Message in a Bottle

This story is for persons of eighteen years or over. All comments, good or bad, are welcome and all will be answered.

Part Four.

Everybody has their own idea of what paradise would be like for them, but let me tell you, that being stranded on an unoccupied island over many months is not paradise, even having a woman to have sex with, it still palls in time. Not the sex, but the other mundane tasks of finding food etc. So with now having been on the island for four months, began to think of how to get away from the bloody place. So the idea was to then try and build a sturdy raft. I had a sail, still in good nick, and would use this plus a rudder, to take us away from the island and back to civilisation.

Even so, it took me over a month to build such a craft, rough I know, but it would suit our purpose. The longest part was of the cutting down of tree limbs to be the base and then trimming them to be of the same length, straight being the main criteria. They had to spend time in the water to see if they would warp, and those that did, were discarded. Alice had the task of finding creepers or lianas that could be woven together to be the means of strapping each piece of timber together.

Now was the time to tell her just how we should build this raft, which I did and wanted her input. But not really being any kind of sailor, couldn't come up with any logical reason for changing what I had planned. So we then began to build our raft. Now it might seem strange, but we started building it down by the waters edge, but in what would be really in an upside down position. I'll explain this as we go along. The lengths of timber were placed side by side and lashed together, piece by piece until we had a platform approximately eight foot by six. Now we had scoured the island for large pieces of rock that we could manage between us, and these were brought down, mostly by rolling them, down to the beach.

Here, they were placed in the middle of our platformed raft and lashed with as much liana that we could make to make them really secured. A space left in the middle for the mast. To really lash them to the raft meant that we had to get it tilted up so that the lianas could pass across the over side of the raft as extra security to hold them there. This would be our ballast to keep the raft in a stable upright position in heavy seas.

Being satisfied that all was secure, we then had to, with the aid of props and my strength, slowly lifted the raft up until we were able to turn it completely over to land with a splash in the water. We had a bit of a problem of moving it out a bit more because of the ballast getting stuck in the sand below the surface of the water. But we managed it and then secured it to the beach when it was then floating free from the sand.

This had taken us a month to do this first part of our raft and we both noticed with each other that we had lost weight due to our diet of fish and fruit but at the same time, had developed more muscles. One other thing that isn't really relevant but some of you might be asking the question and that was that I now had a beard. I had tried shaving with shells but found that I cut my face more than cutting the whiskers off, so stopped trying and so now had a not bad looking beard which made me look older than I really was, or so Alice told me, but was in keeping with the fact that we had been shipwrecked and really looked the part of being a pirate.

As we didn't have any nails to join any sections of timber to the raft, Alice produced a piece of iron that was heated over a fire until it was red hot and was then used to bore holes through lengths of timber. It was then her task to whittle down wood to become the means of taking the place of nails or screws. Dowels was the word I was looking for.

This was for us to then assemble a place of shelter at the bow for us to keep out of the sun and a place for one of us to sleep while the other steered the raft. The latter part I will come to in time. The shelter would be angled so as to be like the prow of a ship, making any waves able to roll off the sides. It was here that the timber with the holes drill through by the hot iron and a reciprocating hole on the raft for the dowel to be driven through to secure it to the raft. Now it wasn't foolproof by any means. For any really violent water could take it off by snapping the dowels, but there wasn't any other means I could come up with due to our lack of the proper materials. This alone took us two weeks before it looked secure enough. Then came the part of fixing a steering paddle to the after part of the raft.

This took a week to make it secure in a wedge like support that would give us an angle of just over sixty degrees. Dowels across the top to hold it down and lianas to keep it in place. Now came the effort of stepping the mast. Stepping is the word used when a mast is being fitted to any kind of craft that sails. I had left a space in the lashed timbers for this to slot into and space below by the rocks that was our ballast. Two holes had been bored through the mast so that when it was in position, I would dive down below and drive dowels through these bored holes to keep it where we had placed it. What with fixing halyards to keep it stable and all else that needed doing to keep it upright, taking two several days, and it was with this finally being stepped, the raft was ready for its one and only maiden voyage.

