The Rescue of Nadia Marie Read online

  The boat had seen some use for a couple of years before the owner got sick. After his death, the boat was put into dry dock storage where it was waiting to be sold. Julie had the broker take various pictures and send them to her. She drove the broker nuts with all her requests. Finally, she was satisfied and made an offer. Much to her surprise, the offer was accepted immediately.

  If the boat stood up to her inspection on arrival in Florida, she informed the broker, her and her husband intended to buy it. A date was set for them to come and inspect the boat.

  Nadia was ecstatic when she heard the news. She bounced around the house like Tigger singing, “Yah! We’re going on a boat ride! Yah! Yah!” She was as happy as a little—well, almost eleven—eleven-year- old girl could be. Cathy, the nanny, threatened to hog-tie her to a chair if she did not settle down.

  Nadia got on the phone and called all her girlfriends to let them know that she was going on a trip with her parents. She most certainly had to tell them she was going on a sailboat. The whole adventure would take all of the summer.

  Nadia called her best friend Sara to give her a detailed description of her preparations for the trip every day. There were decisions that had to be made. Should she forego clothes and take toys instead. The biggest decision was which doll she would take Samantha or Josephina. Sara wasn’t much help. She just sighed and told Nadia to leave them all home. Nadia chose to take them all. That way, none would have their feelings hurt. Cathy put a stop to it when she saw a suitcase full of dolls and no clothes or underwear.

  Nadia tried to appeal to her mother to no avail. She finally reconciled herself to taking Samantha, Josephina, and baby blanket. Thanks to that old meanie head Cathy.

  The plane ride was in itself exciting. She got to sit by a window and look out at the world as it went passing by. There were the mountains and then the plains as far as the eye could see. People and cars looked like small ants.

  When they got to the Epcot Center, Nadia was awed by the rides and fairy-tale characters. She loved the Maelstrom with its polar bears, Viking ship, and Pirates. The monorail was fun to ride as you went to each event.

  Nadia was fascinated with the various pavilions. There was a German pavilion, an Italian pavilion, a Mexican pavilion, and a Japanese pavilion. Each of the sites had presentations in the native language. Languages fascinated Nadia. She loved to listen to the various voice inflections of each language. The German language sounded like someone who had had too much beer to drink. Most of the other languages were spoken too fast. When the speaker slowed down, Nadia could pick up on the rhythm of the language.

  The beach was okay, but Nadia liked the pool at the World Dolphin Hotel. She could sit on the side of the pool or swim. No one tried to step over her or kick sand on her. Besides, she imagined that there were sharks in the ocean, and she did not like the thought of a shark eating her.

  Finally, they left fairy-tale land and went to get their boat. The boat itself was a beautiful boat. The masts were so tall that Nadia could hardly see to the top. She thought that a pirate could sit up on top and see the whole world.

  Inside the boat, Nadia had her own bunk area which became her palace. She would pretend that she was a princess and her pirate prince would come and take her away to an enchanted land of fairies, unicorns, and dragons.

  Of course, the boat had a tape player. When Nadia was not helping her parents sail the boat, she would read books or watch such movies as The Goonies, Hannah Montana, iCarly, and Suite Life on Deck. Nadia would pretend that she was on a cruise ship with the characters from the show Suite Life on Deck. She liked the character London because she was cool and filthy rich. The second best character she liked was One Eye Willie from The Goonies. He was scary.

  The best part though was that she was with both her parents.

  She liked to help with the boat. Just helping and having her parents to herself was all she cared about. Her chest really puffed up when her parents named the boat the Nadia Marie.

  Once they set sail, their route took them around the Florida Peninsula bypassing the Keys and on by New Orleans to Corpus Christi Texas. Going through the Gulf of Mexico was awesome. Nadia was awestruck by the huge oil rigs and gigantic oil tankers that plied through the gulf.

  Near Corpus Christi, Nadia had a couple of thrilling experiences with a boat in distress and the United States Coast Guard.

