GILLIGAN'S ISLAND
OR
How We Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Island
PROLOGUE
Call Me Ishmael
Except From The Log Of The M.V. Minnow
September 26, 1964
Departed port of Hilo at 1000 hours with five passengers and two crew members, bound for Kailua Kona where passengers will disembark after a three hour tour. Making 10 knots, wind from the northeast at two knots, light chop, weather fine, but with low clouds on the northeastern horizon. ETA 1300 hrs.
Jonas Grumby, Master M.V. Minnow
The skipper of the forty foot excursion boat M.V. (Motor Vessel) Minnow, Jonas Grumby, retired Senior Chief Petty Officer and late Boatswain of the U.S.S. Short Splice (AK 249), stood by the helm sighing to himself as he watched his first mate and only crew member, Gilligan, getting tangled up in the anchor line... again, as he tried to cast off the bow line. They'd five passengers this trip, about as good a haul as usual, though sometimes they had eight or ten. But what the hell, it was off season and it was enough to pay the bills, plus a bit more. Fortunately the passengers were aft under the canopy, watching a cruse liner clear the harbor, so didn't see Gilligan unhook the anchor line to untangle himself, then leave it to cast off the stern line. As it turned out, neither had Grumby, because at that moment he turned away to check that the stern was clear of the boat tied up aft of them.
While the weather appeared fine, Grumby was somewhat uneasy that he hadn't had time to check the weather report, what with Gilligan forgetting to load the extra food and water for the trip and having to do it himself. But what the hell, it was only three hours after all, what could happen?
Off KΔhilipali point, an hour and a half into the voyage, the low clouds Grumby noted as the Minnow cleared the harbor rapidly overtook the little boat. The two knot breeze from the northeast freshened to more than forty knots, then within five minutes the seas increased from a light chop to over fifteen feet. In minutes the little boat was driven out of sight of land and out into the wide Pacific, drifting to the southwest.
For three mortal days Grumby and Gilligan fought to save their boat and passengers from the raging sea. Grumby had managed to rig a sea anchor, a jury-rigged second one actually, as Gilligan had deployed the first one without tying it off. So at least now they were in less danger of being swamped by the towering seas, plus were able to conserve what fuel they had as the sea anchor kept the bow of the boat pointed into the waves without having to use the engine. Grumby used all of his considerable knowledge gained from a lifetime spent at sea to keep the boat afloat and everyone alive, though hardly comfortable. At dawn of the second day the wind veered to the north northeast and increased to fifty knots, causing their drift to change from southwest to generally south, deep into the open Pacific.
* * *
Sometime after dawn of the third day I slowly swam up to consciousness and found myself laying in the cockpit of the Minnow, and to a massive headache. In fact I ached allover; not surprising considering the beating the storm had given me, given all of us. I made it to my feet, swaying gently, and looked about groggily, then bellowed. "Gilligan!" I immediately regretted this as I clutched my head at the pain. No answer. Fuck, I thought, I should have at least had the fun of getting drunk to feel this bad.
I looked sharply around, finally noticing the lack of movement.
Damn! I thought. We're aground. Lifting my bleary gaze I saw that to the southwest there appeared to be a green hill or small mountain, rising from a small palm and brush covered, roughly triangular plane. Over the tops of the trees and tall coconut palms I could just see two shallow valleys meeting at the apex of the plane, maybe a quarter mile from the beach. To the north, west, and south there was ocean, as far as the eye could see.
About a hundred or so yards off the beach we were grounded on was a low coral reef, inclosing a calm, shallow looking lagoon. It appeared to be low tide as there was several feet of reef sticking above the water, though the storm swell was still breaking on the ocean side of the reef. Enough of the swell was getting through the reef so that two foot waves were rolling up the white sand beach the Minnow was on, but not reaching the beached boat. From my vantage point I couldn't see a passage through it anywhere, which gave rise to a horrible suspicion. I undogged the hatch to the hold as quickly as I could; heaving the hatch aside I dropped into the engine compartment with a grunt. And found myself standing on oil covered sand. The Minnow no longer had a bottom. Hell, it looked as if the keel, along with about a foot or so of hull had been planed off when we were driven over the reef. It was also glaringly obvious that we no longer had an engine, shaft, or propeller, all of which appeared to have dropped out when the bottom was removed. To make things perfect the fuel tank was ruptured and empty, all and all we were well and truly fucked.
Well, I thought philosophically as I grunted and heaved my way out of the hold, at least we didn't sink, that was the most important thought to hold onto, especially when I break it to the passengers. Now, where the hell is Gilligan?
CHAPTER 1
A New Beginning