Frontier - 46. FR Chapter 46

I headed upstairs to the fly bridge, and Simon followed me up. As I unlocked the door and stepped out my mouth dropped open when I saw what was surrounding us.

“Holy cow! Where the hell are we, Skipper?” Simon said as he saw the same view as me.

“I have no idea, Mate, but that looks like…” I began to say, stopping so I could retrieve the binoculars. I looked through them to the distance, and I slowly scanned the area around us.

“Ok, we have a total of four islands, and by the looks of where the sun is rising, the biggest island to the south west is long, and appears to have a runway on it. The small island to the north looks like it’s fairly bare, with just low vegetation, as is the island due east of us. So, we are on the middle island, with us almost in the middle of the northern section,” I said to Simon as I assessed our surroundings.

“How did we end up being so far in on the island?” Simon asked me.

“I am guessing that we had a high tide last night, and with the help of some large waves, it just carried us over most of the reef and the island,” I suggested, and Simon nodded his head in understanding. “Let’s go downstairs and see what external damage we have, apart from the lightning striking the mast, which I already know about,” I said to Simon, who looked up and saw the blackened mast, and the damaged radio antennae, and satellite dish.

Walking down the aft stairs, I unlocked the aft door, that becomes the swimming platform, stepped onto the platform, and into the storage area, where there was a little bit of a mess, with a few items scattered around from a storeroom door coming open, but the two dinghies were still in place. So, Simon and I got to work to clean up the small mess before we stepped off the yacht and onto the island for the first time.

“Do you have any guesses on where we may be located?” Simon asked me, as we looked at the back of the yacht from a few steps back. I was pleased to see that there appeared to be no damage.

“I think we are still in US territory, maybe west of Hawaii. I think instead of going north, we have ended more west of Hawaii, which means when people start looking for us, they may be looking in the wrong place for us,” I replied.

We walked along the portside of the yacht, and there seemed to be no damage, but as we approached the bow, my heart broke when I saw the crushed nose of the port pontoon. “Oh bugger! That is not good,” Simon said when he saw the damage. I ran my hand along the surface to see how bad it was, before walking further around to check the main bow of the yacht. That had a large crack near the bottom of the bow.

“Well, that’s where the water would have got into the bulkhead, Si,” I said to Simon as we looked at a good size gap, before going around to the starboard pontoon, which had a smaller amount of damage.

“I guess this meant we are stuck here for now?” Simon said to me, and I just nodded my head as tears started to roll down my cheeks. I sat down on the beach staring at my damaged yacht.

Simon sat down beside me and put his arm around me, and we sat there for some time, till we heard a noise on the aft deck. “What the hell! Where are we?” I heard one of the lads say.

“We are down here, Guys,” Simon shouted out, and a few moments later Toby and Finn appeared, and when they saw what we were looking at they too sat down around me.

“Any idea where we are?” Toby asked.

“Yeah, the skipper thinks we are west of Hawaii, instead of north of Hawaii, but we have no satellite navigation to work out exactly where,” Simon replied for me.

“Don’t we have some charts that show the northern Pacific Ocean?” Finn asked.

“No, but I just remembered something. My brothers have a couple of school atlases that maybe useful for us,” I said as the idea came to mind. I stood up and walked back to the aft of the yacht. Once on board I headed through the living areas, the bridge and down to the crew area, where Jedd and Neale were standing.

“Anton, why are we not moving?” Neale asked me, when he saw me.

“Good question, brother of mine, and if you can get me your big atlas, I might be able to tell you,” I replied, and Neale turned around and entered the study, returning moments later with the big atlas, which he placed on the crew mess table. “We have beached on a small island a couple of hours ago, and we have some bad nose damage to the main yacht and the two pontoons. With the help of a high tide and big waves we have been beached a good 20 metres from the water’s edge,” I explained to my brothers.

I opened the atlas and began looking for the map of the northern Pacific Ocean. Once I found it I carefully began to look around the map, as I heard Simon and the lads coming down the stairs from the bridge. “Simon can you go up to the fly deck, and describe the shape of each of the other three islands, via the two-way please,” I asked and Simon turned around and did as I asked.

Once Simon had given me a better description of the islands, I called back. “Ok, Si, you can come back down,” I replied from the galley two-way. I looked until I found a very small group of islands. Looking at the enlarged section on the next page, they fitted that description, and I smiled, pleased that I knew where we were, as we waited for Simon to return.

“With the help of Simon’s observations, I am around 95% certain that we are located here - the Johnston Atoll,” I announced as I pointed to the location on the map. I looked at the map scale. “I estimate that we are about 1300 kilometres due South-West of Hawaii. Jedd, you guys have a set of encyclopedias, right? Can you get me the one with “J” for Johnston please?” I asked my youngest brother. He went into the study to find the book that I asked for, and returned with it in hand. I opened the book and started searching and eventually found what I was looking for. I began to read silently.

