Chapter 11: On the Pacific

The gleam of sunlight bouncing off the light waves of the bay called to Celeste as she made her way up to the aft deck, stopping only long enough to ensure that they hadn't received any new visitors during the night. As soon as she was sure that they were still alone, a seat on the transom beckoned to her, and she happily accepted, sitting while nursing her first cup of coffee for the morning.

"Is it safe to wear my uniform up there?" Tracy's soft voice asked a few minutes later.

The sight of her lover's naked body as she sat cross-legged, but with her pert and proud breasts prominently on display, made the younger woman realize that the question was quite redundant ad irrelevant.

"I don't know about it being safe," Celeste snickered lustfully, "but we still have the bay all to ourselves, if that's what you're asking."

Tracy strode onto the deck, then sat beside Celeste, and the two exchanged a morning kiss of welcome, mixed with some of the love the three had shared the previous evening. After their lips parted, Tracy went into an introspective trance that Celeste had seen many times before. She knew that when her younger sister-in-law was in one of those moods, it was time to give her the space she needed.

"I've been thinking about Blackwells, and all the stuff we went through in Panama," Tracy finally began a summary of her thoughts. "Those two made me realize just how lucky you and I are. Pretty amazing, really."

"There's more to this, isn't there, Sweetie?" Celeste tried to help her sister-in-law feel comfortable enough to share her inner feelings.

"Not really. Well. Maybe. But I was thinking. Shannon has Joe, and he makes her world go around. And we have Brandon. Do you realize that he was about to put his life on the line for me when that fat asshole had me prisoner? Then yesterday when I spent some time thinking about it, I realized that he'd do the same for you, too. How come we're so lucky to have such a wonderful guy? Someone that loves us no matter what?"

"Why? Because he's your brother, and he loves you dearly. I was part of a package deal, when you think about it, and yet he still accepted and took me in. I guess I fell in love with him for the same reasons you did. But more than that, to me he's almost an extension of you. We both know how I feel about you, and why. However, as to why we got so lucky? I have no idea, and no desire to question it either. All I know is that I love you, and I love him just as much. But more importantly, you and he both love me, too. Like your brother says, it works, so don't fuck with it."

"He doesn't say that!" Tracy tried to defend her brother, although she remembered that he usually had a similar phrase handy. Maybe he actually had put it in those exact words. At that moment though, it didn't matter, because that was how all three of them felt.

Their little tete-a-tete was interrupted by the sounds of someone rattling around in the galley, followed by the sight of their Captain's head poking out the hatch. Brandon held the coffee pot in one hand and greeted them with a grin of happiness as he offered the two women a refill before he made fresh.

"Someone's ears must be burning," Celeste mentioned to her sister-in-law as she watched the flow of liquid run into her cup.

"Huh? Who's ears?" Brandon asked her.

"Yours," she let him know. "We were just talking about you."

"Whatever I did, it wasn't me," his feeble excuse sounded hollow.

"Silly man," he was labelled. "We were just saying how lucky we both are to have this kind of a relationship. And yes, it is your fault. Just don't change. We're getting very used to life this way, and I, for one, wouldn't want it any other way."

"Yeah? Well, as I keep telling you two girls, if it works, don't fuck with it," he repeated his old adage.

"Told you he always said that," she snickered to Tracy, who returned a guilty grin of acknowledgement.

"Either one of you had time to check the weather reports?" he changed the subject.

"Warm, high overcast, winds from the south at five to ten knots," Tracy reported her earlier findings. "Sounds like a good day to stay right where we are, doesn't it?"

"Maybe," he gave his interpretation, "but that won't get us to Galapagos, nor anywhere else for that matter. With the winds that light, we aren't going to be setting any speed records. I'm wondering if we shouldn't start heading west and see how long it takes. I'd like to conserve fuel on the auxiliary and use the sails as much as we can."

"From what I could find out," Tracy added the rest of her information for him, "it looks like light winds in the morning, then picking up later in the day. Long term reports say that's what we can expect for the next month or so. Sounds like an equatorial version of the 'slow boat to China'."

