“What would you do to him, Len?”
“Something involving sharks.”
Maria chimed in. “Waste of good crab bait.”
Billy growled. “Especially because you would not necessarily have to kill him before you let the crabs at him.”
Jennifer broke in. “I think that takes it about all the way. What does everyone think about our fishing crew?”
“Good.” Willie said. “I’m even getting to like the cat.”
Sylvie said, “We get them through the water survival course and put some deck shoes on them, that will help.”
Freddie mused. “This is a real good thing. These kids will remember these trips all their lives.”
Dave raised a hand. “We need to let some poor kids into this.”
Jennifer turned to Freddie. “We could have another 10.”
“Easily. Father Escobedo will know some kids who have nothing. We can ask if they can join the scouts.”
Dave spoke. “Jennifer, clear it with the scoutmasters. Six boys and six girls that want to fish. We will pay for water survival, deck shoes and scout uniforms. Get word to Freddy or Willie as soon as you can, and they can make it two weeks from now. I don’t want them to be marked as charity cases. Make sure the scoutmasters treat them just like anyone else, and we pay the bills.”
“Do you have conference calling on your landline?”
“Second door on the right.”
She went, and came back. “They say ‘yes, of course’ We can meet pretty much any evening to enroll new scouts. They can go to meetings before they get uniforms. Just the shirts and jeans would be all right anyway.”
“Call the office, and Michelle will charge the shirts and deck shoes and the water survival course by the phone. You can tell YMCA you have 12 more students. If they can put on another instructor, great. If we don’t come up with students, the YMCA comes out ahead. Oh, Well.”
“Freddie, you and Willie know Father Escobedo?”
Willie got up. “He baptized me, Dave. I’ll call him.”
Willie and Jennifer went to the office. They came out a few minutes later. “Dave, everyone has everyone’s phone number. Jennifer is going to make sure it all comes into place. We figure on our new kids being at the meeting next week, so if the weather is good two weeks from now, they can all go. The water survival course is every week and they have a basic and advanced, a day long each. So we put whoever we can in basic, and next week, advanced. They can schedule 15 students for either one whenever the pool is not in use, so we probably do that.”
“Great. If we have extra spaces, put whoever wants to go in them.”
Everyone went home, and Dave took Sylvie for a cuddle.
* * *
In the morning, Dave was just finishing breakfast when Bobby called from the shop. Dave was needed to help Marvin, a mechanic, with the bottling line.
When Dave got in, Marvin explained to him. “This is filling 48 bottles of salsa at a time. We are going to adjust the volumes. We are going to make the machine go one row at a time while we adjust. The girls are ready to hand cap the bottles that fill correctly. We can give the rest to the food bank or whatever. They will be capped and set aside. This stuff is coming out at 195 degrees. The peppers will burn your eyes. We need to adjust the volumes on some of these fillers. We are going to single step the bottle filler. Here that is. Cycle.” He pushed the button, and the machine went ahead one step.
“Crawl in under the machine with me. If someone starts it, stay down. I have a guy watching, but we can’t lock it out because we are running it. Tighten that one two to the right. Open that one one to the left.”
He went around a column and adjusted several other fillers. “Are you clear, Dave?”
“Yes.”
“Cycle it, John.”
There was a tremendous crashing sound as the belts and chains moved ahead. The fillers fired, and then everything quivered to a stop. They looked at the bottles that had been filled, and fiddled with the fillers that were under or over. They cycled again, and looked again. After doing that a dozen times, they were pretty satisfied with the adjustments. They crawled out from under the machinery and went to the control panel.
“No load, clear, run.”
The machine took the bottles they had filled away. To where, Dave did not know.
Marvin picked up a ringing phone at the control station. “Here they come.”
“Load, auto, run.”
“Watch them Dave.”
He did, but they looked fine.
“Ramerio wanted you to see how this works.”
Dave typed his notes on the palmtop. “Looks like they are all filling well.”
“We’ll stay here for a minute in case they screw up again.”
They didn’t so the guys headed off. Dave went to the office to see if Bobby wanted him for anything, but he didn’t. Dave headed back to the house. He went in.
“Anything major, Dave?”
“No. Just adjusting the bottling machines. I guess it would be major if you could not get them right.”
“Marvin knows, though.”
“We’re looking at spreading the knowledge base a little. You always want to have someone who can take over.”
“You can’t be that for the whole plant.”
“No. I can build a broad base of general knowledge so that we have someone who has at least a clue. We should have written manuals. I don’t understand why most companies depend on what one guy tells another, when the details get lost.”
“It doesn’t cost much, and it seems to work. When it fails, it’s hard to see that what went wrong was that people didn’t document things. That would put the blame on higher ranks, so fate gets blamed instead.”
“I never looked it like that, but it’s a direct hit.”
They went to the YMCA to see what the water survival course looked like. Dave was pleased to see the kids paddling around in vests, getting lectures on subjects like hypothermia, and learning to throw life rings, and get in and out of a life raft.