Once I had read everything about the atoll, I looked at the crew. “Ok, we have landed on a group of islands that has had a lot happen over many years. They include the storage of deadly chemicals, nuclear testing, rocket launching and recovery, and military attacks from the Japanese during WW 2. There are a few buildings still standing, one at the bottom end of this island which is Sandy Island, and some on Johnston Island, where the airfield is. This island was used as a seaplane base, and had a dining hall, accommodation, a control tower, all of which have been pulled down, but there is still an underground hospital.

“On the largest island, there is the main control building and some bunkers, and it is there that some chemical waste is still located and sealed off, so I am ordering Johnston Island as off limits to everyone, as it is too dangerous to be on there. Simon and I will use a dinghy to go around Johnston island just to see what is there, but we will not be stepping onto the island. North and East Island seem to have no buildings mentioned on them, and what we can observe there is just low vegetation, so we might leave them alone in case there are animals and birds nesting there, but this island should be ok.

No one is to go wandering around Sand Island until Simon and I have had a good look around, just in case we find any old munitions or anything dangerous, does everyone understand?” I said to everyone, and they all nodded their heads in understanding.

“When we do give you permission to have a look around Sandy Island, no going alone. There is to be at least two of you, and always carry a two-way radio, and either the skipper or I have to be told personally when you are going. That means not leaving a note and just going,” Simon added.

“Good, now we know where we are, and that we are stuck here for a while, Simon and I have already put into place a plan for survival. With great thinking, Simon bought two hydroponic garden systems, some seedlings and also some potted fruit trees, so we will be able to grow our own fruit and vegetables. We have checked that the desal unit is working, and that we have a working power supply,” I said to the crew. “This means you can no longer go to a fridge or freezer or help yourself to food. You must ask me, and for the next few days we will be eating just the perishable foods - that means the food that goes off the quickest.

“With the fruits - keep all citrus and apple seeds, as I will be planting them, so as to keep our food supplies going, as we do not know how long we will be stuck here. This means you do not have to worry about food or water. The desal unit will give us plenty of fresh water, and we have a good supply of frozen food, plus when we do some fishing, we will have plenty of white meat.

“We will have to watch our waste as well, so I will set up a system in the galley, where food waste which I hope there will be very little, will go into a small container, that will be used to make compost for our garden. Any paper or plastics and metal waste will go into storage containers, and stowed away in one of the aft store room lockers. Skipper, another thing we need to think about is sewage waste. We may have to find a place to store it and maybe once a week transport it via dinghy to Johnston Island, where we can dry it out, then maybe reuse it,” Simon said, facing me for the last part of his talk. I nodded my head in understanding.

“One last thing. We are in the tropics, so as you will notice it will get nice and warm, so make sure you are fully clothed and wear hats, and put on sunscreen. Wear shoes when exploring the island. Wear shirts when in the Jacuzzi, and for now, there will be no swimming in the lagoon, until we know what is in there, just in case there are sharks,” I added.

“For now, Jedd and Neale, can you both please help me relocate the hydroponic garden, while the lads can help the skipper with checking and getting the desal unit and power supply operational,” Simon suggested, and with that said we all headed upstairs, where Neale and Jedd dashed out onto the aft deck to have a look around the island.

“Wow, this is awesome. We are stranded on an island like Robinson Crusoe,” Neale said loudly and us older boys couldn’t help but chuckle at their excitement.

Simon went to the port side and looked at the gap between the main part of the yacht and the closed pontoon, which was about 2 metres wide and about 9 metres long, with a tiny access gap at the back of the pontoon. I walked up to Simon and looked at the gap, and soon realised what Simon was thinking. “Good thinking, Buddy. It is sheltered yet still provides plenty of sunlight. Perfect for your hydroponic garden. Will you be doing the same on the other side?” I said to Simon.

“Yes, but it would be good if we could somehow open up the pontoon just a little bit to provide better access, and a little bit more room,” Simon said to me.

“Let me go up to the fly bridge, and let’s test to see if the hydraulics is strong enough to move them just a little bit,” I suggested, and I made my way inside and upstairs, this time leaving the door and hatch open. Once I had unlocked the display panel, I turned on the key for power, and pressed the open button for the pontoons.

“It’s working,” I heard Simon shout to me. “Ok, stop it there,” he added, and I pressed the button again and turned off the key, before looking over the side to see what difference it had made.