"Let's think about getting underway after lunch and see how far we get before the winds die," he made a decision. "With Blackwells gone, I'd like to get going ourselves. I wonder how far away they are? Anyone see what time they left?"

"They were gone when I came up," Celeste answered his enquiry, "and that was about nine-thirty. I think they left under sail, because I never heard an engine."

There were several more words of an inconsequential nature between the three, all of which induced a state of happy relaxation again. For the most part though, an air of slothful reluctance embraced the little ship. Leaving the warm waters off Panama meant that they'd be heading into the unknown again. But by noon, procrastination became less appealing than striking out, and when the Captain ordered the anchor raised, both women were more than enthusiastic about the chore.

Under full canvas, the Gon Waki 2 eased out of the bay, still under the influence of light winds. As Brandon had mentioned earlier, they wouldn't be setting any records, not with the pitometre showing a progress rate of four knots. They'd be lucky to make fifty miles that day. Still, the hope of better winds later on fuelled their impatience to get moving.

As the sun set on the western horizon that evening, the winds had picked up considerably and were now moving the small ship at a steady speed of around six knots. That had started not long after they'd lost sight of land aft of them, increasing the crew's anticipation of making some distance through the night. Tracy had been the one to plot their course, assisted by her brother looking over her shoulder silently as he double checked her calculations. But she'd gotten it right, and his kiss of congratulations had sent her heart soaring with the acknowledging praise.

That night, Brandon insisted that he man the helm for two watches, giving the excuse that they were in unfamiliar waters as his reason. The other two crew members took turns keeping him company through the hours of darkness, and while there were no incidents that would justify his decision, just the fact that they were all working together seemed to pull the three a little closer.

Just after sunrise the next morning, the winds died completely, leaving the Gon Waki 2 pitching gently in the open ocean's swells. At first, both women found the situation a little uncomfortable. But when a light breeze arrived just before noon that day and the sails slowly filled, their spirits soared.

"I guess this is what we can expect for the next little while, isn't it?" Celeste announced her resignation to their reduced progress.

"According to what I could find on the 'net, it is," Tracy confirmed. "At least we're going in the right direction."

"There's a north current here, Sis," her brother let her know. "We'll have to head south of San Cristobal if we're going to stay on course. By the time we get there, it might add a day or two. I can handle that, but our groceries are going to get a little skinny if we're not careful."

"Can we fish?" Celeste made the suggestion. "I'm not sure what's biting around here, but if you can pull it in, I'll cook it. Just promise me that you'll throw the weird ones back. I don't do things like eel or squid."

Her suggestion was a good one, but the mention of invertebrates elicited a chuckle from their Captain, with the reminder that if they wanted to eat, being selective might not be an option. But while they sat becalmed, he did take the opportunity to try casting a line, pulling in a couple of snapper over the course of an hour. Once they'd been gutted and cleaned, Celeste wrapped the fish in a plastic covering, then stowed them in the cold locker in the bow of the ship.

It took them eleven days to cover the eight hundred and seventy nautical mile journey, and in that time, a pattern began to develop in their behaviour. At the end of his night watch, Brandon would be led below by one or the other woman, then was made love to until he finally dropped off to sleep. Once the winds came up again, the girls would alternate between navigating and steering. Over the course of that week and a half, the two had concentrated on learning all aspects of sailing the little ship. And there were many times that their Captain had come up on deck to the sights and sounds of two women giving each other pleasure, an experience that he found erotically arousing. Sometimes he'd join them, while on others, he'd just sit back and watch the show. The fact that they were being observed only seemed to fuel their lust, but never to the exclusion of their Captain, should he decide to become a part of the intimacy.

