Chapter 34

“This is Daniella G on the deep blue sea. You just saw that gnarly sailfish catch on this luxury liner. Now Brad, Marissa, and myself have been invited to dinner here on the battleship USS Andi’s Dream. Normally, Brad and I would be doing the cooking.”

Brad leaned into the frame. “What she means is that I’ll be doing the cooking, we’ll both be doing the eating.”

“True enough, but tonight the top chef on this troop ship will be doing the cooking and cleaning. This is the girl that helped land that monster sailfish, Yi-jin Carlson. Yi, what are we having for dinner tonight?”

Yi opened the port fishbin and showed the day’s catch. “Boss-man Dr. Paul and his buddy Don caught these monsters, and the twins and my little sister caught this nice sheepshead. The girls get the sheepshead tomorrow for dinner, the Mahi-Mahi is going home with the Athertons so...” Yi hoisted out the Wahoo and said, “I think we’re going to have tacos for dinner tonight.”

“TACOS!” shouted the children, and all three raced down to the cockpit to watch. Yi taught her fan club (Sandy, Madeline, Bitty, Andi, and Macy) how to clean and fillet the wahoo that Paul caught earlier in the day.

“That’s my poppa’s pointy fish!” Madeline informed Daniella.

Andi expected the twins to be grossed out by the process, but they were fascinated as they watched Yi make a long cut down the backbone, then slowly peal back the meat as she deftly separated the meat from the body. By the time Yi was finished with the Wahoo, the twins said that they were ready to clean their own pointy fish and they both wanted a knife set of their very own.

Once the fish was filleted and the remainders given to Mr. Unicorn for his dinner (which is what Yi told the twins as she tossed the remains of the carcass over the side) Yi made wahoo sashimi for an appetizer, with wahoo tacos and sesame seared wahoo steak with pineapple chutney for the main course.

“My Lord Yi, that was incredible,” said Don Atherton after dinner, “Are you positive that you won’t come to work for us?”

Yi jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward Paul, who was in the galley finishing up scrubbing a saucepan that Yi had used to prepare dinner. “Are either of you going to be doing dishes for me?”

“Oh, hell no.”

“My words exactly.” Yi winked and set out cups of raspberry sorbet for dessert.

After dinner, Daniella copied all the video and still pictures they shot on to Paul’s 3 TB data drive, then she, her boyfriend Brad, and her sister Marissa left on the Danny G back to Florida. The sun was just below the horizon as they pulled into the channel leading to Nisi Arcadia. The twins were already asleep, and they missed watching their mom at the helm ease Andi’s dream to the dock.

The last few days in Florida were spent in the Jupiter area. They remained on Andi’s Dream in the Jupiter Yacht Club and just relaxed. Bit-na was in school, so she was dropped off every morning and they returned to the boat and relaxed. The repairs to the Zodiac were completed and after charging up the batteries, Paul loaded up Andi, Macy, and the twins and they explored the local waterways of Jupiter, Florida on the small boat. The zodiac is stored on the foredeck of Andi’s dream. There’s a davit up front to lift it into its storage space, but it also ties down nicely to the swim deck.

The twins loved the zodiac much more than Andi’s dream. To them, the zodiac was a boat, while Andi’s dream was a bouncing, rocking apartment with a pleasant view. As they purred along through the waterways of Jupiter Florida, the twins dangled their little hands in the water, hoping to pet a manatee or, better yet, catch a baby shark. Being able to hold bait fish, they believed they were ready to move up and catch a baby shark.

There was a huge brick lighthouse in Jupiter that they sailed over to in the little Zodiac. They spent the afternoon there and climbed to the top and looked out on the Jupiter area from the top of the light. The twins had to be carried down because they were too tired to climb back down, but once they were down, they had no problem frolicking under a huge live oak tree near the base of the tower. But the real fun they had as they stayed was the Amalthea.

Amalthea was Paul and John’s 24-foot Bermuda rigged Tartan 245 Caraluna sloop. It was a nice little sailboat with a small outboard motor and a 12 volt electrical system to power the data center which combined compass, wind gauge and sonar. They took it out and gently sailed up the intercostal waterway to a restaurant in Sebastian that Paul and Macy loved on previous visits. On the way, they saw manatees as the gentle winds pushed them up the Indian River.

“This is so nice,” said Andi. “Would you mind if I laid out?”

“No, go right ahead,” said Paul. While the twins played in the tiny space below deck, Andi and Macy crawled forward and laid out in their bikinis on either side of the jib sail and watched the clouds keep pace with them. Andi has never experienced a more peaceful way of traveling. She had to be roused by the twins when they got to Sebastian. The trip was just that peaceful. The restaurant that they stopped at was named Squid Lips, and it had its own docking pier.

Paul pulled up to the pier and dropped sail, and they tied off. The tide was out, so Paul had to lift the twins up to Macy and Andi, who were on the pier. Then donning a sarong, Andi did something she never, ever dreamed would happen. She entered the restaurant wearing a bikini top. Her large breasts bobbled merrily, barely confined in her bikini top. In fact, she and Macy wore matching sarongs and bikinis. “Isn’t it cold?” asked the hostess as she seated them.