Shipwreck (4 page)

“I’m a landlubber,” J.J. groaned defensively. “And the more time I spend on this boat, the more I lub the land.”

Luke had never seen the mate this happy. Ratface was so nasty that it took everybody’s combined misery to put him in a good mood.

“Hey, Archie,” he called to Luke. “You don’t look so hot. You’ll feel a lot better if you let that seasickness out.”

Luke grimaced. His stomach was doing serious backflips. That would put the crowning touch on Ratface’s day.

He set his jaw. It was never going to happen. Grim with determination, he staggered forward, stumbled down the companionway, and squeezed himself into the tiny head. He couldn’t even get down on his knees — there wasn’t enough room. He just bent over the bowl and surrendered to his overwhelming nausea.

Then he flushed away all traces, rinsed out his mouth, and washed his face.

Back on deck, the captain was addressing the assembled crew. “There’s no break from these rough seas yet. We’re going to have to strike the sails and heave to under power.”

“I heaved already,” said J.J. feelingly.

“Shut up, Richie Rich!” snapped Radford. ” ‘Heave to’ means turning into the wind. If you listen, you might hear what you don’t hear because you’re not listening!”

“Captain,” said Will in a timid voice, “how scared should we be? I mean — are we in trouble here?”

The captain threw back his head and laughed heartily. “Steady on, my boy, this is an ordinary day at the office for thePhoenix . She’s been in seas twice this size and come through with flying colors. She’s a fine ship, seaworthy in every way.”

So down came the sails.

No one felt like eating. But the captain ordered toast and ginger ale for all hands. The swells were reaching fifteen feet. Standing near the bow, it looked as if the sea were opening up to swallow thePhoenix . The troughs between waves were so low that, for a second, there was dead calm down there — no wind, no spray. It was the eeriest part. Luke actually found himself yearning for the blustery chaos atop the crests.

Ian was the first to decide to ride out the rough seas strapped into his bunk. He disappeared down the companionway. A moment later there was a bloodcurdling scream.

“We’re sinking! We’resinking !”

Mr. Radford ran over to the companionway. “Take it easy, Archie. We’re not sinking.” He looked down and saw the boy standing up to his ankles in water. “Holy — Skipper, we’ve got water in the crew cabin!”

Captain Cascadden turned on the bilge pump and grabbed the person closest to him. “Crewman, take the wheel!”

Will stared at him in shock and horror. “But I don’t know how to drive!”

“We’re in the open Pacific,” the captain assured him. “You’re not going to hit anything. Just hold her steady. I’ll be right back.”

Will stood there with an iron grip on the wheel. The captain hurried below.

“A leak?” he asked his mate.

“Negative.”

Lyssa jumped down the companionway to the girls’ quarters. “No water in here, Captain!” she called.

Captain Cascadden opened the door to the head. Eight inches of water poured out into the cabin. The toilet bowl was full and overflowing.

Seawater surged out of the flusher pump with each wave that hit the boat.

The captain reached down and twisted the lever on the pump. “False alarm, Mr. Radford. Somebody forgot to close the valve.”

“I’ll kill him!” threatened the mate.

“You’ll do no such thing,” chuckled the captain. “In fact, I don’t even want to know who it was. Get a pump and bail out this cabin.”

A bell went off in Luke’s mind. He pictured himself sick as a dog but determined that Ratface would never find out about his Technicolor yawn. He’d put so much energy into cleaning up the evidence that he’d forgotten to shut the valve.

Guiltily, he volunteered for the worst job in the pumping operation. His pants rolled up to his knees, he stood in the head, holding the sucking tube and trying not to fall in the toilet as the deck tossed under his feet.

Mr. Radford ranted through the whole business. “How many times do I have to tell you to closethat va/ve? Does anybody have half a brain on this ship?”

It was torture, Luke thought. But it was better than having to confess that all this was his fault.

Saturday, July 15, 0650 hours

J.J. Lane was dreaming about bikinis. The pool deck was packed with them.

“You must be an actress,” he said to a yellow one with stars on it.

The girl reached out to him and

Smack!

Will Greenfield’s arm came down off the upper bunk, and the open hand slapped J.J. full in the face.

The actor’s son sat bolt upright, visions of swimsuits popping like soap bubbles before his bleary eyes. Bright sunshine shone down the companionway. He checked his Rolex watch, a birthday gift from Madonna. 6:53.

