The First Night

As you know, the fog began to drift in even before the sun went down. As the air became foggier, it also got cooler. The fog seems to rise up from the water surrounding the island you are on. It is not long before the land to the north and to the west is obscured from your sight, even from the top of the lighthouse.

After some food, everyone begins unwinding from this very long day. After all, many of you woke up about 14 hours before dawn today! You settle into your sleeping arrangements (see above) as the sun begins to disappear. Jeff begins his turn atop the lighthouse, looking out as the fog becomes more and more dense and the light of the day disappears, giving way to night. The night sky has still not shown itself to you. Two hours later, life around the lighthouse is quiet, except for the snoring from those around you and the crashing of waves on the shore. Even the sound of the waves seems to quiet as the tide lowers somewhat.

Jeff comes down from the lighthouse and rouses Brady, who takes his turn staring at the fog. The light of the lighthouse doesn't seem to really penetrate into the fog as it circles around. It seems to diffuse quickly, making the direction in which it shines bright from the ground to the sky.

Brady has been on his watch for just over an hour when he notices a strange sound. It is the distant clanging of a bell coming from the east, definitely from offshore. It rings out in a steady rhythm, about once every four seconds. The tolling of the bell continues and grows louder, as though the source is nearing the island.

Inside the house, Dana sits up, listening. She has trouble focusing on anything in the dark and blurry house. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she looks at her watch for the time (it has Indiglo). It is about 11:15 p.m. The bell tolls again and Dana knows what woke her up. Dana determines which way it is coming from then reluctantly gets out of the comfy chair to take a look out the eastern window. In this direction, to her left, she can see the base of the lighthouse, its light sweeping the skies. Ahead, the sandy beach outside leads off into the enshrouding fog. Not really seeing anything, she walks to the door and outside. When she gets just outside the house, the distant bell tolls again. The coolness in the air makes her shiver.

In the lighthouse, John wakes up. All three can clearly hear the sound of the bell tolling to the east, nearing the island. The breeze outside seems to have picked up a bit. If you have ever heard the beginning of the song "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" by Elton John, that is the tone of the bell. It is a deep, wailing, mourning tone.

Greg happily sleeps through everything, but starts mumbling the words to "Crocodile Rock" in his sleep.

John fumbles for his glasses and heads for the top of the lighthouse, where Brady is. As he reaches the top and is stepping outside, he sees Brady reaching for a rope that hangs from the top of the lighthouse tower. The bell in the east tolls again. It seems to be getting closer, but nothing is visible yet. John is not exactly sure what the rope is for until Brady pulls on it. A higher-pitched bell chime sounds, ringing again and again, loudly into the night.

At the sound of the new bell, Greg wakes up with a start, as does the rest of the group. The bell continues to ring out from the top of the lighthouse. The distant bell tolls once more. After a moment, both bells fall silent. The silence continues for minutes as those in the house stir. In the background, the incessant surf crashes against the rocks and the beach. Eyes are searching to the east for some sign of the source of the melancholy bell. The light of the lighthouse sweeps across the sky. Nothing. After a moment, the light sweeps past again. This time, in the fog and gloom, a flash of white appears, only briefly, as though the light of the lighthouse was reflected off something floating in the fog. Eyes focus on that spot in the fog, hoping that the flash reappears on the next pass of the light. A moment passes, and the light comes around again. "There it is!" cries Brady, pointing to an indistinct white outline in the gathered mists. To the east, and a little south, can be seen a light-colored, hovering, nebulous patch. The light continues it's travels across the horizon. The patch lingers momentarily, then becomes indistinct. It is quiet, with only the sound being that of the waves.

After what seems an eternity, the light of the lighthouse passes across the horizon in the direction where the patch was seen. From the mists emerges a great, tall ship, all her sails raised, all her sails torn, her hull obviously breached in some places. You can see a sailor standing at the bow, unwavering. The ship is sailing at full speed directly at the shore of the island! It is aiming at the beach just south of what would be parallel to the house. The light of the lighthouse gives the sailor and sails an unearthly yellow-white glow. The ship continues on its relentless course. In moments, it reaches the shore of the island and keeps going, sailing through the sand of the island. Even as it crosses the beach, and crosses the dunes, it does not slow. It sails on, into the fog covering the island, until it finally vanishes.

Standing on the porch as the ship passed, Dana and Greg get a pretty good look at some of the sailors on this strange vessel. To both of them, these sailors appeared to be incredibly gaunt, even skeletal. Looking at the beach where the ship passed over, you do not see any marks in the sand.

Dana begins to wonder if she is still asleep or not. She rubs eyes again. "I wish I had something to rinse my lenses off with" she mumbles to herself. "That was, without a doubt, very strange."