  Traveling along the Texas coastline close to a place called San Jose Island near Corpus Christi, Nadia’s parents heard a distress signal over the emergency frequency on their radio. Their GPS indicated that the boat was about five nautical miles from their position. Nadia’s father altered his course and headed toward the boat in distress.

  Aboard the boat, which was a sailing boat like theirs, there was a family of four. John threw the boat a line and towed them into Corpus Christi. Shortly after leaving a grateful family behind, and on the way past Brownsville, Texas, Nadia saw a large boat in the distance moving fast toward their position. When the boat neared, she could see the big stripe and a flag of a United States Coast Guard cutter.

  Nadia could hear on the radio that the cutter was directing her father to lower his sails and prepare to be boarded. “Boy,” thought Nadia, “this is just like in the movies with pirates being chased by the good guys.”

  Soon a small boat detached itself from the larger boat and came along their boat. A sailor in a white uniform came aboard and talked to John and Julie while Nadia watched. After a short conversation, the sailor got back into his small boat and returned to the larger boat.

  After the sailor left, Nadia asked her dad what the man wanted. John replied teasingly, “The man was looking for pirates. He thought you were a pirate, but we convinced him that you were our daughter. He wanted to take you to pirate jail.”

  Nadia replied, “You are teasing, Daddy!”

  John went on to explain, “Honey, there are bad people in the world. Some of them use boats to carry out their crimes. It is the job of the Coast Guard to catch them so they will not hurt little girls like you, or hurt Mommy and I. They keep us safe and help us when we need help like that family we helped.”

  Nadia couldn’t wait to tell her friends about the encounter. She thought it was exciting. Once they were across the international boundary into Mexico, John chose to stop at Veracruz to sign in with Mexican Customs known as Aduanas. Their route was to take them to Cancun before setting sail for the Panama Canal Zone.

  At Veracruz, John did not want to stay for any length of time. There had been trouble with Mexican drug gangs, and he did not want to encounter any trouble. There was a short visit to Castillo De San Juan De Ulua, the old Veracruz fort, on Callega Island, then around the Yucatan Peninsula to Cancun.

  Cancun was not much better. There had been drug gang violence in the city. As a result of the violence, the United States Embassy had issued a travel advisory.

  After taking on supplies at Cancun, John, Julie, and Nadia left for the Costa Rican Port of Limon. There they decided to take a short respite and spend a day at the Tortuguero National Park. The green turtles were coming in for their annual egg-laying on the beaches. A guided tour bus took them up and back to their boat.

  There wasn’t a great deal to see in Puerto Limon. Tourists did stop in occasionally, but for the most part, Puerto Limon was a working port that exported a lot of bananas.

  The next stop was Panama. That was to be a challenge. Small boats are not allowed to transverse the Panama Canal alone. It is cost prohibitive and a waste of time. In order for a small boat to go through the canal, it must go with a group of small boats. To get through the morass of bureaucratic rules and regulations governing the Canal Zone, it was easier to hire an agent whose job it is to see that you get through the canal and all paperwork is filed.

  John had used the Internet to find an agent while they were in Miami. He had the unlikely name of Hans Soleto. Hans had been
recommended by another boater they met casually in Miami. John wondered where a Panamanian got a German name, but he did not want to know and wasn’t going to ask.

  As the Nadia Marie neared the Canal area, John contacted Hans by calling a prearranged number. Hans instructed John to proceed to the Shelter Bay Marina. There, Hans was waiting to take John to the Port Captain’s Office. Hans had the basic yacht arrival documents filled out. John had faxed him the basic information on the boat and the personal information on Julie, Nadia, and himself.

  John had arrived on one of those days when a representative from the Port Captain’s Office was where he could be reached easily. His name was Juan which is Spanish for John.

  Juan did not particularly like Norte Americanos. He found many of them rude, obnoxious, and arrogant. He took great delight in making life miserable for them. Hans, of course, knew this and usually went along with Juan when one of the arrogant ones was encountered.

