Philippines – Johann Quisumbing

OCEANUS ADVENTURE #12

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

Chapter 4 continued…

Alicia was about to ask a question when the ship’s horn blared out three short bursts.

“Admiral, would you do the honors?” Jona was inviting him to the helm control console.

He took out his key and inserted it into a slot marked for officers use only. The propulsion console lit up. Then Jona slid open a transparent panel giving the admiral access to the multiple fly-by-wire controllers. The admiral then expertly pressed three buttons which went from red to yellow. On the screen were indicators for three main propulsion thrusters coming to life until all three read 100%.

Jona then reviewed another monitor and said, “Ok, admiral. Our bow is off by 5 degrees.”

“Roger that!”

On another monitor which read Manoeuvring Thrusters. The image showed 3 bow thrusters and 2 more thrusters at the stern superstructure. The admiral touch-screened only one of the three bow thrusters which lit up to green. Then he turned a small knob labelled bow-thruster #3 to the right for about 20 seconds then quickly returned it to its neutral position. Because it was dark outside, no one could tell what was happening except Jona was watching his monitor and was counting down to zero and it stayed there, not needing a correction.

He whooped in admiration and said, “admiral, you still got it. Ok, ahead forward, half speed.”

“Aye, aye Captain. Ahead forward, half speed, sir.” He then turned a larger knob to half way. At the same time, Jona pressed a button then the ship’s horn blared out one long burst.

“Well, everybody… here we go,” Jona said.

To be continued…

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.

OCEANUS ADVENTURE #11

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

Chapter 4 continued…

When he spotted her, he got his radio and said, “Mathilda, Mathilda… this is base. How do you read, over?”

“Good morning, chief,” squawked his radio. “How was the party?”

“It was a lot more fun with out you being there,” laughed Jona. “You ready for the big haul?”

“No problemo here, chief. Though, I don’t know why we need that piece of junk, Belinda, for this haul? Mathilda can pull your monstrosity all the way to Honululu, if you want.”

Then another and much gruffer voice squawked in. “Ah! You piece of $#@%! My Belinda can haul 3 supertankers at one time and still ride rings around you.”

It was not long until the radio waves was bombarded with mirthful banter between the two skippers. The admiral who was standing nearby snickering reach over and borrowed Jona’s radio.

“Allow me,” winked the admiral. He turned a nob on the radio and then produced such a shrill whistle that Jona swore he heard a distant echo. “Listen up, you blockheads. Knock off these romantic wisecracks of yours. Fun games are over, gentlemen.”

“Sorry, admiral… sir,” squawked both tug captains. He handed the radio back to Jona saying, “voila!”

“Thank you, sir. Belinda, Belinda… are you set?”

“Just waiting for your horn, director,” said his gruff voice.

“If Oceanus have its own thrusters, why do you need a pair of tugs?” It was Alicia Buenaventura with her camera crew. They unexpectantly showed up with their bright lights which Jona did not appreciate because those lights cost him to lose his night vision.

“Ms. Buenaventura,” the admiral intervened, allowing Jona not to be bothered by answering inquiries and focusing on the work at hand. “First thing first, please have your camera man decrease his lights. Jona and his bridge crew need their night vision.”

The cameraman decreased his lights to the same level of the bridge. Then he adjusted the camera’s apperature and gave Alicia the thumbs up. Alicia then gestured to the admiral to go on.

“As to the tugs, you are correct. Oceanus’ thrusters are capable of propelling us. The tugs are there not just to give us more power which helps since our thrusters were never meant for speed. Oceanus was designed to drift with the ocean currents. But back to the tugs…”

The admiral led them to the electronic navigation table which showed a satelite display of the San Miguel Bay.

“Here is our current position,” he pointed at a red dot that was about halfway to the mouth of the bay. ” We need the tugs’ underwater sonar system to extend our own sonar. Do you see right here at the mouth of the bay? The deepest part of the mouth is right smack at the center.”

The admiral then touched the screen which popped up an illustrated profile of Oceanus. He pointed at the stern superstructure which Alicia thought was just sitting on two large pontoon hulls. But in reality it was built on a submerged oil platform.

“These 4 submerged vertical pontoons at the stern goes down about 13 fathoms (75 feet) deep. Along the perimeter ring are 10 more similar pontoons that also go down 9 fathoms (55 feet). So, only here at the very center of the mouth during the peak of high tide the depth will be about 16 fathoms. We have to stay dead center lest we run aground. This is why we need the tugs’ extra sonars. We’ll be able to make accurate soundings.

“Now, high tide starts to come back in around 5am this morning. We have to be right at the mouth, then we’ll need to drive our thrusters at full against the current. And just to be safe, the tugs will also provide extra forward propulsion just in case something goes wrong.” He knocks on wood three times.