"Hmmm..." says Jeff. "Well, not sure... can't you use salt water on lenses?"

Cassandra nods quietly to Dana. "I thought I saw ghosts once, but I was very little, and I used to stay awake late at night afraid of some unknown thing under my bed. But that..." She shivers. "Never seen anything like that before."

Dana says, "I don't think I've ever seen a ghost before. Kinda gives you the willies, eh Greg? I wonder what that was all about? Could you make out anything specific about the ship or crew? All I could tell was that the ship was pretty beat up. There were holes in the hull and in the sails. Some of the yardarms were broken. The crew looked like a bunch of skeletons. Literally, skeletons. I thought I could see through the ribs on one. Didn't catch the name of the ship, though. The other odd thing... as it passed, the bell was silent, and otherwise, all I could hear was the flapping of some of the sails. There were no orders being shouted, no movement of anything on the deck itself, nothing. Even the sailors seemed to be staying in place. I mean, I saw some of them move a little, you know, an arm here, a head turning there, but none of them really walked around or anything."

Jeff breaks the silence, saying, "And no, I've never seen a ghost ship before either. But it does give a little more credence to my claw theory." Jeffery smiles, and continues, "I don't know what to do, but I'd suggest getting off the island as soon as possible."

After the tall ship sails off into the heavy fog, and after some chatting about having just seen a ghost, whether it is for the first time or not, the rest of the night continues on quietly, though the watch people seem to find it easier to stay awake. Most are able to catch up on sleep fairly well.

Morning comes, much like it did yesterday, with the early fog that burns off later in the day. Progress continues on the sailboat. By about midday, it is estimated that the boat can be sailed at any time. There are still barnacles clinging to the underside of the boat, but that won't be too much of a hindrance.

There is still a few days worth of food in the house, and nobody has come to the island since everyone arrived. There is a protected cabin on the boat where supplies can be stowed, and maybe fit some, probably 3-4, people for sleep. In about half an hour, the boat could be stocked and ready to go anywhere.

Walking around a bit on the island, Marshall begins to feel frustrated. At one point, he stands on the beach and yells: "Savior Gods," referring to the plaque on the lighthouse, "can you hear me? Sostratus, are you out there? Any Cnidians within listening range?" A little further down the beach, he finds more strange scratches in the sand, about a quarter mile south of the house, on the west edge of the island. These scratches resemble the ones that were found by the dock yesterday, and again lead into the water. As his eye follows the tracks into the water, he notices what appears to be a pouch of some sort, under the water, about 4-5 feet from the shore. Retrieving it, he finds that it is quite heavy, a couple pounds. Within the pouch are 30 gold coins that look like they could be from the 1600's. The coins are approximately an inch and a half in diameter. On one side of the coins is printed a person's face, a man with a beard, and on the other side are two pillar-like marks. Between the pillars are strange markings that look like a backwards "7" followed by a small, square dot . The pouch itself looks to be in good condition, probably not left in the water for very long.

This find, it is later determined, happened at about the same place where the ship went over the land. Investigating the scratches by the dock yields no similar find, for those who are curious. The scratches here do, however, look to be more recent than those near the dock.

Jeff sees the coins and says, "If indeed they are ghosts. Perhaps they are attracted to the coins... or something about the island. I would suggest getting out of here, and though it is my first impulse to take the coins I think we should consider that they may be looking for them."

As soon as Saif sees the marking on the coins he says "Well now, isn't that interesting. That backwards seven and the point is the number 20 in Arabic script. At least, it is on our world. That makes the person's face on the other side somewhat strange. In Islam it is forbidden to draw, paint, sculpt, or even mint something that has the image of something living on it - especially a person. Hum." He examines the coins to see if there is anything else Arabic or Arabic-like on them, but finds nothing.

Dana sees the coins. "Gold coins, eh? I wonder if that ghost ship dropped them or if it was looking for them... Maybe if we stayed another night, it might drop more (if that's what happened). That would be a nice little nest egg for this group of 'castaways' should we arrive in some civilized place where we could exchange for 'modern' currency." She grins.

After passing the coins around for a look and some speculation, Saif keeps one of them with him for study, and Brady tucks the rest of them away among his climbing gear.

Once the fog burns off, the weather becomes much nicer. There is a breeze blowing from east to west, and the water is calm.

Greg says, "If we decide to leave, we may want to bring some of the food. After all, there's no telling what we'll find. Maybe the Roanoke colony."

Saif looks around for some boxes or something (pillowcases would do in a pinch) to load all the food into for the boat. He also looks for any jars/bottles/buckets that can be filled with fresh water and makes sure those get loaded. He is able to find some wooden crates and something that looks like a wooden lobster trap, but a little small, all of which will hold things. There are several jars (for canning) that can probably be used for water. As far as carrying the jars, there are two crates that look like they come from milk delivery that will hold the jars nicely (8 in each). There are, in fact, pillowcases, if you would like to take those along just in case. Two buckets are found, one of which is pretty gross, as it was in the half-sunken boat (probably good for bailing should there come a need for that), and the other of which is actually pretty clean.

