Dances with Whales - 1. Chapter 1

“It’s a well-known fact that sailing alone is not recommended.” What Amanda said was correct. It’s not safe to sail alone, but I’ve been doing it anyway for the past six months. Ever since I found out Robert was being unfaithful to me a year ago. Afterwards, he audaciously attempted to seek alimony. To his dismay, I have been working with my lawyers for over ten years, and he was not pleased when I became aggressive. Lawfare is such a beautiful tool to get people to leave you alone. I smiled as I remembered his expression when he realized he was locked out of the condo with all his clothes packed in suitcases at the front entrance. I excluded him from the list of permitted individuals and security had his photo readily available. Photography is a hobby I really love. In addition, photographs were packed and included in his bags. The ones that he was in. My laughter intensified when his lawyer handed my lawyer a list of demands. I answered to be summarized as “hold out your hands, piss in one and want with the other.” Let me know which one fills faster. My lawyer thought it was funny, just like I did. He was given ten thousand dollars upfront to eliminate Robert. It required little time. I’m very good at saying no once I’ve decided to cut someone out of my life. If you need proof, ask my cousin Ralph. We haven’t had any contact in over ten years because I came out to him as gay. He freaked. I burst out laughing before I informed him he was welcome to get in touch with me when he was prepared to discuss it in a respectful way. That occurred in 1999.

“I know Amanda, but I am going anyway. Unless you want to go? You could fly in a day before I leave and sail out with me. I can have you back in four weeks.”

“Eric, I’ll consider it.”

“I'll send you the condo info and ensure your access.” I heard the tapping of her typing on the keyboard.

“Who else will join us?” I shrugged. “I can’t hear shrugs. You need to use your mouth.”

With a soft laugh, I marked off another item on my list. “Of course, love. Sorry. I might bring Reuben and Harold out. That’s still up in the air. Reuben has a lot of surgeries scheduled that month. He’s not sure if he can or not.” Meet Dr. Reuben Benson, the expert in body shop repairs. Need a new knee, a new hip, how about an elbow while we have you on the table? Reuben is the man for the job. Just like me, Harold works in finance. It’s interesting to note that we are actually colleagues from rival companies who met at a conference in Vegas four years ago. We have been friends since then. They were the ones that tipped me off about Robert’s escapades in infidelity.

“I’ll double-check with my work.”

“OK. Let me know by the 20th of next month. I cast off the following month on the 12th. I plan to be in Pearl Harbor by July 1st.”

“So, it takes that much time?”

“It’s not sailing out to Catalina, besides I am going deeper south before I turn west. I’m hoping to catch a tropical storm coming up to see if I can get DSCVR'R to fly or not.” I said with a smile that she obviously heard and chuckled.

“If your intention was to fly, why not consider taking a plane?”

“No Mermen on planes.” It caused her to burst into laughter.

* * *

Laughter echoed through the air while I refilled my drink before returning to the deck. Alex, my boyfriend, suggested a trip to Mexico with the gang on his parents’ Catamaran. The six of us had an amazing time in Mazatlan, but now it’s time to head back to San Diego before the weather worsens and the seas become rough.

“Hey Logan.” called Alex. “Can you grab another beer for me?”

“No more Corona. Do you prefer the Lager?” Only Jay and I drink wine, everyone else has beer.

“That works.” He mentioned while I brought it out and gave it to him. No, thank you or even acknowledged I brought it. Every time he drinks, it’s the same old crap. Treating me like dirt in front of our friends.

It was past 2 am when people began going below to sleep. Alex pleaded with me to keep him company to ensure he didn’t doze off while at the helm. The autopilot was on, but the winds were increasing. We had already decreased the sail once and Alex was discussing the possibility of doing it again. I went inside to check the weather again and the storm was moving up fast. That would be good. The front will pass over us in a few hours. We should be fine by morning.

We made adjustments to the mainsail, taking in two reefs, and reduced the jib after 10 minutes. Although it made us slower, Alex assured us we won’t need to repeat it. Then he nodded off in the seat and that was fine. I reached my limit with him tonight. The seat below the helm station was my preferred location. The sound of rushing water and the gentle crash of waves could be heard, along with the low hum of the generator powering the air conditioning. Peaceful, yet sadly enough, we couldn’t see the open sky tonight. Watching the sky for meteors and burning space debris is a favorite pastime of mine. And I need to take a leak.

