MacMillan Wharf

MacMillan Wharf: Chapter Twenty

MacMillan Wharf: Chapter Twenty

“That’s it Annie, you’ve got it, now cut the line!” Bruce shouted excitedly.

Annie reached out with a sharp serrated blade and quickly cut through the black polyethelene ropes that were wrapped around the whale’s mouth. She was inches away from the enormous eye of the finback. By the look of the whale’s eye, Annie swore it understood what she was trying to do.

“OK, just one more of these damn ropes. Stay calm now,” Annie muttered to reassure both herself and the whale.

“You’re doing great, Annie. Once you cut this one free, you’ll release the pressure on the left blowhole. You’ll have to pull the rope away from the infected area. That might make her a little jumpy.”

“Jumpy?” She hated Bruce’s euphemisms.

“It’s kind of like pulling off a bandage that’s stuck to a wound.  She won’t like it much, but once it’s done she’ll be able to breathe a lot better.”

“OK, here we go.” Annie cut the rope near where it hung into the water. She grabbed hold of the loose line and, with a snap, pulled it free from the whale’s blowhole.

The whale immediately exhaled through the top of its head, spraying Annie with a fine mist that smelled like rotting flesh. She looked at her arms and saw droplets of blood splattered on her bare skin, like a Jackson Pollock painting. Gagging, she sat down on the wooden bench seat of the Zodiac.

“Welcome to the club!” Bruce said, laughing. “You’ve been baptized!”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Annie groaned. “I think I’m going to be sick,” Annie groaned.

“Well, don’t take too long to catch your breath. There’s still gear caught around the right fluke.”
“OK, give me a minute.” Annie fought the urge to vomit over the side of the boat. She didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of Bruce and Juicy, plus she felt that it would be disrespectful to the whale.

Bruce maneuvered the small inflatable to the opposite side of the whale. Juicy followed them in the main rescue boat, to watch for their safety and to capture all of the proceedings on videotape. Tapes and DVDs of whale rescues were big sellers at the Whale Center Gift Shop.

“You ready, Annie?” Bruce yelled.

“Yeah, I’m fine. What do we need to do now?”
“We need to slow her down so that we can cut the gear off of that flipper.” Bruce pointed to a trailing wake caused by ropes wrapped around the right pectoral fin. “If we’re lucky, this will go quickly and she’ll be on her way.”

“And if we’re not?” Annie asked.

“We can track her for days with the satellite buoy that we attached earlier. We’ll just keep trying. Get the parachute ready.”

Annie lifted the ball of rope and nylon fabric from the bow of the Zodiac and prepared to attach it to one of the ropes dragging from the whale’s flipper. Grasping a boat hook in her other hand, she reached out and snagged a piece of rope from the water.

It’s black poly rope, just like I’ve seen Shane using on his lobster traps, she thought. Why didn’t he just spend the money and buy the new sinking line? The Whale Center even subsidized half the cost. I’ll have to lean on him when I get back to shore.

“Come on Annie. Attach the chute before she tries to dive again,” Bruce barked from the stern of the Zodiac.

Annie was startled back to the tasks at hand. “OK, it’s on.”

“Let it go!”
Annie splashed the parachute into the water. The effect on the whale’s forward motion was immediate. In a response to danger, the finback tried to make a deep dive, but the large floats that had been attached made this impossible. Bruce sensed that the animal was getting anxious about not being able to move freely. He shifted the outboard motor into reverse and began to back away from the whale.

“Look out!” Juicy shouted to them from the rescue boat. Annie turned around just in time to see the massive tail fluke come completely out of the water and splash back down with tremendous force, just missing the side of the Zodiac by a few feet. She held on tight to the seat while the lightweight boat rolled up on it’s side.

“Whoa. That was close!” She said turning to Bruce, but he was not in the boat. “Bruce! Bruce!” Annie shouted as she scrambled to the stern. Annie thought for sure that they would capsize. Even though it was late August, the water temperature was only just above sixty degrees, not life-threatening cold, but uncomfortable none the less. When the boat came down without overturning, Annie heaved a sigh of relief.

