Three young adventurers on a 76' schooner search for sunken treasure as they explore the uncharted waters of their own hearts.
When charter-boat skipper Jack O'Conner uncovers a clue to sunken pirate treasure, he sees it as the answer to his financial worries. All he needs now are the remaining clues held by Portia Pennington and Sandy Sequoia-two young women with as much at stake as he has. The three must learn to work together to sail their schooner through a hundred-year storm, in defiance of the pirate's curse, and recover his gold doubloons-a breeze compared to learning to trust each other and open up to love.—Michael Reed McLaughlin
When Jack O'Conner finds a gold piece of eight off the Florida Keys, he decides to go in search of the legendary hoard of Spanish doubloons sunk during the Hundred Year Storm of 1783, whose partial coordinates are etched upon four pieces of eight. He tracks down the two beautiful women who are in possession of the remaining coordinates -- Sandy Sequoia, who got her piece of eight from an ex-drug dealing boyfriend in Miami; and Portia Pennington, whose merchant tycoon grandfather died in the Hundred Year Storm of 1893 while searching for the pirate gold. Jack convinces the two girls to go in search of the infamous one-eyed pirate Jacques Une-Oeil's gold, and together the three young misfits sail the aqua marine waters of the Caribbean trying to lean to trust and love one another enough to be able to locate the illusive wet gold. Jack teaches the girls to sail and starts to fall in love with Sandy. All seems to be going well, until he discovers that she brought drugs onto his boat -- a kilo of cocaine that she has been using steadily since coming aboard. He dumps the coke overboard and while Sandy wrestles to overcome her new addiction, Jack starts to turn his attentions to Portia. After a series of secret romantic trysts, Portia and Sandy realize that Jack has seduced each of them separately and convinced each to reveal her island's name to him after gaining their confidence by revealing to them the name of the island on his own coin. Feeling betrayed and realizing that they no longer need Jack in order to sail the boat or find they gold, they maroon him on an island and go after the treasure themselves. Jack is rescued by a local fisherman but soon learns that the infamous Hundred-Year Storms has blown up again and is headed in the direction of the ancient shipwreck. He begs the skipper of the fishing boat to take him to the girls. They catch up with Sandy and Portia, and he is dropped off with the girls, who refuse to abandon the sailboat. Jack soon learns why -- they were able to recover the gold, and it is still in the dinghy that is tied to the back of their schooner. The problem is, the inflatable dinghy sank, and although the gold is still trapped in its hold, the deflated boat is acting like a sea anchor and preventing them from sailing. Jack tells Portia and Sandy about Tamara -- the approaching hurricane -- and says that they must choose between greed and survival if they want to outrun the storm; the only way they can hope to do so, is if they cut the dinghy loose and sail out of the path of the approaching Hundred Year Storm. Everyone reluctantly agrees to cut the dinghy loose and make a run for their lives. Although giant waves and the hurricane-force winds threaten to sink their schooner several times, they manage to avoid the brunt of the storm. Adrift in the dead calm after the terrible blow, the three weary shipmates are rescued by Jack's buddy, Cap'n Billau, who knows about the treasure and was responsible for convincing Jack to go in search of the gold in the first place. When Jack tells Billau that they had to abandon the gold to outrun the storm, their "rescuer" turns into their enemy when they refuse to turn the doubloons over to him. Jack and Billau fight. They struggle over the flair gun Billau has threatened them with and the treacherous Billau is killed. As the girls return to Miami to start a new life together, Jack goes back for the gold, (which he secretly recorded the coordinates of before cutting the dinghy loose). When he has the treasure in hand, Jack realizes that it is worthless to him without the two women he fell in love with while searching for it. To prove his love to the women he earlier betrayed, Jack sends them the gold they believed was lost forever. All is forgiven and the three sail off into the sunset together.—Michael Reed McLaughlin
When charter-boat skipper Jack OConner finds a gold piece of eight off the Florida Keys, he decides to go in search of a legendary hoard of Spanish doubloons sunk during the Hundred Years Storm of 1783. For, as Jacks friend Capn Billau reveals, the coin bears a clue to the treasures whereabouts one of four islands etched by the infamous pirate, Jacques Un-Oeil upon the original doubloon. At Billaus urging, Jack tracks down the two beautiful women who unknowingly hold the remaining clues.
Streetwise Sandy Sequoias piece of eight came from her murdered drug dealer boyfriend in Miami. And lonely-heart Portia Pennington inherited her coin from her merchant tycoon grandfather, who died at sea in the Hundred Years Storm of 1893, while hunting for the lost gold.
Jack convinces the girls to go in search of the pirate treasure with him. But first, the two must learn to crew his 76' schooner; and then, all three adventurers must learn to trust one another, if they expect to navigate the treacheries of love and the unpredictable Caribbean.
As Jack introduces the girls to life at sea, he starts to fall in love with Sandy. All seems to be going well, until Jack discovers Sandy with drugs on his boat a kilo of her dead boyfriends cocaine (which she has steadily been using since coming aboard). He has Portia dump the coke overboard; and while Sandy wrestles to overcome her addiction, Jack turns his attentions to Portia.
When Sandy and Portia realize that Jack has seduced each of them in turn and convinced each to reveal to him the name of the island on her coin, they turn on him. Feeling betrayed and realizing that they no longer need Jack in order to sail the boat or find they gold, they maroon him on a small island and go after the sunken treasure themselves.
Jack is rescued by a local fisherman whose radio alerts him of Hurricane Andrew. The building gale is expected to be an infamous once-in-a-hundred-years storm. And it is headed straight toward the girls. Jack and the fisherman catch up with Sandy and Portia. But they refuse to abandon their sailboat, so Jack joins them. He soon learns why the girls were able to recover the gold, and it is still in the inflatable dinghy tied to the stern of the schooner. The problem is, the dinghy has sunk, with the gold still in it; and it is preventing them from sailing anywhere.
Jack tells Portia and Sandy about Hurricane Andrew and insists they must choose reason over greed, if they want to outrun the storm. The only way they can hope to survive, is to cut the dinghy loose and sail out of the path of the approaching storm. They reluctantly agree to cut the priceless dinghy loose and run with the wind for their lives.
Sailing out of the path of the Hundred Years Storm and its deadly winds and waves, Jack and the girls manage to avoid the brunt of Andrews wrath.
Adrift in a dead calm after the terrible blow, the three weary shipmates are rescued by Jacks old buddy, Capn Billau. But their rescuer turns into their enemy when he demands, at gunpoint, that Jack turn over the gold. Jack tells Billau that they abandoned the treasure in order to outrun the storm. But Billau doesnt believe him. They struggle over a flair gun, and the treacherous Billau is killed.
Portia and Sandy move to South Beach to start a new life together, believing the gold, and Jack, to be lost from their lives forever. But Jack had secretly marked the golds location on a military GPS, and he goes back for the treasure on his own. But with the hard-won pirate hoard finally in hand, Jack realizes that it is worthless to him without the two women he fell in love with while searching for it.
To prove his love to the women he earlier betrayed, Jack surprises them with a gift of the gold they had thought was once more lost to the sea. The three sail off into the sunset together wealthier, a little wiser, and with a chance, perhaps, for happiness together.