I could see from the deck, that the pontoons had moved about a metre, which gave a narrow entry forward, and a good sized wide access from the back. While I was on the fly deck I looked up the mast to see what damage there was. I called the lads to come up, and once I had retrieved the bosun’s chair, and seeing that the lifting cable was usable, I had the lads lift me up the mast so I could have a closer look. The satellite dish was a real mess, and the radio antennae was virtually non-existent, which I was disappointed about. As I looked down at the deck, I spotted something unexpected. “Hey, Finn, to your left, on the floor in the forward alcove of the pontoon beam - check and see if that is what I think it is,” I shouted down to the lads, and I watched Finn, as he went to look. Moments later he was smiling and holding up the presumed lost sat phone.

Once I was back on the fly deck, I disconnected the bosun chair and stored it away, then headed downstairs, where Finn was trying to get the sat phone to work. “We may need to strip it down and get it dried off. If we are lucky we may get it working, once it has been out in the sun for a week,” I said Finn and Jedd, who looked a little disappointed that it wasn’t working. “Never mind, just think of this as one big adventure. We have food and water to last us a while. We are very lucky to have got out of that storm alive,” I said to the lads, who realised that I was right.

Leaving the sat phone on the dining table, we went out to the aft deck and unlocked the main match, that leads to the desalination unit just forward of the engines, and it was currently working, which I was pleased to see. Next, we went to the swim platform and forward to the front lockers where the power storage batteries and the power converters were located for the solar panels and the wind turbine. The readings on them showed the batteries to be near full, and the solar panels were producing power.

“Ok, the solar panels are doing a good job at the moment, so we don’t need to panic, but we will need to get the wind turbine up and working in the next few days. How about we all go and help Simon with the garden,” I said to the lads.

“Skipper, can you and the lads go to every storage locker and room that we have and see what empty open and sealable containers we have, and place them on the aft deck so we can work out which containers we can use for different uses,” Simon said to me, and so the lads and I did as was asked. About half an hour later, we had a large collection of containers, from 200 litre blue thick plastic barrels, to square 15 litre containers.

“Simon, where did these barrels come from? I don’t remember seeing them before?” I asked Simon as he came onto the aft deck, and chuckled at my confusion.

“I got those while you were on shore leave at Fiji. They used to hold coconut oil. They were going cheap, as were some of those 25 litre containers, so I bought them, just in case we needed them,” Simon replied.

“Well done, Buddy. That was good thinking. We would be in a lot more difficult situation if it wasn’t for you,” I replied with a smile, and a pat on the back.

“The eight 25 litre containers would be best to be used for our sewerage waste situation. We can seal them then easily transport them away, while the seven larger drums would be best for fresh water storage for the garden. We can place them in the two forward alcoves and run a hose from the desal unit to the drums, and I will rig a connection from the drums to the hydroponics system,” Simon suggested.

“What about all of the 15 litre drums?” I asked Simon, who smiled.

“Those will have the tops cut off, and become extra garden beds for our plants, like establishing apple and citrus seedlings, and mangos too, if we can get those seed pods to sprout,” Simon added. When the sun was high in the sky, we stopped for some lunch, with Simon preparing cold meat and salad sandwiches for us all. “I think we have achieved a lot in just one morning, well done everyone. I’m not sure about some of the seedlings. Some of them are looking very sad after being abandoned in the storage hull of the pontoons, during the three days of the storm,” Simon said to us as we ate.

“Well, we will have to give them extra TLC, and hope they will recover,” Toby replied, and Finn nodded his head in agreement.

“Si, I think you and I better move semi permanently to the guest cabin we are in now, and once all four cabins are empty and cleaned, they should be locked up, until we can get this girl back into the water again,” I suggested.

“Ok, we can do that straight after lunch,” Simon replied.

“Finn and Toby, can you go around the whole yacht and plug everything electrical back in again, and then the boys can enjoy some games or a movie,” I asked the lads, and my brothers were happy to hear this. Once Simon and I had completed moving all our luggage and belongings over to the twin guest cabin, Finn and Toby cleaned all four pontoon cabins, and I locked them up, so they wouldn’t be used for the remainder of our time on the island.

By the end of the day, we had completed a lot, with the herb and vegie garden now established, and the wind and solar power supply fully operational, as was the water desalination system. So, I knew, that no matter how long we were stuck on the island, we would be able to survive for quite some time. Over the next few days we settled into a daily routine.

My brothers had to spend from 0800 to 1100 hours doing school work, and after lunch they were permitted to either soak in the Jacuzzi or play on the beach. The only condition I had was that they went no deeper than their knees into the lagoon water, and stayed out of the ocean water. After four days, I was pleased that we were doing fairly well. I had looked around the northern half of Sandy Island, which had just very low vegetation.