Authors: John Strauchs
Starlight Scope. Siemels boat was heading south.
“No, the rain and winds are getting too strong.
I want to set her down for the
night,” said the pilot.
Rubio was uneasy flying. This was a convenient excuse.
“OK, let’s go back to the hanger. We can pick them up again in the morning.”
“The weather should clear up by late morning.”
Jenny was up first. The sun was up. It was a cold morning but the sky was clear.
She decided to take her shower later after Jared was up and out of the stateroom.
She
went to the galley and put on coffee. She turned on the TV and found a local news channel.
“
Human remains were found at the home of reclusive millionaire Jared
Siemels. They are being sent to the crime lab in Augusta for further
analysis and identification. The circumstances of the massive explosion
and…..”
She didn’t want to hear any more. She turned it off as Jared walked into the galley.
“Sounds like they don’t know if that’s me or not.
They might not be looking for
me that hard as long as they aren’t sure. There are no dental records to match me with.”
“You might be right,” she said.
“Did anyone know that you came to the island?” asked Jared.
“Sam Bentley at Sevigny’s Marina rented me the boat. He must be wondering by
now what happened to it.”
“I’m sure that they found the boat by now. Did you tell him where you were
going?” asked Jared.
“Yes.”
“Are you going to make some breakfast?” asked Jared.
“OK, what would you like?”
“Whatever you’re having would be fine.
Can you first give me a hand with the
lines? It’s time we left,” he said.
“Sure!”
They pulled in the lines and Jared eased the boat out of the slip and entered the
harbor. It was a windy day and the ocean was choppy. White caps were appearing from
time to time. It was a four foot sea. The constant rocking was beginning to bother Jenny.
As Jared picked up speed and headed into the wind, the rocking intensified.
“There is some Dramamine in the medicine cabinet,” said Jared.
“I just need to eat something. Something with some sugar. I think I’ll be alright.
I’ll get us some breakfast.”
“Great!”
Jared pulled out a nautical chart and mapped a heading to Ocean City, Maryland.
He set the GPS. Going farther out into the Atlantic would save time but the ocean would
be rougher. He heard a pan falling, followed by the sound of broken glass.
“It’s nothing. Just a coffee cup,” yelled Jenny from the galley.
She came back with fried egg sandwiches about fifteen minutes later.
“Thanks, we’ll take turns, OK?” asked Jared.
“Is this you’re way of avoiding sexual stereotyping?” she asked.
“I would have said the same thing if you were a man.”
“Yea! Sure!” she said.
“OK, you can do all the cooking and cleaning if that makes you feel better about
it,” said Jared.
“So where are we going?
What is the plan?” asked Jenny.
She wasn’t going to
banter with him.
“Well, in gross numbers, we have about 2,100 miles to go. I am going to try to
average about 22 knots.”
“Which is what?” she asked.
“That’s about 25 miles an hour.”
“Where is two thousand and some miles going to get us?”
“Officially, we’re going to New Orleans! At least that is what I want our pursuers
to think?”
“How long will it take to get there and why New Orleans?”
“Compound question….I thought…”
“QUIT IT,” said Jenny.
“Sorry.
If we were really going to New Orleans it would take us from seven to
nine days, depending on how long we stopped along the way and how many hours we’re
under power,” said Jared. “But I already told you that we’re really going to Panama.”
“Oh, yes. I forgot that. You did. More than a week? I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Call Krissy or your Mom whenever you want. Just use the cell phone…but we
need to be near land or in a harbor.”
“Of course,” she said.
“I was planning on going about twelve hours each day and then spending the
night somewhere.
We should average about three hundred miles a day. We carry about
350 gallons of gas so fueling is not an issue. Are you up to it? We have to reach our safe
harbor before they find us. It is critical,” said Jared.
“Of course. How are you feeling? That is the question.”
“I am on the mend. No problem.
When we round Florida, we’re going south to
Panama. They’ll be watching for us on the route to New Orleans,” said Jared.