  Juan’s favorite approach was to feign ignorance of English when he wanted to teach someone a lesson. In this case, Juan took a liking to this Americano. He seemed pleasant and cooperative. His wife was “muy bonita” and so was his little girl. Juan decided to not take up a lot of time with this family. Besides, he had a “muy bonita senorita” he was going out to dinner with and needed to go shopping for a present for her.

  Hans and Juan conferred for a brief time, then Juan signed all the necessary paperwork and left. Hans then took John, Julie, and Nadia to a small café to talk to them. Hans explained that one of the rules governing the canal is that each boat had to have at least five passengers. Hans kept a list of travelers that wanted to hitch a ride through the canal. These travelers were usually college students traveling for fun and the experience. Hans had the names of a couple of young women who were waiting for the right boat to come through so they could go through the locks and get to the Pacific side of the canal. Hans told John and Julie that he would contact the women and let them know that they could go through with the Nadia Marie.

  Their departure date and time was set for two days away. This gave John and Julie time to take Nadia shopping. Hans made arrangements for them to rent a car to take to Colon where they could buy presents to send home and food for the boat. There was a fairly large supermarket in Cuatro Altos known as the Rey supermarket.

  John was able to pick up a few tools at a place called Novey’s in the Millenium Plaza near Cuatro Altos. John had wanted to pick up a couple of Marine Batteries. He felt that the present batteries on the boat were older and might need replacing. He made a mental note to find a place to buy them back at the marina.

  Nadia was having so much fun shopping that John forgot about the batteries and concentrated on having fun with Julie and Nadia. By the end of the day, all of them were tired, and all shopped out. They returned to the Shelter Bay Marina tired but happy.

  Dinner was an extra bonus. John ate a huge steak. Julie gorged herself on seafood. Nadia just had fish and chips. She did not like the expensive stuff and decided to stick with the kid food.

  The next day was hectic. John had to talk to the other boat owners and Hans about the transit through the canal. The Nadia Marie would be included in a group of yachts along with a large tanker named the John T. Marsten registered out of Liberia and owned by a shipping firm from Ireland.

  Hans had delivered 125-foot ropes to the boats to ensure that they would stick together. It had been decided that the boats would go in sets of threes. Their time for departure was set for 1400 hours the following afternoon.

  Later in the day, Hans came aboard with two female passengers. It turned out they were two students from the University of Washington in Seattle. They were sisters named Joyce and Anna Hansen. Both were pleasant and willing to help with the departure.

  Joyce helped Julie stow the food and gear. Anna took a liking to Nadia and took care of her while the others had to run errands and check out of the marina. Finally, the day for departure arrived. All boats proceeded to an area off the Port of Cristobal known as the flats. There, they met an advisor who would escort them through the locks.

  Once they ascended through the Gatun Locks, the boats anchored in Gatun Lake. The following day, the boats finished the transit through the canal. They arrived at the Flamenco Marina the following afternoon.

  Panama requires anyone staying in country for more than three days to apply for a visa. John and Julie decided that it was not worth staying and having to go through the paperwork hassle. They dropped off the Hansen sisters, then set sail for the open ocean.

  Nadia was saddened by the departure of Anna Hansen. They had become good friends. Anna was the younger of the two sisters. She was a freshman at the University of Washington. Joyce, Anna’s elder sister, was going to be a senior. Anna was majoring in psychology but had a minor in languages. Nadia told her how she too was interested in languages. Anna took Nadia to one of the sidewalk cafés near the marina. They sat and listened to people from all over the world speak in their native tongues. Anna would tell Nadia what language was being spoken. Sometimes, Anna would let Nadia try to guess the language. It was fun.

  Nadia had acquired an interest in other languages ever since her teacher had the students in her class listen to foreign languages on a tape recorder. Here, she could listen to real live people talk. She would miss Anna.