Because of the northward current, they made landfall a little further north than Brandon had planned, so that heading south to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the main town of the islands, added an extra day to their trip. With the number of small fishing boats in the area, the three had taken to covering up whenever there was anyone else in the vicinity, although being able to enjoy the wind and sun on bare skin still had more appeal. It did get them re-acclimated to the moors of society. Still, they looked forward to being able to shed their garments once they left the Galapagos, with Celeste the most adamant that she would be happy if she never had to wear clothing again for the rest of her life.

"You'll change your tune when we go through another storm, Angel," Brandon reminded her.

"Not like that one we went through in the Caribbean, I hope," she groaned. "That was enough for this girl for one lifetime."

"I doubt they'll be as bad," Brandon tried to ease her angst, "but there's not much chance that we'll escape them all. Mother Nature isn't that kind."

"After that typhoon we ran from?" Tracy shuddered at the memory. "Shit, I was beginning to think the Old Broad was suffering from PMS! Tell me we'll never go through another one of those."

"We'll never go through another one of those," her brother dutifully repeated, with no sign of conviction in his tone.

"Lying son-of-a-bitch!" she cursed him quietly, but with no malice.

"Hey, you asked, Sis! You never said anything about it being true!"

He was forgiven with a strong hug, a soft and accepting kiss, and the unspoken promise of all the intimacy she could give him. To include her sister-in-law in that little circle, Brandon extended an arm to Celeste, who happily accepted his invitation, sharing her lips with both him and Tracy.

"All I have to do is remember not to bang my head on cabin walls again and I'll be fine," she put in her reminder. "That damned thing still hurts every once in a while."

Over the course of their voyage from Panama to the islands of Ecuador, they'd been blessed with light rain showers most mornings, and in the warm tropical air, that allowed the women to take advantage of fresh water to bathe in. At Brandon's insistence, whenever one of them stood on the swim-grid, first lathering her body then letting the rain rinse it off, the girls were required to attach a safety line between their waist and the stern cleat. Now that it was common practise, the possibility of Celeste ignoring that precaution had dropped to zero. For that, both siblings were grateful.

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos is a small town with a population of about fifty-five hundred, and even though she'd gotten used to having no one but her shipmates around, Celeste enjoyed shopping in the local markets. It was on one of those excursions that Tracy and Brandon found out that their lover was fluent in Spanish, a skill that she hadn't used even in Panama.

"Where'd you learn that?" Brandon asked, the awe and admiration in his tone impossible to miss.

"Chicago," she answered. "If you hang around in the neighbourhoods that I did, you either learn the language or get taken to the cleaners. I would have thought one of you would have learned it."

"Never was good at languages," Brandon admitted. "I may have to promote you to Communications Officer," he admiringly suggested.

"You'd better watch out, big brother," Tracy warned him with a grin and a mischievous gleam in her eye. "She can get one hell of a message across without saying a single word – in any language."

"Yeah, so I've found out," he agreed, with the memories of their previous night of intimacy still swimming in his head.

"Easy, Sweetie," Celeste cautioned. "He's starting to get hard again, and there's too many people around for us to enjoy him," she lovingly teased.

Brandon watched his lover salivating over a beautiful camera in one of the shops they passed, and decided that if she really wanted it, he'd be happy to buy it for her. When he let her know of his intentions, her eyes glazed over with awe and happiness, although there was a real reluctance to accept his offer. But at Tracy's insistence, the three went in and Celeste found herself in intense negotiations with the shopkeeper. By the time they'd finished, she was the proud owner of a digital single-lens reflex camera, several specialty lenses, and sufficient bags to safely store and carry all the equipment she'd acquired.

"I feel guilty as hell about this, Lover," she confessed to her benefactor. "Maybe having a photo album of our trip might be a great idea, but how many interesting shots of open water can a girl take without them getting boring?"

"If you take some good ones, Sis, maybe we can sell them online," Tracy suggested.

"And how do you propose we get the money sent to us? For that matter, what are we supposed to do with more money? Your over-generous brother already spoils us rotten as is. You want to give him more ammunition now?"

