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This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
It wasn´t Kirk Lightbourne's time to die, but alone, 1,000 miles out in the Pacific, he came very close. It happened in November of 1995, Lightbourne, age 82, a sailor for 70 years, set out from San Diego, California, single-handing his 27-foot sloop, Cazador, bound for Hawaii and the South Pacific: then under sunny skies - but it would not stay that way.
Seven days into the voyage, following the Great Circle route to Hilo, the weather began to turn mean. Winds of 40-knots swept in; seas built quickly, Lightboune went forward to shorten sail. A rogue wave of great height and force struck the boat, sending Lightbourne overboard. The harness strapped on held him alongside the boat.
In the way that a miracle may happen, an airplane flying off course to avoid the sudden storm flew over Lightbourne's boat and heard the signal of an EPIRB. (Lightbourne must have flicked on the emergency switch of his personal device upon going overboard!) The plane radioed the Coast Guard, giving the Cazador's coordinates (location.) A fishing trawler, located within 10-miles of Lightbourne´s boat was notified and set course to find Lightbourne´s boat.
Lightbourne was found unconscious - wild seas sending him forcibly against the side of his boat. Two crewmen off the fishing trawler got Lightbourne back on board his boat, but were unable to give needed medical attention. USAF Pararescue, a team of four para-medic paratroopers were flown in a C-130 plane to over Lightboune's location - the Cazador was too far out for helicopter rescue. The medics jumped from a height of 2000-feet into raging seas to save Lightbourne's life. And did. Successfully. (On appearances on national and local TV programs. Lightboune praised and thanked the trawler´s crew and paramedics who saved his life.)
Lightbourne is a well-known piano tuner at Valley Theaters (Arizona), a former big-band trumpet player and an avid sailor. He has lived in the Scottsdale area for 33 years and is well known to local sailors and to over 1200 customers whose pianos he serviced.
It was raining, the morning that thirteen-year-old, runaway orphan Kyle Gissler stood on the overlook, twelve feet above the high tide marker of Tanner’s Lonely Creek. He was looking down upon work boats docked in slips along the boardwalk. Skipjacks, they were: sailing work boats used for oystering in the Chesapeake Bay.
An older man aboard one of the boats—oblivious to the rain—had Kyle’s attention: The old sailor was having trouble untangling tangled line. Kyle decided to offer help. He ran down the steps to the level of the boardwalk and hurried to the old sailor’s boat. “I can help,” he offered.
Kyle, the boy protagonist in this novel, ONCE A RIVER BOY, is first introduced to you, the reader, at age ten. The old sailor, Captain Benson, a drawbridge tender, has befriended Kyle from that age—having taught Kyle how to scull a small dory; how to sail a sailing skiff into the wind; and other arts of seamanship ... including the patience to untangle crab line...
The story spellbinds—adventure after adventure Kyle lives through as he matures into a tall, handsome adult. Though the story is primarily of adventure on water, there is also land-bound adventure—Kyle’s involvement with two determined women.
Rated G for a good read...
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