Agatha and Frank's Story: Stranded on Rosland Island

By Jolynn Rose

It was decided by the family, that we would publish Agatha's journals, in the order she had written them. It includes some of the stories from the other books already published. This one is about all the adventures and discoveries Agatha and Frank had discovered on the island. The Rosland Island was once a mountain range connected to a main land

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Jul 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887644554

Jolynn Rose

Jolynn Rose has lived in Oregon in her younger years. Then she joined the army, where she met her husband. They moved a lot during her husband's career, with their two sons. After his retirement, they moved back to Oregon, where they live now. At sixty years old, she discovered she enjoyed writing; she got together with her mother, who was eighty at the time, and wrote the first four books about Merbeings. They enjoyed the time they spent together and came up with a great story.

Book preview

Chapter 1

It is hard to believe we are finally going to sail around the islands and live in our sailboat for the next two years. I’ve started this journal; I want to keep track of everything we see and do. I don’t want to forget anything. This has been a dream of Frank and mine for most our married life. We have traveled a lot, due to Frank’s career in the army. It was wonderful; we saw so many wonderful things, and our children learned a lot about the history of our planet. It doesn’t hurt having a mom for a history teacher. We lived in Germany for a while, so we traveled all around Europe.

Frank had just retired from the army, and I have been retired from being a history teacher for about a year now. Our plan was to travel around the islands in the South Pacific before we got too old. We were both in our fifties and still in great shape. Our children really weren’t too happy about us taking this adventure, but they couldn’t stop us. Our plan was to travel from island to island for about two years. We told the kids that we would call them every so often to let them know that we are okay.

Anyway, it was a wonderful day; the weather couldn’t have been any better. We had been out for a couple of days; we had been island hopping and saw all kinds of sea life on and off the island, and the water was so calm and beautiful. We have done this many times, but this time, it felt different, because we would not be going home for two years. We felt so free!

After everyone said their goodbyes, we headed out to our first island, St. John Island. The plan was to go up the coastline and then just go wherever the wind blows us. Knowing Frank, there will be a lot of planning around that.

We decided to go more east because the weather was starting to look bad. I wanted to go back to the last island we were on, but Frank said, We could outrun the storm.

Guess who was right! As we turned east, the wind picked up, and we were really flying; the boat was going back and forth, flying through the air, and when we landed on the water, everything went dark for me. I guess I was knocked out. Frank told me, The mainsail hit me in the back and knocked me off my feet.

The next thing I knew, the boat was going every which way again. As the wind was blowing us all around, we hung on for our lives. Frank yelled, The boat is going to hit the rocks, hang on.

As the storm continued to push us, we hit the rocks with force, and the boat flew into the air and crashed on to the rocks. Then all of a sudden, the storm disappeared as fast as it had started; it was like the storm was determined to destroy us. But the boat was hung up on a pile of rocks; it was more like a miniature island.

As the weather cleared, we could see a bigger island in the distance. We decided that we needed to make our way to that island. Frank started pulling the dinghy into the water, getting it ready to be loaded up with our supplies—well, as much as we could fit into the dinghy. We didn’t know how long the boat would stay afloat; we took as much of the supplies as we could.

We headed for the island; as we paddled, we discovered that it was farther than we thought. After hours of paddling and spending the night fighting the storm, we were exhausted. But we continued to paddle, and we didn’t think we’d ever get there.

We started seeing things, so we thought, because we were really exhausted. Frank told me to look over there.

Do you see it? There is someone out in the water, he asked again. Do you see it?

I didn’t see anything at first, but then I saw a person and we started yelling at them. We couldn’t understand why anyone would be out that far, but we didn’t care. We didn’t care why they were out there; we were hoping we would be rescued. There was no response from the person; we thought we were just imagining things, because they did not reply and they disappeared.

Then something started hitting the bottom of the dinghy; it was really weird, because it seems like it was helping us move closer to the island. As it continued to bump our dinghy, we tried to look under the dinghy to see what was doing it. We couldn’t see anything! We were afraid that it was sharks hitting the dinghy, but as long as they continued to move us toward the island, we were happy.

We finally made it to the shore; we got off the dinghy, and once we hit the beach, we collapsed to the ground, we were so happy to be on land. We tried to get our land legs back. As we sat on the beach, I looked at Frank and asked, What the hell happened? What are we going to do?