Alicia was about to ask a question when the ship’s horn blared out three short bursts.

To be continued…

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

OCEANUS ADVENTURE #4

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

CHAPTER 2

“Oceanus… a Titan from Greek mythology,” Hallbright said.

“Yes,” said Jona. “He was the Titan god of the river Okeanos, which was believed to encircle the world and connect the earth to the heavens and the underworld. Anyway, Oceanus is an artificial floating atoll and it is all floating on… trash!”

“Trash! Incredible!” said an excited Hallbright, “I recalled watching videos of a floating island made of thousands of recycled plastic bottles in the Caribbean coast of Mexico… built by… ah… Reishee Sowa.”

“In fact, his designs and experiences were a large factor into the workings of the Oceanus Project,” explained Jona. “Of course, our floating creation is a lot more extensive than Mr. Sowa’s little island.”

“To what end?” asked Alicia who had her camera on him.

“The Oceanus Project is not just a floating city. She is our answer to the Great Pacific garbage patch. Now, before you ask any questions, the pilot is going to orbit Oceanus twice and then we will land. Enjoy the view.”

As Alicia turn the camera on Oceanus, she zooms in for a better look. Jona called it a floating atoll. By definition, an atoll is a ring-shaped reef that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. This is definately ring-shaped and it brought to mind another man-made atoll in Dubai, the Palm Jumeirah; except that this one floats. As they orbited closer, she saw that there were actually two rings; the outer ring of which is narrower than the inner. Both rings had foliage. As they came closer, she recognized that the foliage on the outer ring were mangroves. The inner ring seem to have more variety of foliage including the recognizable palm and coconut trees.

‘How in heaven did they get mangrove and coconut trees to grow on floating trash?’ she thought. ‘A definate question to ask later.’

By the look of it, the diameter of Oceanus is about twice the length of one of those supertankers, about 4000 feet or so. The rings, however, did not form a complete circle, however. In actuality, the atoll is made up of two arcs, their ends of which were attached to two superstructures, one of which seem to be the bow of a freighter which was cut in half.

On the other end was another superstructure but a lot more different from the bow. As the chopper flew by it, she saw that this superstructure was about nine stories high above sea level. The structure itself is built up on twin catamaran hulls, but by the look of the darker colored waters underneath there seem to be more underwater. The opening between the hulls is the gateway into the lagoon. By the look of it, a sailboat can go through it with space to spare. Now, the chopper was giving them a better view of the lagoon.

“I see that you expanded the inner side of the ring,” it was the Admiral’s voice.

Alicia saw that from the inner side of the ring, the floating land roughly extended out. On it were about twenty or so dome huts.

“Well, the villagers needed more ground space for their cottage industries,” Jona said. “They’re quite enterprising. Did you know that the women figured out how to convert seaweed into toilet paper? We are slowly and surely becoming less reliant to outside supplies.”

“What’s that big island?”

“That’s the staff’s residence island. That’s where we will be staying.”

Alicia panned the camera to the big island mound near the bow. On it were six dome structures encircling a larger double decked structure also with a dome roof.

“The smaller island is still under construction,” said Jona. “That will be eventually fused with the residence island.”

To be continued…

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

OCEANUS ADVENTURE #3

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

CHAPTER 1 continued…

Major Roque navigated the chopper by mostly hugging the eastern coast of Luzon with the Pacific to their left. Two and half hours later, they were over the Bicol Natural Reserve. It was suggested that he give the passengers a more dramatic approach. So, Maj. Roque dove the chopper to treetop level. From the back, he heard someone yell out, “heee hawww”!

Then looming in front of him was the forested mountain range of the reserve. He turns on the PA systems and said, “Buckle up and tighten your belts, people. This is going to be a fun ride.”

Jona tightened his belt. “Here we go again, Admiral. Jer knows I hate this part.”

To keep from throwing up, he locked his eyes out the window. Fortunately, he was sitting next to the Admiral who had the larger domed window with fantastic vantage view of the scenery. The chopper wound its way up and down deep forested ravines.

“Oh yeah,” whooped Hallbright. “This is better than the rollercoaster at Six Flags.”

Jona tightened his grip on his chair, then asked the Admiral, “Do you think the pilot can perform a roll in a twin rotor chopper this size?”

The Admiral laughed out loud and sympathetically tapped Jona’s white knuckled hand.

“Sir, the last ridge is coming up,” said the co-pilot.

“Ah right.” Maj. Roque clicked on the PA system. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed the ride? We are making our approach to our destination in 20 minutes. Ms. Buenaventura, you can activate your cameras at this time.”