"If you two girls sell your photos, I'll set up an account for the money and you can both split it. You deserve to have some cash of your own, to do with whatever you want. I was supposed to do that before we left Panama, but we got a little busy there, didn't we? Forgive my oversight?"

"The only thing saving your ass right now, Lover," Celeste lovingly threatened, "is the fact that there's too many people around for me to thank you properly."

"It's not my ass I'm worried about," he teased her right back.

"Keep it up, Buster," she warmly threatened, "and all the people in this town won't save you."

"Keep it up?" he went on. "First, I have to get it up."

"Just wait until we get home," Tracy joined her sister-in-law's lustful suggestiveness. "We have the techniques. We can fix that."

"So I've found out – many, many times," he snickered in her ear.

"You love it, and we know it!" she reminded him.

"No, you love it, and do one hell of a wonderful job, too," he tried to get the last word in.

"Goof!" she defeated his strategy.

For the next three days, the three imbibed in a hedonistic enjoyment of life. Brandon had insisted on finding the equipment necessary to go snorkeling again, with memories of the time they'd spent exploring the waters of San Jose Island and Grand Playa Bay with the Blackwells. While the waters of San Cristobal weren't as warm as they'd been back on the Panamanian island, the many species of exotic fish more than made up for it. They encountered a school of hammerhead shark, and both women started to panic. But when there appeared to be no threat of attack, watching the oddly-shaped predators became fascinating as long as they kept their distance. Celeste mentioned, once they were on board their ship again, that she'd have given her right arm for a waterproof camera, as some of the scenes they'd been privy to really did deserve to be captured and preserved. Brandon silently promised to try and make her wish come true. Sneaking away from the girls, he'd perused the local shops, but didn't find what he was looking for. They'd have to wait until Lima, Peru before he could search further.

The morning of their fifth day on San Cristobal found the Gon Waki 2 sailing out of the little harbour as they began another leg of their adventure. The winds were now from the south at about eighteen knots, and the little ship almost strained to return to the open ocean where she belonged. Setting a course that involved several alternating tacks, Brandon took them out, then relinquished the helm to Celeste while Tracy set and trimmed sails as dictated by their helmsman.

With a little over a thousand nautical miles to cover, the adventurous crew settled back into their previous routine. But as they became used to the constant movements of the Gon Waki 2 as she made her way through the South Pacific ocean, there were fewer nights when Brandon took the wheel by himself, which suited the women just fine. It gave them more time to spend with their lover, and every minute of that time became an intimate experience shared between all of them.

Four days out of San Cristobal, they encountered a rare phenomenon whereby the winds were strong enough to propel the ship at close to hull speed, but the waters themselves were relatively calm with a slow, lazy roll as waves that had crossed several thousand miles of the Pacific Ocean gently lifted then dropped their craft. The Gon Waki 2 reacted like a puppy in a playground, straining forward with all her might as she skimmed through the blue-green water. Reacting to winds from the south southwest, she heeled happily, and in sharp contrast to her reactions the first time they'd taken the ship out on its maiden cruise, Celeste was in her glory.

"After that trip to Turtle Bay," Tracy shared with her brother as they looked on at the elated woman now standing on the starboard foredeck, "I never thought I'd see the day when she was so ... excited? Is that the word I'm looking for?"

"We've both seen her excited, Pip-squeak, but not for the same reasons she is today," he chuckled as they continued to share in the older woman's enjoyment of life. "I think the salt water's getting into her veins, though. Remember how scared she was before? Something tells me that if you got her landlocked now, she'd go out of her mind. Having her come with us might have been the best idea you've ever had."

"Second best," she corrected him. "The best was coming with you myself. Two months out of port, and I think I could spend the rest of my life like this – with both of you. I didn't think I could love you more than I did after that first night we spent together, but I do. Both of you."

"We've been through a lot, Sis, but there's still a lot to see and get through. Think you'll still feel that way in a year or two, when we get..."

There was a short interruption in his diatribe as Brandon considered his next term.

"Before we get back?" he finally finished. "I was going to say, 'back home', but as you've pointed out before, we're already home, aren't we?"

