Poor Boy Makes Out: Chapter 3 - The Island
On the morning of what would prove to be the last day for us aboard the BillyStiX Fish Hunter, a 56 foot sport fishing boat that my best friend Billy McDaniel had built a few years back, I rose before the sun, to the sound of Billy's peaceful snoring coming from his state room, just up the companionway from my own. I headed on down to the galley and got the coffee to rollin'. A quick peek at the weather radar, the auto-pilot, the sea chart of the area we were in, and the status of the engines and fuel supply all indicated that we were right on course and in great shape.
Ever since our last adventure we had been planning another big trip but in the 4 years since then we had both been really busy. My various business interests were flourishing and the public's demand for my appearances on TV shows and in movies was tying up all my time. And Billy's rod building business was growing at a rate that he was hard pressed to keep up with. Still, way back last winter, we had begun making plans for this trip and carving out the 2 months in our busy lives and schedules that it would take for us to complete our journey. We were on a quest to fish all the better spots in the Caribbean from east to west and from north to south. We had already been at sea for 5 weeks and the fishing to this point had been excellent but it had all been pretty routine. Not one spectacular event had occurred and we were kind of hoping for something really exciting to happen. Sometime people should be careful what they wish for.
I was smack-dab in the middle of a pipe dream about a monster fish when Billy came into the galley and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Whooo-Eeeeee, you sure do make a mean cup of coffee", he said to me as he sat down. "So, my sea-farin' friend, what's the plan for today?" I told him that I wanted to check out a small cluster of islands that was marked on the charts but not identified by name. I said that I thought that they were likely uninhabited and too small to be of any significance and there for had no name. He sipped his coffee and nodded his agreement.
By now the sun was coming up over the horizon and while Billy continued to study the charts, I went topside to greet the day. We were going through a known "honey-hole" so I slowed down to trolling speed and set out a couple of BillyStiX spiral wrapped offshore rods with fresh bait on one hook and an 8 oz red and white feather jig on the other. A little later Billy came up and we began to discuss lunch plans. Then there was a a hit on the rod with bait and Billy grabbed it. I was enjoying the skillful tactics of Billy with his awesome rod and suddenly, WHAM! the rod with the jig went off and I grabbed it. Here we go again. Although we had had many "double-ups" over the years we have been fishing together it is still as big a thrill as it was the first time. Me and my hero, side by side, testing not only our fabulous spiral wrapped rod but also our on mettle. Once you get the bug for that it never diminishes. Billy's fish came in first and then mine was right behind it. Both beautiful and respectable in size. We admired them for a moment as we took a couple of quick pictures and then set them free to swim again.
After lunch we went back up top-side to do a little more fishing before we were out of the area and notice some dark and threatening clouds out on the horizon. A quick check of the weather radar revealed a bad storm was heading right for us. We altered our course to go around it but it was growing in size and strength and it was picking up speed. We were close enough to see the size of the swells and became very alarmed. Billy said that we were not going to be able to miss it so we decided to come about and try to outrun it. In his haste to come about, he stalled the engines and we had several warning lights on the instrument panel. Before we could get the engines started again the storm had caught up with us and was almost on top of us. When the engines fired Billy grabbed a handful of throttle and told me hang on that it was about to get bad...REALLY bad.
A rogue wave came over the top and swamped the cockpit and lower spaces, including the engine compartment. Now we are dead in the water and no hope of restarting. We were literally tossing about like a bobber in a hurricane. Waves were coming at us from every direction. we looked at each other and said our silent good-byes for we knew the end was here. We shook hands and in the next moment a HUGE wave hit us and capsized the boat. We had on life preservers and had brought the inflatable life boat up and prepared to deploy it in the event we did roll over, or worse. When I gained the surface again I couldn't see Billy or the life boat. I eventually heard him blow his whistle and could tell that he was on the other side of the slowly sinking boat. When it was completely under water I found Billy and made my way over to him. He had a nasty cut on his head and it was swollen badly. I lashed our life preserves together as best I could and looked around for anything we could use to improve our situation. There was a lot of sutff floating in the water but way out of reach. We had nothing except the cloths on our backs and what ever was in our pockets. Over the next 5 days I watched all the stuff from our boat drift farther and farther away until it was completely out of sight. Billy was in and out of consciousness for the next day and a half and we subsisted on rainwater and what ever vegetation and sea creatures floated by that I could catch.