Frank just looked at me and said, We’ll figure it out, we will be okay.

The first thing we did was pull the dinghy out of the water and started emptying the little bit of supplies we had loaded into the dinghy. Frank went to get wood and look around a little bit to see if there was any type of life. He told me to do an inventory of what we had, so we knew what we would need to survive.

After I did the inventory and Frank got back from his walk, we both decided to walk in different directions for twenty minutes and see if we could find anything or anyone. There wasn’t much to find, then it hit me. I couldn’t believe that we were stranded on an island; I just sat down and started to cry. Frank sat down next to me and patted me on the back and said, We will be okay, and we’re here together, and that’s all that counts and we’re safe.

With Frank being retired army, he took action! I just sat there wondering what to do; looking out at our boat on the rocks, it was so far away. The next thing I hear was Frank yelling to get up and help him. After spending thirty years with this man, I knew I couldn’t have been with a better person. It’s funny the first thing that came to my mind was, if you were stranded on a deserted island, who would you want to be with? Now I know!

The first day we worked on getting our shelter up, we decide to build it by the tree line. Once we had the shelter built, we moved our supplies to the shelter. We did find a stream of fresh water coming out of the woods; we set up our shelter there. We weren’t sure how long the water would last, so we always kept our eyes out for more fresh water. Frank was upset that I wanted to bring my paper and pens with us, along with all of the other supplies; I told him I was going to write about our adventures no matter what. I guess it’s the historian in me!

We had spent a lot of the day just looking around, trying to find some kind of life and water for ourselves. We had no clue how long we would be here or what will happen to us. After searching part of the island, we found bananas and coconuts and other fruits. We didn’t want to get to far from our boat just in case someone came by. We weren’t sure what the other fruit was, but Frank said, What the hell, it’s better than nothing.

We also had our fishing poles; we figured we had food for now. As the first day came to a close on the island, all I could wonder was What was going to happen to us? How are we going to survive? Will they ever find us? as I floated off to sleep.

It was funny how fast the night went; we were looking up at the stars, and we could hear something off in the distance, but we couldn’t figure out what it was. It sounded like whale calls, but not really; we had heard sounds on the ocean during our travels, but nothing like that.

Chapter 2

The next couple of weeks, we were exploring the island; we piled wood up for a rescue fire just in case we saw a ship. We had no clue where we were, because the storm blew us all over the ocean. Well, it felt like it anyway. We explored some of the island; we didn’t want to get too far away from our camp. It seemed like no one had ever been here. One of the things we did every day was search the beach for any new debris that we could use and the other junk we would pile up, either to burn or strip for later use. One of my tasks was to mark the tree for every day that we have been here. When we started on the third tree, we decided it was time to check out more of the island. It didn’t look like we were going to be rescued anytime soon. We haven’t seen a ship or a plane the whole time we have been stranded here. So we knew we weren’t too close to any civilization.

We figured we would be out overnight, so we packed some food and supplies for the trip. The island was bigger than we thought; as we walked around the bend, all you could see was more beaches. It just kept going. We looked out to sea and saw a storm coming in; we headed to the tree line for safety. Frank and I found a good place to hang our tarp and set up the camp for the night. We had the tarp hanging down on the beach side to protect us from the wind coming from the ocean. We took some branches from the trees and made our bed. Frank and I were in good shape when we first started our adventure, but now we were even in better shape. Frank had decided to grow a beard and let his hair grow long, and now he is a tall drink of water! I let my hair grow long too and lost the weight that I wanted to before we left on our trip; I don’t think I’m looking too bad either, at five foot eight. I also think I’m a tall drink of water, even if I say so myself.

The storm was bigger than the one that had landed us here. So as we sat under cover watching the storm come in, we were glad we had brought the tarp with us and other supplies. We didn’t get much sleep that night; the wind and rain were hard and strong. It was a driving rain; it lasted all night long. In the morning, the sun was out and another beautiful day at the beach. At least being stranded on this island most of the time, it was beautiful here.

As we looked down on the beach, there was all kinds of debris; we thought we hit the jackpot, since there was so much debris everywhere. We were hoping that it was stuff that we could use. As we started looking and picking up things, we noticed that things looked familiar. Then Frank yelled, This is our boat, look at this!