"Let's not worry about that until we see Florida again," she conceded. "Who knows? We may never travel that far. It would mean the end of something that I'm finding more exciting than I'd have ever believed. If we ended up bumming around the world for a decade or three, it sure wouldn't break my heart."

"Mine, either," he admitted, then hugged his sister under an arm and held her there tightly.

"Think you'll be able to stand both of us for that long?" she murmured, while peeking out from under the protection he offered her, then flicked her tongue over his nipple quickly.

"If you keep doing that," he warned her, "I'll have you right here and now. You know what that does to me."

Defiantly, Tracy flicked her tongue over her brother's chest one more time, and received a groan of desire as reward. That was all it took to spur her on, now teasing and tormenting the man she loved so dearly as their lust blossomed and grew. Brandon's reactions were predictable, and as his manhood grew and rose, his sister lovingly caressed it, sinking to her knees to lavish the love and attention she thought it so richly deserved.

"Take me, big brother!" she pleaded. "Here, on the deck. Now? Please, Babe?"

There was no hesitation as the two assumed a horizontal position on the deck. Lips desperately sought each other, tongues lashed out in a dance of lust and love, and hands wantonly explored every sensitive spot of the others body. Tracy rolled onto her back until she had her brother firmly between her opened thighs, thrilling to the sensations of his erection teasing the opening of her sex, then moaning deliriously as he slowly entered her.

"Gawd, you two look so hot!" Celeste's encouragement injected itself as she stood at the other edge of the cockpit while becoming lost in watching the experience of the other two."

"Come join us, Sis," Tracy invited.

"Let me stand here and enjoy the sight," Celeste alternately suggested, her fingers slowly exploring the folds of her own sex. "I'd feel like I was intruding on something beautiful otherwise."

Without any need for further encouragement, Brandon slowly filled then retreated from his sister several times, alternating between hard, fast strokes that sent thrills of desire coursing through her very existence and slow ones that extracted groans of delighted joy. Their lips pressed together as his hands mashed and manipulated Tracy's breasts while her legs wrapped around his hips as she pulled and held him as deep inside as she could. Every time he thrust down, she would lift her pelvis up to meet him, feeling his hardness caress the very centre of her soul, sending a dull message to her brain that demanded she have him as far inside as possible.

"You're going to make me cum, Pip-squeak!" he warned her.

"Yes! Cum inside me, Babe! Make me your woman! Gawd, I love you!" she groaned right back at him.

That first burst of semen was all it took to heave Tracy over the edge of her building orgasm, sending her senses soaring. As her brother continued to push himself deep inside her core, each successive stream of his seed only lifted her to a higher plain, and each one forced a squeal of loving reaction from her lungs.

Their mutual chorus of orgasm was joined by Celeste's, who was now lost in the rapture of her own self-induced climax. Seeing the passionate joining of her two lovers had sent flashes of erotic delight through her senses as she sought her own sexual release. While she might not have been a part of their physical joining, sharing that magical moment of ecstasy through masturbation extended her fuzzy awareness to include their bliss. She felt like she 'd been a part of what they shared. As she let out several howls that announced her euphoria, she became a welcome element of Brandon and Tracy's loving, too.

"I never realized how much I love watching two people make love," Celeste admitted, once they'd drifted back down from their flight to Nirvana, "but that felt so ... so right. I needed to be a part of what you two shared, and yet separate from it at the same time. I can't explain it properly. All I know is that it felt so beautiful to be able share orgasms with you."

"You're a bit of a voyeur, aren't you, Angel?" Brandon stated the obvious. "Not that I mind, because I've spent many times watching you and Tracy together. I never really understood how beautiful that can be before seeing you two. And when one of you climaxes for the other, I can feel your pleasure coursing through me."

There were many instances of intimacy when it would be Tracy that observed, and others when it was Brandon that looked on. But there were more times spent as the threesome they'd become. By the time the Peruvian coastline came into view, if the ugly head of jealousy had reared its head, it would have had no chance of survival.

