Hurricane (15 page)

“
Then we can head on to Grenada?” Julie said.

“
I still don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said. “Trinidad is the only place south of Antigua that can haul you out. Those rags aren’t going to keep the water out for very long. We should head back.”

“
How far is Antigua?” Meiko asked.

“
About four hundred miles north,” Victor said. “Seven days if we sail by day and anchor at night.”

“
Where would we stop?” Julie asked.

“
Grenada, then the Grenadines, Rodney Bay in St. Lucia, then Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe and finally Antigua. It’s a long time to count on those rags.”

“
I shoved them up in there good. We’ll be okay,” Julie said. “I want to go for it.”

“
You’re the captain,” Victor said, then added, “If you don’t mind I’ll take the first watch. Meiko can spell me and you can get some sleep. You’ve earned it.”

“
How long are the watches?” Meiko asked.

“
Two hours should be about right,” Victor said, and Julie thought that he was making an awful lot of decisions, but it was clear to her that even though she was the captain, she was going to have to rely on him a lot, at least until she knew what she was doing.

“
I’m not the least tired,” Meiko said, “so I think I’ll stay on deck if that’s okay.”

“
Fine with me,” Victor said.

“
Make sure you clip on,” Julie said.

“
I’m clipped on now,” Meiko said and she lifted up her tether, showing Julie that it was both clipped to her inflatable life vest and the binnacle. If she fell overboard she’d be tied to the boat.

“
Okay,” Julie said, and she went below and lay down in the salon. She heard Victor and Meiko talking and laughing as she drifted off to sleep. She slept poorly, waking often, and always she heard the two above. They seemed to talk the night away and finally, after what seemed an endless time, Julie fell into a deep sleep.

“
Your watch in fifteen minutes, Mom,” Meiko said, gently shaking her awake. “We let you sleep an extra two hours.”

“
Okay, I’m awake.” She sat up and stretched her arms above her head. It seemed like she’d only been asleep for a few seconds, but if she’d had an extra two hours that meant that six hours had gone by.

“
You’re gonna love it up there,” her daughter said. “Not a cloud in the sky. The water’s almost flat and the wind is perfect. A gentle beam reach.”

“
You’re learning the lingo,” Julie said, on her way to the thermos in the galley.

“
Victor’s teaching me. There’s really a lot to this stuff. You can’t just get in a boat and sail away.”

“
Don’t I know it,” Julie said, sipping at her coffee.

“
Bring it up with you,” Meiko said, and Julie followed her up to the cockpit and gasped. Meiko was right. She gazed above, she’d never seen anything to rival it. No city lights to pollute the night. The stars wrapped around the sky and she felt like she was in a fairytale.

“
If only your father could have been here with us,” Julie said, and Meiko moved close to her and squeezed her hand.

“
He’s watching over us. I know he is,” Meiko said. “We’re going to get to Grenada by morning and the next day we’ll be somewhere else, even farther away from Trinidad. Dad won’t let anything happen to us. I really believe that.”

“
I do too, honey,” she said, and she wondered if she’d ever learn to live with the ache in her heart.

“
All right,” Victor said. “Everything is all set. The wind is out of the southeast, and the current is with us. The self steering gear is set. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy yourself.”

“
I can do that,” Julie said, “but what if the wind direction changes?”

“
It won’t, but don’t worry, I only take catnaps at sea. I’ll pop up every fifteen minutes or so and see how you’re doing.”

“
Great,” Julie said, and that’s the way she felt. She took a deep breath of the ocean air and held it, Victor was on his way below before she let it out. “You can get some rest, too,” Julie said, “I’ll be okay.”

“
I’ll have a cup of coffee with you, before I go to sleep,” Meiko said, and she went below, returning with the thermos and a cup for herself.

The two women drank the hot coffee under the stars, and enjoyed the quiet evening as the boat sliced through the calm sea.

