Captain Bob tried desperately to lash the sails and fasten the rigging, but, the deck had become so slippery, it was almost impossible to stay on his feet. And all the time, the sea swelled ominously…
The enormity of this remark struck the three of them like a blast from the arctic, and for some moments, nobody could speak. Eventually, it was the Captain who broke the silence. “Are you saying that someone pushed you overboard – deliberately?”
“Yes! It’s all coming back to me now!” Joe replied. “At first, I thought like Odi, that the railing must have given way. But now, I remember…..Someone got hold of my heel. They got hold of my heel and pushed me! Yes, that’s what happened! We couldn’t have fallen just like that! We’d been on those railings tons of times and never fallen. We were pushed. Odi, we were pushed!”
But Odi kept shaking his head. “No, no! That can’t be!”
“Just think for a moment, Joe – and you must be very careful about this,” cautioned the Captain. “If what you say is true, then somebody meant to kill you!”
“But why?” said Odi. “Who’d want to kill a couple of kids? I mean, I know I can be a bit mouthy at times, but, hey!”
“He’s right, you know,” said Captain Bob. “It really doesn’t make sense, Joe.” By now, Joe was getting extremely upset, not only because of his fears but because neither Bob nor Odi seemed to believe him. Had he imagined it? Had the accident damaged his brain? “I’m not a liar!” he insisted, “It’s true, it’s true!”
“Now now,” said the Captain soothingly, “Just sit down and we’ll try and get to the bottom of things. Now. Let’s go back to this game. You say you were playing with some letters?” Joe nodded. “The letters were magnets and we put them on the fridge, making words out of them.”
“Yes,” said Odi, “You get points for every word longer than six letters.”
“We weren’t playing that,” Joe said, “We were getting everybody’s name and switching the letters round and seeing what words we could make.”
“Yes, like my name – O-D-I, which got a bit boring, to tell the truth. Like IDO, DIO, DOI…..and Joe’s wasn’t much good either…” He would have listed a few hundred other names, had the Captain not interrupted him.
“I can’t think why this should be relevant, but was there any name in particular you remember?”
Odi and Joe looked at each other blankly. “Well, it all started with Miles – that’s Joe’s older brother. ‘Cos, you see, he and Mr. Smyle had this connection, see? If you mix up the letters of Miles, you get Smile. Of course, it’s no big deal, seeing as how Mr. Smyle’s name’s with a ‘y’ and Miles is with an ‘i’ and it’s not as though either name had such a lot going for it, but they seemed to think it was cool, especially Mr. Smyle, who likes to see his name on everything….”
Odi paused to suck in some much-needed oxygen. “Anyway, I remember now, ‘cos my name’s so short – and Joe’s – we decided to just do our last names, like Rogers, and then with our initials, so it was O Rogers, which made a lot more words, like Gorseo and Sogore, and Ogreso…like that. So, then we got to Mr. Smyles’s name, and his first name’s Alazon, which nobody dares call him, ‘cos he doesn’t like it – and who can blame him? – so we got the letters A Smyle on the fridge and, well, I don’t remember what it came to, ‘cos then we heard about the dolphins, which was slightly more exciting….”
“Okay, I’m trying to follow this…” said Captain Bob and rummaged for a pen and a piece of paper. The best he could find was an old envelope on which he started scribbling. “Right, now I’ve got A Smyle, so let’s see what we come up with. Yemsal? Leasmy? Measly? Samley? Laymes, Leysam? Elsamy? Ely…..”
“Elymas.” whispered Joe. “It was Elymas.”
As the name left his lips, Joe’s spine began to tingle. Hearing the name uttered also affected Captain Bob. His face was almost as white as his beard, and his huge fists were clenched. “Oh boys! If this is the man I think he is, you were safer with the sharks!”
Joe was about to ask the Captain why, but before he could open his mouth, he was startled by a dazzling streak of light which shot from the skies and zigzagged spectacularly over the horizon. Until then, everyone had been too absorbed with Joe’s claims to notice the dense black clouds now shrouding the heavens.
“We’re in for a storm,” said the Captain, “start counting boys. For every second, the storm is one mile away. Obligingly, Odi began to count slowly. “One – two – three – four – five..” he began, but before he got to six, there was an enormous clap of thunder made louder by the echoing of the sea, quickly followed by another startling flash. This time, Odi didn’t count more than four before the thunder followed.
“Oh-oh, it’s heading this way!” cried the Captain. “I’d better get into my oilskins. You boys stay below and if things get rocky, just hang on to something solid. I need to lower the sails.”
