The Voyage
By David Barth
This story was written April 28, 1985 for my friend, Gary George. He introduced me to the wonderful world of aviation by giving Carol and me a flight in his
Cessna 172. It was my first flight in a small plane, on a clear, smooth night in October 1973. The view of the lights of Denver looked like diamonds on black velvet,
and the reflection of the moon in the calm lakes made them look like pools of molten silver. Following that flight, Gary let me use his airplane to take flying
lessons.
Gary eventually moved to Seattle, gave up flying, and purchased a power boat. He introduced Carol and me to the San Juan Islands, and she and I began annual
treks to enjoy their beauty. Later, Gary ended up in San Diego, California where he purchased a sailboat and moved aboard it. This is a fictional adventure story
involving him, a beautiful companion, and the sailboat.
Rex and Jennifer ate the delicious seafood. They didn't eat out together very often, so, when they did, it was a special occasion. It was on pleasant, relaxing
evenings such as this that Rex thought up some of his greatest ideas. Tonight, Jennifer noticed he had that "far away" look in his eyes, and had been quiet for
a few minutes. She thought, "Oh, boy, Rex is thinking again."
Rex looked at her expression and recognized its meaning. He said, "Yes, I've been in deep thought."
"Did you come to any conclusions?"
"We'll see, Jenny."
"Do these thoughts include me, Mister Mystery Man?"
"Would you like them to?"
Jennifer thought about it. Rex had taken her on some very interesting trips. When Rex did something, it was with elan, and the event was always fun and interesting.
She really enjoyed being with him, and although his ideas often seemed scary at first, he managed to pull them off like clockwork. Yes, there were glitches that
couldn't be foreseen, but that was a welcome challenge to Rex, and he made Jennifer feel safe when he took command of a problem. It always came out right.
Still, she was cautious.
Jennifer was attractive, and her job required her to be in front of the public. A day didn't pass that, with the right moves, she could have excited ninety percent
of the men she came in contact with. One wag had said that if Helen of Troy's face could launch a thousand ships, Jennifer's could break up a thousand marriages.
But Jennifer was really a quiet, reserved person. She had sought a companion who provided support, was strong, confident, intelligent, but who didn't tie her down,
emotionally. That is why her relationship with Rex had lasted so long.
Rex broke the silence of her reflective mood. "Well, I'm sure there are a dozen other women in this restaurant who would jump at the chance I'm
offering!"
Jennifer replied, "Well, why don't you make the rounds of the other tables and let me know the tally?"
That's what Rex liked about Jennifer. She didn't take any crap off him. But he knew she knew he had the upper hand.
She asked, "Give me a hint of what this super idea is that you've just concocted?"
"Well, it involves water."
"So does a toilet."
"Salt water."
"A toilet on the ocean?"
"You've got it."
"Wait a minute," Jennifer protested, "I didn't mean to walk into that trap."
"How would you like to sail to Tahiti?"
"On a boat?"
"Well, we could take a 'calf' of ice from the Mendenhall Glacier and put a sail on it."
Jennifer shot back, "And hope there is just enough left to ice our drinks in Tahiti as we step onto the beach?"
Rex ignored her remark. "I've finally completed the design of my boat, and I've let the contract for construction to a builder in San Diego. It should be finished
next month. Can you get time off, say about a month?"
Jennifer thought, "What am I getting into, now? Do I really want to do this?"
The next day, she arranged for a four month leave of absence from her employer.
The following month, she and Rex were crossing the gangway onto Rex's new boat. It was a sailboat, thirty five feet in length; a vessel capable of sailing any
ocean in any weather, if properly equipped and handled.
Rex gave Jennifer the tour, showing her the layout and explaining the functions of the gear. In the sleeping area, she asked, "No water bed?"
"No, we try to keep the water on the other side of the hull."
"Well, sex may be a little less exciting."
Rex said, "I'm glad you brought that up. The wave action of the ocean is like one giant water bed, and I daresay, sex is better only in
the weightlessness of space."