Huh? Radford usually had them up by six. He heard the deep rumble of the captain’s voice above them.

“Let them sleep, Mr. Radford. They were pretty sick yesterday and they need their rest. You and I can get these sails up.”

Radford laughed. “Sure can, Skipper. And we’ll have an easier time of it than they do.”

JJ. heard the captain chuckle. Then he heard another sound — a power hum, and the scrape and squeak of a mechanical winch in operation.

Frowning, he crept up the companionway and peered out on deck. The captain and mate were both in the cockpit. And the mainsail was rising —all by itself ‘t

He let himself drop to the deck of the cabin. “Unbelievable!”

The other three boys stirred.

“More trouble?” Will asked fearfully.

J.J. was so angry he could barely speak. “The captain and Radford — they’re raising sails!”

Luke climbed down from his bunk. “Just so long as we don’t have to do it.”

“They’re raising sails aufomaf/ca//y!” J.J. exclaimed. “There’s a gizmo in the cockpit that does it like a garage door opener!”

Ian spoke up. “You mean all that halyard work — ?”

“For nothing,” confirmed the actor’s son. “They could have done it with the touch of a button — like they’re doingthis minufe!”

“Those jerks,” Luke muttered. “I’ll bet Ratface is laughing inside every time we rip up our hands hauling those ropes.”

“It’s probably CNC’s policy — you know, learning teamwork by doing everything the old-fashioned way,” Will put in.

“By suffering,” Luke added.

“We can’t let them get away with this,” J.J. said, tight-lipped.

“What can we do about it?” asked Ian. “They’re in charge, and we’re not. We have to do what they say.”

“We can fight back,” J.J. insisted.

Luke glared at him. “I don’t like CNC, but it’s better than jail — and that’s where I go if I don’t complete this trip! Don’t eventhink about messing it up for me.”

Will struggled into his life jacket and pulled the straps tight around his back. That was the fourth time. Six more to go, Radford’s orders. Yesterday, Will had spent the entire day with the device on backward, and the punishment was to put it on and take it off ten times in a row.

“Not like that!” From behind, iron hands seized the ties and yanked them to strangulation level. “It’s supposed to be snug!”

“Hey, that hurts!”

“Perfect,” Radford confirmed. “If it’s comfortable, it’s on wrong. Ten more times, Archie.”

Will smoldered as the mate strode away. It was humiliating! Why wouldn’t Radford let him do this in the privacy of the crew cabin? He had to be out here in front of everybody — even

Lyssa. She wasn’t saying anything, but he could feel her scorn.

She stood behind the wheel of thePhoenix , piloting the schooner through the waves. Captain Cascadden was at her side, beaming his approval.

Wouldn’t you know’ it! Out of the six of them, his sister was turning into the star sailing pupil — while he was the sweat-hog in the back row, too stupid to figure out how to put on a life jacket.

Look at her, chatting with the captain like they’re old friends. A bitter taunt began to form in his mind, something like:Hey, Lyss, make sure you don’t slip in any ofthat barf from yesterday ! But he didn’t dare say it with Cascadden right there.

Besides, Lyssa wasn’t letting the seasickness bother her at all. Lyssa, who had more reason to hate this trip than anybody, actually seemed to be liking it!

/should have been an only child .

The captain resumed his stance at the wheel, while Lyssa began examining various gauges and dials on the control console.

Yeah,right , thought Will.Like she knows what she’s looking at .

He watched as his sister’s features contracted into a frown. “Captain, I forget. What does it mean again when the barometer is falling so fast you can see it moving?”

The captain scanned the glassy sky to the west. The line of black clouds was as solid as a wall stretching clear across the horizon.

Saturday, July 15, 1750 hours

The news from the weather fax was all bad.

A tropical storm near the equator had suddenly turned their way. It was set to collide with a large mass of cooler air dipping down from the north.

Will was making deals even before the captain explained their situation.If the storm misses us,I’ll keep my room soclean you could eat offthe floor.’

“So I’m afraid we’ve got a bit of a rough ride ahead of us tonight,” the captain told them grimly.

“You mean last timewasn’t a rough ride?” Charla said in dismay.

“My dear,” the captain replied evenly, “last time was a lap around the duck pond compared with what the next few hours might bring us. But thePhoenix is a fine ship. We’ll make it through if we keep our heads.”

