At Sea - 5. AS Chapter 5

It would be a two-day trip to Georgetown, so Aunty Jacq and I went to do some shopping, while Uncle Jay had the boat refuelled, and checked the engine, to make sure all was good, he also washed out the two catch freezers, so they were properly clean, and he made sure that the on-deck hatches for the freezers and the engine room, were in good order.

When everything was checked, and all the food was stored away, we set off in the late afternoon on Thursday, with Uncle Jay at the helm. As I finished stowing away the mooring ropes in the storage lockers, I looked up and saw a lone figure standing on the other side of the river, and I realised that it was Jacob.

He was just standing there, watching the boat leave, and I realised at that moment, that my Aunt was right, I should have been nicer to Jacob, and it wasn’t his fault I was so messed up and confused, and suddenly I raised my arm up high and waved.

Moments later I saw Jacob waving back, and he was running along the beach to try and keep up with the boat, as he continued waving, eventually he ran out of beach and he was forced to stop and watch us head down river towards the open seas.

With just three of us on the boat, and not stopping, we would be on 8 hour shifts to be at the helm, so after having a light meal, I headed to bed to get a few hours’ sleep, as I would be on the next shift from 10pm till 6am.

When Aunt Jacq arrived at 6am to take over at the helm, I was tired and hungry, during the night we had past Swan Island and rounded Cape Portland, and we are now heading due west, towards the River Tamar. I headed to the galley, where Uncle Jay was finishing preparing breakfast, and I was handed a plate and I sat down to enjoy my breakfast, while Uncle Jay took two plates of breakfast up to the Bridge.

When I had finished and cleaned up, I had a hot shower and went to bed, falling asleep almost right away. I woke up when I found that I was been roughly tossed around on my bed, hanging onto the rails, to stop me falling out of bed, I waited to I could judge the timing of the severe pitch of the boat, and I retrieved my clothes and quickly dressed.

After a few attempts, I managed to get forward to the galley, where Aunty Jacq was making sure everything is secured, and anything that wasn’t was put away. The lounge was a real mess, with odds and ends left out being tossed around on the floor, I gathered everything and secured it all away in a cupboard, before heading upstairs.

Once on the main deck, I was hit by a big wave, which had me soaking wet within seconds, and I started to shiver a little from the chill, as I struggled to reach the other set of stairs to the bridge deck, getting up the stairs was difficult with the boat pitching and rolling regularly.

In the passageway at the top of the stairs, I headed to the store room, and finding extra mooring rope, I exited out the side door of the store room, onto the roof of the main deck, where the main lifeboat is located, and I attached one end of the thirty-metre long rope to the boat, and the other end to a heavy-duty rail, and tossing remainder of the rope into the boat, once I had done that I returned indoors, making sure that the water tight door was secured and locked.

A few minutes later I stepped into the bridge, soaking wet and cold, what surprised me was that Aunt Jacq was also on the bridge, dry and warm and I couldn’t understand how. The look of confusion on my face made my uncle and aunt laugh a little, as I was handed a towel to dry off, explaining what I had done as I was doing so.

“That’s good thinking nephew, stops the life boat escaping from us if and when we need it, we are in one hell of a storm, I read the winds at 122 kilometres an hour at the moment” Uncle Jay said out loud so we could be heard over the noise of the wind and rain.

As I looked outside, all I could see was lots of rough seas and not much more, Aunty Jacq went to the bathroom, and after sometime, I wondered why she was taking so long, and as I looked to Uncle Jay concerned, he just laughed, “We have an emergency hatch on all decks, to get to all levels in case of extreme weather, you will find it in the bathroom on this deck” Uncle Jay said.

I opened the bathroom door, and found an open hatch in the floor, and cautiously I looked down, and saw a ladder, and I carefully climbed down. When I was on the main deck, I opened the door, and found that I was in the Skippers office and lounge, closing the door again, I climbed down to the lower level, and I found that I was in the second double cabin, opposite mine, and I headed forward to the galley where I found Aunt Jacq preparing some sandwiches, and my stomach began to grumble at the smell of food, as I sat down in the dining mess.

A few minutes later while Aunt Jacq and I were eating and chatting, the intercom came on, “King wave, brace, brace, brace” Uncle Jay shouted, and forgetting our nearly empty plates and cups, we quickly held on tight to the table.

Both of us were soon slammed against the port side wall, as the boat rolled, and kept rolling, to our horror, we found ourselves laying on the roof of the lounge, with cushions’ flying in all directions, and the boat continued to roll, till we were finally where upright again.

I raced to the double cabin and I had reached the main deck, when I heard uncle calling on the radio, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is the fishing boat Trident, we are approximately due north of Ninth Island, three souls on board” he said and he repeated it again and again, before there was a loud crash sound, and I was hit in the face by some ocean water.

“Carlton, check that all external doors on the forward main deck are secured, then do the same on the lower deck” uncle Jay shouted to me, and after checking the two water tight doors on the main deck were closed and locked, I began to head down, when I heard a loud screeching noise, and the boat shook and rolled.

“Get down below and check for leaks, we just hit rocks” uncle Jay shouted, and I saw he was half way down the stairs, and closing the hatch to the bridge deck, locking it shut as he continued down, and he did the same with the main deck hatch, as he arrived on the lower deck.