As he loads stuff up, he says "You know, we really should leave a note or something explaining what we have done and why. I'm sure if the owners ever come back here they are going to be rather shocked to see what we've done. I don't know if it would help or not, but perhaps we can try to explain to them that we were "marooned" here after... a white squall or something, and we had to use their things to survive. Perhaps we should leave a few of those gold coins as a type of recompense."

John says, "I definitely concur with this. You may or may not have noticed, but I have been trying not to take anything from the house (even though that's where I found myself when I first arrived). Yes, I read the book, but I put it back. I also have been working on the stray lumber with the idea that it was stray and didn't belong to whoever lives (or lived) here. To this point, I've been more concerned with getting back home than what everyone else was doing when I wasn't looking (so to speak), but if you all are set on taking things from here, we should at least attempt to leave something in return. The coins themselves are not rightfully ours either, so I'm not sure that would be ethical; still, I don't know what other recourse we have. We do need that boat and most likely the food as well. Are there any other suggestions?"

Brady says, "I believe we can write a note, and take what we want, leave some of the gold coins for them. That would pay for the stuff taken rather handily. Also, if possible, bring the boat back to them. If there was only two of them they might not have been able to get the boat out so we might have helped them with this it might also make them not completely hate us. I also know that if a bunch of people got stranded on my island I would rather have them take my stuff than die."

Brady and some of the others help get the boat packed. After the boat is readied, Saif says, "Ready to set sail whenever. Does anybody know much about tides? All I know is that we are supposed to set sail at high tide for whatever reason. I'd like to sail towards the land mass to the west. I do not want to sail east and under no circumstances should we sail out of sight of the coast."

Brady says, "I have had quite a bit of experience with small craft on an ocean, but not much with sailing crafts. Greg the Sailor can run the boat, and I will help judge the waters as best I can."

Dana says, "I suppose the safest direction to go sailing off is to the west, that coast being closest, but if a storm is building that direction, we could end up who-knows-where. Maybe the best thing to do is stay one more night then leave in the morning, high tide if possible, and hope there are no more storms heading our way. I personally am kinda curious about that ghost ship. I'd like to see if it shows up again. It's appearance could be linked to the tide or to the moon or time of night or any number of things. Hmmm.... I wonder if that's why the previous residents of this house left so quickly... if so, they must be rather superstitious folk and probably left as soon as they could. That being the case, the ship may have appeared the night before we arrived, as well. That would also explain the, now 2 sets of, marks in the sand."

"Whaddya guys think? Anyone else want to stay one more night and see what happens? Maybe we could get more clues out of the encounter this time if we are expecting it...."

Brady answers her. "I would agree that we should stay here another night and watch for the ghost ship, and while we are waiting, watch the tides and time them to get some idea what the cycle is, so we can leave when the tide reaches its peak. Also, we might want to try to land at the next place during high tide there, if we can."

Saif nods. "That makes sense. When the ship passes is might leave those marks behind. By staying another night we could be sure. I like your theory about why the people left too. It would get pretty eerie having a ship sail through your island every night. And we have seen that it may have some effect on the physical world, so it might be dangerous. I would like to stay one more night too."

Seeing that people are unsure what to do with the coins, Brady says, "As far as the coins go, we should keep them. If nobody wants to, I'll carry them."

From watching the water rise and fall in level, high tide is estimated to have occurred around 5:00 in the evening. Guessing by when the water was at its lowest point earlier in the day, it will probably be near 5:00 in the morning before high tide comes around again. Once this is determined, Dana says, "Oh, goody, another early morning. So does everyone want to leave then or wait until the high tide later in the day? I think an early start would be best considering we don't know what we'll be getting into on the other shore."

Earlier in the day, the weather was very nice, the temperatures warming up to around 75 degrees in the early afternoon. Some of you might even be tempted to take a swim! A short while after that, around 3:00 p.m., the clouds from the west rolled in and it began to rain lightly. As the rain hit the rocks of the jetty, steam rose up, giving the scene the look of an oil painting.

To the west, grey clouds are building. They could possibly mean rain later today, though you wouldn't expect any really severe weather.

"Guys, I hate to say this," Greg says looking at the rain clouds to the west, "if that storm makes it out here, and these are the equivalent of our North Carolina outer banks, that storm's going to jack itself right up. On the other hand, we should be able to sail to the shore to the north or west in only a couple hours."