“Dave?”
“Yes.”
“Ken. I’m the director. We think this is great, what you’re doing.”
“Sylvie is doing as much as me. Her dad bought the Marciella, which was the real hard part. We have some great scoutmasters and a great crew. So it would be what y’all are doing.”
“Team effort, sure. My daughter would like to try this rock fishing.”
“Put her through this course, get her some deck shoes, and you’re on for Saturday after next.”
“I can’t have her take this course because she teaches it. That’s her in the red maillot. Cynthia.”
“Cute.”
“Watch it Dave.” Sylvie said.
“What is the ‘it’ I’m supposed to watch?”
She pretended to hit him.
The class went well. Dave worked some at the plant. As the day for fishing approached, so did a big storm. Dave planned a tour of the plant instead of fishing, with a meeting after in the cafeteria, with the featured speaker being Captain Alan James, commander of Coast Guard Group San Francisco.
Lest there be confusion, Freddie was a Commander in the Navy, which is an 0-5. Alan was a Captain in the Coast Guard, which is an 0-6, the equivalent of a full Colonel in the Army or the Marines. Dave was an 0-3 Captain in the Marines. A Marine Captain is a company commander. A Colonel is a regimental commander.
Dave was just getting ready to cook dinner when the phone rang.
“Dave.”
“Alan. I have a Mayday, and I need your boat, and crew if possible. We have a sinking ship on the potato patch shoal. My assets are already committed.”
“I’ll go. You sending anyone with me, Sir?”
“Yes. They will meet you at the dock.”
“I’m underway.”
Sylvie jumped up. “You’re going out for the Coast Guard?”
“Right now.”
“I’m going.”
“Bad idea.”
“I’m going.”
They went downstairs, and found a police car parked in front of the garage with lights on. An officer opened the door. “David Cale, going to the Marciella?”
“Yes.”
“Get in, we’ll make good time.”
He turned on the siren, and he did make good time. The car was in the air a few times going down the steep hills. They arrived at the dock very soon. Dave and Sylvie ran aboard the Marciella, and two Coast Guardsmen pulled the gangplank in and secured it. The deck crew brought in the lines, and Freddie went through the marina fast enough to piss off just about everyone. He hit the channel, and shined on the speed limit, tearing out into the bay.
A Coast Guard lieutenant, Daniel Chase had his guys dress Dave and Sylvie in bright orange rain gear and sea boots. Without a chance to accessorize, Sylvie had her hair tied up and pushed under her coat. They got some fisherman style hats.
“If you need to cut a line, there is a knife in the pocket on your right thigh. There is a safety lanyard on the pocket on your left side. The guys are connecting them to your vests, so if you need to clip on, just pull the clip end out, and hook onto whatever it is, and you will not be washed overboard. You have a radio in your shirt pocket on the left. It’s secured there. You just take out the mike and it does send and receive. The radio beacon, if you fall overboard, one half turn to the left and push down. It will beep, and the light will start flashing. We can see you from space, and a satellite has already acquired our position. You can inflate your vest with the pull cord on the inside right, or by mouth with the tube next to it.”
“Our mission is to get to the ESE side of the patch, down drift of the ship. Freddie will maneuver as needed to pick up survivors. The two swimmers here, Erik and Lisa, will work the rails. I want Dave and Willie to back them up, but stay back a little. I don’t need another man in the water. If Lisa falls in the drink, it’s just another day for her, and she’s wearing a wet suit.”
“We have a basket we could put on that hoist.”
“Does it all work fine?”
“Sure.”
“Please do rig it.”
“Leonard?”
“We got it.”
“Now you guys are not going to be heroes and fall in the water, give me more work to do when I am probably not going to be able to save everyone as it is?”
“We’re good. We would take the tip of the spear if we had to, but we know Coast Guard swimmers are the best in the world. We’ll stand back and watch in awe.”
“Sylvie, I understand you have some medical training.”
“Not much, Daniel, but I know about hypothermia, bleeding, stuff like that.”
“I want you to help Doc. He has two corpsmen with him, but you know where to find blankets, sheets, dry clothes, a cup of hot chocolate. Sometimes we get them out of the water and lose them on the way to Letterman. I want you to help us keep that from happening.”
“I’m on it.”
“Your deck crew is going to be busy. Not so much on deck, but finding tools, helping us rig things, maybe something as simple as making a sandwich for a swimmer. I have some deck guys here, and they are trained for this. But they don’t know where to get a soda on this boat. I want my guys out there, and yours in here where I can ask them for a bandage, pillowcase or bottle of water.”
“Leonard, would you and Steve check all around and make sure the boat is rigged for heavy weather?”
“We think it is, but we can look. Best to be sure.”
They came to the Golden Gate Bridge. The big rollers were coming in and the Marciella began to pitch. Daniel and Dave went to the wheelhouse. Daniel advised the choppers that he was on the Marciella, and she was ready to accept survivors. They went out under the bridge against a moderate incoming tide.
