Frontier - 47. FR Chapter 47

I decided that it was time to do some more exploring, and once we had eaten lunch, I announced to everyone that we were all going to go and do some exploring. I asked Simon to get the dinghy ready for all of us. Once we were all on board, I steered the dinghy around the east and about ten minutes later we arrived at East Island. We spent about fifteen minutes walking around the island, which had nothing interesting to see, so we climbed back into the dinghy and headed for North Island.

Like the previous island, there was nothing there to see, so we headed back to Sandy Island. Once we had entered the lagoon we beached at the bottom end of the narrow strip of coral and sand, and began to explore the area. We came across the building that was mentioned in the encyclopedia. We had a look around the building, but didn’t go inside. Then we climbed back into the dinghy and we slowly circled Johnston Island, before heading back to the yacht.

They boys walked ahead, while Simon, Toby, Finn and I carried the dinghy back to the swim platform, and stowed it away.

“You know, Si, I have been thinking about something these past two days, and I need to run it by you, to get your input,” I said to Simon. On hearing this Toby and Finn headed upstairs, leaving me and Simon sitting on the edge of the swim platform to talk.

“We need to get inside the bulkhead of the yacht to determine exactly how badly damaged it is, plus do a more thorough check of the two pontoons. If the damage is just the outer shell of the bulkhead, we may be, and I must stress this is only a may be, able to sail out of here,” I announced. Agreeing with me, Simon stood up and walked upstairs, and headed to the bulkhead hatch on the main deck, and I followed him.

Once we had squeezed into the tight bulkhead, Simon flicked on the light switch, which I was surprised still worked. Although the nose was visibly damaged, there appeared to be no damage to the sides or back of the bulkhead. “Ok, what can we do to plug up this hole, and try and stop the yacht from nose diving into the water?” I asked Simon.

“Let me think about it for a bit, while we go and check the pontoons,” Simon replied to me, as we climbed out and closed the hatch.

We entered the forward bulkhead of the port pontoon, via the front cabin and store room, and I was pleased to see that the bulkhead was intact. So, it was just the front nose that was damaged. We headed over to the starboard side pontoon, where we were pleased to see that it was the same case there as well. Returning to the aft deck, we sat down on the deck lounge chairs to think about what we had learnt.

“So, Skipper, if we are able to plug up the hole in the bulkhead, what do we do next?” Simon asked me.

“I have noticed that while we have been here, the winds have been mostly northerly, and the seas have been quite mild. We do not have any communications or any navigation. What we do have is a hand compass and an atlas. It isn’t much, but it could be enough to get us somewhere to get repairs,” I said to Simon.

“I estimate that in 4 days, we can reach the Marshall Islands, to get the repairs we need. Also we would be one third of the way home to Australia,” I said to Simon.

“That sounds good. I think we should stay within the boundaries of Australia, and not go beyond that in the future,” Simon said to me.

“I hear you, Buddy, and agree with you. We were just not prepared enough for such a large ocean crossing,” I said to Simon.

I headed to the bridge and sat down at the desk and studied the atlas in front of me. “Jedd, Neale, do you have any other atlases?” I shouted down the stairway.

“Yes, Anton. I will go and get it for you,” Jedd replied, and moments later he returned with the other atlas in hand. I opened it up to the Pacific Ocean, and I retrieved my small compass and laid it on the map, along with a ruler. Half an hour later, I had done all the calculations that I could think of, with different variables, and it still looked like we could achieve this. The only problem we had, is that we were twenty metres away from the water’s edge.

At dinner time, we sat down to the first cooked meal since being stranded on Johnston Atoll, with all of the refrigerated perishable foods now used up, and everyone seemed to be in a good mood.

“It’s good to see such happy faces considering we are marooned on an island,” I said with a smile, and the lads gave a short chuckle in response. “Simon and I have done a more thorough inspection of the damage to the yacht, and we have discovered that the damage to the pontoons is only minor, compared to the main bow of the yacht.

“The main bulkhead has only been breached in the nose. The side and back walls are still intact. This is good news, as it means that if water gets into this area, it won’t flood and sink the rest of the yacht. What we need is ideas to be able to fill that damaged area, to stop the water getting into the bulkhead, so we don’t keep nose diving. Then we need to find a way to get the yacht back into the water,” I announced to everyone.

“If we can’t plug the hole, can we fill the space with floats instead?” Toby asked. It took a few moments to digest what he was saying.

“Yes, you are brilliant. Skipper, if we seal up the empty 200 litre barrels and the 25 litre drums, and placed them in the bulkhead, will that be enough to create floatation, to keep the nose up?” Simon said with a smile, and I too smiled.

“Fantastic idea. Well done to both of you. Now all we need to do is get the yacht back into the water,” I replied.

“Can we dig a channel to the water, and float it back into the water?” Neale asked.