Over the span of about an hour, the rain grew harder and the wind picked up until water was coming down in sheets, making it difficult to see very far. Thunder rumbled across the heavens and the sky would occasionally brighten with a flash of lightning. "I love a good thunderstorm," thinks Dana.

The swelling seas coupled with the storm threw water hard against the rocks of the jetty, sending water high into the air, sometimes reaching halfway up the lighthouse. Seeing this, Dana says, "Cool! I never lived near the ocean before so this is quite a nifty sight."

During the storm, the bell at the top of the lighthouse could be heard as the wind batted it back and forth. The rain continued for hours, stretching on into evening. By 6:00, the rain stopped, leaving puddles all over the island, the sky already darkening with the coming of night and the seemingly ever-present fog.

In the aftermath of the storm, pieces of debris and driftwood washed up on the eastern shore of the island. Examining the debris does not really determine anything as to its origin. There are pieces of wood apparently from local trees, though it is difficult to determine what kind of tree. The other effect of the storm is that the boat is mostly full of water, which is cleared up by bailing it out. The hull is still intact and the mast in place.

After the storm, Dana wandered the beach, looking for interesting driftwood or whatever catches her eye. She found two interesting pieces... the first is fat at one end, tapering down to a point at the other, overall almost two feet long. With a little imagination, you can see the form of a cat stretching out in a long post-nap stretch, feet straight out in front and together, back end slightly raised in the air. However, this is apparently a tail-less cat. :) The other looks like a young tree that had been taken out of the ground without its roots. It's about 4 1/2 feet long and straight, between an inch and an inch and a half in diameter (depending on where you check). This is one of several (maybe 4-5) that you see, but this one appeals to Dana. She brings the others back to the house, just in case.

Brady spends some time attempting to bless water. "Since I never had a point to, I never made holy water before, I don't know if I even can or what the point of it is, but I have hung out with pastors my WHOLE life and seen this occur before. It's not very difficult, basically ask God to bless this water for the use under his direction. Since I have also never seen ghosts, spirits or anything of the like I figure what the heck! It might work if they decide they would rather have our lives, worth a shot. The only thing I would be lacking here is the world's license to be a priest or preacher. God never cared about those licenses before and I don't think He does now."

Brady finds a bottle in the house, and goes to the artesian well and fills it up. Then, he begins to talk to it, or so it would seem. His eyes sometimes closed, sometimes open, you determine that he is praying. It is not a formal prayer, but who ever said prayers had to be formal? When he is done, you see him looking closely at the water to see if any of its properties were any different than they were before.

Noticing Brady's actions, John decides to whittle a cross out of some of the extra wood lying around. When he shows it to Brady, they decide it might be a good idea to ask for the cross to be blessed. At the actions of John and Brady, Marshall takes his shoestring and fashions a cross out of some driftwood.

Marshall, the seemingly curious one, pokes around the wiring of the lighthouse and the house trying to determine where the source of the electricity is. In his investigating, he does uncover a few bare wires, and recognizes the danger of them. He could have easily shorted out the lighthouse, and probably himself as well. After seeing the bare wires, he pokes around a little more carefully, and is able to determine only that the wires go into the sand. A little more searching later, outside the lighthouse, he notices a line that stretches along in the sand towards the beach east of the lighthouse. Following this line, he sees some large, dark shapes in the water ahead, perhaps 8-10 feet across. They seem to be where the wires are going. They are about 20 feet into the water, about the middle of where the surf is breaking.

After the storm, and some food, preparations are made for resting and keeping watch. The evening goes quietly, giving way to night. As seems to be usual around here, the fog rejoins the island once the sun drops low in the sky, making visibility drop to a bare minimum. Even the light of the lighthouse does not seem to help much. Time seems to pass slowly as the group sits around, chatting, waiting for any sign of the mysterious ghost ship. As the hour of 11:00 passes, time seems to have come to a stop. Everyone is quietly listening for any sign that the ship has returned. The fog outside swirls in a light breeze, but no sign of the ship is seen. The light of the lighthouse sweeps around continually, but no sign of the ship is seen. Some take the occasional look around, but no sign of the ship is seen. Everyone seems to be a little more on edge as they try to take in every detail of your surroundings... the creak of the floorboards as someone walks, the ocean waves all around you, the slight whistle through the window as the wind blows, the sound of the artesian well outside the house.

John is up in the lighthouse, waiting to get as good a look at this ghost ship from above as he can. Greg makes himself as comfortable as he can in the hammock. Dana curls up into the comfy chair again, saying something about taking the early morning watch again, if that's okay with everyone else. Brady, on the other hand, wants to stay on the ground so he can get a different view of the boat. Cassandra slips between the covers of the bed and is soon dreaming of stars and comets. Saif also gets himself to sleep early.

Continue to The Ship Returns