Aunt Jacq appeared suddenly, it sounds like there is a hull breach on the starboard side, mid deck, and I can hear water in the freezer, there is no leaks in any of the cabins, but I’m not sure about the fuel tanks or the engine room.

We went to the lounge room, and collected the cushions and sat down on the floor, as the boat continued to rock and pitch severely, then a few minutes later the sounds changed, “We are sinking, we are below the surface, but I’m not sure how much pressure the hull can take if we sink too deep” Uncle Jay said concerned, and not long after we felt the boat jolt to a stop, and we were mostly still.

“Well that is a good sign, we are sitting on the bottom, I estimate about twenty metres deep, if the structure that is not damaged then it can hold, and we could be ok, I suspect that that the bridge is fully flooded, as is the damaged freezer compartment, if the external hatches hold fast, then the engine room and the other freezer compartment will remain dry.

With the weight of the near full fuel tanks, plus the flooded bridge and freezer, is probably enough to keep the boat down, but I suspect that there may be another breach somewhere, and I guess probably the forward work area on the main deck.

If that is the case, then we are weighed down with water, which in one way is good as we won’t drift or slip into heavier water. Now I need to go and grab the Sat Phone from my cabin, and some clothes for us, once that is done we will seal off the upper decks, and remain on the lower deck, where I think we are safe” Uncle Jay said as he stood up and made his way to the double cabin hatch.

While he was doing that, Aunty Jacq began making some more food, and I decided to try checking the engine room, from the water tight door at the end of the passageway, via the store room, when I entered, I was relieved to see that the engine room was not fully flooded.

There was water about ankle deep on the floor, and the room is filling up with carbon dioxide smoke, so I quickly closed and locked the door, before running forward to tell Uncle Jay, who had just returned from his trip to the main deck. As soon as I told him he told me and Aunt Jacq to find the torches and turn them on, as he raced towards the engine room, and moments later all the power went out through the boat, and not long after the emergency lights came on, providing just basic lighting on the lower deck, and uncle Jay returned with a frown.

“The engine room is slowly flooding, but luckily the backup batteries are in the separate store room, so they won’t be affected by the flooding. I estimate that we have about 36 hours of emergency power, we have plenty of fresh water and food, only the oxygen supply is what we have limited supply of, which I estimate to be about 3-days’ worth” Uncle Jay said, “And we should be rescued by then” Aunty Jacq said calmly.

“Now I know what it feels like to be in a submarine” I said with a little smile and I went to my cabin to retrieve a book to read. Uncle Jay turned on the Sat phone, but he wasn’t getting any reception coverage, so he turned it off, and he went to my cabin to get a book to read also, and we all sat in the lounge room trying not to worry too much about being stuck on the sea floor, during a bad storm.

Eventually I drifted off to sleep, and I woke when I heard the sound of a motor above us, and I jumped up and listened carefully from the hull.

“We hear it too nephew, that sounds like rescuers have found us” Uncle Jay said happily, as he looked at his watch, “…and only 14 hours after the mayday call” he added as we continued to listen.

The motor had stopped now, so it was all very quiet, then about twenty minutes later, a diver’s face appeared in the porthole window, quickly I grabbed a felt pen and paper, and scribbled a message – “We are ok, we have food, water, and about 1 ½ days of air left” and I showed it to the diver, who gave the “ok” sign, before he headed back to the surface.

Just as he left, Aunty Jacq dashed to the galley store and began looking through the cupboards, where she eventually produced a large metal funnel, used for pouring cooking oil into a container.

It was about forty centimetres at its widest point and the spout was about five centimetres’ wide, and I watched as she brought it into the lounge and with the wide part against the full wall, she spoke loudly through the narrow section, then tilted her head so her ear was against it.

She tried this a couple of times, before we started hearing tapping sounds, and I soon realised it was Morse code, and I began to write it down, and Aunt Jacq translated it, “We hear you, but it’s a bit muffled, try Morse code to communicate”, and Aunty Jack grabbed a metal ladle from the galley and tapped a reply.

“Understood, we are Jayden and Jacqueline Henderson, and nephew – Carlton Henderson, on fishing boat Trident, we are unharmed and coping so far” she said, and Uncle Jay tapped out another message.

“Hit rocks, damage to freezer compartment on lower deck, flooding in engine room also. Bridge is flooded, as well as the forward main deck work area, unsure about other parts of main deck, the water tight doors from lower deck stairs to main deck, and water tight doors from living area to engine room, appear to be holding, with no sign of leaks, ¾ ‘s of lower deck is dry, and we have about a day of backup battery power remaining”.

The reply came back almost straight away, “ok, received and understood, we are working on a plan to rescue you, we will remain here while the weather is holding, you are 23 metres below the surface, by the way good idea on tying a long rope from your life boat to the fishing boat, that is how we found you”, I smiled as Aunt Jacq read out the message, and Uncle Jay gave me a pat on the back.

It went quiet for some time, and I was pleased as I was able to do some more reading of my novel, while Aunt Jack made sandwiches and made cups of tea to keep busy. About an hour later another message could be heard, and I wrote it down.

“Just a question, do you have scuba gear on board, and are any of your qualified”, and I smiled as I had just completed my Scuba Diving Open Water Qualifications, just 6 months ago. “No Scuba gear on board, only Carlton is qualified, what are you thinking?” was the reply message, and a reply came soon after.