“Whoa. That was close!” She said turning to Bruce, but he was not in the boat. “Bruce! Bruce!” Annie shouted as she scrambled to the stern.

“He’s right there behind you!” Juicy yelled.

Annie saw him in the water, his life preserver keeping him afloat.

“Sonafabitch!” Bruce yelled while holding his right shoulder.

“Are you all right?” Annie and Juicy asked in chorus.

“I think I dislocated my shoulder. Oh, man, it hurts.”

“Here, take my hand.” Annie reached over the side of the inflatable to Bruce’s good arm. He grabbed hold of her with his left arm, as his right dangled in the water. She pulled him towards the boat until he could hold onto the side by himself.

“Pull me up” Bruce groaned.

“I’ll try. We’ve got to get you out of the water somehow.”

“Damn right. It’s freezing.”
“Try to pull yourself up with your good arm, and I’ll grab the back of your lifevest and get the rest of you on board. On the count of three, ready? One, two, three!”

Bruce screamed in pain as Annie lifted with all of her 110 pounds of strength. She fell backwards on the seat as Bruce swung his legs into the Zodiac.

“Are you OK?” Annie asked.

“I think so, as long as it’s not broken.”

“You OK, mon?” Juicy said while he brought the rescue boat along side the Zodiac.

“Yeah, Juice, but I’m going to need your help.”

“Whatever you need, mon.”

“OK, first help me get on board.” Bruce stood up and extended his left hand to Juicy. He winced in pain as he stepped up onto the deck of the rescue boat. “Help Annie aboard, then tie up the Zodiac.”

Juicy turned to help Annie, but she was already pulling herself up onto the deck with the bowline from the inflatable in her hand. She bent over and fastened the line around a deck cleat using figure 8 knots, just like Billy Sousa showed her on the Explorer.

“Juicy, I need you to pop my shoulder back into place.”

“You’re kidding, right mon? I’m no doctor.”

“I’m not kidding. We’re twenty-five miles out to sea. It will take hours to get back, then get to a hospital. It’s got to be done, now.”

“Mon, I don’t know how to do that.”

“I know how,” Annie said.

“You do?” Bruce looked at her with a mix of puzzlement and relief.

“When I was hiking Mount Katadhin in Maine with some friends last year, one of them slipped off the Knife Edge trail and dislocated her shoulder when she hit a rock. There was nowhere to go, so I helped her put it back into the socket. It’s going to hurt, though.”

“It can’t be much worse than it hurts now.  Let’s do it,” Bruce said calmly.

“OK. Have a seat. Juicy, find some dry clothes and something we can use for a sling, like a towel or a T-shirt.”

“Right.” Juicy disappeared into the cuddy cabin.

“Annie, you’ve done a great job today, especially with everything else that’s going on. Thanks.”

“Thanks for believing in me.” Annie wrapped one arm around his chest and held Bruce’s limp arm in her other hand. With an upward, twisting motion, she repositioned the shoulder until she could both feel and hear the ball joint click into its socket.
Bruce screamed and started to shake. Annie wasn’t sure if it was from the cold, wet clothing, or if he was going into shock from the pain. Either way, she knew from the first aid course she took in high school that he needed to get warm.

“Juicy, we need to get these wet clothes off him. You take his pants, I’ll cut the shirt off. Bruce, how’re you doing?”

“It actually feels better. I can take my own clothes off, just help me out of the life jacket.”
Annie undid the three plastic buckles and slid the wet vest off of him.

Bruce looked around and said, “Hey, where’s the whale?”

Annie had nearly forgotten about what led them there in the first place. “She’s gone. But look, there’s the parachute, and there’s all the rope. Oh my God, she’s free!”

Bruce slapped her on the back with his good arm, “You did it, Annie. You just saved a whale’s life. It feels good, doesn’t it?”

One hundred yards away from the boat, they saw the finback rise to the surface and exhale before diving deep and free for the first time in months.

Annie stared across the water and said in a whisper, “It does. It sure does.”

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