Moments later, Captain Bob, dressed from head to toe in canary yellow oilskins, climbed up on deck as the most stupendous storm he’d ever witnessed began to break and he began to shiver, not just from the sudden drop in temperature. For the first time since setting off to his watery exile, Bob wished with all his heart he’d taken lessons.
So far on his travels, he’d been shipwrecked at least twice, and that didn’t include the many times his vessel had been beached, scuppered, squashed, upturned or stranded on a sandbank somewhere inconvenient. He was also very good at getting lost, having sailed around Guernsey four times before wondering why it took so long to get to Calais. No wonder he’d been dubbed ‘Catastrophe’ by fellow seafarers. Every time he left port, coastguards throughout the world took bets on how long he’d take to meet disaster. On the whole, he’d taken this all in good part; he wasn’t easily offended, and it mattered little to him if people poked fun. But now things were different. Two young lives depended on him to keep his boat afloat and he simply hadn’t the skills.
Once on deck, he staggered towards the prow, fighting against the fierce, squalling wind while jam-jar-sized raindrops pelted the Mersey May. Lurching from one side of the boat to the other, Captain Bob tried desperately to lash the sails and fasten the rigging, but, the deck had become so slippery, it was almost impossible to stay on his feet. And all the time, the sea swelled ominously, tossing the Mersey May in every direction.
Down below, the boys were feeling distinctly queasy and their arms ached through holding onto the table legs. “Do you think we ought to help him?” asked Odi, trying hard not to panic. Joe shook his head. “He told us to stay here!” he yelled, unable to hear himself above the now earth-splitting claps of thunder, each louder and more fearsome than the last. The boat rose upward from the stern and shimmied precariously, as though determined to shake the boys’ grip from the table. Each gave out an involuntary scream when the craft slapped downwards again, almost pulling their arms from their sockets, and there was a sickening crack from the deck. “I’m going up!” Odi insisted. “If Captain Catastrophe gets swept overboard, we’re done for!”
By now, the Captain was in a dreadful state, scarcely able to stand upright due to the force of the gale that howled menacingly around the Mersey May, which creaked under the strain. To make matters worse, the soaking he’d suffered had sucked out all the air from his boots and waterproof trousers, rendering them rigid, vacuum-packed, and clinging solidly to his legs. Now completely hobbled and unable to bend his knees, all Captain Catastrophe could do was cling desperately to the side and haul his huge body along, lunging from one spot to another. With one hand clutching the winch, he stretched his other hand towards the rigging of the main sail and started to untie it. This in itself was a Herculean task, but what he hadn’t reckoned on was a particularly savage gust which wrenched the rope from his grasp and knocked him off his feet. At the same time, a sudden gush of air shot up his jacket and, unable to escape due to the tight fastening at the neck, caused the garment to balloon. Poor Captain Catastrophe completely lost resistance to the elements, and was literally blown across the deck, his jacket bouncing like a huge yellow football, until his head struck the tiller. But for his heavy frame coming to rest under the bench, he’d have been dragged overboard by a ferocious surge of water as he lay helpless with his legs held stiffly and unmovable in the air.
“What do we do now?” yelled Odi in dismay.
“The jig….the jig…!” Captain Catastrophe replied.
“What?!” Neither Joe nor Odi had a clue what he meant.
“The thingummy-jig!” cried the captain, frantically waving a hand towards the mast.
“Pull down the sail!” replied Joe. “It’s going to break!”
Sure enough, the mainsail was flapping and yawing perilously above them. “Here!” said Joe. “Tie this rope around your waist in case you get washed away!” Once secured, both boys inched their way towards the mast, trying to dodge the rigging that whipped from side to side. It seemed to take ages, but at last, they reached their goal and took it in turns winding to bring the sail down. Unfortunately, they’d hardly begun this task when the cable jammed.
“It’s stuck!” cried Odi. “One of us will have to climb up to release it! I’ll go, I’m the strongest!”
“No!” Joe protested, “I’m lighter than you. It’s less likely to break.” Not waiting to argue, Joe grabbed the mast and began to scale up it.
“Be careful!” yelled Odi, but Joe couldn’t hear him over the howling gale and the gushing of the sea. At first it was almost impossible to climb, as his feet kept slipping and every time the boat dipped into the hollow of a wave, he had to cling on desperately, but slowly, carefully, he managed to inch upwards, until at last, he reached the cable which was caught between the mast and top of the sail.
“Start winching now!” he cried and waved at Odi who had a crick in his neck through looking up. Odi set about his task with gusto, while Joe began to inch downwards. This, however, was even harder than the climb, for he couldn’t see where to put his feet. He was still some metres from the deck when he heard a sickening crack. The mast had split beneath him!
