Through Foggy Veils of the Mystical Coast

The Mystical Coast showed her mystery and drama while the ship called Nightflight cruised under the shimmering stars.

Winds of the Mystical Coast blew a dense veil of fog across the clear waters. Then the Nightflight was wrapped in a cotton cloud mist, hiding the stars and shores needed for navigation.

A towering ocean swell over the bar from the sea to the Emerald River lifted Nightflight into the salty air.

Blankets of fog hid the other ship that was coming from the starboard side. Through the haze a ghostly shape appeared.

Wham! The two hulls collided.

Everything tilted. The ocean rushed over the Nightflight's deck. Samuel's feet slipped.

Time seemed to move in slow motion at first, then everything happened fast.

The Nightflight's four masts fell, breaking on her deck. Sounds of hollering, scraping, the sea sloshing, and beams crashing filled the foggy night. 

Nightflight leaned, almost turning onto her side. Her hull caught on the sandbar of the Emerald River and the sea.

She was battered and bruised, but Nightflight would ride the waves again someday.

Samuel swam hard, fighting the current in the murky brine. Hope flickered and then courage rose in him, bringing strength.

He remembered seeing the other ship appear out of the wall of fog. Boom. Crash.

Gasping for air, he tried to float and look around. The shore must not be too far away. 

Crossing the Emerald River bar under the stars on a summer night, no one expected the sudden storm squall and wall of fog. But June could bring surprises.

Samuel remembered earlier standing next to the first navigation officer, Raul.

Now seventeen years old, Samuel felt his future was calling to him, from beyond misty veils of dreams.

The voyage of the 1890s hybrid steam and four masted ship, the “Nightflight,” was smooth so far. Samuel’s dream of learning ship navigation was coming true.

A few days before this he waved goodbye to his family while they stood on the beach below the isolated lighthouse in the wilderness.

Samuel felt a sense of wonder living on the Mystical Coast. Dreams shimmered like sunbeams on the ocean in his mind.

At the Mystical Coast black bears and their cubs roamed. Cougars slinked on the shadows and coyotes trotted in the wilderness.

Elk herds grazed in the meadows.

The sweet scented forests were full of birds calling and warbling.

It was all part of a life well lived on the Mystical Coast.

Samuel felt it was a place where everything is intertwined with nature and he was part of it too.

Mystical Coast's moods could change quickly sometimes. She might be showing her peaceful side with flat seas stretching to the horizon.

Or she might display her mysterious face with fogs and mists cloaking the ocean and shores. When she felt dramatic her winds lashed the waves with gales and gusts, her waves and swells towered, and ships needed to beware.

Life there imparted a sense of wonder and beauty.

But now Samuel was ready to explore the rest of the world too. He wanted to experience faraway places, seeking out the essence of each one.

Back at the lighthouse, he dreamed of himself standing on the deck of a ship pulling into distant ports.

His science studies at the little school below the lighthouse served him well, and he was used to helping his father, the head lightkeeper.

A chance for training on the ship "Nightflight" offered opportunity to learn navigator skills.

The ship, Nightflight, smoothly rode over ocean waves on the sunny, June days. The shore was within sight, making navigation easy.

They saw seagulls, ospreys, eagles, sea lions, and whales on the voyage. Beyond sandy or rocky shorelines, we're the mountains rising sharply, covered with tall trees.

The Chief Navigator Raul watched while Samuel practiced using the sextant, telescopes, compass, star charts, ocean charts, almanac, and ship's log.

At night, the stars and moon poured silvery light on the sea.

In the calm June waters and the summertime warm temperatures, Samuel and the rest of the crew and passengers enjoyed stargazing and picking out constellations.

Measuring the angles and distance between the stars and the horizon with s sextant, Samuel calculated the ship's position for practice.

One day when a pod of whales spouted, sky hopped and thrashed their tails everyone ran across the deck to the railing to watch.

Samuel made friends with the captain's dog, Pepper, a small, brown and white "rat catcher" dog known for keeping rodents away from the food supplies.

In an instant one evening, everything changed.

Instead of anchoring overnight, taking his time, and waiting for daylight's visibility, Captain Johann Rasmussen was in a hurry.

His sharp eyes above the curly beard and tanned face glanced around quickly, and his solid figure wearing the captain's cap stepped rapidly around the wheelhouse and deck.

He decided to make good time in the silent seas of the night by crossing the Emerald River bar after dark. 

But the quick weather change caught them off guard. 

It began when the captain stood in the wheelhouse, checking the charts and steering away from the sand bars on the shores where the river met the sea.

He congratulated himself. They would enjoy a quiet cruise down the wide river to the port of Woodland, under the stars.

"Shouldn't we wait for daylight to cross the river bar?" Samuel's voice was respectful.

"No. We'll be fine," said Captain Rasmussen.

Entering the river, the captain and navigators saw the starry dome overhead disappearing when clouds and a wall of fog moved in.

The Captain Rasmussen hid his dismay from the crew. 

“Captain, now we’re in for it.” He heard the tension in Chief Navigator Raul's voice. More voices joined in.

“We’ll be fine. Settle down, all of you,” he said.

The breeze picked up. A gust hit the ship.

“Drop the sails all the way. Now.” He kept his voice deep and confident.

They heard the squall winds begin howling and wailing. 

Fog so thick you could not see more than several feet flowed around them.

The ship was crossing the treacherous sand bar between the Emerald River and the Pacific Ocean. Dozens of ship wrecks littered the bottom of the water.

The proud captain, overconfident, eager to impress, knew he had crossed this bar many times already. 

Why wait offshore, anchored overnight?

 They were behind schedule already.

What could happen?