The first order of business was to take down the sails.

“I can’t believe they’re making us do this by hand!” complained J.J. as he and Luke hauled on the main halyard. “There’s a storm coming, and we’re doing work when we don’t have to!”

“Hey!” Luke said sharply. “This is no time to get on the captain’s nerves.”

“But it’s such asnow job’t” He belted out the last two words so they would reach the mate on the ratlines. Radford glared down at them.

They heard the engine come to life. ThePhoenix would face this gale under power.

The weather roared up quickly. At dusk, the rain started pelting down on them. The wind came with the dark — a blustery blow that had the crew hanging onto bulwarks and rigging as they made their way around the deck. Mr. Radford handed out life jackets and safety harnesses.

“Always keep your belt locked onto something that’s attached to the boat,” he ordered sternly. “When you move from place to place, hang on with two hands. Don’t be embarrassed to crawl. Got it?”

The waves grew, slowly but steadily. At first, they weren’t any bigger than the seas that had turned thePhoenix into a roller coaster ride a day before. But Luke could see they were more dangerous. Yesterday the swells had been like mountains, forcing the schooner to climb and descend, climb and descend from peak to peak. These were more like a series of oncoming cliffs, vertical walls of water. A ship can’t climb a cliff. Instead, wave after wave broke over the bow, sending a constant knee-deep flood surging across the deck.

lan’s feet were swept out from under him — and down he went. Luke caught him and yanked him upright.

Luke wasn’t sure whether or not to be alarmed. The storm was howling worse every minute, but the captain and mate were working calmly and efficiently in the battering wind and rain.

“This is bad, right?” he shouted to Mr. Radford. “Shouldn’t we go below?”

“Don’t panic, Archie!” ordered the mate. “Let’s batten everything down first.”

“No!” J.J. protested “We don’t have to get blown around like this!”

Radford shot him a fierce look. “You gonna ask your famous daddy to pay off the storm and make it go away?”

“We can outrun it!” J.J. argued. “We’ve got more wind than we know what to do with! Just put up the sails and fly!”

Radford shook his head in disgust and rushed away.

JJ. threw up his arms. “What’d I say?”

He got a faceful of spray for his answer.

Great patches of foam blew in dense streaks. At one point, Luke looked over the gunwale and saw nothing but white water — not a speck of blue or green. Every minute or so, thePhoenix was lifted bodily and then flung contemptuously aside by a thirty-foot wave.

The deck lurched violently. Unlike yesterday’s up and down, the tumbling of the sea was heavy and shocklike. Even athletic Charla couldn’t keep her balance. She sat down on the cabin top and tried to slide along on her behind. Will crawled across the deck on all fours, unable to trust his own feet. A rush of sea washed over him, leaving him flopping and sputtering.

Lyssa was clamped onto the ratlines, her face green. “I’m gonna lose it!” she warned.

“That’s so typical!” howled her brother, spitting salt water. “All day long you’re Sinbad the Sailor, and now you can’t hang on to your lunch!”

Radford turned to the cockpit. “We’re secure, Skipper!”

Harnessed to the wheel stand, Captain Cascadden was barely visible through the rain, foam, and spray. Out of the chaos came his order. “All hands below!”

“You don’t have to ask me twice!” exclaimed Will, sprint-crawling for the companionway to the main cabin.

Lyssa was hot on his heels, followed by Charla, high-stepping to keep her balance. Next came Luke, dragging Ian by the arm. At the last second, a huge wave broke over the bow, jolting the stern upward and pitching the two boys down the companionway.

Radford hooted with laughter. “You guys should join the circus — the flying Archie brothers!” His brow clouded as he did a head count. “Where’s Richie Rich?”

Luke froze as JJ.‘s words came back to him: Jusfput up thesails and flyl “That maniac,” he muttered, clamboring up the companionway again.

“Hey!” barked the mate. “Get back here, Archie!”

At that moment, J.J. was clamped around the wrapped mainsail, hanging on with one hand and untying lines with the other.

When the furled sail was free, he stood up. Instantly, he was thrown to the deck. His father had once gotten him a bit part in a movie — an earthquake scene. There had been thirty special effects guys underneath them, pitching the floor every which way. It was nofhing compared with thePhoenix right now! They had to get out of here! They could beat this storm no matter what Radford said! All they needed was some sail