“Yes, we could do that. It will mean a lot of digging, but it is possible. Ok, first thing tomorrow morning, Toby and Finn, can you both start digging the middle channel? Neale and Jedd, no school tomorrow. You two can start on the pontoon channels, which won’t need to be as deep. We will need to keep all three channels the same distance apart all the way to the water. One metre wide and half a metre deep for the pontoons and 3 metres wide and a metre deep for the centre hull. Once we reach the water, and it flows into the channels, hopefully that may be enough to get the yacht to float,” I said to everyone.

“If need be, we could use the two dinghies to try and pull it into the water,” Simon added, and I nodded my head in agreement as we continued to eat. A little while later, I spoke up again.

“Simon and I have been studying the atlas, and with the help of the orienteering compass that I have, and the assistance of the daily northerly winds, we think we can reach the Marshall Islands in just four days. Once we are there, we will be able to get the repairs we need. From there, we are already one third of the way home, so we could continue on to the Solomon Islands, which we think will take about three and a half days. From there it is just under three days to the nearest Australian city of Townsville,” I announced.

“I think that is great. Being marooned on an island isn’t as exciting as I thought it would be,” Jedd said to me, and I smiled at him.

“Ok, so it is all go, for project departure, starting daylight tomorrow,” Simon announced and we agreed with his statement as we finished eating dinner and started to clean up afterwards.

When my brothers had showered and gone to bed, I went outside and onto the island, to look at the distance between the yacht and the ocean. It was quite a distance. I was not sure how long it would take us to dig ourselves out of there. Returning to the yacht, I went up to the fly deck where Simon was soaking in the Jacuzzi. I took off my shorts and shirt and joined him.

We talked about the challenges that we had ahead of us, and after an hour, we headed to our separate cabins to get some sleep. Early the next morning, I was up at daybreak, and after a cup of tea and some toast, I headed to the beach to stake out the distance from the stern of the yacht to the ocean, which I paced out to be 19 metres. Simon appeared about half an hour later, as I sat on the sand near the stern of the yacht looking towards the water.

“Digging a trench won’t work. It will just make the yacht sink deeper into the sand, we need to think of another way to get the yacht back into the water,” I said to Simon when I realised he was sitting on the edge of the platform.

“I was thinking the same thing when I was trying to sleep last night. She is just too heavy for that. We could sacrifice four of the drums to make a kind of wheel system, but we would have to use the mast and boom too, for axels,” Simon suggested.

Then suddenly it hit me. “We do have some wheels on the yacht already.” I waited for Simon to work out what I was talking about, and almost a minute later he suddenly realised what I was talking about.

“You mean my Segway, don’t you?” Simon said to me, and I nodded my head with a big grin.

“Leaving the steering column off, we could slide the Segway under the helm, and use it to pull the yacht back to the water, although I’m not sure if it can handle the huge weight of the yacht,” I said to Simon.

“I think the wheels will burst with all that weight, but if we could somehow work out a way to distribute the weight, we might be able to do it,” Simon replied.

“We already know that the pontoons are higher than the bottom of the main hull, as they moved fairly easily, when we opened them up slightly the other day, and since they are just sitting on the sand, we can estimate that the yacht hull has sunk into the sand by about half a metre. The pontoons lift by about that amount when they are closed correct, so if we were able to get something under the pontoons, so when we open them fully, and they don’t sink, we will be able to raise the yacht out of the sand by that amount,” I said to Simon.

“How about we go over to the building site on this island, and see if we can find any strong sections of wood or metal, that we may be able to use,” Simon suggested, and agreeing with Simon on that suggestion, we went back up to the living area, were we found Toby and Finn eating cereal at the dining table.

“Good morning, Lads, slight change of plans. No digging is required just yet. We sort of have another plan, but we need to find some supplies of wood or metal at the old building sites. Where are the boys?” I said to Toby and Finn.

“Having breakfast in the crew area, Skipper,” Finn replied.

“Ok, finish breakfast and let’s get going. We will take the two dinghies to the south end of Sandy Island,” I replied, as I headed down to the crew area, where my brothers were still in their pyjamas. “Finish up eating and get dressed. We are not doing any digging. Slight change of plans. Get up to the swim platform as soon as you can,” I said to my brothers, before making myself some more toast and a cup of tea.

When we arrived at the old building, we spread out in search of some material that might help us get free of the island, and less than an hour later, we managed to find three long lengths of 12 inch diameter steel pipe, and two short lengths of 2 inch diameter heavy duty steel pipe, plus a few large blocks of wood that were about a metre long and 250 mm wide. Back at the yacht we looked at what we had, and I started to piece together a plan.

“Do what the Egyptians do,” I said to myself, not realising that I had said it out loud.

“What was that, Skipper?” Toby asked.

“Oh, sorry. I was thinking out loud. Tell me, what did the Egyptians use when they built their pyramids?” I said to all the crew.

