Johann Quisumbing

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

Chapter 8

“Tie off the bow hawser, you #%@$ arse,” shouted Diego Kostas from his pilot house to a crewman.

Laura watched her husband expertly dock the Belinda unto its enclosed berth on the leftside of the stern superstructure. She watched him come in from an observation platform one deck above. The Belinda crew of four were jumping here and there securing the tug. Diego emerged from the wheelhouse and he barked out the order to close the berth’s gate.

Laura appreciated the enginuity of these enclosures. There were six of them; half on this side, the other in the portside. Only two were occupied right now; by the Belinda and Mathilda. But she had heard through the grapevine that one of those pens will soon be occupied by a naval boat.

“Hello Babe… we missed you out there,” Diego said climbing the stairs to the platform.

She kissed him. “Oh, I don’t think you missed my cooking, honey.”

“Are you kidding? I will take your food over the slop served for the past week by all four blockheads of our lot.”

“Honey, you always gave me way too much credit. So, are we landlocked on Oceanus for awhile?”

“Well, I won’t be taking Belinda out for sometime.”

“Why?”

“According to Jona, it’ll be about a week before the processing plants can put out eighty tons of recycled plastic. Then, we get to haul it, maybe Guam. Who knows? Anyway, what’s to eat tonight, Babe?”

“I’m cooking for the officers this evening. I got a whole basket of lemons from Bryce. So, I’m preparing Chicken Piccata with rice pilaf and for dessert lemon tarts.”

“Sounds good, Babe.”

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“Well, admiral, GPS puts us about five hundred miles east of Luzon. We should be riding the Kuroshio Current in another week from now when we get closer to Guam,” said Jona. The admiral, Hallbright and him were crossing the lagoon on a skiff.

Hallbright googled the Kuroshio Current on his phone. The Kuroshio, also known as the Black or Japan Current or the Black Stream, is a north-flowing ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean.

“What had Ito Ito found out there?” asked the admiral.

“He didn’t have to go too far out. His boats pulled in about 400 pounds of trash. Oh, get this, he also pulled in a seventy foot sequoia driftwood. By the look of it, it may have been drifting for years. It probably started out of Oregon, drifting on the California current, then it pushed west on the Equatorial current. Lord knows how many times that trunk circled the Pacific. Ito Ito wanted to build a canoe and furnitures from it, but Robby got a Japanese buyer for stuff like that already.”

“Poor Ito. Was he disappointed?”

“Nope. They’re paying him a substantial salvage fee. He’s already counting the money in his head.”

As the skiff neared the pier, Mae was waiting for them. As they were disembarking, Mae approached them looking a little concerned.

“Hey guys, Laura cooked the dinner tonight!” she said.

All three men paused and then turned around to get back on the boat.

“Hold on! Get back up here,” she scolded. “You guys be nice. Laura worked hard on a difficult recipe.”

“Isn’t there some kind of maritime law against this kind of cruel treatment to our taste buds?” asked Jona.

“At that matter, I’m a visiting dignatory. I should be exempt from any kind of culinary experimentation. Don’t you think?” asked the admiral almost beggingly.

“Knock it off, guys,” she said scoldingly.

To be continued…

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Note from the author:
Oceanus Adventure is a fun effort on my part to enter the wonderful world of creative writing. It’s a story of a group of people who launched themselves into the Pacific Ocean on an artificial island to solve the Great Pacific garbage patch. My hopes is that this will end up into a TV series.

Comments and idea suggestions will be most welcomed. I hope you enjoy.