“
Victor’s asleep on the starboard settee,” Meiko said, “and he looks like he’s sleeping pretty solid. I don’t think he’s going to be popping up every fifteen minutes.”

“
That’s okay,” Julie said. “I’ll be fine. You go below and get some rest.”

“
Sure?”

“
Yeah, honey, I’m sure.”

“
Okay, Mom, but you call if anything happens or if you get lonely.”

“
I will,” Julie said, as Meiko went below. And then she was alone. To share the night with the man in her heart. Tomorrow she was going to have to bury him a little bit, but tonight she wanted to grieve.

She sat in the cockpit for over an hour, staring out to sea and crying. Small sobs at first and then she let go and buried her face in her hands. It was so unfair.

When there were no more tears, just an ache, she wiped her eyes, and a dolphin shot out of the water and did a tail dance across the waves. She laughed as the mammal danced and she hugged herself when it slipped back into the sea.

“
Goodbye, Hideo,” she said.

And then the wind started to pick up. She glanced at the knot meter, seven-point-five knots. They’d picked up half a knot. She checked the self steering gear and it was working fine. She glanced at the compass, on course, and the sails were full. Everything was fine.

And then it started to blow a little harder. Eight knots. She thought about waking Victor, but didn’t. She didn’t want him to think she was a complete washout, so she picked up a winch handle and brought in a little of the jib. She grinned as the boat slowed back to seven and a half knots.

Then she saw the clouds and the rain off on the starboard side and she realized that the increase in the wind speed was due to the squall. She looked back at the knot meter. Eight-point-four, then she turned back to the squall. It looked like they were going to miss it, so instead of waking Victor she rolled in a little more of the jib, but the boat didn’t slow down, so she rolled it almost all the way in, and the speed dropped back down to six-point-five. Slower than they were going before she saw the squall. She felt secure.

But the squall shifted course. It looked like it was going cross their path after all. She felt a few drops of rain as the squall approached. The speed climbed up to eight-point-seven. She started below to wake Victor.

Then the roller furling line snapped. The wind caught the sail and the jib unfurled with blazing speed and Herculean force. Fallen Angel lurched to port, with the huge popping sound of flapping sails, and the knot meter climbed to nine-point-five. She was in trouble. The self steering gear was being overpowered by the wind and then the rain was upon her. She scooted behind the wheel as Victor burst into the cockpit.

“
What’s going on?” he yelled to be heard above the wind.

“
Squall,” Julie said, as Meiko came up into the cockpit.

“
We have to roll in the jib,” he said.

“
We can’t, the furling line’s broken,” Julie said, and he looked at the slack line.

“
Too late to reef the main,” he said. “We have to ride it out. Let me take the wheel.”

She felt like she could handle it, but he was the one with the experience, so she moved away from the wheel when he grabbed it. And for the next twenty minutes the two women watched as Victor handled the boat. Even though they took a lot of water over the side as the boat slammed through the swells, Julie wasn’t worried, because he seemed to be enjoying himself.

Then, as quickly as it was upon them they were through it and the night was clear again. The sea flattened out, the wind was back from the southeast.

“
Okay, Julie, you can take the wheel again. I’m going to see what I can do about the jib,” he said, then he went up front with Meiko behind him. Five minutes later he was back in the cockpit.

“
How is it?” Julie asked.

“
Mom, he fixed it simple, dimple. He just tied two bowlines together. Now we can roll it in.” She may be a genius in school, but she was still a child, Julie thought.

“
It’s just a temporary fix,” Victor said. “You’ll have to replace the line when we get to Grenada. It wasn’t an accident, somebody was at it with a knife. Sooner or later it was going to go.”

“
First the rudder leak and now this,” Julie said. “Somebody really doesn’t like me.”

“
When we get to Grenada we’ll check the boat over and make sure there aren’t any other little surprises,” Victor said. “Till then I’ll stay up.”

