Coincidence - Alan May [86]
“They’ve been more worried about the two of you than themselves,” the captain concluded. “Our plan is to rendezvous with the Inspiration tomorrow. We’ll take you over on the launch and then tow her to Easter Island.”
“Wonderful! But could we talk with Captain Marzynski before then?” Anika asked.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. The VHF the Air Force dropped has a range of only about five miles. There’s no way we can communicate with them until we get much closer.”
“How long will that take?”
“Well, we’re now some four hundred miles away. Cruising at twenty-five knots, that puts us at sixteen hours away.”
Anika’s heart sank. If they hoped to continue the trip, time was of the essence—and Anika found she was hoping very much indeed that they would be able to continue. They’d have to see how the kids were doing, of course, and the teachers. But she had the distinct feeling that most of them would have come through this crisis with no serious scars. Abandoning the voyage now would not be in anybody’s best interests. She looked across the table at Elliott.
“Is there absolutely no way?” he asked the captain. “The thing is, we’ve got to find out what parts need to be ordered for the electronic system so our office in Montréal can track them down as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the less chance we’ll have of being able to salvage the rest of the trip.”
Captain Ritchie nodded.
“There might be one possibility,” he said slowly. “If I were to dispatch a helicopter right now, it could be there in a little less than two hours. Then another two hours to get your captain back here … that would save you eleven hours—well, probably closer to ten and a half hours, when all is said and done.”
“Would you do it?” Anika broke in.
“Would it really help that much?”
“That would give our office nearly one more whole day to find the replacement equipment,” Elliott said. “That could make all the difference.”
“All right. I’ll give the order right away.”
The captain stood up.
“As soon as you’ve finished your lunch—would you like seconds?—as soon as you’re done, I’ll have to ask you to allow one of my officers to debrief each of you individually about the whole incident. It’s important to get your statements now while everything’s fresh in your minds. They’ll be needed in court.”
39
Captain Marzynski thrust his shaving kit and nightclothes into a small satchel, folded his list of the needed electronic parts into quarters, stuck it in his pocket, and hurried to the deck. Mac and Henry were readying the Zodiac. The Serendipity’s CH46 helicopter was hovering almost directly overhead.
Its pilot had radioed just minutes before, as soon as it was within range of the Inspiration’s VHF radio, with the news of the captain’s transfer to the cutter. They would not be able to lift the captain off the deck directly, he had said.
“We can’t take a chance on the lift line getting tangled in your rigging. You’ll need to come out in your dinghy about three hundred feet behind the ship. We’ll drop down a line with a harness attached and lift you from there.
“It’ll be tomorrow before you get back here, so bring whatever you need for the night.”
Luke boarded the Zodiac and headed out toward the waiting helicopter, where the flaw in the pilot’s plan soon became painfully evident. At about forty-five feet above the water, the helicopter was creating such a fierce downdraft that, try as he might, Luke found it impossible to keep the dinghy centered under it. He maneuvered the small craft out from under the blast of air and looked up.
The pilot’s hand emerged from the helicopter in what Luke took to be a “hang on a minute” signal. Then, a moment later, from the other side of the chopper, the flight engineer dropped a guideline. Luke retrieved it and tied it off, enabling the Zodiac to stay in the same position