The huge Spanish noa de chine, Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, sailed from Manila, Philippines on August 28, 1698, bound for Acapulco, Mexico, a port on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Her cargo hold was bursting with wooden chests filled with bars of 24-carat gold, precious jewels, and hundreds of crates containing thousands of pieces of priceless Chinese porcelain. It was the largest treasure ever carried on a sailing vessel, and was accompanied by more than 700 men, women and children. She was never seen or heard from again. Almost 400 years later, the personal sailing journal of a 17-year-old Third Lieutenant serving aboard a British man-o-war is discovered in a nautical antiques store in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. It tells the story of the rescue of a Spanish castaway from a tiny coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean, and contains the final words of Capitan Don Emilio Bustamente de la Vega, the sole survivor of the Spanish noa. An encrypted message revealing the location of the noa's billion-dollar treasure is buried in Bustamente's prayer for absolution, and he prevails upon the young British lieutenant to see it conveyed to the Vatican in Rome. But fate intervenes, and the message is not delivered. Discovery of the sailing journal launches a frantic, globe-girdling recovery effort and alerts a deadly international consortium that includes Japanese Yakuza pirates who will stop at nothing to seize the treasure for themselves-and kill anyone who attempts to interfere. Former U.S. Marine Corps sniper, Jake Porter, and veteran of the first Gulf War in Iraq, is more than up to the challenge. He enlists the help of a Marine Corps intelligence officer to decrypt the hidden message in the sailing journal that reveals the location of the treasure-a tiny coral atoll in the cold north Pacific Ocean. He races to the island aboard his sailboat against a vicious, unseen enemy who is killing his friends in their search for the treasure's secret.
About the Author: Author Robbie Johnson is an ocean-going sailor, aircraft and helicopter pilot, SCUBA diver and sport parachutist. He gained his FAA Private Pilot's license at the age of 16, and his Commercial Pilot's license at the age of eighteen. He is licensed to fly both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters and worked as a crop-dusting pilot. He is a sport parachutist and was a member of the first Parachute Club of America's chapter in Florida. He has lived aboard ocean-going sailboats for the past thirty-five years, twenty of those years outside the United States, and presently makes his year 'round home aboard one of the most famous sailboats ever designed, a steel gaff-rigged Tahiti Ketch. Robbie earned his Bachelor's degree from Mercer University, Atlanta/Macon, GA, and his Master's degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills ((Los Angeles) graduating with highest academic distinction (Summa cum laude), and was elected to Phi Kappa Phi, our nation's oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Robbie has lived an adventurous life that includes being one of two principal divers who recovered four priceless bronze cannons from a depth of 120 feet off Terceira Island, Azores, for the Portuguese government. He was also a principal diver in an Oxford University-sponsored expedition to find the lead coffin of Sir Frances Drake, off Portobelo, Republic of Panama. Queen Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip, wished the expedition luck, but said he preferred to "let sleeping dogs lie."