Now where one of us could lie down in the bow shelter out of the sun, I got Alice to make some kind of cloak protection for the steersman, sorry, steersperson, to be protected from the sun while steering the raft. We had no clothing left for this so palm leaves were used for this purpose, and now we were ready. Well the raft was, as we still had to them get as much supplies of water and food that we could carry in the bow shelter and still have room to lie down out of the sun and to sleep. Water had the priority over food and so we managed to get what we hoped was enough for two weeks, and enough for us to get to another island where we might be able to find more to fill any empty melon husks.

With my charts, I knew where Banz Island was and this would be our first aiming point, that being almost due south. We also carried not only the charts, but my log book and fishing tackle, for we might even have to finish up eating raw fish for we wouldn't have any means of cooking them.

So our next task was to fill the raft with our water and food, plus my charts etc. This we did with us agreeing that we would set off the next morning, saying farewell to this un-named island. Boy, was sex great that last night knowing we wouldn't really get much when at sea. I was really aroused for our first coupling and it took her to bring me up twice more to give her the same pleasure that she gave me in our fucking. Having no clock to know the time, my wristwatch having succumbed to being flooded with salt water was discarded some time back, we finally fell asleep in each other's arms on our last night on the island.

I was more bleary eyed than she was, being quite boisterous while I felt near death's door, but after a hasty last meal ashore, we finally boarded the raft with her steering it as I pushed us out to sea before clambering aboard to take over the tiller. I managed to catch the wind and took us safely out of the lagoon and with my compass in hand, aimed the raft south. It was only then could I tell and get her to steer the raft, pointing out what she was doing wrong and getting it corrected so that she would know how to handle it when it was her turn.

Now this would be pure guess work at being in control of the rudder which I said should be no more than four hours at a stretch when we should change over. This would apply to night as well as day unless one felt really fatigued and then we would change over. It was balmy for the first three days, being as spare with the water as we could until we were hit by a storm.

It was late afternoon and she was at the helm, rudder really, trying to keep us on course, but I was woken up to her cries for help as she was having difficulty in keeping the raft going in the direction that I had laid down. I then took over the helm and found it hard to hold course and not wanting to lose the sail, hauled this down and only left the jib rigged, deciding that we would just have to go along with the way the storm wanted to push us. That was a tiresome night for both of us, for I had to get out from the shelter to help her keep the raft in the right direction according to the wind and the waves. So both of us had a miserable night in keeping the raft going in the right direction and not being sent broadside to the waves which could have turned us over. As I have said, I also had dropped the sail as I didn't want that shredded or lost.

The storm blew itself out just as dawn was breaking and the wind dropped to zero, so we came becalmed, but judging by the sun and the compass, guessed that we were being moved by an undercurrent of the sea that was taking us in a south westerly direction. This was probably the same current that had carried the bottle that Alice had thrown into the sea. By my calculation, that for the bottle to have travelled the distance from her island to the Townsville area over the seven months, it must have been moving at the rate of four knots. But that was just guess work on my part.

I was too tired to try and work out just how we had travelled so far and if we could only be swept along by the current, we would run out of both food and water long before reaching the Australian coast. We needed wind. We didn't get any for two days, us just lying tight together in the shelter out of the sun with having the rudder tied off. We were both dog tired but found it difficult to sleep, wanting to drink water but had to use as much will power as possible to not succumb to the thirst that we suffered.

In spite of the shelter, we still suffered blisters from the sun and the salty sea water didn't help. It was only the swaying of the raft during the night that woke us to prove that the wind had risen, so we scrambled out of the shelter and Alice took the tiller while I got the sail up to catch the wind and as we had been pushed quite some way in a south westerly direction, decided that we would continue of that course and just hope that we either could keep up a good speed or be spotted by a passing boat or ship before we ran out of water.

I reckoned that over the next two days we managed to keep a speed of about five knots which only would have taken us just over a hundred miles. That meant there was still a hell of a way to travel yet. Seeing how much water we had left in the husks, knew we would run out well before we reached Australia, even with us restricting ourselves you just half a pint a day. This knowledge I didn't pass on to Alice.

