Briney Logs 2

SOS
Help! I’m lost at sea. My name is Kai Finnegan, I and family are on a grey yacht somewhere of the northeast coast of the Australia, in the Coral Sea. We’ve lost radio contact and we can’t find land. It is the 30th of March 2016 just now.
Please send help.


30th March 2016
We’re lost. At sea.
Sea that covers two thirds of the Earth’s surface. Double the area land does. For pete’s sake we’re even called the Blue Planet. People don’t get how big that is, like, just can’t wrap their heads around it. I didn’t, back home in Ireland, I guess we got the ferry to Britain a few times so you can basically see either country from the boat on a clear day, it doesn’t seem like much water.
But, in comparison to land, people can get utterly lost in a forest. The Pacific Ocean is the biggest ocean in the world, it’s even bigger than Antarctica, seriously! Only a little bit more inhabited too…
We’re screwed. We can’t establish radio contact, and we can’t find land which just doesn’t make any sense! We could practically see the Australian coastline from this damn yacht, then a while later, we just couldn’t. I tore off a page and made a message in a bottle but I don’t know how much it will help- maybe some kid’ll find it on a beach and get excited. I always wanted to find one when I was wee.
Mum and Da are- were telling us not to panic, then the wind picked up and it’s a full on freaking storm out there now, just pouring and howling, there’s even been thunder and lightning. We pulled in the sail and lowered the sea anchor; we’re too tired to fight it, we’ve been stressing out too much. Betty’s wailing, I can’t stand it, the brat just won’t shut up, Mum and Charlotte have tried everything.


31st March 2016
Still stormy… like, five hours after the last entry. The clock says it’s three in the morning. East Australian timezone, which doesn’t make add up, it’s really bright out! Stormy and horrible, but daytime, I don’t even know how. Sea’s getting worse, choppier, I can’t sleep.
So I’m writing this down. Helpful huh? I don’t know why. It’s my turn to get on deck, relieve Da so he can sleep.

Still bad. Getting worse, the waves are getting stronger and the rain feels like bullets. We can barely tell what way’s what, and Betty’s getting worse. Not crying anymore, but she keeps throwing up sick, think she’s ill.
I’m going to keep this journal on me.  I want a record. A memory.
We’ve been sailing for a long time now, we left home 8th November 2014. To get on this bloody rusty screw-loose old boat. I was fifteen, Charlotte was twelve, Betty was nine. Macey’s journal had my entries from then, but Betty chucked it in the sea outside Darwin. Great, some random Australian surfer’s going to read it. Or maybe the mermaid, if she was real.
I haven’t mentioned that to Mum. She doesn’t like mystics one little bit. She’s a biologist, she likes fish that make sense and can’t talk back, things that you can measure and understand. Never really meant much back home, she just got really chatty when we went to an aquarium or a sea life centre, but she pretty much loves this whole sailing thing, seeing all these fish. Some were cool, we went to Barcelona, they had an awesome aquarium with an underwater tunnel in it, could see sharks swimming over you.
Da’s more techy, he likes being the Captain of the floating coffin and I guess he’s not too bad considering he’d never sailed much until we got it. I thought we wouldn’t make it around the world. At this rate it looks like I might be right. Damn it. I don’t want to drown.


1st April 2016
Right. I’m going insane, that has to be it, Betty’s finally got to me, or I caught craziness in Australia or I’m still asleep or something because there are TWO MOONS!

They’re still there! WTF I’m awake and there’s two moons. My head hurts. This makes no sense. Or that’s why nothing else makes sense- maybe another moon appeared and screwed up radio waves and magnets and tides and currents and everything. I Don’t even Like that explanation! I don’t GET this, it’s not FAIR! Nobody else’s sailing gets screwed over by another freaking moon appearing!
Or, nobody’s left a record of dying cos of another moon appearing. Damn it, if I’m going to be the first I wish I’d paid more attention in English.
Storm’s gone. Clear skies. TWO MOONS. We’ve got a wind again, we’re trying to head southwest which is hard to tell what direction that is because there are TWO MOONS!