Brandon found a safe anchorage at Playa Hermosa in Miramar, Peru, not quite twenty miles north of Lima. The women appreciated the lack of crowds in the little resort town, as their time at sea had instilled a desire to avoid dense population centres whenever possible. Because of Lima's population of two-and-a-half million people, very similar to Chicago's, their excursions into that crowded metropolis were kept down to short day trips. And even with Celeste's fluency in Spanish, there were still times when she had a real problem understanding the local dialect.

But in spite of those drawbacks, they enjoyed many positive aspects of Peru's largest city, too. The inherently relaxed pace of Lima allowed the trio opportunities to explore the many museums, galleries, and architectural gems that helped define the diverse South American country. As an added bonus, the three spent many leisurely hours just sitting in some of the local bars, finding themselves drawn into the beat of local jazz, folk, and Peruvian Creole music styles. Even with its drawbacks, Lima had opened its arms to the travellers, and they had responded by embracing all that the metropolitan centre had to share.

As a part of their ongoing need for preservable food, there were several trips to the open-air markets, followed by sessions of canning their selections. It was on one of those trips that they stumbled upon a scene that left them both excited yet repulsed at the same time.

"Babe, you see that man hustling those three girls down the street? Take a look at the one in the middle. She looks familiar, somehow," Tracy had gotten her brother's attention, and his sight followed the direction of hers.

"Gawd, that's eerie, Sis," he agreed. "I get that same feeling. I've seen her face somewhere before, but damned if I can tell you where. That's going to bother the hell out of me until I remember."

"Umm, at the risk of another adventure like Panama, isn't that the girl in the picture that Mexican who boarded us in the Yucatan Channel passed on?" Celeste prodded their memories.

"That's where I've seen her!" Brandon exclaimed. "She's that American's daughter!'

"Looks like you've found that needle in a haystack," Tracy muttered, "and here we go again. Which one of us is going to get captured and kidnapped this time?"

Brandon stopped dead in his tracks, spinning his sister around as a result, and stared into her eyes with a stern and determined expression on his face.

"Tracy, sixteen years ago, I left home to pursue a dream, and in doing so, I damned-near lost one of the most important people in my life. You. But for some reason, the gods smiled down on me and I was given a second chance. You'd think I'd learn, wouldn't you? But oh, no. Not your asshole brother. Within a year, he damned-near lost you again. When Bettman had you pinned and was pushing you towards that embassy, I really thought that I'd blown it, and that I'd lose you again. If I did, it would have been forever. So, for the record, and with every fibre of my being, I solemnly promise that I'll never, ever, put you in jeopardy like that again! Do you understand, Pip-squeak? Never!"

Tracy searched her brother's eyes for the truth in his words, and could see the anger he felt for all the Trenton Bettman's of this world. In that one moment, she understood exactly what he was trying to say, and that love they shared grew stronger inside.

"I believe you, Babe," she quietly asserted to him. "But let's not turn this into another one of those James Bond spy stories, okay? Like I said before, I never want to go through that shit again."

"As long as I'm alive, little sister, you never will," he tried to calm both her and himself.

"You can't tell me that and make me believe it, Brandon," she told him in a firm tone. "I know you'll do everything you can to keep both of us as safe as possible, but you're not Superman. You've always been there to protect me, and I love you for that. But you can't stop things from happening, and some of them are going to be dangerous. That's part of life. Yes, you'll do everything you can to bail my skinny little ass out whenever I get it stuffed into somewhere that it has no business being in the first place. But if something happens that you can't get us out of, we'll understand. Now, are we going to go see if we can find out where that girl's being taken, then let her father know, or are we going to stand here and argue?"

Forgetting the urgency of their pursuit for the moment, Brandon pulled his sister into protective arms and held her, silently giving thanks to whatever entity runs the Universe for the chance he'd been given ... Only after he regained a modicum of emotional control again did he ease his hold on Tracy.