Then what I dreaded happened. We came becalmed again which lowered my spirits even further, though it was only for a day, but that was another day's supply of water that we had to drink, the amount seemingly to disappear quite rapidly now. With the return of the wind, I kept the raft on our compass bearing, not knowing really where we were on the sea or how far away Australia was.

Alice was now very lethargic and I had to lift her head as she lay in the shelter to give her our daily sips of the disappearing water for her to then go into an almost comatose state, lying there in the shelter. I began throwing overboard what we would not have an need for to try and reduce the weight of the raft, empty husks and even my beloved sextant which was of no value now. All that I kept was what little food and water we had, our two lifejackets and my compass. If this made any difference, I had no way of telling.

With Alice comatose in the shelter, I started to suffer from deliriums sitting at the helm, trying to keep on course and not letting us drift away from the bearing I had set. I was sunburnt and blistered all over now, except my ass which I was sitting on and it was getting more difficult to hang onto the tiller to keep us on course. But the time came when we only had a pint of water left, that I finally gave in and with great difficulty, lashed the tiller and moved into the shelter with Alice. I managed to get her head up enough to drink the last of the water before I gently put her head back down and lay beside her, now having the room with everything that had been in there finished and discarded.

Fate then took a hand in our salvation. I can only tell you this in an aftermath as we had no idea what had happened until we were told later.

Unknown to us, a cruise ship on the last leg of its voyage from Fiji to Brisbane, spotted us and heaved to and dropped a boat to inspect this raft floating on the ocean. We were found and with the raft in tow, taken to the ship that had stopped and us and the raft were hoisted aboard and we were immediately taken down to the ship's hospital. Many passengers had been taking pictures of our rescue and some were later published in newspapers. Both Alice and I were brought back to life as it were by the ship's doctor who was amazed that he had been able to considering the poor state we were both in.

I was brought round to be able to speak before Alice and told them of our adventure which quickly went round the whole ship and it was a whole day before we were able to move of our own volition to be fed and entertained by the captain at his table no less. More photos were taken by some passengers, those at the table were amazed and thrilled at us being rescued and it was with some great effort that we managed to last the meal out, though we could eat hardly anything, such was our bodies out of sinc with having food available, though we did consume quite an amount of water.

We were a bit incoherent that first night but after a night's sleep, were able to give a better account of what we had gone through. I managed to get the radio officer to send word to the Harbour Master at Townsville that we had been picked up and would be landed at Brisbane in one days time. For some reason, they couldn't get through to Alice's parents to tell them the news that she was safe and alive nearly a year after having disappeared. This we sorted out later.

News had been sent forward to Brisbane and on our arrival there, we found many people from newspapers that wanted out story and had our pictures taken and of our raft that had been winched over the side to be towed to a berth in the harbour. It was in the ship's saloon that we gave an impromptu account to the news people there, with us giving our thanks to the ship's captain and crew that had saved us. So it was still some time before we were able to then give our sincere thanks to the captain and asked that they, the crew who had picked us up, be thanked too before we were able to leave the ship.

Fortunately, I still had my credit card with me and so it was straight to a bank we went where I was able to get some money and then found a phone booth for Alice to contact her parents to say that she had been rescued. They were over the moon at hearing her voice over the phone and said that they would be flying up to Brisbane on the first flight that they could get. For the sake of propriety, I booked us both into an hotel, separate rooms and with another phone call home, Alice gave them the name of this hotel and that she would be waiting to see them on their arrival. I then went and booked a double room for them so that they could spend the night there too.

Now what I have failed to tell you was that on our last night on the cruise liner that had saved us, we managed to get together in one of the bedrooms that they had given us where we went and had sex. It had been two weeks since we had last coupled and it was on this night that she became pregnant. But at the time, now in our hotel while we waited for her parents to turn up, we didn't know this. But also with knowing that they wouldn't be there with us till the next day, we shared a bed and again we had sex, though for romantism, we like to think that it was on the ship that she conceived.