Still one sun. Whoop de doo. Admittedly a bit red and hot looking, sky’s kinda pink, but at this point I’m happy to see that there’s only one sun. We’re getting directions figured out. Sun goes east to west, but the moons don’t so we were going northwest instead until dawn (at nine pm?). Da’s confident now; he say’s we’ll see land soon now that we’re in good weather. Charlotte believes him. Betty’s still dead ill, Mum’s trying her hardest to help her but she needs a hospital, she’s getting weird dark rashes and leg pains.


2nd April 2016
Still not a breath of land. We’ve sailed like 300 miles this way. Just before dawn today we set off a flare, like a big orange firework. There should be ships nearby, we can’t miss that many boats. I don’t understand what we’re doing wrong- maybe the world’s flooding, like that 2012 film but not on schedule. I wouldn’t be surprised.
It feels like we’re alone. At night it’s even worse, it’s just blackness and nothingness all around this stupid yacht, as if we’re sailing in a void.
Da’s got me fishing. It isn’t working very well on a moving boat, we’ve just got three rods me or Charlotte sit with- that was actually kinda funny, Charlotte was the first one to get a bite but she just screamed and dropped the fourth rod in the water. I was almost in tears laughing. She says it was strong enough to pull her in, but I dunno, so far I’ve just managed to catch a salmon, a weird trout and this little pink fish Mum took away- she doesn’t recognize it. I’m getting better though, I’ve only stabbed myself in the thumb thrice
My heart! I thought I saw something there, something big in the water, scared the snot out of me! I gotta pay attention more, I’ll not catch anything if I’m busy writing.


3rd April 2016
More rain. Acid rain, too by the way, because apparently the last storm wasn’t bad enough. Mum says it’s really strong, by acid rain standards. It’s not going to burn through anything but we don’t want to drink it or get it in our eyes. Betty can’t walk, her legs are getting weaker, and nothing’s helping her. Noone’s caught it, but we’re all wearing down.


4th April 2016
We’ve been lost for a week now. If these days count, they’re not right, the clock’s completely out of whack, I think the days are longer than they should be.
Da’s organizing rations to make sure we last until we find land. He’s not told me but I overheard them; they’re scared, they’ve got no freaking idea what’s going on! Can’t stand it, I wished they wouldn’t pretend otherwise, but now I prefer when he was being confident, now it feels like we could sink any moment- it’s an old boat after all, the rain didn’t do much more than peel the outer paint, but we can’t check the hull can we? Da think’s I’m being daft, apparently great uncle Rob’s boat is in good shape. He didn’t say what shape specifically.
I guess it would be worse if we lost the boat too. We’ve had it for two years but it’s the only thing that hasn’t changed. Not that it’s home, it’s not a proper house with separate bedrooms and a nice kitchen and stairs. I miss that one, the old red brick house with the garden, wonder who lives there now? Probably some toff with brat kids with iphones who think they’re so smart and don’t even use the garden. Sailing would do them some good.


6th April 2016
I swear we’re cursed, it’s raining acid again. Big fat drops that smell bad. Maybe the mermaid cursed us, back in Australia, she’s the only mystic I saw and if their magic can turn them into humans maybe it can do all this too, send us off into a nightmare to die slow and painful. Mum think’s I drank seawater, she took my temperature when I told her I’d seen a mermaid, but I’m sure I did, definite.
Today was no good. We’re entering currents, choppy water, but Da always tells us to hide down here when the rain starts us to make sure we don’t get burned. I caught more fish, we had a couple for dinner- even Betty. She’s more awake now, eating more, but she can’t walk one step and her legs are limp and covered in black purple rashes. Sleeps a lot, but she’s… she’s asking things that don’t make any sense; it’s like she can’t remember what’s going on. She’s asked where Brian is, when we’re going to zoo, what’s on TV, it’s freaking creepy.
She’s woken up…
No, it was Charlotte, said she couldn’t sleep. Haven’t heard her say that in a while, she’s getting to be a teenager now, a better big sister than I am a big brother. Actually I think she was being sorta sneaky… OI BLISTER IF YOU’RE READING THIS, PAWS OFF YOU LITTLE BRAT OR I’LL CHUCK YOU IN THE SEA!
I’m not very good at being a nice brother.