Jared glanced up casually as Rubio’s helicopter passed overhead. They weren’t
spotted.
Rubio must have finally discovered that he was following the wrong boat. He
now knew that Jared that tricked him and he was searching Jared’s probable route. This
was going well.
“Was is it? Is that them?”
“No, it’s nothing. Just sightseers!” It was an easy lie.
The first day after leaving Newport and twelve hours later the StarWind was in
Ocean City, Maryland. Jenny and Jared spent the night in the Bahia Marina. They had a
good meal. On the second day the ocean was rougher. They entered through Oregon Inlet at the Outer Banks and cruised down Pamlico Sound. Although Jenny was gradually
getting used to rough waters, the Sound was a relief. They anchored off of Brown’s Island to spend the night.
When Jared rounded Cape Lookout and left the barrier islands,
they finally entered the Gulf Stream.
They saw Rubio’s helicopter in the distance from time to time. Twice, it passed
directly overhead at low altitude.
Prior to each pass, Jared covered “StarWind” with a
temporary name plate. Somehow he knew ahead of time. He quickly removed the false
ship name as soon as Rubio was out of range again.
Jenny was in hiding each time and
Jared wore a yellow rain slicker and cap.
The rain gear was justified by the heavy bow
spray.
The daytime temperatures rose each day. The ocean was calmer. The color of the
water changed to brilliant aquamarines. The sunsets were spectacular. Jenny spotted pods
of dolphins. Flying fish leapt from their wake and flew until they landed in another swell.
Although she was studying marine biology, she hadn’t spent very much time at sea. Her
excitement was wonderful to see. Her enthusiasm was a tonic for Jared. Jenny was surprised that she was beginning to enjoy the voyage. It no longer felt like December—
especially not like December in New England. More importantly, it looked like Jared’s
trickery was working. They hadn’t been found yet. She should have had more confidence
in him.
By the third day they were in Savannah. They anchored for the night in the Green
Island Sound.
The next day they finally reached Florida and entered the Indian River
from Mosquito Lagoon at Allenhurst, just north of Titusville.
Jared knew that time
would be saved by staying in the Atlantic, but Jenny still didn’t have her sea legs even
though she seemed to be tolerating it much better. She hadn’t thrown up for two days
now. They kept up a brutal pace. Time was critical.
If they were discovered at sea, it
would all be over. They would be dead.
They spent the night at a Mom and Pop marina at Sebastian Inlet near Melbourne.
It was relaxing to get away from the heavy regimentation of large marinas. As Jenny was
examining one of the nautical charts, she noticed that the Bahamas weren’t that far away.
She had never been to the Bahamas and thought it would be nice.
Jared reminded her
that visiting a foreign port could complicate matters with the Coast Guard and foreign
customs and immigration services. She didn’t bring it up again.
On the fifth day they went into Biscayne Bay and sailed west of the keys, arriving
in Naples on Florida’s west coast. Jared found another small marina on Barron River and
refueled and restocked the boat.
The next leg would be across the Gulf of Mexico. The
route would depend on the weather.
Their conversations over the past six days were perfunctory. The words were
sparing. They were both cordial and even friendly at times, but the warmth and closeness
were gone. Now that the temperature was in the 80s, Jenny spent an hour each day, some
days more, sunning on the foredeck. Sometimes she was topless but she was never completely nude. Jared would find an excuse to go to the cabin to work. The discomfort for
both was palpable. Jared sunned himself on some days to help his wounds heal, but never
when Jenny did.
On one occasion when Jenny was tanning, she asked Jared to put sun
screen on her back. He did but then retreated to his cabin again. They still slept together,
but they hadn’t made love since they left Eagle’s Head.
The ocean was in dead calm.
There was no wind.
Rubio was furious. He was a fair and reasonable man. He didn’t blame the pilot.
He was angry with himself.
He respected Jared’s abilities
He is the one who insisted
that they not get too close to the boat. That was his mistake. When they finally realized
that Jared had moved the firefly to a new boat, it was too late to do much about it. Jared
had slipped away. It probably happened in Newport.
