Chapter 12: Windshift - Main Man ... Land

"There's been many and more boats missing ... but the weather's been good."

"Who's been getting the blame?"

"Sea Witches," claimed the rescued. "Believed it, I did ... before the giants sailed close and boarded us from the opposite side ... then she come swimming under the boat. 'Stay put.' she said. 'We'll have you AND your boat out of here in a few, ' she said. And she did.

"Thought we were goners, Harbormaster.

"We heard scrabbling at the bow and then she at the stern. The boat started rocking more. The Wendy ... her, you know ... the clean water witch ... she come under the deck with a rope and tied it to the mast. We rolled and were out. We immediately took to the pumps. The higher up she rose the easier it was to see we were in the surf ... The lads wanted ashore. Boatman said 'stay, I'll tow you in... ' Here we are, and right thankful for it."

"Giants?"

"Aye."

When the average height on the islands is five feet 5 inch, and that's the men, anyone taller than six foot is a giant.

The water between Australia and New Guinea is pretty shallow.

They weren't there, but on a planet like that. Pretty good sized shallows under 1000 feet in most places. When the 'turn about' came, one place in particular came up while the continents went under. The 'shallow' became land while the land became ocean. Now that the planet had no tilt and was a couple of million miles closer to their 'special' star, the weather between 48 north and 48 south was 'very nice.'

The 'new big island' seemed to collect the 'unable and different.' No islander wanted to build boats to fit 'the tall guy' so they migrated to the only land mass big enough and resourcefully rich enough to support them.

Over the two thousand years between the 'alien rescue' of the 200 thousand victims of the tsunami, the big guys got taller and the islanders got shorter. Different diets maybe. Different exercise for sure. Sailors hauled and pulled ... mainlanders walked.

There was a lot of inter island trade going on, but the only place that had enough land to grow 'cotton' to weave to make sails was the mainland ... and they were big guys and greedy. Trade, for the most part was going all the mainlanders way.

Sure, you could beat the living daylights out of the U bush stems and comb and straighten it ... it could be woven, and was ... it made good fabric ... strong and sun resistant but it took a lot of U bushes and the bush had so many other uses ... well, you understand.

Rope, boat ribs, keelsons and rigging ... all came from the U bush.

That's to say nothing of the ONE really nice thing about the U bush. The green sticky flowers were the best way to relax after a hard day doing whatever you turned your hand to doing. No hangover ... although smoking those green sticky ... and stinky, buds did make a person damn hungry. It didn't take very much and the U bush was ubiquitous to the tropic islands