  Their route took them up the coastline north. Sometimes Nadia would lean over the railing and look at the ocean. Sometimes the ocean turned into a sea of glass. During that time, the ocean would be a beautiful deep blue. Other times, the ocean would turn aqua. Her dad said the color of the ocean was merely a reflection of the cloud colors.

  Once they had spotted a pod of whales. Another time, as they came close to land, a group of dolphins followed them for almost half a day. It was exciting to Nadia.

  Their route took them from the canal to Acapulco which was the first stop on the way north to Ensenada, Mexico. Acapulco was filling up with college students, so John and Julie decided to continue on to Puerto Vallarta. At Puerto Vallarta, the crowds were getting as bad as Acapulco.

  At Mazatlan, the crowds were a little more mature and tolerable. The Nadia Marie and company decided to lay over for a short rest at a local hotel. Mazatlan was fun for Nadia. She got to go on a short tour to two old Mexican towns called Copaca and Concordia. On Stone Island, she got to go horseback riding.

  After a couple of days of sightseeing, they left for Cabo San Lucas. Cabo was filled with college students as well. John almost got into a fight with a drunken student at a restaurant. John decided it was best to cut their stay short and head for their final stop at Ensenada, Mexico.

  En route to Ensenada, they encountered a sad but too often problem on the ocean. One day, Nadia was watching for whales through her dad’s binoculars when she saw a small whale circling a much bigger orca whale that seemed to be floating on the surface of the water and not moving. Nadia called to her parents and pointed to the whale. “Look,” she said, “that whale is in trouble or dying!”

  John took the binoculars and looked in the direction that Nadia was pointing. “The whale is alive. I see its tail moving, but it can’t seem to right itself. We will take a closer look and see what is wrong.” Julie who had been at the helm changed course and set sail for a course that would bring them parallel to the whale, but a safe distance away. Once they got near to the whale, Julie and John lowered the sails to cut their speed.

  John took the binoculars and scanned the whale once again. The smaller whale had moved closer to the larger whale and was emitting a shrill sound. John slowly lowered the binoculars. His face had turned beet red. Nadia knew her father was angry. He slowly turned and looked at Nadia then at Julie. “That whale is caught in a fishnet! It will die if something is not done. There is no one but us in the area that can help. I guess it is up to us to do something.”

  A simple plan was devised. Julie would maneuver the sai
lboat close but a safe distance from the whale. John would take the small skiff and approach the whale. If the whale did not panic, John would attempt to cut the net from the whale. Julie put out a general call for assistance over the international frequency. A nearby marine biology vessel picked up the call and responded. Their ETA was about four hours.

  John got into the skiff and motored over to the whale. The whale lay on its side and seemed to be breathing heavily. John could see the whale’s eyes following him as he approached. At first, the whale seemed to be trying to get away from John but settled down as John talked to it. It seemed to sense that John was there to help. The smaller whale moved off a short distance and waited and watched.

  On close inspection, John could see that the whale’s blowhole was partially blocked by the fishnet. The first order of business was to free the blowhole so the whale could breathe better.

  To accomplish the task, John only had a filleting knife. The net was thicker than he originally thought. It appeared that the whale had encountered the net. In a panic to rid itself of the net, the whale began to thrash about. That only caused the net to become more entangled, eventually wrapping itself around the whale. The net itself had small metal cords interwoven in the net to give it strength. Luckily, John had brought a pair of cable snips with him. He would first cut the synthetic rope, then the cable strings. The task was slow and tedious. It took over an hour to clear the net from the whale’s blowhole.

  Once the whale was free to breathe, it suddenly sank and then came to the surface and blew water all over John. John had to time his work with the whale’s breathing. It was obvious to John and Julie that the whale knew that John was trying to free her. The whale remained still while John cut away the net. Some progress was being made. Occasionally, John had to stop to sharpen his knives that were dulled by the thin steel cable intertwined in the net.