Stone Barrington 06-11

help,” the Coast Guard operator said. “Good night, and have a good trip.” Then he was gone.
    “Now what?” Dino asked.
    “I’m not sure.”
    “Well, why don’t we just wait until morning and flag somebody down?”
    Stone pointed out the windshield. “See that?” he asked.
    “What, the bridge? Sure, I see it; you think I’m blind?”
    “We’re drifting down on it.”
    “So what? We hit it, we’ll stop. Isn’t that what we want?”
    “Dino, this is a two-hundred-and-twenty-two-foot yacht, and it weighs God knows how much. If we hit that bridge, either the yacht or the bridge is going to be very badly damaged, maybe both.”
    Dino blinked. “Well, do something, for chrissakes!”
    Stone pressed the button on the microphone again. “Any ship, any ship, this is the yacht Toscana , in need of assistance. Anybody read me?”
    Nothing. Silence.
    “It’s three o’clock in the morning,” Dino said. “What did you expect?”
    Then a voice came over the radio. “ Toscana, Toscana , this is Winddrifter . Do you read?”
    “ Winddrifter, Toscana. I read you loud and clear.”
    “What’s your problem?”
    “We’re adrift in the waterway with no power, and we need a tow, fast, to keep from hitting a bridge.”
    “Sorry, Toscana . I’m halfway to the Bahamas. Afraid I can’t be of any help. Good luck.”
    “You get the feeling we’re all alone?” Dino asked.
    “Well, shit, we’ve got to do something ,” Stone said.
    “I’m wide open to suggestions.”
    Stone looked outside the bridge and saw a large inflatable dinghy on deck. “There,” he said. “We’ve got to get that thing launched right now.”
    “You mean we’re going to abandon ship?” Dino asked.
    “No, no. Come on, follow me.” Stone opened the outside door and left the bridge. He ran forward to the dinghy, which appeared to be a good seventeen feet long. A big outboard motor was bolted to the stern. “Look, it’s already hooked up to the davit,” Stone said.
    “To the what?”
    “The davit, the cranelike thing.” Stone yanked a cover off a pedestal. “Here we go,” he said, switching on the electric motor. He tried the up switch, and the dinghy rose six inches, bringing its cradle with it. “Thank God it’s got its own power.” He set it back down on deck. “Quick, let’s get this thing unlashed.” He glanced at the bridge. It was beginning to look very large.
    Dino fumbled with the ties. “Got this side undone,” he said.
    “Mine, too,” Stone said. “Now, I’m going to get into the dinghy. You raise it higher than the rail, there, and use this joystick thing to swing it over the side. Then you push the down button.”
    “I’ve never operated anything like this before,” Dino said.
    “Think of it as a computer game.”
    “I can’t do those, either.”
    Stone hopped into the dinghy. “Okay, let’s go.”
    Dino started to work the controls. He raised the dinghy three feet off the deck.
    “Right, now use the joystick.”
    Dino did something, and the dinghy began to move sideways at an alarming rate. Stone nearly fell out. “Slowly!” he yelled.
    “I thought you were in a hurry,” Dino said.
    “Gently. Don’t throw me out of the dinghy.”
    Dino tried again, and this time the dinghy moved smoothly over the rail and hung, suspended, six or eight feet above the water.
    “Great, now with the down button.”
    Dino found the switch, and in a moment the dinghy was in the water. Stone unhooked the cable and was adrift. “Put the davit back in the same position we found it in,” he called to Dino.
    Dino followed Stone’s instructions. “Now what?” he called.
    A light breeze had sprung up, and Stone was drifting rapidly away from the yacht. “Find a long rope!” he yelled, “and go to the bow!”
    “Where?”
    “Up front to the pointed end.” Stone felt around the instrument panel for the ignition key and found it. He tried starting the engine. It turned over but didn’t start. He made his way to the stern of the dingy, found a gas tank with a fuel line leading to the engine, and pumped the attached rubber bulb a few times. Then he returned to the controls and tried again. The engine started.
    Stone put the thing in gear and headed for the bows of the yacht, which was now turning sideways. Then he glanced over his shoulder and found that, in the time it had taken to launch the dingy, they were nearly to the bridge. The yacht was about to hit not one, but two of the bridge’s