Wait. Was that a fog horn? 

Was there another ship nearby?

Or was it the wind?

Then a sound like thunder. Two ships struck each other in the deadly Pacific Northwest fog. 

Now Samuel felt the currents dragging him down and sideways.

Let yourself flow with it, he thought. Don’t fight it.

Just try to keep your head above water.

An image of his home at the lighthouse flashed through his mind. Somewhere his parents and siblings were thinking of him. They would miss him if he didn’t come back.

Something whooshed past in the water. He saw the long hair floating.

"Eliza! From the ship." Samuel lunged to grab her.

He pictured her young face framed by dark hair pulled into a bun, and bright eyes with a sparkle. 

It was only a split second, but their eyes had met with something like laughter in them before she looked away. She appeared to be close to his age.

With a surge of adrenaline, he powered through the current and reached, grasping her arm. She spun, kicking and using her arms. 

Samuel’s hand closed tightly and he grabbed a splintered beam floating by with the other hand. Eliza reached for it with her other hand.

An ocean wave lifted them and they somersaulted in the water, clasped together.

He lost his grip on the wood beam. Eliza still held on to it. Another swell brought it closer and Samuel grasped it again.

The ships must be stuck on the sand bar. Samuel saw they were drifting farther away from the sinking hull of the “Nightflight.”

More booms like thunder sounded. There were calls and Samuel knew the crew and passengers were floating near him in the water.

It happened so fast there was no time to lower a lifeboat.

Now Samuel heard a high pitched squeak. The captain's dog, Pepper, was crouched and trembling on a pile of floating wood.

Then he reached over to the wood that was carrying Pepper and pulled it toward him.

Samuel’s feet felt something underneath them.

He managed to sink his feet into the sand and steady himself.

“We're on a sand bar now,” he said. Eliza stretched her feet down and stood on the bottom.

Samuel's lungs felt tight, his heart pounding hard and fast, his limbs getting tired.

“Over here,” he yelled. “Sandbar. Shore.” He saw others struggling toward the shore.

The bars at the openings of rivers to the sea had fast-shifting sand. The ocean charts were only for guessing.

Yells and calls sounded. People began to get out of the water and onto the beach.

Samuel and Eliza struggled to keep their footing in the moving water. Soon it was waist deep, then they stumbled out and fell down on a beach.

Samuel picked up Pepper and carried the small dog in the crook of his arm.

“We must be near Drift Village,” Samuel said to her. “Town near the river bar. We can get help. In the morning.”

What happened to everyone else on the ships? Samuel’s throat was tight, his heart racing.

Nearby he heard loud voices. 

Good. Other people were struggling out of the water and collapsing on the beach.

Exhaustion overtook Samuel and Eliza. The chilly night air cooled their wet limbs.

“Come on. We need to get inland.”

Eliza’s hand felt clammy while he held it. Together they stumbled and crawled into the sand dunes.

They fell and curled up together out of the wind, in the shelter of a dip in the dunes, falling into an exhausted sleep.

Later, Samuel felt the sand underneath and opened his eyes in the dim light of the colorful Dawn sky. Mystical Coast displayed her pastel morning hues overhead while the sun rose on a clear, serene morning.

Flashes of the night poured through Samuel's mind like water rushing. He saw Eliza begin to stir too.

“We made it.” His voice was raspy.

Eliza’s eyes were wide. She untangled herself from their embrace and stood up. Her head swiveled and she took in the surroundings.

“We need to check on the others,” she said.

They climbed over the dunes and saw people scattered across the beach.

"Eliza!" Two people ran to her with arms outstretched.

"Mama, Papa!" All three clutched each other tightly.

Wisps of fog trailed like shreds of cotton over the ocean and sand. The sky overhead was clearing and the sun rose higher in the east.

“It looks like everyone in the crew and passengers made it to shore,” said a voice nearby.

Samuel recognized Captain Rasmussen, his damp clothing in tatters.

The captain saw Pepper cuddled in Samuel's arm with his expressive eyes fixed on the captain.

The little dog wiggled and Samuel handed his squirming body over to Captain Rasmussen's open arms. Pepper snuggled into the arms wrapped around him.

There was no mistaking the affection in the glance the two shared.

Captain Rasmussen nodded toward his ship, the "Nightflight."

"Her damage can be repaired. She'll sail again," he said.

Offshore, the two partly sunken ships rested on the sandbar. They learned against each other, groaning and scraping.

“I trusted this captain,” thought Samuel.

“It was a mistake to cross the bar at night.

Quick changes of weather can happen in minutes.

What was the captain thinking?

Who could you trust?"

 Samuel kept his thoughts to himself.

He heard voices yelling, and saw a rescue party coming over the dunes, from Drift Village.

Hours later, Samuel, Eliza, and the other crew and passengers from the ships, rested in the village, wearing dry clothes, sitting by warm flames, drinking hot stew.

Samuel knew he would never be the same again.

He left the lighthouse station a few days ago still a child.

Now he was an adult. 

The glow of his sense of wonder still lit his playful, impulsive heart.

But a respect and new sense of awareness also filled him with deeper thoughts and responsibility.

He was no longer a child. But inside his adult thoughts, a child was still there too.

Eliza turned to him and said, “Do you still want to be a ship’s navigator?”

“No,” said Samuel. The sense of wonder and light filled him again.

Eliza looked curiously at the young man.

"Who could you trust?" The words echoed in Samuel's thoughts.

Samuel's dreams drifted through his heart and into his mind.

Eliza's eyes held a shine while she looked at him.

His thoughts and feelings were clear, free of any foggy veils.

“I want to be the captain.”

Then, "Eliza, how would you like to visit a lighthouse?"