Rubio didn’t know where to go
now. They searched but couldn’t find Jared’s boat. Rubio knew that he had changed its
appearance, but knowing that didn’t help much. More importantly, the distances were
now too much for a helicopter. Rubio needed to find some other way of finding Jared
again.
When they returned to the airfield, Rubio telephoned Sami in Sofia. He explained
what had happened. Sami was a pragmatist.
These things can happen.
It is no one’s
fault. Blame is a waste of time. They had to find a solution.
“My friend, don’t blame yourself.
This is very clever man.
It could happen to
me,” said Sami.
“I think I lost him in Newport.”
“Stop? No place names. No names at all. We both know what we talk about. Detail not necessary.”
“Excuse my ignorance,” said Rubio.
“I want you to call our American friend.
I gave private number last week.
Do
you know what I am talk about?” asked Sami.
“Yes, I think so. This is the number written on the flash paper, isn’t that correct,”
said Rubio.
“That correct, but the kind of paper detail you can omit,” said Sami.
“I am not as experienced as you are. I apologize again.”
“We not that different and I certain that neither of us went to university. This just
common sense,” said Sami. Rubio had an engineering degree but he wasn’t about to contradict the fat Russian.
“Understood,” said Rubio.
He didn’t want Sami to lose confidence in him. He
was not helping himself. He slowed down his conversation so he could think about what
he was saying.
“OK, change mind. I telephone American. Will ask him to help find person lost,”
said Sami. “When he contact you, follow instructions carefully. He tell you how to contact him when he has information.
Use public telephone.
He won’t answer phone. As I
say, you call answering machine. Be brief. No detail.”
“Is it permitted to ask why the Americans want to help us?” asked Rubio.
“No, not permitted,” said Sami.
“Understood,” said Rubio.
Sami hung up.
Just as water seeps in through tiny cracks in the foundation of a house, so too
Jared’s depression crept in.
He understood the chemistry of depression, but understanding it wasn’t enough to stop it. Jared lost interest in acting normal. He reverted to being
Jared again. He was brilliant and aloof.
He didn’t hide his intelligence now.
It was yet
more separation from Jenny. She had been his buoy and now she was slipping away. He
became sullen and talked less each day.
He missed the sex, but that wasn’t intolerable.
What had actually been important was that he felt that Jenny wanted him, not that he
needed her. If she no longer wanted him, nothing else mattered. Nothing!
Jenny saw the transformation but because she didn’t understand what was happening, she couldn’t understand how to arrest it. For a time she thought that Jared might
be secretly drinking.
She went so far as to secretly mark the liquor bottles to see how
much he was drinking. The levels never changed.
She gave Jared subtle clues that she might be receptive to having sex again, but he
never responded. She knew he sensed these signals so she was certain that he was rejecting her.
He was! But it was an act of self-punishment, not rejection. She didn’t know
that. Jenny moved into the smaller aft cabin the evening of the fifth day at sea. Jared
knew he didn’t deserve Jenny. He didn’t deserve anything.
Jared was up first. It was six in the morning on the sixth day. It was going to be a
hot day.
He made coffee and breakfast.
Jenny didn’t wake until well past nine.
They
were well out the sea by the time see came up on deck. They were heading south.
“Morning,” said Jenny.
“Good morning.”
She glanced at the sun and then at the direction of the boat. The sun was high in
the sky but it was over her left shoulder. It should have been behind her.
“The sun’s on my left. Are we going south?”
“Yes! Not left. Starboard. The sun is starboard. Considering your Swedish ancestry, you might be interested that the convention of calling the left, starboard, comes from
the Vikings. They called that side of a boat the board. They placed their steering oar on
the left side. The steering oar was the star. Hence, the left side of a ship has always been
called the star board.”
“Where are we going?”
“The right side is called the port side. The boat was also tied up on the right side
because the steering oar was on the left side and berthing on that side could damage the
steering oar. Hence, the right side is called port.”