The chopper climbed to an altidude where the passengers can get a grand view of the San Miguel Bay. The bay’s width is about 20 miles at it’s widest running from west to east. It’s length, from the mouth of the bay going south, is about 25 miles. The bay encompasses the provinces of Camarines Norte to the west and Camarines Sur on the south and east.

The voice of the pilot came on again on the PA system. “If you look out the port side, that is the left side, you can see where we’re landing.”

Alicia had control of one of the cameras and was sitting just behind Admiral Harris’ seat. So, besides her own portal, she can just stand and pan her camera out his bigger window.

“There she is, Admiral, at the center of the bay,” Jona said.

Alicia pointed her camera to where Jona indicated. She was slowly panning right, trying to keep the camera steady against the aircraft’s vibration still not seeing nothing but sea and the distant coast of the bay which was a little blurred. Then she stopped panning when she spotted something green. She adjusted the focus and zoomed in. At first, she thought she was eyeing an island. But there was something strange about it. Then she realized that it was not just an ordinary island. Though it had vegetation, it seemed artificial.

“Jona, is that island…?”

“…Floating? Yes!” Jona stood and faced everyone. “Folks… welcome to Oceanus!”

To be continued…

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

OCEANUS ADVENTURE #2

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

CHAPTER 1 – continued…

“Sir,” said the co-pilot who was looking out his window, “ang dyan na sila.” (‘they are coming…’)

Jona looked out also and saw a group of six exiting the terminal. “There they are. No rough flying please.”

Jer laughed out again and gave him the thumbs up. Jona closed the cockpit door then went to the side hatch where his guests were already climbing in. Jona guided them to their seats. The last to board was a tall white haired man in his seventies.

“Hi Admiral. Any problems with the paperworks?”

“Nope. Our embassy people did a good job smoothing the way with your government…” said Admiral Harris. “…including keeping my indentity hush hush.”

Admiral Reese Harris is a retired Naval Chief of staff and is now a sitting U.S. Senator. Some years ago, Jona befriended him when they sat opposite from each other when the Admiral headed the committee to investigate the feasability of his project. There was much debate and consternation between them but after a chance meeting in a Georgetown Irish pub, they began to see things eye to eye and became longtime friends.

Jona guided him to a seat on the left side by the only dome window.

“This is your seat, Admiral. You’ll get the best view here.” Jona saw one of the female passengers gesturing to him, “Ah… excuse me, I’m being paged.” He goes towards her.

Alicia Buenaventura is Filipino-American who recently moved back to Manila. She is a Youtuber with her own channel. She and a team of four videographers are in contract with National Geographic to journal his project. Jona was elated when he received the email he was longingly waiting for after a year of negotiation with the executives of NG. Alicia was their answer.

“Where can we set up the flight cameras?” she asked, hefting a couple of Go Pro cameras in her hands.

“The pilot said you can set up a camera in the cockpit. Another camera can also be mounted in the belly view port. The chopper’s engineer will show you.”

“That’s great,” replied Alicia. “We’ll get fantastic aerial scenes for our opening broadcast. Ah, Mr. Quimby…”

“Please, call me Jona.”

“Alicia… ah… Jona, I understand Robby Ramiscal is part of your crew?”

“Yes, he is. He’s one of my supervisors. How do you know him?”

“Oh, we were in college together,” she said smiling.

Jona could not help but read something mischievous in that smile.

“Well, you’ll be able to catch up with him…” Jona then adds, “…his wife and kids tonight at the reception.”

Her smile disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Then the corner of her lips went up ever so slightly and Jona thought he saw a glean in her eye. He guessed that Robby is going to have an interesting year ahead of him.

The big chopper lifted off the tarmac. To avoid the incoming and outgoings of planes of the very busy airport, the chopper flew north for a short while then swung east over the city until they were just over the mountain ranges that overlooked the metropolitan. Then it changed course to south by southeast.

Tony Hallbright, who was sitting on the starboard side of the chopper saw they were skirting what looks like a large three-pronged lake. He popped up his Google Map app and read that it was called Laguna de Bay or Laguna Lake. According to Wikipedia, it is the largest fresh water lake in the Philippines located southeast of Metro Manila between the provinces of Laguna to the south and Rizal to the north. They were flying low enough that tony can still distinguish several aquaculture pens. From his research, they were more than likely filled with tilapia and a mullet like fish which the locals called Bangus. Tony had some of the delicious milkfish for breakfast. A very pretty Filipina waitress recommended that he should eat it with garlic fried rice, salted eggs with red yokes and some pickled papaya relish. And to spice it up all up, she generously sprinkled his fish with reddish cane vinegar suffused with garlic, onion and tiny red peppers. He smiled to himself. Not only did he enjoy his meal, he also got to ‘friend’ her at Facebook.

To be continued…

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