When I went towards the sugar scoop, I took three steps down and unexpectedly twisted my foot on an item. When I finally understood what had occurred, I plunged into the water. There was a pop and a blowing sound as I went under and I felt that stupid vest I was told to wear, inflating. As I coughed out the water that entered my nose as I resurfaced and searched for the boat. Panic coursed through me as I called out for Alex. The boat was already 100 feet away and moving fast at almost 7 knots. The boat vanished as I descended into the trough after being lifted. I was splashing and yelling at the next lift. It wasn’t doing any good. Alex was already 500 feet further. I tried to remember what he said as I felt the inflatable vest for the whistle. I was unable to remove the clip from my chest because I couldn’t see it. When I finally brought it close enough to my lips, Alex and the boat were already over 1000 feet away, and that’s when I blew the first blast. I gave it my all when I blew into the whistle, but he didn’t react, leaving me in disbelief as the boat continued to drift away.

Floating. Drifting and bobbing like a cork. Lifting and dropping down as each wave passed. Carrying me, I don’t know where. I remain composed while searching for lights from other boats and finding none. In the distance, there was a sudden burst of lightning. Towards land, I think, but I couldn’t see any lights there either. Once I remembered we were over 20 miles from shore, too distant to see beyond the earth’s curvature, I stopped looking.

“At some point, you’ll wake up and realize I’m not there. Idiot.” I spoke to the ocean, hoping it would send a wave to wake him up. I’ve lost sight of the mast light and now I’m getting cold. Checking my watch, I couldn’t help but sigh. “Obviously not as water resistant as you are supposed to be.” Annoyed, my eyes rolled as I felt the lump in my back pocket. I’m willing to bet that the phone is also ruined. Leaning forward, I started stroking slowly to move towards the direction the boat sailed off in and to warm up.

* * *

Upon awakening from my nap, I quickly glanced outside, checked the sails and autopilot, and headed to the helm. “Keep up the good work, DSCVR'R.” As I activated the iPad to check my course, I affectionately patted the trimaran’s hull. Returning to the nav station, I inspected the different instruments and then confirmed the charge of the battery banks after grabbing the sat phone. “Keurig it is.” I mentioned while moving closer to put a k-cup and my mug in place. I reached for the sat phone, grinning as I dialed the number with my mug in hand. 7 rings later.

“Eric, are you kidding me?”

With a chuckle, I greeted Amanda and said, “Good morning.”

“If I had gone with you, we would have killed each other.”

“No, not really.” I said. Taking a sip of my coffee. “How’s the other storm looking?”

“If you hold to your schedule, zip past forward to it and have it at your back as it passes. As of last night. Hang on while I pull it up on NOAA.”

“Take your time. I am just settling in for the next hour before I take another nap.”

“How is it working out?”

“Good. I had an issue with one of the stays last night, but I fixed it. And wired all the rest, too.” Something I should have already done was to add twist wire to all the turnbuckles to make sure they don’t twist and separate.

I heard the keys tapping and Amanda made a few noises. “If you can make your turn west earlier, that would probably be best. It sped up a little. Winds are now at 39 knots. Still seems to hold course.”

Doing the math in my head. “Should be fine. You still coming out on the 28th?”

“Yes. If all goes well, you should only be out of contact with me for 20 hours. How long can we keep using voice before you’ll have to text?”

“I’m swinging out now, South Southwest heading. Almost at 27 miles from the coast. If the wind here holds, I should be at 100 miles off Mexico by this afternoon. A little rough, but currently holding at 12 knots, thanks to that snorter last night. It will get smoother after I get out farther. Another two days before I turn west probably depends on the winds. I’ll send the current coordinates and course plot in a few minutes.” I said as I went back to the cabin to fire up the laptop.

“OK. Let me get moving for work, since you woke me an hour early.”

“Of course, my dear Amanda. I know you need your beauty sleep. You never know when that hot lesbian will come along.”

“And you haven’t been looking?”

I sighed as this was a surprise to her, I didn’t walk right out to the local gay bars and pick a new boyfriend. I’ve had more than enough offers at work. Harold even had someone he wanted to hook me up with. “Disinterested at the moment.” I said, as I tapped out the last of the information. “OK. I need to hang up and use the data to email.”

“Sounds good. Fair winds and I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Love ya.”

“Love you to Amanda. Thanks for always being there for me.”

“Always. Be safe.” She said as she disconnected the call, and I grabbed the cord to plug into the phone. It took a few tries before I got it to send and the confirmation receipt came back. Before I shutdown and grabbed my camera and headed back to the helm to watch the sunrise that was just turning the skies a myriad of colors. I inhaled deeply and exhaled, purging my mind and body of any thoughts of Robert.

