Sailor Sam

[stjwelding]

Fastback08 Thanks for more of your great story. I am looking forward to more when you are able to.
Wayne

[Sportsman]

Thanks again. This does make you consider how we'd handle it if something severe happened while we were on a vacation out of the country.

[fastback08]

Chapter 18

After a night of sleep interrupted by worry, Sam decided over breakfast, that they should be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

“Let's strike the camp and repack everything we can into the boat. I want us to be able to leave here quickly if anything goes awry,” Sam told Irene.

Irene agreed and the two of them went to the small campsite and took down the tent and started packing everything and removing traces of them having been there. The rocks comprising the campfire ring were disbursed in a haphazard fashion, hopefully looking like random placement. Sam took a small folding shovel and dug a hole next to the remains of the fire and buried all the partially burned wood and ashes. Then taking palm fronds, he swept the area of footprints. When the two finished it looked pretty much like it did before they made camp.

“Let's get this put away on the boat,” Sam began, “I want to run the diesel for a few minutes and make sure all is ready.”

“While you are doing that, I am going to check the water tank and see if there is anything we need to get from Tom before we leave,” Irene added.

In pretty short order, the boat was made ready to sail, and Sam and Irene rested on the deck with a couple of Barq's Root Beers, Sam had thoughtfully brought.

“I think when we leave here, we need to head South,” said Sam motioning to the Southern horizon. “We may need to spend some time in the Southern hemisphere. Maybe as far as Australia, but for sure we need to be where there are fewer people. If China has declared war on the world, Australia is likely to be fully engaged, but, I think it is still far too dangerous to try and get back to the states, at least until I can make a reliable contact with someone I trust. There are just too many unknowns.”

Sam connected the coax cable to the radio and began calling on twenty meters. He was looking for a friend from the Navy that he served with. Rowdy, was still in the Navy and was a ship’s radio operator. If he was at sea, there was a chance he would be monitoring their special frequency. Sam and Rowdy had promised they would keep in touch when Sam mustered out of the Navy and they had several frequencies they had decided on. Different bands for different times of day. Twenty meters during time hours and as the day turned to evening they would switch to forty meters and finally to 80 meters at night. The frequencies they chose were slightly outside the HAM bands, but due to the current circumstances, Sam doubted there would be any consequences.

Sam was listening intently for an answer to his call, when the radio crackled out, “John has a long moustache.”

Sam quickly answered, “The chair is against the wall.”

Sam remembered how they had watched Red Dawn together and decided the background radio chatter would be their person recognition phrase.

“Is it really you,” Rowdy almost yelled into the microphone,

“It is me and I am a long way from home,” Sam answered.

“Can you get to a SAT phone,” Rowdy asked?

“It will take a minute to dig it out,” Sam said.

“I need to tell you something, and this is not nearly secure enough. Call my phone in thirty minutes, I will be off watch.”

[ted]

Thank you fastback08, nice to have friends with info.

[teedee]

Wonderful story. This is not something I am familiar with and I am finding it intriguing! Thank you for all of your effort.

[Texican]

The beans are fixin to be spilled....
If you have a large enough boat with a water system you can survive for a while....
Thanks for the read FB....
Now another chapter would be greatly appreciated by the moar crowd....
Texican....

[stjwelding]

Thanks for the new chapter fastback08, I am really enjoying your story.

I hope the business venture works out for you

Wayne