to love a party. A reputation for high spirits was not necessarily a disqualification, but it did raise doubts in Nordstrom’s mind. He was reassured, however, when the young men’s father vouched for their conduct. They might play hard, said Mr. Cortez, but on a serious mission they were totally trustworthy.
“You know, Captain,” he added with a smile, “the family’s namesake, the renowned conquistador, Hernan Cortez, was said by his secretary to be haughty, mischievous and ‘much given to women.’ And just think of what he accomplished.”
“We are not looking for someone to conquer a Mexican empire,” Captain Nordstrom said, somewhat dourly. But he relented.
Ernesto and Jose were given their commands; but they were not given free rein in choosing routes of travel. Their first idea was to sail together around the world west to east, the two sloops lending support to each other as they checked out the continents one by one. But members of the Coordinating Committee resolved that the journeying should be limited to a year’s time, and given that constraint, a circumnavigation seemed overly ambitious.
“Magellan was the first one to do it in the world that was,” said Stephen Healey, “and it took him three years. Actually, I should say it took a few members of his crew three years. Magellan was killed in the Philippines, and most of the men died along the way.”
“But, sir,” Ernesto objected, “that was a long time ago.”
Jose pointed out that back in the 1960s Sir Francis Chichester had sailed around the world alone in the 55- foot
“And that was nothing,” Ernesto added. “There are now sailing ships that go round the world easily in seventy days. Or at least there were.”
“Let’s not be ridiculous,” Captain Nordstrom said impatiently. “We’re interested in exploration, not ocean racing. A swift trip across open water wouldn’t reveal much by way of useful information.”
It was finally decided that the purpose of the mission—learning about the state of the world—would best be served if the two sloops headed off in different directions. One boat would go west across the Atlantic to Brazil, then north to Florida, making as many stops in South and Central America as feasible, then back to the Atlantic coast of France, Spain, and Portugal, returning to home base along the west coast of Africa. If time and tide allowed, there could also be a visit to England and a short sortie into the Mediterranean. When someone questioned whether such an itinerary wasn’t too much to tackle, Mr. Cortez Senior observed that Columbus, on his first voyage, had crossed from the Canary Islands to landfall in the Caribbean in just five weeks and had returned despite severe storms in less than seven.
Captain Nordstrom remarked, “For a petroleum engineer, Senor Cortez, you seem to know a lot about the sea.”
“Only about the great Spanish explorers, Captain.”
“I thought that Columbus was Italian,” the captain said. But he quickly smiled and held up his hand as if to say, no, let’s not go down that road.
The other boat was to sail north, partway up the east African coast, then across the Indian Ocean. After stopping at Southern India, Ceylon, and Malaysia, it would enter the South China Sea. Plans called for reaching Vietnam and China. It would be good to get as far as Korea and Japan, but that seemed out of the realm of possibility. An attempt could be made, but only if such a journey proved to be feasible within the allotted year.
The aim was to move quickly, to see as much as possible. However, if either boat were to come across a large functioning community, relatively unharmed by the Event, that boat was to return home immediately with the news.
As Captain Nordstrom told the brothers, looking at them intently: “We have been operating under the assumption that world civilization lies in ashes. If by some miracle that is not the case, we don’t want to wait a year to find out.”
Since the boats would be starting out almost eight months after the Event, one could hope that the burned- over fields would be regenerating, and that edible plants would be found along the way. There should be sources of fresh water at every coastal stop, and our own experience indicated that fishing would be productive. Nevertheless, the crews were to carry food rations with them and were not to sail beyond the point where such rations, plus nourishment found en route, would see them safely home.
Uncertainty about sources of food meant that the size of the crews had to be severely limited. The decision was to send six people in each boat.
Ernesto suggested that he would sail to the west and that one member of his crew would be his girlfriend, Anna Colombo, who is fluent in Italian, French, and Spanish, and also speaks passable Portuguese. Anna hails from Milan, where her father, a celebrated mechanical engineer, designed automobiles. Anna is gorgeous, and comes from a world of sleek Ferraris and chic designer gowns. As for seamanship, she has done her share of serious yachting all over the Mediterranean. I never would have guessed that her glitterati lifestyle would mesh with Ernesto’s beer-drinking adventurousness. But it did, as soon as they met aboard the
Jose amenably agreed to go east, but also insisted on taking his girlfriend, Peggy McManus, even though she had no special language qualifications. As it happened, Peggy was an excellent short-order cook, having shipped on the
As interpreter, Jose recruited Emily Chan, who not only spoke several Chinese dialects but was conversant with other Asian languages, her special field of study. Emily was the daughter of Gordon Chan, who was not at all happy to hear of her enlistment. In fact, he forbade her to go until he could see that she was totally determined no matter what, at which point he relented and gave her his blessing. Jose, heading east, also took a representative from the In landers’ Indian population. And he thought it prudent to take a member of the Zulu community. However, he insisted on more than language and cultural qualifications. He wanted two young men who were congenial, athletic, and familiar with boats. Since Durban had long been the center of a lively yachting community, this was readily accomplished.
As a sixth, Jose chose one of the engineering officers from the
Ernesto, in filling out his crew, also enlisted two young men from the Durban sailing community, one white and one black. He then recruited a geologist and a talented machinist. Fortuitously, the geologist was female, so each of the two vessels would have two women on board.
This pleased my father and others concerned about suitable representation of women in all our activities. On the other hand, some worried that the male-female composition of the crew might make for tensions on a long journey. To this, the brothers responded as one. They had been on ocean trips with members of both sexes, and for serious sailors and mature people there should be no problems. As for their own women friends, there was a long tradition of captains’ wives or consorts accompanying them on voyages. Plus, they had picked their crews carefully, confident that they were psychologically sound as well as physically fit. And, after all, a year is not forever—and this is the twenty-first century, not the nineteenth.
Work on the boats progressed rapidly, and a date was set for departure. There remained the question of giving the sloops names. Many suggestions were forthcoming, ranging from such standards as
One day in early August, with a festive crowd gathered at the shore and band music drowning out the sound of the surf, the two expeditions set forth.
Herb searched his memory for a poetic phrase from the past. “You know,” he said to Sarah, “the one about Cortez looking out over the ocean.” Sarah obliged him with the lines by Keats:
