Just when she thought her lungs would burst, Pitcher finally surfaced and sucked in some air.
"Peta!" she cried.
The yacht was upside down in the water and the waves were breaking over the hull. The keel was gone. There was a jagged hole and she could hear the air being forced out of it as the water level rose inside. She desperately looked around for her shipmate.
"Peta! Peta! Where are you?" She was almost screaming.
She put her head under the water and looked. Everything was blurred. Rope and debris were floating up toward the surface, mingling with millions of white bubbles.
In a few seconds, she was out of breath. She lifted her head out of the water and was blinded by the afternoon sun reflecting off the white Hull. The salt stung her eyes. She was breathing heavily and treading water.
Her mind raced as she fought to control her thinking. O'Grady was down below in the cabin while they were sailing.
Pitcher swam over to the side of the hull, but there was nothing to grab on to and it's surface was slippery. The only place where there appeared to be anything to hold, was at the stern so she swam in that direction.
"Peta!" she screamed. "You have to get out of there!" She slapped the hull a couple of times as she swam.
"Peta! Come on!"
There was a huge gasp from behind her and she spun around in the water to see a wild-eyed O'Grady had just surfaced and was struggling to breathe. She was treading water and trying to hold her mouth and nose above the waves.
"Oh, thank God! Here. Hang on." Pitcher reached out and grabbed her arm.
O'Grady coughed and spat out some salt water and grabbed Pitcher's T-shirt to help stay afloat.
"What happened?" she cried.
She held up her arm. A large cut on her upper arm was bleeding.. Her eyelids fluttered and her eyes started to roll. Her grip on the T-shirt loosened.
"Peta. Stop! No, no, don't you faint."
Pitcher grabbed her and struggled to pull off her own T-shirt while still holding on to O'Grady. Once it was off, she firmly tied it as a broad bandage around the arm to put pressure on the wound and pull it together. O'Grady's head had rolled back and briefly slipped below the surface. Pitcher grabbed her around her upper body and hoisted her head out of the water then side-stroked to the rear of the boat and grabbed the rudder post.
She was exhausted and so out of breath that she felt nauseous.
What a mess!
O'Grady was unconscious. The boat was irretrievable. She looked toward the shore. They were - maybe four kilometres out, but she could make out some prominent features. There was a huge tree trunk lying on the beach and there were mountains behind the beach, out to the west.
The distance to shore, was daunting. Fear gripped her.
There was no protection from the waves at the back of the boat. The afternoon wind was blowing hard and the boat was side-on to the waves rolling in from the open ocean. Without the protection of the hull, it was hard work keeping both heads out of the water.
O'Grady's eyes fluttered open again.
"Oh my head... What happened?" O'Grady moaned.
"I don't know." Pitcher guided her hand to the rudder shaft. O'Grady struggled to straighten up in the water.
YOU ARE READING
Calypso's Mast
AdventureSomething smashed into her, knocked out all of her wind and spun her around. A vice clamped over her mouth and crushed her chest. A second later, she was behind a bush and looking eye to eye with Suzi. Suzi growled. "Shut-up, Suzi," hissed Banni...