“Where are we going, Jared?”
“Have you heard the term, posh—meaning something expensive and elegant?”
“Of course I have.”
“When the British gentry cruised the Nile River from Cairo, and if you had money, you always asked for a cabin on the port side going south and on the starboard side
returning to Cairo to avoid the scorching sun. That is, you wanted port out and starboard
home. The first letters of each word spell POSH. Of course, that assumes that the cruise
is short and only in the morning. If the cruise left in the morning and returned in the afternoon, you would want port out and port home, POPH.
Some say that a posh voyage
was from England to India, not on the Nile, which would make more sense. Yet others
say that this derivation is nonsense and that posh comes from slang meaning dandy.”
“Fascinating. You’re dodging my question. Where are we going?”
“Panama,” said Jared.
“What happened to New Orleans?” asked Jenny.
“I already explained this. New Orleans was just a ruse. What’s wrong with you?”
he asked.
“Sorry. You did say that. I don’t know.
I knew that. I’m just not thinking,” she
said.
“We should be there in about four or five days,” he said.
“Four days. Well, I guess that’s OK.
I am actually enjoying this cruise now that
we are in warm weather.
I would have thought that the police and military, you know,
would be an even bigger problem in a foreign country.”
“We’re not going to Panama, exactly.
We are going to an autonomous Indian
Territory, Kuna Yala, or some call it Comarca. It is self-governing and they have their
own police, albeit a very small force.
It is the archipelago of San Blas, inhabited by the
Kuna people. They are mistakenly called the San Blas Indians by tourists. These are basically the same people that greeted Columbus.
The archipelago is made up of about 365
islands and a strip of the mainland, although only 35 to 50 islands are inhabited. It varies
from year to year. They are wonderful people. I know them well and I learned their language quite some time ago. Their language is part of the Chibchan group.”
“Sounds fascinating.” This time she was sincere. It did sound fascinating. Jenny
visited Sweden once but had never been anywhere else overseas.
“I think you’ll enjoy it.”
“How many times have you been there?” she asked.
“Six times, eight if you count two years that I spent in Panama before I discovered
the Kuna. In fact, I bought this boat in Panama.
“Did you go there on vacation?”
“In a manner of speaking. I try to go each year but it isn’t always possible. When
I do get to go, I camp in the jungle for a few weeks. It is my way of decompressing when
the world gets too complicated, too crowded, and too loud. I always look forward to these
trips. Each time I stay a little longer. The jungle gives me an adrenoline rush.”
“You’re kidding me. You like living in the jungle with the snakes and the bugs.”
“It is really wonderful.
You have to try it some time.
Everything you need is
there for you. Water. You cut a water vine and the water from the vine is pure and cool.
Marvelous fruit. The peccary is delicious roasted slowly on an open fire. There is incredible variety and the wildlife is fascinating. Nothing will bother you if you understand and
respect it. All humans have a primordial memory—call it a primordial instinct—that goes
back to when we all lived in savannahs and tropical rain forests.
Panama has both. It
brings back those long-lost suppressed memories.”
“My primordial memories are probably ice and fjords.”
“You’re not going back far enough.
We all came out of Africa.
The recent discovery of Pierolapithecus catalunicus in Spain—the 13 million-year-old common ancestor to humans and great apes—is unlikely to change the out-of-Africa view,” said Jared.
“Why are you talking like this? Are you doing this deliberately or are you just trying to irritate me,” she said.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“It’s like being with a recording of an encyclopedia that never stops playing.”
“I’m sorry. I’m boring you,” he said.
“No, I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I really didn’t.”
“It’s all right.
Why don’t you call your sister and let her know you’re OK.” He
was changing the subject. Good.
“Good idea.” Jenny reached for the cell phone.
“There are no cells out here.
You have to use the sat phone.”
her.
“Hi Krissy.”
“Jenn, you are PNG.
Mom is frantic. Like where are you.
He dialed out for