Our End Of The Lake: Surviving After The 2012 Solar Storm (Prepper Trilogy) (38 page)

“Donnie has one, and the house that was trashed by them kids does” He said looking at me quizzically and trying to figure out what they were good for.

“They make great windmill motors by removing the engine and adding some blades for generating electricity, but I bet me and you can devise something to play ring up the fish.” I said grinning and referring to the old hand crank radios we had in the military. that if hooked to a telephone wire that had a loop consisting of about 10ft of insulation stripped off wire, could be used to electrocute and stun a fish long enough to scoop them up in a net.

“Oh hell yeah! That shit would be allowed now. Too bad you don’t have any grenades David.” he said getting a devilish look in his eyes.

“Damn you old arsonist don’t go there, be content to play Ma Bell!” I said chuckling at his pleasure in the notion of having some interesting Jack oriented fun.

“Find me some loose steel or lead pipe or some big monkey wrenches too, while you are out carousing with Donnie tomorrow. Don’t forget I brought that kit that uses a marine alternator for a windmill that I bought off of eBay a while back and added to my stores.” I said contemplating building a mast for my already complete power generating windmill.

“There is an old Chris Craft boat, one of those mahogany specials from the 60s in a boat house near the party house, but it’s slung up in the air by an electric boat lift. Maybe we could probably get another alternator like yours off of it.” Jack offered speculating on our power needs.

“The hell with that, I bet we can get that old boat running. How high up is it?” I said beyond myself with excitement at his find.

“They got that thing at least 6ft up and over the water. We could cut the canvas slings, maybe if we were careful, but it’s going to do a hell of a belly flop from that height.” Jack said. “I’m sure if we put our heads together and keep our eyes peeled on our “Borrowing” forays for pulleys, rope and maybe a come-along, that we’ll figure some way to get that beauty down safely.

SET SAIL!

The morning is beautiful with a nice light wind blowing, just perfect for Sherry’s and my start of the day for a sailing excursion. We had our morning Coffee and I got ready to dive in the lake and swim out to the buoy where our sailing craft was moored.

This particular point of the lake was somewhat shallow, so it necessitated having to tie up the boat about 25 ft out from the dock, so she did not get buffeted by the waves of the motor boats or get grounded by drifting into too shallow of water. I hand towed the line by swimming it over to the dock and passing it up Sherry, so she could board and then swung myself up and got in the boats cockpit to get ready to make sail. This sailboat was small, only about 25 ft, but I couldn’t even think about dropping the center board, until we were at least 50 ft out in the channel, for fear of running aground.

I could have carried a long gun with me, but I did not want to bother with the task of waterproofing such a weapon I did not expect to need, especially with the home front keeping tabs on us. The cockpit of the fiberglass boat needed bailing and I planned on doing it the automated way as we were under sail by opening the little drain cock as she heeled over in the wind and just letting the water get drained out that way.

I had Cheryl bring my stainless steel Sig, and put it and her Keltec into Ziploc bags for transport and that was enough firepower for this little trip, I figured.

The whole clan saw us off and we began gently tacking out of our harbor, until it was safe enough to sink the center board and pull in the main sheet. I love to sail, no motor sounds, and the strength of the wind in the lines trying to pull them from my grip as the sail fills and adds a steady pressure that makes the boat lean over. Glorious day!

We got out on the lake about half way and I advised Sherry to get ready to come about, meaning she needed to duck the mast secondary pole that would be soon be swinging in her direction as I changed course and let out the sail almost parallel in the opposite direction we were originally headed in.

I figured I would survey Donnie’s side of the lake, then come about and shoot a diagonal, if the wind would let me, back over to my side and scope out the unknown region to the entrance to the main lake off in the distance.

“Are you having fun yet sweetie?” I needlessly asked a beaming Sherry, as I manned the tiller and cut up a bit pulling the sail in to make the small boat keel and picked up speed.

“This is fun, but you’re not going to tip us are you?” Sherry said half concerned at my navigation and half enjoying any possibility on the adventure and enjoying the moment. I had instructed her about what we needed to do, if I ever over compensated and tipped us, as well as we had our life belts on. So even though I had not sailed in years, we were having a blast running this craft through its paces when I had clear water.

“Look in back of you Sherry. You see the water getting black and maybe getting a ripple? That means you got wind or a gust coming and I am sailing by the signs so no worries, I said making the boat do a little jig with the rudder.

“Here, take the line and feel the wind, but let out the line if I tell you to,” I said offering the reins to the boat which she took hesitantly.

“You got to be strong to hold this sail David.” she said fighting the wind.

“Not really, you are forcing it too much, just feel an easy motion of give and take and work with the boa’s response. No need for a death grip, just hold that sail against the wind with what feels comfortable to you.” I told her and encouraging her get the feel of the sail and get over her anxiety of not being able to control the sail.

“That’s it, you doing great; see its no more pressure than a standard steering wheel at times, if you really pull it in, be careful now, you always got to see the edge of the boat so you don’t swamp us or make sure we both lean back the opposite way over the side of the boat with our weight and we can get this thing going as fast as we like.” I explained to her hoping she didn’t send us into the drink by getting too exuberant.

Her tinkling laughter as she played with the main sail echoed across the lake and I told her, when we started sailing back to our side of this inlet, I would let her have the tiller and lines herself and drive us, but we were on a mission and to let me resume control.

She did not want to give up those lines to her new play pretty, but she ended up doing so reluctantly, knowing we were not on vacation and that something more than a boat ride needed to be accomplished today.

“You are going to let me sail back, you said.” Sherry said, but was really assuring herself she would get another chance to experience the joy of sailing.