And Finn was the first to work out what I was saying. “Counter weights and round logs,” he said with a smile and I nodded my head to indicate that he was spot on.

“We use the blocks of wood and small steel poles, with some cushioning to prevent slipping, to counter weight lift the pontoons up so we can slide the large pipes underneath. This we hope will also lift the yacht’s main hull a little bit as well.

“With pipes under each pontoon, forward and back, and one positioned just in front of the rear hull, we then use the blocks and poles to lever the yacht backwards onto the middle pipe, and we place some more pipes on the sand behind the yacht’s hull and pontoons at even spacing, till we have the whole yacht up off the ground. Then it will be just brute force to get the yacht down to the water,” I announced.

“Brilliant idea, Skipper, but we will have to be very careful with the placing of the pipes,” Simon said to me.

“Yes, and I hope that Neale and Jedd will take great care when they are doing it, as us four older guys, will be needed to do the counter lifting,” I added, looking at my brothers in a serious way.

“You just tell us what to do, and we will do it,” Neale said confidently.

We set out the larger pipes, so they were ready to be slid in under the pontoon keels. Using blankets for cushioning, we wrapped them around the end of the poles, to stop any slipping and any keel damage, and we dug two holes under the pontoon, where the padded poles would be positioned.

One we had everything set out, and everyone was in position and ready, with Simon and Finn at one pontoon and Toby and I at the other, we counted down, “One, two three” before putting all of our weight down on the poles. The pontoons did lift but not quite high enough, so we had to reposition the blocks and poles and try again. This time we managed to raise the pontoons the required one foot off the sand, so Neale and Jedd could carefully slide the pipes into position, about 2 metres from the end of the pontoon. We cheered that we had actually managed to achieve the almost impossible, before I moved towards the middle of the yacht.

“This one is going to be harder, as we will be lifting most of the full weight of the yacht,” I explained to Simon and the lads.

“Do you think we can do it?” Finn asked me concerned.

“I’m not sure. Maybe if we do the next lift about a third of the way along, we won’t be lifting so much, and we will have a good portion of the yacht raised off the sand,” I replied. I selected the location for our next lift, and we positioned the blocks, poles and pipes ready for the next lift.

As I expected, the lift was a lot harder, and it took three attempts before we could get the yacht’s pontoons high enough on the third try, including Neale and Jedd for extra weight on the poles. Once we had it raised, the boys could slide the next two pipes into place. It took a lot of energy out of us by the time we had lowered the pontoons down onto the pipes.

“That was definitely a lot harder that the first time,” Simon said to me.

“Yes, we need longer pipes to provide the extra counter weight, or maybe we can find something to help us with the counter weight,” I replied.

“What about filling the 25 litre containers with water, and tying them onto the ends of the poles?” Toby suggested.

“Brilliant. Not just a pretty face eh, Mate,” Finn commented, which made us older ones laugh.

“Let’s do that after we have had a rest and after lunch. We are in no hurry, as we have plenty of food and water. If need be we can space it over a few days or a week, so we don’t cause any injuries,” Simon suggested, and we all agreed to that idea.

After lunch, we grabbed four of the 25 litre containers, which had handles, and we filled them up with seawater, and carried them back to the yacht, before doing the same with the last four containers. Simon went and retrieved some spare rope from one of the lockers, and with his pocket knife he cut the rope into one metre lengths. Before we did any more lifting, we needed to relocate all of the hydroponics away between the main hull and the pontoons, and I suggested to Simon that he relocate them to the swim platform, where they can get some sunlight and also shelter from the wind.

By late afternoon, we had relocated all of the hydroponics, and decided that we had done enough work for the day, so we climbed on board and my brothers asked if they could go in the Jacuzzi, and I said that they could. Simon volunteered to go up and supervise them and I just collapsed into a saloon lounge chair, as it had been a long hot day. Over the next two days, we managed to get the whole yacht onto 5 lengths of large pipe, with the keel of the yacht now sitting on steel pipes, just above ground level.

The idea of the containers full of water was a great idea, but was still insufficient to lift the main weight of the yacht, and we had to fill two of the large drums with water, and tying rope around the top rim, we had to build sand hills to get them high enough to tie them onto the ends of the poles. Then we dug the sand hills away. The following day, which was now day ten since we had arrived at Johnston Atoll, we carefully looked at how we were going to go about moving the yacht. We were not sure how hard it was going to be to move it.

With everyone at the front of the yacht spread out over the main bow and the front of the pontoons, we all gave one big heave. At first it didn’t look like it was going to move at all, until I felt a slight bit of movement.

“Keep pushing guys. It is working,” I said in encouragement to all the crew. With continued effort, we pushed as hard as we could, until finally we had one set of poles that had rolled free. I ordered a stop, so the poles could be repositioned at the back of the yacht. We had managed to move the yacht just one metre, but it had taken a lot of our energy, so I suggested that we had a good rest before we tried again.