Camera focused, and I pushed the button, the satisfying sound of the click and whirr of the film advancing to the next frame. Several pans of the horizon and I caught the sight that you rarely see in person. It’s always someone else’s stories that tell the tale of salt and spray with a large pod of dolphins swimming and playing near your boat. The Pentax had the 800 speed film loaded because of the rocking and rolling. That was my best chance to get the shots I wanted. I panned back and took a few wide shots before I tried to zoom in on several. My excitement rose as I hoped each push of the button was catching what I was seeing with my own eyes. Then the view picked up an arm in the air. I zoomed closer and saw someone was in the water. I dropped the camera into the pouch at the helm station as I pulled out the big binoculars and searched the pod again. There was a head bobbing up and down. Dropping the bino’s, I twisted the key and was rewarded with the growl and puff of dark exhaust as the diesel came to life. Hands flew as I grabbed lines, wrapping one around a winch as I released the other. A tap of my foot and the winch pulled the line tight as I watched the jib rolling onto its furler. I looked back and saw the dolphins surrounding the person. I smiled as I grabbed the next set of lines and dropped the main sheet as I turned the trimaran under power towards the fool in the water. Locked the wheel as I ran up to tighten down the main sheet so the wind wouldn’t grab it. Constantly looking forwards to ensure I had my target in sight, being within 200 feet, the dolphins moved off to continue on their way. Something inside me made me wave as I spoke. “I’ve got it. Thanks for alerting me.”

I glanced up at the rigging and watched my telltales and adjusted the wheel to bring myself below the bobbing head. In case I need to let him float to me. It didn’t take long before I had him slipping, at least I think it’s him, under the arms of the port ama. I reversed hard before stopping and shutting the engine down. As I hooked a safety line to my harness and grabbed another safety strap in hopes of just letting him slip his arms through it and I could pull him out. As with all plans, it didn’t quite work out that way. I ended up in the water too. So much for me staying dry.

“Can you hear me? Wrap your arms around my waist and hold on tight.” I said. His head lulled around and as I tried to look into his eyes. He was tired and shivering. His teeth chattered every time his mouth opened. Pulling him tight into me as I tried to secure the safety strap before hooking it to me. No danger of us going under with my heavy life jacket and his inflatable, plus the line attached to me is taunt. I can’t lift him into the position I want, but dragged him up the dive ladder with me. This is one of those times I am looking up at the main mast boom, wondering if I should put in a lifting pulley for bringing items aboard.

Logan

My teeth chattered as I floated. My thoughts of swimming ceased because of disorientation and a lack of direction. The seas were growing calmer and occasionally, I believed I spotted something, but upon reaching the peak of the subsequent wave, it had disappeared. Hallucinations? Dreaming? No one is here to help me but me, and I don’t know what to do. Besides being cold, I’m getting tired and let my head lean back on the life jacket a few times and almost fell asleep. Maybe that’s just for the best. There’s a sound that keeps reaching my ears. A puff squirt type sound. It seems to get closer, but I don’t care as I let my eyes close. I was startled by a sudden touch, causing my body to respond in fear of being attacked by a shark, so I instinctively tried to defend myself. It swam past me again before I heard the distant muffled sound of a motor starting before I heard the roar as it really came to life. Dolphins. Dolphins had saved me. I thought as I fought to keep myself awake.

Then I saw it and I didn’t know what type of boat, three hulls and a tall mast with two sails on roller furlers forward, but it looked fast. I thought I was going to get hit as the boat slowed and I went under one of the arms before the engine reversed. Next thing I knew, a deep voice was talking to me as he tried to get me to wrap my arms around him while he pulled me up onto the boat. Setting me on the deck, he took off into the cabin and came back with a pile of blankets and towels, plus a gym bag. He removed my life vest and wet clothing as he dried me. Sweatshirt and sweatpants with a blanket wrapped around me. My face contorted in a frown as I think I pissed on him when he pulled my pants and underwear off. Only to be confirmed when he, his name is Eric I think, laid me down on the wide seat and covered me with another blanket before he looked at himself, snorted and jumped off the boat. Clothes and all, before he stripped in front of me and went below naked, returning a few minutes later fully clothed.

“Here. Sip this slowly.” He said as he handed me a travel mug with a straw. It was warm and sweet. Very sweet. “That’s room temperature water with a little Gatorade and lots of honey. You’re dehydrated and have hypothermia. Keep your arms out from under the blankets. Let your core warm slowly.” He said softly. He waited for me to finish before he told me to rest while he gets us underway again.

Eric

Dropping below, I double checked that I had the radio on, and it was set to Channel 16. Then I scanned back the messages on the Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver. Nothing. No one reported a man overboard. I shook my head as I checked the battery charge before I heated the electric kettle again and made myself instant oatmeal with honey as I worked out my next plan. Which included calling Amanda. When I turned and looked at the nav station’s empty satellite phone charger, my heart skipped a beat. I ran up on deck to the pile of wet clothes and checked all my pockets. Nothing. Then the helm station. The Satellite phone was gone. It must have been in my pocket and when I dove in to rinse off the piss, falling out. Not that it probably wasn’t ruined from pulling Logan out of the water. I sat down on the deck hard. This is a problem, I thought as I looked over at my sleeping charge. Sighing, I stood and double checked the sails and then fired up the radar. For a couple of pulses. Only us out here.