On the morning of the 5th day Billy seemed to have shaken off most of the effects of his injury but we were both about done in. A couple of hours later, Billy got really excited and started yelling that he could see land. I looked around and there was the prettiest little island I'd ever seen. Possible one of the islands we had noted on the chart days before. It took us almost the rest of the day but we finally made it to the beach. As we lay there, totally worn out I let my head lean over to the right and saw, a couple of hundred yards down the beach, what looked like a long box of some kind, but before I could give it any thought I passed out. It was dark when I awoke and Billy was sitting on the beach holding his head in his hands. He saw that I was awake and got up and came over to see if I was okay. Forgetting about the box, we went into the jungle to forage for food. We found a pool of fresh water and plenty of banana trees and other tropical type fruits in the area. We gorged ourselves and slept for nealy 24 hours.
When we woke up we felt a LOT better and I remembered the box and we decided to go see what it was. It turned out to be a crate containing a dozen BillyStiX rods! What a break!! Later that day some more stuff washed up on the beach...Another floating container, this one containing an assortment of reels and line and other necessary items for fishing. We just might get out of this thing in one piece after all.
Over the next month we fashioned our selves a couple of neat little thatched huts and developed a little daily routine. We would take turns; one day Billy would fish and I would forage for what ever I could find, food or materials we could use for constructing better shelters or what ever we needed. The next day we would trade jobs. We landed on a good island for fishing. Lots of coral around and the big fishes were constantly swimming around near the waters edge chasing the smaller bait fish.
We caught a variety of species of fish, some of which we had never seen before and didn't know what they were. We had many exciting battles on the beach with all manner of fighting fishes. After we realized that we were not in any immediate danger we were able to relax and enjoy the fishing action. Those awesome BIllySitx rods provided plenty of action and plenty of fish. We now knew we could survive indefinitely if we had to.
The weeks, months and years came and went with out record for us. One day we were both on the beach working on a little fishing skiff that would let us get a little farther off the beach for some possibly bigger fish when we saw a ship on the horizon. we watched it as it drew nearer and nearer. By mid afternoon it was obvious that it was headed straight for our island. When it had gotten within a quarter mile of our beach it lowered a launch and they were headed for our beach. The first thing we were able to make out was Molly standing up in the front of the launch waving her arms. Billy and I broke out in tears and the helmsman ran the launch right up on the sand and Molly jumped out and came running up to us. A few hundred hugs and tears later we all got back aboard the launch and headed back out to the ship. As the island grew smaller and smaller in our wake, Billy and I, each to himself, replayed the time in our minds that we had spent on that little hunk of Heaven sticking up out of the Caribbean Sea. Surely, these memories would never fade...not EVER.
Back to civilization and back into our lives and regular routines Billy and I have tried to re-order our lives. We learned that we were on that island for 3 years 7 months and 23 days. Seemed like only a couple of months to me. Molly told us that Josh, the guy that had been stalking her was still out there and that she was constantly forced to hit the road for a while till she could shake him off her trail. We heard that his dog Baxter, was also wanted in several states for petty theft, shoes mostly. Seems he had graduated from flip-flops and gotten into hiking boots. Ah well, I guess there's no accounting for taste, eh?
Billy and I have designed us a new, bigger boat and it is under construction right now. Should be ready in about a month. It will be hard to come up with a plan that will equal a couple of the other trips we've been on together, but we are workin' on it. It's very nice to be back in the world again but we both know that a large part of the reason we survived was that we had all those fine BillyStiX rod and were able to catch all the fish we neede to survive. God bless a BillyStiX rod!
To be continued.....
Poor Boy Makes Out: Chapter Three - The Island
I worked all my life to get here and I'm lovin' every minute of it. 
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