My apologies for the long time between but several house moves in a year have a habit of taking up free time. Helpful feedback is always welcome, as are your votes to let me know if I'm doing something right.
Lbrain
Shipwreck - Part 02
Chapter 17
Crichton sat disconsolately on the soft sand letting the gentle wavelets carry the tendrils of blood away from his damaged feet. On one hand he cursed the fact that he had not ordered everyone to put on reef shoes before the boat hit the reef but on the other, was glad that they were all alive to moan about the cuts and scrapes they had received from the razor sharp coral.
He looked across the beautiful lagoon at the smashed wreckage of
Singular
although could only see about half of it as one hull was partially submerged inside the lagoon while the other hull and the connecting deck was sitting on the reef. At high tide most of it would be submerged and he knew that if they wanted to salvage anything that it needed to be done soon before another storm did further damage. Tanya, Lance and Chloe had already made several trips to the wreck to salvage what the could and had brought back food and items to construct shelters. More trips would be required if they were going to be able to survive on the island.
He had managed to spot a low point on the reef just as they approached and despite the lack of power to the steering had aimed the starboard hull into the gap. The waves had forced the port hull up and partially over the reef causing the boat to pivot as the sea continued to force the other hull through the gap into the quieter waters of the lagoon. The stress as the hull hit the reef had been enough to cause the mast of the airfoil to sheer off just above the deck but fortunately it had collapsed forward from the momentum and not down onto the people in the cockpit. Despite the maelstrom of the violent sea behind them and the wreckage of the airfoil he had managed to get the passengers off into the lagoon, via the reef, from the starboard hull along with one of the emergency life-rafts.
In the dark he had little idea as to what type of reef they had hit... a fringe reef with an island behind it or a semi-enclosed atoll with nothing in the middle but calmer water? The former would provide them with the possibility of shelter, food and water whereas an atoll would be unlikely to provide anything in the way of shelter or water. He had ordered them all into the life-raft until daylight enabled them to see what they were dealing with and to prevent the wind from blowing them into further danger, he put a drogue sea anchor out. Crichton had been grateful that the passengers had followed instructions without demur, even Nadia, although that may have been more down to the persuasion and calm presence of Tanya who had risen magnificently to the challenge of the panic and chaos of the shipwreck to help them off the disintegrating boat.
The first light of morning had been accompanied by the storm starting to abate and there were cracks in the cloud cover as the sun came up to show they were inside the fringe reef of a volcanic island with trees meeting an idyllic sandy beach lapped by the gentle waves of the lagoon.
It would be paradise if there was a hotel and beach bar close by!
The island did not appear to be very large, unless they were at the short end of a long piece of land, and there were certainly no man-made structures visible from the lagoon as they slowly paddled towards the beach. Crichton was trying to work out where they might be but his best guess was 'somewhere in the Fijian archipelago' which was his only answer when first asked the question by Chloe. He was also unable to answer the myriad of other questions that started as soon as the passengers started to realise that they had survived firstly, the kidnap and murder ordeal and then the shipwreck.
'Will we found?'
'No idea'
'Is there water and food'
'No idea'
'Is it inhabited'
'No idea'
...
Nadia's harsh voice cut through her children's impatient questions.
"Mr. Crichton, you do not appear to know very much about anything. I thought this was your job? Anyway, why are you still giving orders, we're not on the boat any more so you are not captain any longer."
Bill started to bristle but Tanya cut in to try and maintain some peace and harmony.
"Ms. Sherematova, I'm not sure that any skipper of any yacht would be able to answer those questions given the circumstances of how we arrived here. Let's be thankful that we are all alive to look at this beautiful sight when we were all fated to die until about 24 hours ago."
She paused and looked meaningfully at the older woman who averted her eyes but Tanya gave a knowing wink to her father.
"In any case, under maritime law the captain maintains his control until the rescue is affected."
Crichton winked back as he was sure that there was no such law but it was certainly the custom for a boat's skipper to retain control in such circumstances. He quickly made the logical suggestion.
"Let's get to the beach, look around the island and we may be able to answer some of those questions and hopefully, if it is inhabited, get back to civilisation."
Lance and Chloe nodded enthusiastically but Nadia looked pissed at being denied the opportunity to harangue the ignorant black man who she felt had got them into this predicament. She had to have the last word.
"Do not forget that my husband wants to kill me so we need to be careful how we let the authorities know we are alive."
Crichton's eyes went wide as a thought struck him and he turned round to look back at the wreckage.
"Fuckkk! Tony! He's still in there! We need to go back to see if he's still alive."
Tanya reached across to gently grip his arm.
"Dad, let's get everything ashore first and then go back. The port hull is mostly clear of the water so it's not getting any further damage from the waves."
Crichton nodded but kept looking back at the wreckage of
Singular
his first, and hopefully only, full-blown shipwreck.
Chapter 17
Crichton and Tanya had got the still-dazed passengers into the shade of the palm trees fringing the beach and had made use of the water and ration packs in the life-raft to prepare a small meal for all of them. He looked at what supplies they had and calculated that there was probably only a week's worth of food and even less water unless they could retrieve supplies from the boat. He had no idea how long they would be on the island as it was unlikely that a search would be started until they were reported as not having arrived in Tahiti. That was probably another 24 hours away as no distress signal had been sent because of what Mitch and Tony had done to the EPIRB's. Even then the search would probably not come this far west as maritime authorities would assume they had headed east or south to get away from the cyclone.
The likelihood was that they would be on the island for some time unless there were local inhabitants, or boats passing by. The implication for their supplies of food and water was stark but Crichton kept that thought to himself until they had an opportunity to explore the island and see what resources it provided or what could be salvaged from the wreck of
Singular
.
After they had eaten he told the passengers to keep on the beach as they could get lost in the deep forest and asked Tanya to accompany him back to wreck to see what had happened to Tony. They paddled the raft across the small lagoon and carefully made their was up onto the reef and the wrecked hull. They scrambled up onto the foredeck and made their way into the hull via a broken top-light. They quickly saw that the door to the cabin where Tony had been confined was hanging open and there was a gaping hole in the seaward side of the hull. The inside of the cabin looked like a bomb had gone off and there no sign of Tony and no indication that he had got out alive. Tanya stated the obvious.
"This part of the boat will have got a right pounding and the waves could have pulled him out once the hull was breached."
Crichton nodded.