* * *

The sun was moving across the sky, and Eric decided it was time to move Logan down to a bunk. No longer concerned he may vomit, while he continued to use the quarter berth. After feeding Logan a canned soup and crackers, he held Logan erect as he peed into the bucket on deck for that purpose. The move was simple as Logan was steady on his feet, if feeling weak. Eric didn’t care about Logan’s protests as he guided Logan one step at a time down the companionway ladder into the main cabin before moving him to the forward cabin. Once Logan was comfortable in bed, Eric returned to the helm station and started the engine after he reduced sail. Engaging it to a low speed to motor sail and charge the house batteries. With the autopilot set, he could return to the navigation station and check the weather. The boat glided through the water with a light spray coming across the starboard ama with each light slapping wave. Logan tossed and turned in a fitful sleep as the thoughts of Eric’s many questions about what happened and wrote it down in a notebook.

Logan

Alex didn’t send out a man overboard report or broadcast one. Is he aware I am not on the boat? Or doesn’t he care? Answers to questions I don’t know, then there is Eric. He seems nice. Not afraid to be nude in front of me. Cute too, in his own way, but older than my 25 years. Then there is the way he held me and talked to me. He seemed very caring. I don’t think Alex would have taken such good care of me. And look at this boat. I’ve never seen anything like it. I needed to pee again and slowly crawled out of the bunk to work my way to the head. I saw Eric’s back towards me before his head came up and turned in my direction.

“I’m good.” I tried to say before he was moving and at my side.

“Head?”

I nodded, “I’m better now. You don’t have to help me.”

“True. Maybe I want to.” Eric said as his hand took my elbow and he opened the head door.

“Thanks.” I said as I entered and didn’t bother to close the door as I didn’t feel I needed to. Something that surprised me around a person that is technically a stranger to me. He waited until I finished and closed the lid before I pumped the flushing handle and smiled as I turned.

“You are familiar with the manual flush system?”

“Yes. My friend Ryan has it on his sailboat.”

“Then you have sailed before. Any long distance open water or just coastal?” He asked as I could see those eyes calculating.

“Not really.”

“I would like to talk to you about some issues. Do you feel up to joining me in the cockpit?” I tilted my head as I moved past him. I still didn’t have any underwear on, and he must have thought of that. “I’ll show you where my clothes are stored. Grab some underwear, socks and I’ll set out a jacket, harness, and life jacket for you.”

“OK. I could do that.” I replied as I stepped aside, and he moved past to the drawers under the bunk. In seconds he was done and headed back up top. I joined him 5 minutes later, where his eyes were checking my harness before he pulled at it, and it popped open. He smiled as he redid the clasps and wrapped the excess strapping around them.

“They won’t pop again.” He said as he motioned for me to sit. I realized he had soft music playing from the binnacle. Just loud enough to be heard if you sat next to it.

Eric

I picked up Logan yesterday morning, and he rested all night before I spotted him up and about. After checking the radio and AIS, I had to scratch my head. Nothing about Logan and without the satellite phone, I can’t check. I need to talk to him about it. When Logan arrived in the cockpit, I motioned for him to be seated after I fixed his harness.

“I am confused as to what happened to you. Falling off the boat while taking a leak happens all the time, but so far, no reports on you missing that I can see.” I paused to invite comment. He looked sad, but stayed silent, so I continued. “Even though I don’t want to, I will turn around and head back to San Diego. Otherwise, I am going to continue out to Hawaii. Which do you want me to do?” He wasn’t expecting me to say that, and he crossed his arms. The emotions that ran across his face concerned me enough I leaned towards him and whispered.

“I’ve been hurt by someone I loved once, too. You don’t need to answer me now.”

“You would take me to Hawaii with you? You have enough food and water?” I nodded, and he continued, “Why?”

“It would be easier on me to take you. You could stand watches so I could sleep more than 1 hour at a time. You look like you could use a break, away from everything and everyone to think.” I trailed off with my hands spread before I placed them back on the wheel and waited.

“OK.” Logan said as he stood. “Teach me this setup.”

Logan

Eric diligently taught me about the trimaran and its quirks over the course of two hours before we had some food and went back on deck for another hour. Well enough that he went down to sleep for four hours as he said we shouldn’t be having any real sail changes. His praises and gentle corrections of my efforts were in total contrast to Alex. I felt comfortable with Eric and his boat. And its name was a string of letters that sounded out discoverer. I liked it. His last words were pee in the bucket as he tossed me a smile over his shoulder.