She began to pitch in the big seas. The casualty could already be seen.
“Daniel, what about a salvage tug?”
“The Robert Lee is coming up the coast, but she is three hours out. If the ship were still afloat, and if even those crazy boys from Mobile, Alabama could get a cable on her, and tow her over to Richmond and put her in a floating dry dock, which is ready, and if the dry dock got her out of the water, it all went right, do you figure anyone would be alive inside? What’s really going to happen is, the ship will be driven on over the shoal by these huge seas, rolled over, and sunk in maybe 50 feet of water. Then the seas will break over her, and not even the SEALS, not even the Marines, will be able to get to her. Anyone who survives this will be saved in the next hour.”
Dave could hear Ralph pumping out the sanitary tanks. Good idea, if a little too close to shore to be legal. The less the boat weighed, the better, when the sanitary tank was above the water line. Dave went on deck. The Marciella came up on something floating. It turned out to be a man in the water. The swimmers hauled him out, and Dave took him to the galley. It was a young woman, actually, who was breathing. Doc took over, and Dave went back out. Two helicopters were picking up survivors, and putting them on deck. Daniel’s prediction for the ship came true. It was rolled over twice and sank just inside of the shoal, covered by hopelessly powerful breaking seas. Marciella took on 17 survivors and 5 dead. Dave went out to help one of the Coast Guardsmen put the dead in body bags. Sylvie went to help, but Leonard blocked her at the doorway.
They bagged the dead after Doc pronounced them dead. Alan called Marciella in to Coast Guard San Francisco. The choppers would continue to look, and if they got a survivor, they could take him to Letterman, but it was too late. You don’t last that long in 54 degree water.
Marciella tied up at the Coast Guard dock, and the survivors were loaded into ambulances. The dead went into a truck belonging to the morgue. Marciella was sent home. Dave ordered a lot of Chinese food delivered to the Marciella. Ralph connected the fresh water, and everyone took showers. They put on clean clothes, and started washing their wet and dirty ones. Steve and Leonard took care of that, bringing the washed clothes to the staterooms. They picked up the junk all over the galley. Doc had gone through a lot of chemical hot pads, very useful things, activated by being bashed on a table or whatever. Doc got you in dry clothes, and put these under your shirt. They heated you up for a half hour or so, but were not hot enough to burn.
The wind still whined in the radio masts and all, but the storm was passing. The Chinese food came. They started eating. The cat came out, and got some shrimp tails.
There was a tap on the door. Steve answered it.
“Kenosha Williams, channel 2. May we come in?”
Dave glared. “Donate $500 to Save The Children and you can.”
“We don’t pay for stories.”
“We don’t give them away. Sorry we could not agree. Please get off my deck.”
Dave ate a few butterfly shrimp.
Sylvia giggled. “You don’t get rid of the media that easily, Dave.”
There was another tap on the door.
“My producer is willing to talk.”
“Fine. Exclusive. Two thousand to Save the Children, and $100 to each of the survivors I brought in. $3700 going once.”
“He says OK.”
“Come in. Can you set up over there?”
“Perfect.”
“If anyone does not want to be on film we can use any time, you need to get out of the view finder.”
Nobody did.
“How did you come to be in the rescue, Dave?”
“Captain Alan James asked me. He didn’t have the right assets immediately available. We had a boat that could come in handy. People’s lives were at stake, so duh, we came.”
“Did you rescue 17 people?”
“We brought in 17 people. Coast Guard swimmers and chopper pilots rescued them. Our master, Commander Fredrick Charles Lemont, United States Navy, Retired, drove the boat and some of the survivors were brought in by the Coast Guardsmen on our deck. Erik and Lisa, the swimmers, did the hard work. We took the survivors, took off their wet clothes, and put them in a hot shower. Then we dried them off, and put some new clean stuff on them. They were treated by a Coast Guard doctor. When Captain James told us, we went in.”
“Was that a good decision?”
“You could ask a school child if Einstein was right about relativity. We hadn’t recovered anyone in an hour. The choppers stayed out there. What made us useful was the volume we could handle. The chopper goes in to Letterman, someone else is lost. Once you’re down to hoping for one last guy to find, you don’t need the boat, and you’re risking the ones you have, because maybe the hospital will find something wrong just in time. In fact, it played out right. How they decide to call off searches and all that, I don’t know. I would not want to make a call like that, but I’m an 0-3 retired, and he is an 0-6 active duty. So.”
“I understand you are taking scouts fishing every two weeks.”
“We are, and they are getting some good fish.”
“You went into the game fish records twice this month.”
“Sylvie did, and Jane did.”
“You were there.”
“Nobody in this world accomplishes anything alone. The helicopters have ground crews. Someone at Penn made our reels. God, apparently needed his Archangels.”
“You’re saying though, that the women caught those fish.”
“I’m saying they did, and that the ocean is wet. Quite right they caught those fishes.”
“This was D