“
I’ll stay up, too,” Meiko said. “There’s no way I can get back to sleep. Not a chance.”

“
Then I’m going below for a little sleep,” Julie said, and five minutes later she was dreaming about shooting stars and dolphins.

“
Mom, we’re almost there,” Meiko’s voice rang down from above and Julie opened her eyes. Five minutes later she was on deck. Victor and Meiko looked as fresh as if they’d slept the night away. Julie felt as if she hadn’t slept at all. She stretched and gave in to a yawn.

“
That’s Grenada, dead ahead,” Victor said, giving the wheel up to her.

“
You guys didn’t wake me for my watch,” she said.

“
We thought you should get some rest,” Meiko said, and she ducked as some water came splashing over the side. The spray hit Julie full in the face. “That’ll wake you right up, Mom.”

“
I’m awake.” Julie wiped the salt water from her face. “What did you guys talk about all night long?”

“
Oh, the usual. We solved all the world’s problems. Politics, religion, sex, you know.”

“
Coffee,” Victor said, passing her the thermos.

Two hours later they were laying anchor in Prickly Bay. The water was clear, the sun was hot, and Julie was aching for a swim. But first she had to check into customs and then she had to go over to the boatyard and see if there was anything they could do about the rudder.

“
I have an idea,” Victor said, as Julie was stepping over the lifelines to get into the dinghy.

“
Yes,” she said.

He rubbed the back of his neck, then ran a hand through his thick hair. “We could stuff some packing up the rudder tube, then fill it with underwater epoxy. That stuff gets hard in water. It won’t be a perfect fix, but it’ll stop the leak for a while.”

“
How long?” Julie asked.

“
I’ve heard of underwater epoxy repairs that lasted years.”

“
We’ll try it,” she said, thinking that once again, Victor had saved the day.

Victor and Meiko took a taxi to Georgetown to buy supplies and Julie had two men from the local shipyard come to the boat, and within an hour the rudder leak was fixed.

“
Bad thing, that,” the heavy man said, wiping sweat from his forehead with an oily rag. His skin was about the same color as the oil, so Julie hardly noticed.

“
Whoever did it should be hung,” the big man’s assistant agreed, “but you’re wrong about one thing. Those itty bitty holes wouldn’t have sunk the boat.”

“
Really?” Julie stared into the boy’s blue eyes.

“
True,” the big shipwright said. “I seen a lot a things on a lot of boats, but never deliberate sabotage. You’re lucky, though. Either the bastard didn’t know what he was doing, or he didn’t want to sink you. I think he just wanted to scare you.”

“
What do you mean?” Julie asked.

“
Not enough water coming in to sink the boat.”

“
But the bilge pumps were going off.”

“
Well they would, wouldn’t they?” the boy said. “Soon as enough water came in to set off the switches, but they’re set real low. You could’ve sailed to Miami and back and been okay with them tiny holes.”

“
Mind you,” the big shipwright said, “it’s always better to fix a leak. It’s never good when the ocean comes in your boat from the bottom.”

She had the men go over the boat, checking everything she could think of, the lines, blocks, sails, and thru-hulls. They couldn’t find anything else wrong, but the big man warned her saying, “There’s lots someone can do to mess up a sailboat that you can’t see right off, so you best be careful.”

After they left she thought about Victor’s insistence that they either fix the leak immediately or head back to Trinidad, and she concluded, hard as it was to believe, that maybe the great Victor Drake might have panicked a little himself.

She didn’t like his attitude and she had reservations about his offer of help, but she knew she needed somebody and she had to admit that he was a competent sailor. When they returned she asked him if he wouldn’t mind staying on for a few days and show them how to handle the boat.

“
I’ll be glad to stay with you for as long as it takes,” Victor said, “and this is a perfect place to learn. The wind is always blowing.”

“
Not here,” Julie said. She squinted against the sun as Meiko was sweeping the marina with the binoculars.