7th April
She was up on deck in the rain, the sneaky little rat. Just sitting on the stern in her coat when I checked outside in the morning, she won’t tell me why. Well, she did but damn if I’m gonna believe she’s doing secret fishing practice. She’s not hurt, it was normal rain by then but still, she could’ve gotten washed away or something; the currents are fierce here. And more paint’s gone, the bucket’s getting worn away little by little- there’s even some rusty stuff forming on the rails and mast. Don’t know how long we can last, this isn’t south west now, I don’t know where we’re going now. South? South east a little?


9th April
Nice sunset. It’s like molten roses spreading across the sky, from this really bright blood red and then a violet arc reaching across towards the nightsky, towards the moon and… moon two. That’s a sucky name. The first moon’s Luna right? I can’t tell which that is. The one going from east to west I guess, but it’s sort of… bigger and bluer. Maybe the other one can be Tim. Or… or something clever, like Gemini, the twin.
No, it’s Scorn, that’s  a better name, it’s like there’s giant eyes just watching our little spindly boat getting washed around and laughing, like You’ve been Framed. Maybe that is it, it’s that thing I said before, there’s camera’s and they’re watching us go insane. Charlotte thinks we’re in the Bermuda Triangle, we’re a ghost story! How about that?
Got a bite, a trout. I’m getting really good at this now, even if Mum doesn’t know half the stuff I catch. Down to two rods, I can’t remember what happened to the other one. What the bloody hell, I saw something there, shape in the water, a whale maybe- it was nearly the right size, sort of shiny too. Maybe an orca, it’s chilly out here, I’ll ask Mum.


10th April
Betty’s a little better. Sort of. She’s more aware of everything now, she spent the day begging to go up on deck in the sunshine. Totally got on my nerves so that’s improvement. Her legs' bones are almost completely gone they just wave around useless, but she’s still tickly, and seeing everything cheered her up a smidge.
More fish caught. We’ve found a good strong wind to cruise along with, south west again. I’m sleeping heavier too, getting more tired, and hungry. Da’s almost got a sea beard, we’re all looking bleeding awful. We fit the boat, we are basically a ghost ship now. Laughing hurts.


11th April
Shaking. Can’t stop. Doesn’t make sense. Can’t be. Need to write this down, I’ve gone over it a hundred times and it doesn’t MAKE ANY SENSE.
Da’s missing an arm and half his shoulder. He got bitten by the sharkupines. The big things in the water, they’re like thorny sharks covered in spikes they went for Betty as soon as she got in the water because she wanted to swim and she pulled herself in and suddenly they were going for her, all spikes and blades and teeth and Da jumped in after her. She’s cut up bad, blood and bone everywhere, but alive and we managed to pull Da out but then the sharks went for the boat. They were even jumping at us, like piranhas but as big as Da or bigger and spiny and scrawny with horns on their skull. I got hit, bashed in, stabbed by the spikes then the boat bucked and I fell and I knew I was gonna die. Being eaten’s worse than drowning.
I’m alive though. Maybe I’m in hell, or a sea hell, Flying Dutchman or something, but I’m with Mum and them, we’re breathing. The sea saved us. It ate them instead, stripped the sharks apart into red stains in the water just out of nowhere, this huge column of water tore up and whirled around us and the sharks inside it melted, like a typhoon or something and I was back on the boat. It spoke, I think, I don’t know, maybe I’ve gone mad, but it doesn’t feel that way.
Mum’s bandaged us up, we’ve got a few painkillers but not many. We might just bleed out at this rate, it hurts so bad, Da’s completely out of it. Charlotte say’s that it’ll help us though, that we can trust it.