Chapter 5

It was a most satisfactory awakening; no longer separated by even thin layers of cloth, I stroked her smooth skin, cupped her breast; she hummed contentedly in her throat. Her hand slid down and found my morning wood; the hum went up a semitone and increased in intensity. She shifted, and suddenly she was straddling me, somehow lowering herself onto me, then resting, fully embedded, smiling down at me, stroking my cheek, saying 'I love you', with her voice, her eyes, her whole body.

Her vagina tightened, squeezed and ... rippled ... on me and I groaned; she hardly needed to move, not for me, not with what she was doing with her vagina. 'Kegel exercises' I thought; I'd heard of them, but never, never experienced anything like it. She began to move, pressing herself against my hardness until I felt her vagina spasming on me as she came, then I was joining her in ecstasy ... and weeping. She lay on me, kissed me, my lips and my eyes.

"Baby," I croaked.

"Hush," she replied, her vagina still holding, squeezing me; she wasn't allowing me to shrink and leave her, and I was content that it should be so.

Much later, Emily was tapping on the hatch. "Breakfast, you two! Fifteen minutes! Coffee!"

I surfaced, rapidly becoming aware I needed to move but Hazel clung to me.

"You'd better let me go," I said gently, or there's going to be a wet accident!"

She made a moue, but released me. "Come back and help me dress?"

"Um, not so sure about that ... I mean, why bother?" I pulled on cut-offs, and climbed out. I crossed the cockpit and squeezed past Emily at the cooker to get to the toilet, had a quick wash and settled at the saloon table. Hazel appeared wearing ... a winsome smile ... and her legs ... passing through to get to the 'facilities'. When she reappeared, she slid in beside me, smiling broadly now at my expression. I brushed my lips lightly against hers. "Sweetheart, you are very beautiful. Have I told you before?"

"Once or twice ... but I don't mind if you repeat yourself!"

"Very well, then, you are beautiful ... and I just love the outfit!"

"Okay, lovebirds," Emily interrupted, placing plates of scrambled eggs on toast in front of us then, turning, reached tumblers of orange juice for each of us before sitting with her own breakfast. She looked at me, smiling, "any plans for the day?"

"Saturday..." I said, thoughtfully. "If we're leaving, it's got to be around high water; say one o'clock..." I paused, "but I'd like to show off my lovely girls ... what about a look round the Tide Mill, then it's a short walk to the Station Café for coffee. I don't think there's anything we need..."

Emily shook her head. "We're fine for a few days ... I've never seen the Tide Mill, not inside, anyway."

"What's a Tide Mill?" Asked Hazel.

"You know how a water mill works, right?"

She nodded.

"Well, a Tide Mill has a pond that collects water at high tide, then the miller uses the water to drive a wheel once the tide has gone out. There used to be many of them, but there are only one or two left. I think the Woodbridge one is the only one that still works."

"Okay ... sounds sort of interesting. Just one question..."

"Go on?"

"Can I put some clothes on?"

Emily stifled a giggle while I pretended to think about it. "I'm not sure. It'd be a real pity to cover all that pulchritude."

I don't think she knew what the word meant; she looked a bit put out, but Emily whispered in her ear and her expression lightened.

"Never mind, then. You said you liked the outfit; I might as well show it off."

I laughed. "Okay, you've got me. I don't think Woodbridge is ready for you like that. Just choose something you're comfortable with."

I went back to the aft cabin to find a shirt and some sandals, then, more or less respectable I went to pay up the marina fees and let them know we'd be leaving. Emily and Hazel were almost identically dressed in short-sleeved blouses, unbuttoned well past their breasts and barely concealing their areolæ, and shorts that just about covered their assets. Emily had on sandals, but as Hazel pointed out, there wasn't much point in changing the trainers on her prosthetics; it would change how they worked when she walked and she didn't want to take any chances.

The Tide Mill is quite interesting and the girls grilled the guide about it, so it was eleven before we were sitting waiting for our coffee. Emily went to look through a rack of brochures for various local attractions; of course there was nothing about the two attractions who were keeping me company...

When the coffee arrived, Emily joined us and handed over a flyer for the Felixstowe Amateur Dramatic Society; they were presenting the 'Mikado' the following week. Emily wanted to go; she remembered going to productions I'd joined in with Charlie and just loved G. & S. Hazel didn't really know anything about it except what she'd heard the previous night so we explained the plot, saying it was very silly, but fun. Once we'd drunk our coffee and consumed our muffins, we went back to Artemis, but as we walked I began to sing. My voice isn't fantastic; I'm not soloist standard, but I can hold a tune.

"A wand'ring minstrel I, a thing of shreds and patches, of ballads, songs and snatches, and dreamy lullabies ... my catalogue is long, through every passion ranging, and to your humour changing, I tune my supple song ... I tune my supple song..."

At the end, the girls were kinder than I deserved, clapping with wide smiles on their faces.

"Can we go?" Hazel asked.

I looked at Emily, "I'd like to," she said, "wouldn't you?"

I nodded, "I would, as long as you're not going to be bored."

Back at the boat, Hazel insisted on making sandwiches while Emily and I prepared to get under way. We motored out of the marina and as far as Kyson Point; it would have been very hard work working out against the wind in the confined space – but we were able to sail as far as The Hams (munching our sandwiches) with Hazel at the wheel; approaching Waldringfield Emily and I managed the sails as we tacked, short tacks, with Hazel nervously following our instructions. At the Rocks we were beating again, but it was me at the wheel. Emily took over at Prettyman's Point and I was able to sit with my arm round Hazel until we picked up a mooring a little before four at the Ferry.

The café was about to close, but they sold me three tickets to the Mikado for the following Saturday evening; returning to Artemis, we sat in the cockpit eating salad and drinking wine. When we finished, we stayed there, listening to the gulls and waders, watching little terns diving in the estuary. Emily fetched binoculars and as the tide ebbed, exposing more mud, we watched redshank and godwits, curlews and other waders I need a book to identify, poking around in it. We went to bed early ... no, not just for that, either. I mean, Hazel was ... is ... gorgeous, but at my age there are limits. No, the reason was we wanted to get under way at one in the morning.

I probably need to explain that the Deben, as a tidal estuary, presents certain challenges to a sailor. The current flows at up to five knots, say, five and a half miles an hour. Any sailing boat under normal conditions has its speed limited by its water-line length – each boat having its own 'hull-speed' – and the ability of a boat to reach its 'hull speed' depends on things like the shape of the hull, how fat it is, how much marine growth (weed, barnacles and so on) there is on the bottom ... all sorts of things like that. Now, a Sea Dog is a strong, sea-worthy boat, but it is not fast. The hull speed is barely eight knots and it needs a gale of wind to reach it. So you can see, you don't get far fighting any sort of current. Add to that the shingle deposited at the mouth of the river so at low tide there may be only eighteen inches of water over the 'bar'...

For all those reasons, we needed to leave the river as the ebb began and while there was plenty of water over the bar.