Chapter 7

DAY SIX

Back to the group today. I wasn’t sorry to leave our berth as the people beside us were definitely not into sex. They were four people in their forties, I thought. The girls caught the mood of disapproval and all put on their briefest bikinis and made me put sun cream on them. Joanne and Fred, I noticed, sat, legs apart, leisurely putting cream on their inner thighs. No shame, some people, I loved it! The two men on the other boat looked with their tongues hanging out, the two women looked daggers.

We sailed up the coast, had the compulsory tomatoes and feta under sail, and arrived; one of the last, back at the next meeting place. This was a bay on the other side of the island. It was a wide bay with rocks at each end providing shelter. The beach was golden sand but it shelved more gently than the other, so we all anchored around the bay and rowed ashore for the promised barbecue. Once again this would have entailed three trips. At the last minute, all the girls opted to swim in. See-through bikinis were dispensed with and replaced by practical swim wear – which still emphasised and revealed the lovely bodies this weedy man was surrounded by; the other boats must have wondered what the attraction was in me. Each girl put a bag of clothes in the boat for later, if it got cool “Or if Captain Haddock ogles me too much” said Cheryl. I’d notice he had an eye for the older woman on my boat too.

I rowed in, towing, so Craig said, a fleet of mermaids. I had to agree with that one. The barbecues were hot, the beer was cold, the sky was blue and then dark blue, and then black. It was lovely. There were more stars than I’ve ever seen before. I did notice that they started to disappear, but I put that down to evening cloud. A gentle breeze blew across the bay as we ate charred sausages in baps and drank some unmentionable Greek lager; but we all enjoyed the surroundings, the company, the view. At 11pm the weather was not quite as peaceful as it had been.

I saw Captain Haddock talking to Craig. He had his uses, and one of them was that, as a self-proclaimed expert, he had been following the weather forecasts and not just taking Craig’s potted version. I wandered over, not concerned exactly, just, well, interested. It seemed that a storm had been forecast for Italy. Was it possible, the good captain was asking, that it had veered (veered? Is that right if it moves east?) towards us? Craig was emollient, but not quite as convincing as he usually was. He was sure we would be fine. Haddock and I were both less convinced. The bay was wonderful for gentle breezes, and good for the prevailing winds, but if the wind moved to blow onshore here there was no protection.

Joshua – we got on first name terms since we seemed to be allies – opted to go back and put out another anchor. The party was breaking up anyway, so I made the three-way rowing trip to get everybody on board. By that time the wind was beginning to whistle slightly. Still ... I checked our anchor, payed out more rope and added the kedge to it. Two anchors on the same chain; slightly less holding power than two separate ones, but the second, the kedge, would help keep the main anchor down.

I acted confident because there was nothing else to be done. At 2am I got up. Standing in my pants on deck, I could see we were closer to the shore. Night time can be deceiving, but I was sure the bearing to two rocks had changed. Once might have meant we were swinging, both indicated we were moving. The only way was towards the shore. I looked across at the other boats, some had lights on.

“This Puffin, Puffin, Puffin. Calling Shag, Shag, Shag” A joke to call the lead boat Shag, I suspected. “We seem to be dragging, over”

I waited and then heard. “Puffin, Puffin, Puffin. This is Arctic Tern, Arctic Tern, Arctic Tern” This was Haddock’s boat, he had one crew his wife, who always struck me as a natural sitting-on-the-bench, looking-at-the sea type. “We are also dragging, proposing to ship out of here. Shag, Shag, Shag. Are you receiving? Over”

“This is Shag, Shag, Shag. Your anchors should hold, suggest you remain. Over” He was suggesting, not ordering. He was the lead and clearly not confident.

“Shag, this is Puffin. We are already dragging, and I don’t know if this is the height of the storm. I propose moving round the south to Gouvenos. Over” Gouvenos was a steep sided harbour with a horrendously narrow entrance – only twenty feet. But once in, it would be the safest place to be. The only question was whether there would be room, supposing every sailing boat in the area had made for it?

“Puffin, this is Arctic Tern. Will you wait and leave with us? We will be ready in ten, no fifteen, fifteen minutes”

“This is Shag. Arctic Tern and Puffin, please do travel together. Give the spit a wide berth and we’ll hook up tomorrow” Once round the head, we’d have no radio contact; so Craig was taking a risk; but credit to him, he realised that we were taking control. I suspect he knew he was going to have his work cut out with the rest of the boats; two less, if we knew what we were doing, was probably welcome.

I went below, knocked on the door to the front cabin and opened it immediately. “Everybody up, throw some warm clothes on. Sorry, we have to move” A voice in the back of my head was saying ‘ooo – you actually are taking control. I wonder what you’ll do next’. The voice in the front of my head had to sound more confident, more competent, more in control of the situation. “Oh, and the life jackets you tried on at the start of the week? Put them on. Purely precautionary”

Cheryl came up “Is it dangerous? Are we in danger?”

“Cheryl, we have to move, we are on a lee shore and the wind is getting stronger. We are leaving with Joshua in Arctic Tern”

“What? Captain Haddock?” asked Tony, as she emerged from the front cabin. She was there because Sarah was in the bed in the back. It was a reminder to me. I went in.

“Sarah, get up! I need you dressed. Dressed warmly”

We had got back to the boat, tired and well lubricated; and had both agreed to postpone anything to the morning, or the next evening. Now it seemed it would definitely be the next evening, assuming we weren’t ship wrecked by then.

“And, yes, Captain Haddock. He and us are going to head out and back round to the other side”

“Head out in this!? Are you crazy! No, I won’t allow it!” Cheryl was on the verge of panic, I could tell. I couldn’t really blame her. The wind was whistling loudly, the rigging was clattering against the mast, the clouds obscured much of the light outside but not enough to hide the white tops rolling in. In my head I just prayed the engine was a good one.

“Puffin. This is Shag. Switch you and Arctic Tern switch to another channel to leave 16 open for the others. You will need full power to get out. Over” He was losing it a little, I could tell.

“Shag, this is Puffin, will do. Arctic Tern, suggest channel 19 over”

“Puffin, this is Arctic Tern; channel 21 would be better, switching now” I wanted to shout ‘I don’t give a fucking tinker’s cuss which channel. Let’s get going!’ But I didn’t.