a day trip out to the Gulf Stream. He knew that I was competent to handle a small boat in the open ocean and was not the type to do something foolish. I wanted to take Angie out to celebrate our graduation from highschool, but I knew that there was no way the parents, either hers or mine, would sanction just the two of us going, so I suggested that Jean go with us. Mom and Dad talked it over with the girls' parents and agreed to let us go.

Dad had a very nice custom built 31-footer with a diesel powered inboard engine. It had a galley, a shower, and a head, plus four bunks, and all of the electronic navigation instruments anybody ever heard of. We had enough food aboard to keep us a week and some MREs in case of a real emergency.

There had been a rash of drug smugglers fighting with the Coast Guard less than a hundred miles south of us, so he also insisted that we take some guns with us, just in case. We took three modified AR-15s and three S&W .40 caliber semi-automatic pistols with us, with a lot of extra ammunition, since Dad did not have much confidence in either of the girls' ability to shoot. However, he figured that a lot of bullets sprayed around would discourage anybody from trying to board us, and even unskilled shooters could do that.

Graduation was on a Saturday, so we left the following Sunday for our day trip. Angie's dad presented me with a captain's hat and told me that I was now responsible for his two most prized possessions—his two daughters. They saw us off with a flourish, and we tooled out of the harbor, happy at last to escape parental supervision.

Dad had assumed that we were only going to the near edge of the Gulf Stream, but the girls wanted to go a little farther, and who was I, an 18-year-old boy, to argue with two beautiful women? I was a little uneasy as we motored along, but we had plenty of fuel, so I was not worried about running low on that. I was sure that all of the electronic gear aboard would make it easy for the Coast Guard to find us if something came up, so I relaxed and joined in the excitement of the adventure along with the two girls.

We were lucky to see many dolphins frolicking about, and the girls snapped hundreds of digital photos. When lunch time came, the two girls whipped up an excellent meal in the galley, and we, at least I, ate until we were full. We were relaxing after the girls had cleaned up from the lunch, and I mentioned, "Did you girls know that we are practically on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle?"

Everybody in Florida knows what the Bermuda Triangle is, so they were intrigued by the thought. Jean asked, "We aren't in any danger, are we?"

Before I could say anything, Angie popped up with, "Don't be silly, Jean. You know that is just a dumb superstition."

We all laughed, and the conversation turned to other things. I was not completely foolish, so I had kept my eye on the readouts from the various instruments, especially the weather radar. Suddenly, I jerked to attention as something unusual appeared on the display. A rain squall had hit us, but that was not what caught my attention.

I counted five, no six, waterspouts surrounding the boat, and, in my 15 years spent sailing the ocean off the Florida coast, I had never seen that many at one time. The craziest thing was, these waterspouts were all moving in our direction! The wind just didn't move that way! All the waterspouts should have been moving in the same direction, not in different directions, causing the waterspouts to converge!

Well, I had been around long enough to know that you didn't argue with the weather. No matter what you did, you couldn't beat the weather, you just hoped to break even. Therefore, I turned to the girls who had joined me under the shelter when the rain started and told them that I was going to try to run away from the strange waterspouts.

I pointed out the six waterspouts on the display and said, "Those six waterspouts could mean trouble for us. Normally, only one water spout is not a serious problem for a boat this size, we could just dodge it, but six, together, could be a problem for something as large as an aircraft carrier. I'm going to try to run away from them, but we might have to chance running close to one, so I need for both of you to go below to the lounge and be seated. You will still be able to see what is happening through the glass, but I don't want to take a chance on one of you getting hurt or lost overboard."

The girls left while I examined the weather display to decide on my course. I picked a route and revved up the engine. It ran for a few seconds and quit! Then, all of the electrical systems failed all together. And, finally, the hydraulic systems locked up. What the shit was going on?

By this time, all six of the water spouts were visible and seemed to be rushing toward the boat. In less than five minutes, they came together over the boat and merged into one weird looking storm. I looked out through the windshield and saw what appeared to be a monster tunnel leading into infinity.

Lightening was flashing from point to point around the wall of the tunnel. The tunnel, itself, had taken on a metallic reflective sheen which certainly didn't look like water any more. At the far end of the tunnel, I could see a monster ball of white light heading toward the boat. Was it lightening? What difference did it make? There was no way to avoid it, and it was traveling so fast that it would reach the boat in only a few seconds.

The ball of light hit the boat in a flash of energy which seemed to tear my body into its individual atoms. There was a burst of extreme pain, and, then, nothing! I fainted, ceased to exist, died, or all of the above! My consciousness was there and a moment later, it wasn't!

I had no idea how long before I regained consciousness; it could have been moments or years, I had no way of knowing. However, it seemed like only moments, and, suddenly, I could hear screaming coming from the lounge. My first thought was for the boat, but I was completely befuddled!

The boat was canted to one side and was no longer gently rolling in the waves. We were surrounded by trees and dry land! Where the shit was the ocean? Both girls came screaming up to my position by the wheel and demanded to know what was going on. I had to tell them, "I don't know, but I am damned sure going to find out!"

One of the first things I noticed was how hot and muggy the weather seemed. We were all used to the hot muggies that were the norm for a Florida summer, but this seemed a lot worse. I looked around, but I did not recognize any of the trees or bushes that I saw. When asked, the girls did not recognize them, either. At least, we were surrounded by a grassy field with a small stream running through it, so we should not hurt for water.

Next, I tested the GPS to find out where we were, but I got an answer I never expected to see. The GPS display reported that there were no satellites within range, something that should have been impossible! The radios were all silent; they were all FM, so we did not hear static crashes, but we should have heard something when I turned the squelch completely off. There were no active radios within range, another seeming impossibility! I tried the full tuning range of every one of the four radios on board, and none of them gave a hint of another station.

The weather and collision radar still worked, but I didn't learn anything at first. However, I did detect some movement on the far horizon, but I could not tell anything about it except that it was probably huge. Maybe we were near a ship channel, though the silent radios argued against that. I certainly did not know of a land animal large enough to register that size on the radar.