It wasn't easy...

Right after I jumped from "The Plank" to the hull of my boat, (almost exactly like Earthrace, only a dazzling blue and green paint job) I felt a remarkable sense of calm come over me.  There's a reason the word "freedom" begins with the word "free".  Freedom doesn't mean do whatever you want, of course, but any restrictions on freedom should be reasonable and not end up costing any sane person a large part of their sanity.  When freedom ends up costing too much it becomes costdom, and there's no room for costdom on this planet.  Wow, I just saw Carrie Fisher on a weight loss commercial.  Imagine that, Princess Leia turned into Jabba The Hutt.  Looks like she's making a solid effort at reversing the damage. 

Anyway, I digress.  the sun was setting as I roared off into the expanse of the seemingly boundless Pacific  ocean, waving that special finger at the evil Nazi Pests, (as they'll be referred to any time the unlikely event arises where I MUST refer to them).   I set the boat on auto cruise, and went up on deck for a cold beer and a shmoke.  I knew I'd see my friends aboard The Abyss again, but I felt kind of sad as I watched the ship get smaller and smaller behind me.  When it finally disappeared over the horizon, I went back inside and cooked a nice big bacon cheeseburger.  I throttled back to half so I'd run the shipping lanes in the daytime, and set the volume on the radar to maximum then I reclined the Captain's chair waaaaay back, and dozed off. 

I woke up to a sound I hadn't expected... and as my brain cleared, I recognized the alarm I was hearing not as the radar, but the sonar.  I also realized that based on the pitch, it was something massive, larger even than blue whales which I had passed close by before.  Then another alarm filled the cockpit... this time, the radar!  I flipped on the external floodlights and swerved the boat hard over to avoid whatever was directly in front of me.  I saw a huge towering column of writhing flesh, easily ten feet in diameter, and as I passed by, I saw the suckers... as big as sewer hole covers!  It was the Kraken!  Aaaaahhhhhhh!

To be continued...