“Yes. You can play on the big lake; these shallows need my attention and expertise though.” I said trying to look at the shoreline and the driveways Jack and Donnie were supposed to be traveling.

“Look through those binoculars, as I come about up here and see if you see that couple. That slough doesn’t look like I would care to sail into it.” I said studying the unfathomed waters ahead of us.

“Ready to come about?” I yelled to Sherry.

“Come about!” she yelled back happy with life and the wind, and we turned towards a tack that would put us dead center on the lake across from the neighbors we were curious about.

I went about 300 yards and let the sail luff, and asked Sherry if she was ready to try the boat on her own and swapped places with her.

“Go for it girl.” I said to a very determined Ms. Sherry and except for scaring the hell out of me a few times by almost capsizing us with her need for speed, we did ok as we went past the peoples house this whole arrangement was for and started to go into the main lake.

“Ok Sherry, I see you are a contender for the next Yacht races out here, but give me back the tiller and we are going to go slow and steady, so we can recon in the shallows on the way back. I did not hardly have a chance to look going by the house, as I was too busy trying to lean over the opposite edge of the boat to keep us righted on the way over here. You going to be hell, when I teach you what the spinnaker or jib are used for, if we get to play with some different sailboats.” I told her and wiped some of the spray she had created from the lake from that wild ride off my forehead.

“Damn David, that was so neat, why didn’t we ever find time for us to do this before, you always talked about sailing and said I would love it, but I never thought it would have been this fun.” Sherry said looking sweetly at me.

“Different time, different era, we lacked the money and access to one, so it just did not happen I reckon or we had other important considerations to deal with. We got lots of time to sail another day. Now, let’s finish this mission and see if we can visit that couple today.”

“Let’s just go over there, if they don’t want to meet us, they can just wave us off.” Sherry said looking back over towards the house.

“I agree. I am tired of playing games over something as silly as going to meet a possible neighbor. If they were looking all desperate, then caution would be needed; but they don’t appear to be doing too badly on their own. They could get desperate later and want a handout and that can get awkward, if we get short on supplies. But if we don’t act like we got a lot extra, I doubt anyone is going to bother us up here. There has always been a criminal element up here that would break into places occasionally but most people that have a lake cabin are hard working family types or retirees. Civilization will sort itself out like it always does; I am just being very cautious for now, because unfortunately a lot of people will start starving and not be in their right minds. I would give someone food, if they asked; but I don’t want someone thinking about raiding us for what we got and this world has people in it that would take advantage of this situation just because that is their mentality.” I said while turning the boat towards the family’s house.

“It’s hard to know what people will do in the conditions of a long term disaster, but I agree with you that the majority of people will try to help each other if they can and that eventually the bad elements in society tend to get sorted out one way or another.” Sherry said and as we got closer we waved to the couple, who waved back and motioned for us to come over to their dock.

The couple walked down to their pier and as we coasted up Sherry threw the man our bowline.

“Well hello, we saw you having fun with that sailboat. My name is Frank and this is my wife Nancy.” Frank said and shook my hand.

“I am David and this is Sherry.” I responded and asked if I could lower my sail so we could talk a bit.

“Sure, lets go sit under the deck where its cooler.” Frank said and looking quite pleased that we had stopped by.

“How are you all making out considering the sun decided to pull the electric switch?” I asked sitting back in a chair.

“We are getting by; I guess the best we can expect.” Nancy replied and did not seem too put out about it all.

Frank asked us if we were doing ok and mentioned he had seen our group several times and asked if we have been doing a lot of hunting. I guess he was alluding to the ever present guns in our camp.

“Not too much yet, we have been scavenging some and getting moved in, we came up from Montgomery and Bernie invited us to settle in here.” I offered and thanked Nancy for the glass of warm Kool-Aid she offered me.

“How did you manage to get here from Montgomery?” Frank asked incredulously and I told him about our collection of odd transportation. We discussed how the condition of the city was and what little bit of news we had gathered. Frank said they had moved up to the lake for the summer and normally lived in Birmingham.

“How about you, you been out hunting any?” I asked him.

“I been out once, got a little spike buck. I smoked most of it in that smoker over there.” he said gesturing at a large stainless steel box.

“I know that venison will help you on your pantry quite a bit. Have you seen many other people on the lake?” I asked with anticipation.

“Not too many. Most people avoid the heat this time of year and vacation earlier or later in the season. You got maybe 8 people scattered out over on my side of the inlet, how about your side?” Frank asked gazing towards our pier.

“We have only seen two others besides our group, but we haven’t explored too far out of our area.” Sherry told him.

I asked Frank if he had had any problems in his area and told him about the trashed house Jack had found. He said he had not had any problems, but people scavenging were starting to run into each other and a few arguments had occurred over who had rights to goods, but nothing other than that.

Sherry and I chatted with them about an hour and, after thanking Frank and Nancy for the shade and refreshment, said we would come back for another visit soon before setting sail back to our side of the lake and what we considered these days as home.

GOBBLER GOBBLING

Jack and I spent the next morning nailing together boxes and creating raised bed gardens. That bobcat loader saved us a ton of work by scraping off the lawns and then backfilling them, even helped with moving some small boulders and stumps to form sort of a low wall around the plot, hopefully to deter the geese and any varmints until we could put up some proper fencing. Sherry laughingly said that her back had never felt better after such ‘heavy lifting’ and kept asking if there wasn’t something else her bobcat couldn’t help get done. She pouted a little, when I told her to save the gas by parking the thing and to go help the others up at the staging area we had set aside for sorting the plants we’d brought with us from Montgomery or she could go find the cans of heirloom seeds, so we could start planting and transplanting into the various beds later this afternoon.