It was a piece of the boat, which had our boat’s name on it, Big Dream. My heart just dropped, as he held up the wood, then we looked over toward the rock that had held our boat all these weeks, and it was gone.

We started looking through the debris to see what came ashore from our boat. As we were walking along, I saw something move. I yelled at Frank and pointed at the pile of seaweeds and netting that was in front of me. I told him I saw something moving. So he picked up a piece of wood for a club, and we walked toward it, thinking it may be a seal, turtle, or some other sea creature that had gotten tied up in the seaweed. When we heard it making a weird noise, it stopped us in our tracks.

Whatever it was, it started moving and making more noises. It sounded like it was hurt or scared. We walked slowly up to the pile, and that’s when we saw it; it looked like a human face, a face of a boy. As we looked at the pile, we didn’t see any other part of him, but it looked like a fish had tried to eat him because there was a fish tail at the end of the pile. It screamed again, and we jumped back. You could tell it was scared, so Frank handed me the club and said, Stay back, and keep an eye on it.

As he reached down, the thing started screaming and tried to get away. But it was all tangled up in the seaweed and netting. Frank started talking to it, and it started settling down like it understood what he was saying. As Frank walked over to it, he pulled out his knife and then it started getting upset again, but Frank just kept talking to it. Frank started cutting the seaweed and netting away; as he was cutting it away, we could see it wasn’t a fish, it was part of the boy in the seaweed. To our shock, it was a mermaid, the upper part looked like a teenage boy. So I guess it was a merboy!

As Frank cut the merboy loose, he started flipping his tail, trying to get away, back into the water. But the boy was too far up on the beach. Frank told him that he could help him by taking my arms and showing him what he wanted to do. Frank put his arms under my armpit and pulled me backward. The boy seemed to understand us; he nodded his head like he had acknowledged us, and it was okay to do. Frank was a little scared, but he did it anyway. Frank dragged the boy to the water’s edge. Once the boy was in the water, he took off, then we saw him about twenty-five feet out in the water. Then we heard the same sound we heard the first night and many nights since we’ve been on the island.

After we set the boy free, we just looked at each other. Frank asked me, Was that what I think it was?

I said, What did you think it was?

He said, A mermaid.

I think so too, but it was a male mermaid. It didn’t have any tits. It looked like a young boy to me, but with a tail. He didn’t have any hair on his head either, I told Frank.

He looked so scared, but he acted like he understood what you were saying to him.

As we looked out to the sea, wondering what the hell just happened, we just shook our heads and started picking up the things we wanted to keep for our debris pile for the day. We kept looking at each other, wondering did that really happen. Were we going crazy being stranded on this island for all this time? Frank said, No, it couldn’t be that because we both saw it at the same time, and he had touched the boy, so he knew it was real. He could always read my mind; I guess that was what happened when you have been married as long as we have. In the next weeks, we did our cleanup on the beach; every time we saw a pile of seaweed, we hoped maybe it was another mermaid. I think mostly to confirm what happened earlier.

I started a journal when we first started our adventure, I didn’t think I would have so much to write about here on this island. It’s a good thing I planned on a long trip. We still hear the strange sounds at night; we think it is the mermaids talking to each other. Every once in a while, we think we see the young boy watching us. We wave at him, but he doesn’t wave back and dives quickly back into the sea.

Chapter 3

It has now been six months, and there have been no signs of a boat, ship, or even a plane. We felt like we were all alone in the world. Frank and I decided it was time to explore the island some more. We tried to stay close to where the boat had crashed, but now it was gone. There really wasn’t any point in staying here. Frank hung the boat’s name on a tree and added, Frank and Agatha were here! just in case someone found the island and was looking for us.

We packed up as much as we could, and Frank made a storage area, which was a big hole, covered with tree branches and logs; he did this to keep what we left behind safe and protected from the weather, just in case we came back. Until we know how big the island was and what else was on it, we need to keep our options open. It’s the military way: always have a plan, A, B, or C. You never know what will happen or what you will need.

As we moved down the beach, we felt like someone was watching us. But we didn’t see anything on land or in the sea. It felt like we walked for days, because