Chapter One
It was official I was in the most one-sided and unaffectionate love-affair of my life, I was in absolute love with the ocean and she wasn't as fond of me as my boat was. I had thought of literally everything, the solar panels worked flawlessly, and at the moment the ocean was as peaceful as I had ever known the cool sea to be. I had seen numerous marine life, and I had taken to photographing them cataloging my journey and sending the mini-albums of what I had seen to Nikki and Destiny.
I had been travelling the seas for months already, emailing my sisters periodically and I was nearing the one-year mark of my adventure when I stopped one bright afternoon to read my emails and if I was fortunate and one of the twins wasn't busy I would try this Skype thing that they had told me about and insisted I install on my laptop so they could see and talk to me and vice versa.
I miss you, I read on the screen as the beginning to Nikki's most recent email reply to my last album, And I'm jealous you are having so much fun while we're cooped up trying to polish off our master's programs. I am beginning to worry your trips are going too well…
"Worrywart," I murmured as the sun streamed into the cabin area warming me,
Nikki,
You worry far too much, and about things that you cannot control, its bad for your health trust me I know. Everything has gone according to what I had anticipated, though seeing that pod of whales three days back was a treat I couldn't pass up even at my most ambitious or however I might wish to catch you guys. I hope the pictures came out good. I'll be stopping in another day at a harbor I promise I'll call then. Raina.
I sent the email and went as I did every time I checked my email and several times a day despite the fact the boat was on an auto-course to the next harbor that I expected to reach in about another day's travel when I stopped short reading my dials and scanners. My ocean currents were good, the speed was holding at a steady four knots, and the part that would have stopped a seasoned sailor's heart was the fact that my little boat was well on its way to the heart of what promised to be a wicked, cruel storm. I had at most two hours to either divert away and miss the storm or merely get sideswiped and I had to hurry even as I heard my cell phone ringing in my pocket and regretted that I had to let it go to my voice mail because I didn't dare take my hands off of the controls as the minutes ticked by the sun vanished behind the clouds and the sea began rolling with an angry vengeance.
Within the hour I was swaying with the violent waves and being tossed about wildly as the waves threw me almost away from the radio I was trying to send a mayday to any ship that could possibly have gotten to me in time, knowing that if I could get towed to a bigger ship with more power I could get away from the storm and at least wouldn't be alone. To no such luck, I heard the first wild wave – somewhere around ten foot – crash over my ship and to its credit the design was perfect the water rolled off it in wide sheets – but followed in short order by a second, larger wave and then a third when I heard the first boards cracking and sent out a last-ditch frantic mayday when I seized my phone and sent out a hurried text to Nikki that I was in a storm and that I would call her as soon as I could in response to her call earlier. It wasn't my first storm but this one for some reason felt different, the air was charged I realized as I tried to work with the waves rather than against them only now they were coming in two directions and the ship wanted to go a third and was now splintering.
"No!"I screamed despite the senselessness of it as the wave that I couldn't begin to guess the size and strength of took aim at my battered boat and the ice-cold churn of the water sweeping me in one direction and the boat in another was the last thing I would see, or remember was that of flying through the air with such force that hitting the icy water knocked me unconscious, perhaps as a blessing all its own.