What a celebrated welcome it was when they turned up after us having had breakfast. Alice was swept off her feet by her father and got kisses galore both from him and her mother and when they were told it was down to me at her being rescued, I was even kissed by her mother and had my hand shaked enough to almost dislocate my wrist by her father as well as getting a hug from him. Little did I know then that he was to be my future father-in-law.

We went off into the hotel's lounge and in spite of it still being midmorning, champagne was ordered and we got quite high in the drinking of it while our story slowly unfolded for their ears. The only thing not mentioned was of us having had sex innumerable times on the island, but I think that this was known considering a decent looking man that I was and she a winsome female, it had to be inevitable.

The story carried on through lunch with more drinks and I had to beg off with having so much to drink and left Alice alone with her parents to finish off our adventure. I was up again in time for dinner and I was most profusely thanked in the saving of their daughter. I played it down as much as I could in saying without her help we would never have got off the island. But this was pooh-poohed.

Look son. Only one bottle was found, and it was you who found it and followed it up. At great risk and expense on your part, we would not have our daughter back if it wasn't for you,' her father said to me. We have no real means to thank you for what you have achieved.'

`There is one sir,' I replied.

`And what is that?' was his reply.

`That I have your permission, and that of your wife, to court Alice, for I think the world of her.' It's hard to express the look on his face at my request, it was unfathomable, and he began to say something and then hesitated before replying.

`Do you think she would, er, accept this?' was what he answered me with.

`That we would only find out if you said yes sir,' I replied, keeping a straight face.

`Well you seem to be a strong enough man, permission granted,' was his reply to my courting his daughter. So that was it. I later took Alice out to dinner a few evenings afterwards, and over the meal, I proposed to her.

Now I may have jumped the gun a bit, but I had took the chance and had bought an engagement ring that I had kept hidden, and when she said yes, I was like a kite flying high in the sky and offered her the ring as the start of our engagement. She was thrilled and offered up her hand for me to take the ring from the box and place it on the right finger, and then got a kiss.

`I love you Colin and can't wait till we get married. Let's go to bed and consummate the agreement,' she answered me, and I didn't need any persuasion to this suggestion, and so that is what we did.

It seems trite in saying that neither of us could wait for long in this engagement period, and it was only until she found out that she was indeed pregnant, that a date was set for our wedding. She then had to tell her parents of what she was now carrying, and so it didn't take long before all were informed of the marriage which finally took place in their local church.

It was something of an imposition, but the only person who I could think of to be my best man and that was of the Harbour Master at Townsville. I was surprised that he was delighted at the offer and accepted and agreed to be my best man. No doubt that he would be noted in the news for it was well broadcast of the two rescued people getting married and it wouldn't do him any harm in being my best man. Well, let's face it, who else could I have asked?

So in that church in their locality of Sydney, we were married and because of our coming together, not sex wise, but from the fact that I went in search in response to her message in a bottle, a knight in a swim suit, that we had many of the press there to report the joining of us two together in holy matrimony.

I had got a firm of house cleaners in to get my old home up to scratch and we both declined, for the time being, a honeymoon, as neither of us wanted to tempt fate by having a cruise or any other means of being away from solid ground. So we went and moved into my house that over looked Double Bay where we then waited for the birth of our child that had been created in one of the lowest periods of our lives. Now that should have meant something.

So we are now really back at the beginning of my story where we waited to find out what we had created between us. We never did give up our love for the sea and would often take out a boat, gratefully supplied by the insurance that I had taken out on my boat Alice', to rove about the sea inside of The Heads', that being the name to the entrance to Sydney itself.

The sex of the child you might ask? That we don't know yet. Alice wants a boy while I want a girl, so we will have to wait to see what comes from being marooned on a desert island.

All comments, good or bad, are welcome and all will be answered. Send them to >adultreading@gmail.com< or my website >adultreading.es<. I can also supply where my other books are listed with nifty.org who would also like contributions to keep them supplying books like mine. http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html