Jennifer changed the subject. "Where are the limes?"
"The limes?" Rex asked.
"Yes, you know, the British sailors always took limes along with them to prevent scurvy."
Rex laughed, but he appreciated her thought process. "We get our vitamin C from pills. No sailors in the world ever carry limes, these days!"
A week later, they were about ready to cast off when a man wearing a neat, gray suit asked Rex if he could board his boat. Rex looked him over, and gave him
permission. The man showed Rex identification, and said he was with the Secret Service. He explained that an important person needed transportation to an
undisclosed location offshore. Rex thought this was a fishy story, and suggested the man get the hell off his boat. The agent said that a government official
needed transportation to a pickup point that would be revealed to Rex once they were at sea, and that this was strictly on the level.
He explained that they had planned to use one of a pair of government rented boats, but a bureaucratic goof up had eliminated that choice, and now they
needed to use a boat that could get underway within the next fifteen minutes, and Rex's was their best option. Rex asked him for proof that this story was valid,
and the agent told Rex some facts about himself that only someone with good information resources could know, like his birth date, social security number, parent's
names and address, a list of the employers during the past fifteen years.
Rex asked, "How do you know all this about me?"
The agent replied, "We've made a quick background check on you because we don't work with just anybody without knowing that they will be reliable. Your
passenger will board in five minutes, along with two other agents. I will be along, too, and I will give you the destination coordinates once we get
underway.
Rex decided that the odds favored this man's story, so he relented and gave permission, adding, "This may be the dumbest thing I've ever done, but it had better
be on the level, because if it isn't, I'll take some of you with me!"
The agent replied, "We know you are armed, and that is O.K. with us. We trust your judgement, and our actions will confirm our genuine intentions."
A Ford Pinto drove up. Rex mentioned to the agent that he had been expecting a government limo, but the agent replied that due to the circumstances, the
cover for the VIP's movements required a nondescript vehicle.
Rex's suggestion that a less explosive car might be in order was ignored by the agent as he communicated with someone on his hand held radio. Rex's
comment was based on a problem with all Ford Pintos that when rear-ended, the gas tank tended to rupture and catch fire.
Jennifer had come on deck after readying the last of their provisions for sea. Her eyes widened when she saw the party of two agents and the VIP board the
boat. She and Rex immediately recognized the man flanked by the secret service agents, and they heard the third agent on board announce the arrival of "the
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces" onto "Private Sailboat One" into his radio.
Rex, dumbfounded, began singling up the lines as Jennifer took direction from him on starting the engine which would be used for maneuvering in port. The VIP
was taken below by the three agents.
Shortly after they were under way, Rex noticed a lone fighter make a low-level identification pass and then pull up and disappear into the clouds. It was
apparent that security was tight.
Jennifer was still in shock over the events that were taking place, but she held a steady course at the wheel station on deck while Rex plotted a course to
the rendezvous coordinates provided by the agent.
Rex asked the agent why this VIP hadn't been helicoptered to the pick up ship they were heading for.
The agent answered, "He is going aboard a submarine, and a helicopter can't land on a sub's deck. And can you imagine trying to lower the President to the
rolling deck of a sub with him on a sling?"
Within an hour, the transfer of the agents and the VIP had been accomplished without any hitches. The captain of the sub had asked Rex permission to come
aboard, and after granting it, Rex asked him why the President was going for a ride in a submarine.
After thanking Rex for helping out, the captain said that he had been permitted to tell Rex that the U. S. had fitted his submarine, the Triton, with all that
was necessary to make it a command center for the National Command Authority (NCA), and that this was a test of the emergency evacuation plan. The "NCA"
was the title of whomever was in charge of the country. In a catastrophic event, natural or man-made, if the President was incapacitated, the chain of
command for national leadership would be followed, and whomever was at the top of the list, and still viable, would be evacuated to safety. The sub wasn't
the only refuge, of course, but they had to run evactuation tests for all of the locations. A famous one that had been declassified was the Greenbrier Resort in
West Virginia. The submarine captain also mentioned that the Triton was the only American twin-reactor sub in existence, which provided plenty of power
as well as propulsion redundancy.
