First mate's log:

May 6, 1968

Wow, we have a brand new chance to be rescued! Obviously things didn't work out with the king and I accidentally sent Walter off without a message, and he hasn't come back since. But last night we were listening to music at the Skipper's birthday party, and during the newsbreak, they said that Erika Tiffany Smith just bought a tropical island. Not only that, she bought it from Dr. Boris Balinkoff! She said in the short interview that she's been trying to find the island she visited a couple years ago and stumbled upon this "luffly vun with a castle."

The Skipper and I are going to build a raft and go to that island. Hopefully, she can rescue us in her yacht. I know, things could go wrong again, but this is the best chance we've had in ages.


Carol Martin's diary:

May 8, 1968

We bade bon voyage to the Skipper and Gilligan today. Erika Tiffany Smith has purchased Dr. Balinkoff's island, so the two men are going to try to reach it on a raft and ask for her help. After so many possible rescues these past almost four years, I'm of course not very optimistic, but I wished them luck of course. Mostly, I just hope they come back safely.


May 9, 1968

Wow, I never thought I'd be back in this castle! It's still pretty spooky, but the baroness plans to redecorate. She was surprised to see me and the Skipper and she asked after the Professor. And, yeah, she's going to rescue all of us! We're going back to our island tomorrow, in her yacht. Today we're resting up, bathing with real plumbing, and of course eating all the food she offers us.


May 10, 1968

The sailors came back, in a yacht! I can't believe this is really happening, and part of me thinks that something will still go awry, even with Erika Tiffany Smith herself assuring us. The plan is that we'll all pack up quickly and sail back to her island, and then she'll have her staff contact the Navy to send a ship to take us to Hawaii. She's going to stay on her island, since she has so many plans on how to make it into a vacation home.

If nothing else, at least Alice, the children, and I will get to see the Balinkoff castle that the others told us about, and that's pretty exciting in itself.


May 11, 1968

The Skipper and I went and got everybody, and our own stuff, and then headed back to Balinkoff/Smith's island. I wish I'd had more time to say goodbye to my animal friends. I'll even miss the coconut trees and the caves and the lagoon and everything. The Skipper says we can come back on vacations and stuff. It's weird to think of the island as being truly deserted, without even the people who were living there when we showed up. We left up the huts and everything, so I guess someone else could survive if they got shipwrecked, but they wouldn't have to stay as long as we did, since the countess will be living just an island away, practically neighbors.


May 12, 1968

It feels like everything is happening so fast, after almost four years of disappointments. The Navy is coming to get us, when we've barely explored Mrs. Smith's island. The castle is indeed spooky and the children love it. To be honest, they'd probably be fine moving here, as long as they could visit our island now and then, and we wouldn't be as cut off from the world as we were there. But of course we couldn't impose on Mrs. Smith much longer. It's enough that she's come to our rescue, without setting out to do so.


May 13, 1968

We're on our way to Hawaii! Yeah, I'm a little homesick, but also really excited. The kids, even the oldest ones, can barely remember what it's like to be so far from our island, and they're having a ball running around the ship and driving the crew crazy.

I guess it's a big story that we're being rescued after almost four years and it's all over the news on the radio. There's going to be a big reception for us when we get to Honolulu, even the mayor! I'm mostly looking forward to the banquet.

I haven't really thought about what I want to do with the rest of my life. I hope to keep working for the Skipper in Hawaii, maybe not three-hour tours but something. I should go back to see my family and old friends in my hometown, but I can't picture settling there after all I've seen and done.

It hasn't really sunk in that after all this time with our fourteen surviving passengers, they're going to go their separate ways. None of them lived in Hawaii, except the Martins, because Captain Martin (I think that was his rank) was stationed there, and they hadn't been in Honolulu that long. Everybody else was just a tourist.

I wonder if I should say something to Mary Ann before she heads back to Kansas, but what would I say?


May 14, 1968

We're all staying at a lovely hotel in Honolulu, free of charge, although of course it's good publicity for the hotel. Everyone has been very welcoming, but that's the Hawaiian culture anyway. Our return is big, happy news, at a time when America, and perhaps the world, needs that. It's so strange to watch television news and see wars, riots, and other violence in living color, rather than hear about them in the more restrained radio news. I'm limiting the girls' viewing as much as possible, but it's sort of a miracle, for Cindy especially, to even watch cartoons.

Mrs. Smith's castle was primitive but it did have electricity and plumbing, things we'd learned to live without on our island. This hotel feels luxurious in comparison, although the Howells still feel like they're "roughing it." I'm going to miss them, although I was never close to him. (She and I at least bonded over being the married ladies on the island, and at times I thought of her as a delightfully dotty aunt.)

I'll miss everyone, flaws and all. I couldn't have survived without them, even if they sometimes drove me crazy. I hope that we'll all have a reunion someday, maybe on the island. Perhaps they'll come to the wedding, although that will likely be in America rather than the island wedding Mike and I imagined a few months ago.

We still want to get married, although we recognize that we haven't been around that many eligible people in recent years. But we're not naive youngsters like Gilligan and Mary Ann, and we know what we value in our partners. We've both been happily married and we know we're a good match. That said, we'll still have a Christmas wedding, to give ourselves and our children time to re-acclimate to America. We'll likely settle in California, since my folks (more on them in a minute) live in a suburb of L.A., and Mike likes the scenic variety of the Golden State. And San Diego was the last place Tim was stationed before Honolulu, so Marcia remembers it.

We'll have to enroll the children in school, but Mike and I've promised that that can wait until the Fall. Meanwhile, they can start their summer vacation early.

My folks have offered to have us stay with them until the wedding, and I said yes, not just because I don't want to have to find temporary housing yet again. They've missed me and their grandchildren, and we've missed them. (Well, Cindy doesn't remember them of course.) We all cried on the phone. It'll be good to spend time with them before forming a new family with Mike and his boys.

I haven't spoken to my brother Jack yet, but he knows about the rescue of course and promises to bring Pauline and their little boy, Oliver, to the wedding. My nephew is two years old and I didn't even know about him until yesterday! The girls are excited that they have a cousin. (Mike is an only child, so the boys don't have any first cousins.)

Anyway, this is all a lot to take in, and it's a time of adjustment for all of us.