“Help!” he screamed, as he felt the mast lurch sideways. “Hang on!” cried Odi. “I’ll pull you in.” And he grabbed the other end of the rope tied round Joe and yanked with all his might. Too soon, the mast crashed into the sea, leaving Joe floundering headfirst in mid-air, with only Odi and the rope between him and certain death. “I should be used to this by now,” he thought wryly, and prayed Odi was as strong as he liked to boast.
Fortunately, Captain Catastrophe had regained consciousness and managed to reach Odi in time to help haul Joe in. The three of them collapsed in a heap, groaning with fatigue.
As usual, Odi was the first to speak. “I feel like I’ve been in a Tom and Jerry cartoon!” he remarked. It was then he noticed the Captain’s balloonish appearance. “And, if you don’t mind me saying so, Captain” he added cheekily, “You could do with a few less fry-ups!”
“Glad someone still has a sense of humour!” said Captain Catastrophe as he reached into his pocket. “All in all, that was quite a squall.” He pulled out a small penknife and plunged it into his oilskin jacket, which, to the boys’ delight, deflated with the most disgusting noise.
“Hey, Captain!” exclaimed Odi, cheekily, “You make a brilliant whoopie cushion!” And they all laughed. So what if they were stranded in a storm in the middle of nowhere? As long as they had life, they were going to enjoy it. Besides, the storm seemed to be easing a little.
“Well that was a waste of a good breakfast!” Captain Catastrophe struggled to his feet and lurched towards the galley. “I suggest we stop for a refill before seeing to the damage.”
This was a suggestion the boys were to hear quite often in the weeks to come. If there was one thing Captain Catastrophe was good at, it was cooking, which was just as well considering his enormous appetite and the fact that there was very little else to do but eat. “What happens when we run out of food?” asked Odi between mouthfuls of a particularly tasty mutton stew. Captain Catastrophe paused briefly from chewing to ponder this question as though it had never occurred to him. “Oh, I expect we’ll be landing somewhere long before that happens,” he replied cheerfully. “Yes, I’m sure we shall.”
“But when?” Odi was beginning to wonder whether they’d ever see land again. “Seems like we’re just going around in circles.”
“Well, there’s always that possibility, I suppose,” mused the Captain “although I wonder how one could tell.”
“You mean we could be stuck in the sea forever!?” cried Joe, alarmed.
“No!” Captain Bob reassured him. “As long as we’re sailing in a straight line as the crow flies, we’re bound to end up somewhere, so eat up and stop worrying. Besides,” he continued after another pensive pause, “we could always catch fish.”
If this was meant to set the boys’ minds at rest, it failed miserably. “I hate fish!” Odi protested, which was only partly true, as he’d eat anything covered in batter and hot pepper sauce. As for Joe, all he really wanted was to reach Australia, but from what he’d witnessed of Captain Catastrophe’s navigational skills, he didn’t see that happening any time soon. So it was a welcome surprise on going up on deck one morning to hear the Captain roaring with delight, “Dolphins! Look!” And he pointed towards the stern. “Oh-oh!” thought Odi. “I’ve heard that somewhere before.” Only this time, it was true. A school of dolphins were following the boat, leaping and prancing through the waves, showing off outrageously.
“We must be nearing land!” cried Captain Bob. “Watch the horizon, boys!” They peered intently ahead, willing the land to appear with all their might and were at last rewarded by a faint strip in the distance.
“Ahoy there!” everyone cried excitedly.
“Where do you think we are?” asked Joe.
“Somewhere friendly, I hope!” The Captain was so pleased at having arrived anywhere, the exact location didn’t really matter. Besides, the mere sight of the island as it blossomed into view was enough to lift the saddest of spirits. Fringing the beach of perfect white-gold sands, palm trees and other exotic plants swayed in the warm breeze, beckoning invitingly. The waters surrounding this jewel were clear turquoise, rippling gently over reefs of spectacular coral. Joe and Odi had, of course, visited many islands during their voyage with Mr. Smyle, but this was different. There was something magical about the place that truly took their breath away.
As the Mersey May drifted slowly towards shore, its passengers heard the beat of distant drums and other instruments; pipes and flutes and strings; all united in the sweetest melody. “It’s like a dream,” whispered Joe. “A wonderful dream.” He could have stood on deck all day, allowing the sights and scents and sounds to waft over him. Even Odi was impressed. Captain Catastrophe managed to lower an inflatable dinghy and he and his crew climbed into it, eager to visit this glorious place.
“You know,” the Captain said as the outboard motor spluttered into life. “I think we’re in for a very pleasant interlude.”