Rex suggested that a major flaw had already turned up: that he might not be ready to leave the dock with his sailboat at the right time for the next
evacuation test.
The captain laughed and said that this was the first test ever carried out with the Commander In Chief, and they were doing it just for the purpose
of determining the possible weaknesses of the plans.
Finally, after the President and his secret service agents had boarded the sub, Rex and Jennifer were alone at sea. They watched as the submarine
dived several hundred yards from their boat. Rex plotted a new course, and called up the new heading to Jennifer. An hour later, Rex took over the steering
chores from her. They were near a small island, and Rex had her unsecure and drop the anchor.
She asked him what was going on as he donned scuba gear. He said he was making a bank deposit, but that explanation annoyed Jennifer. She asked,
"Have you been drinking down there while I've been driving this thing?"
Rex laughed, "No, you may as well know, banks really aren't the safest places on earth to keep money or valuables."
"I know that, but, so what? There isn't much of an option besides burying it in the back yard . . . no, you're kidding, you aren't going to . . . "
"Yep. I'm making a deposit, but it is in a backyard that will never be found or disturbed, at least not for a few centuries."
"But won't the money decay?" she asked.
"Money? This is gold, Honey, and it will outlast us and many generations after us!"
"You know, Rex, I've got to give you credit."
"I'll take the credit in bullion, if you don't mind."
Rex buried a plastic box containing many gold coins, and soon they were on their way again. Destination: Tahiti.
Life at sea was pleasant. The air was clean, the sky was bright, and it was quiet under sail. The only sounds were the lapping of the waves against the hull,
the wind blowing across the sail, and an occasional creak of the wooden structure. Night time was special, too. On a clear night the stars were so bright you
could almost read a newspaper by their light.
Rex and Jennifer fished to supplement their stock of provisions. At first, they had worked at it. Within a few days they merely dropped a baited line over the
side and checked it every few hours whenever they thought about it. If the catch was interesting, they cooked it. If not, they cut bait an tried again. Good fish
were plentiful at sea, and the couple ate very well.
One morning, while Jennifer was on watch, a fast moving motor patrol boat came up over the horizon. Jennifer and Rex had seen few ships up to now, and
those they had seen were large cargo or oil vessels plying the commercial sea lanes. But since Rex had chosen a route that was out of the usual shipping lanes,
he quickly came topside when Jennifer alerted him. He estimated it would intercept them in fifteen minutes if he maintained his present heading. Being cautions
about other small vessels at sea, Rex took the wheel and turned the boat away from the approaching speeding ship. He estimated it was a sixty foot craft, probably
powered by twin diesels and moving at thirty knots. Rex took the binoculars that Jennifer handed to him an gave the visitor a closer look. There was no flag that he
could see. He couldn't identify its nationality.
Then something happened that sent chills up Rex's spine. The ship altered its course, heading straight toward Rex's stern. He shouted to Jennifer to help him
drop the sails, and then started up the engine. There was no chance that they could outrun the intruder, but the engine would give him a little bit of
maneuverability. He hoped this wasn't a modern-day pirate ship.
Rex dived below decks and brought up several flare guns he had specially modified. To the end of them, he screwed on thirty six inch barrels, and attached
a fourteen round clip of alternating double ought buck and deer slug shells to each.
The finished result was two semi-automatic shotguns for each of them, backed up by thirty five full clips they would share between them. By international law
of the sea, weapons are not allowed at sea for any private or commercial boats. Only Naval vessels can be armed. However, flare guns are allowed, and Rex
had decided that it was prudent to provide self-protection from these modified flare guns.
Jennifer hated guns, but this was a special situation. She joked, "You suppose the President is in that speedboat and he needs another lift?"
Rex replied, "Whoever this is, he is going to have to call Yellow Cab. I'm out of the taxi business."
The fast ship pulled up alongside, about ten yards from Rex's boat and stopped. Rex still couldn't see any identification on it. They heard a bull horn. It ordered them
to raise their hands and surrender. Rex replied by pumping ten rounds through various windows and port holes of the mystery ship.
It was quiet for a moment, then he heard them. Jets. Four Tomcats in slow flight, wings extended, gear and flaps fully deployed, flying twenty feet off the water,
coming up on the two ships in loose formation. The jets began circling the vessels. The intruder ship didn't make any further requests of Rex, and he still hadn't
seen anyone on the ship, only a shadowy figure in the wheel house.
Then Jennifer spotted it. Another ship, moving fast, toward them. She pointed it out to Rex, and he said, "Damn it, they're ganging up on us!"
He swung the binoculars to the other ship. He immediately saw that it was different from the first. It was larger, much larger, and it bristled with five inch guns.
And, it displayed a flag. The Stars and Stripes never looked so good to Rex. He smiled and handed the binoculars to Jennie. She took a look and began jumping
up and down with glee. It was a U. S. destroyer.
Meanwhile, the mystery ship had run up its engines and was trying to get away. Rex watched and thought, "You'll have to do better than that to outrun those
Tomcats, Asshole."
From the opposite direction of the approaching destroyer came four torpedo boats to intercept the mystery ship.
A few minutes later, as the destroyer took up a station about 200 yards from Rex's boat, a motor launch from the destroyer pulled up along side Rex's, and a
naval officer saluted and requested permission to come aboard.
On board, the officer introduced himself as the executive officer of the destroyer and told Rex and Jennifer that the intruding mystery ship had just been captured
by the torpedo boats and its crew arrested for various crimes on the high seas.
Rex asked, "How is it you came to our aid so quickly? I didn't even have a chance to put out a distress signal."
"Well, I don't know the whole story, but the captain said CINCPACFLEET . . . "
Rex interrupted, "Sink pack fleet?"
"Yes, the admiral who is Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet has given standing orders to our task group to monitor your sailboat by satellite and
lend assistance to you until you get to your destination. Rumor has it the orders came from the highest level in the government, from above the Joint Chiefs,
but I don't know exactly who that would be. Who are you? Why are substantial resources of the Navy watching over your little boat? Don't take offense, Sir.
The captain asked me to try to find out what this is about, and I just thought being direct with you was the best approach."
Rex thought a moment and said, "Commander, I think somebody thinks he owes me a favor, and I sure do appreciate you pulling my bacon out of the
fire."
Well, thank you, Sir. I can sure understand that you may not be able to discuss this. The captain sends his respects."
Before pulling away, the sailors manning the launch lifted a box aboard Rex's boat. The officer saluted and said, "This is for you, compliments from the U. S.
Navy. Have a pleasant trip. We'll be keeping tabs on you by real-time satellite surveillance."
Rex returned the salute as the motor launch left them. It was suddenly quiet. He and Jennifer slumped down on the deck and leaned against the box from
the destroyer. For a few minutes, they just sat and relaxed.
Then Jennifer said, "Let's see what's in this box!"
"I'm too tired to care," Rex sighed.
Jennifer pulled the top open and looked in. Rex saw the astonished look on her face and calmly asked, "What now? Tarantulas?"
Jennifer reached into the box and pulled out a lime and held it up for Rex to see.
"Okay, okay, so they do carry limes these days. I don't know everything, you know." Jennifer pulled herself closer to him and gave him a hug, "No, but
you know more than most!"
Jennifer dug down a little further in the box, and there, below the limes, were cold bottles of beer. The each twisted the cap off of a bottle and took turns
squirting a lime on each other's tongue, then taking a sip of the beer. It was delicious!
A few days later they dropped anchor in a remote bay of Tahiti, stripped naked, and skinny dipped in the warm, blue lagoon. Rex wondered if the
resolution of the satellites was good enough to see that they were naked.
They were in Paradise.