Chapter 43: The Windsong

I woke up hungry. I had no idea what time it was or how long I had slept. It had been shortly after noon when we had arrived in Monte Carlo and transferred all our leftover provisions along with me to Captain Tony’s catamaran. It was now dark outside.

I ventured up to the salon and checked the gauges on the electrical panel. The port generator was running, so I turned on the lights.

“Turn those off!” came the command from the blanket covered body on one of the sofas. I quickly complied.

“What are you doing?” I asked Sarah.

“What do you think I’m doing?” came her sleepy retort. “I’m guarding your body!”

“Oh...” I replied as the light bulb turned on. Sarah was just doing her job.

“Where is everybody,” I asked.

“Let’s see...” she started. “Alfred took Craig and Maria to turn in the Friedlich to her owner and then to the base to get their car. Samantha went with Archara to the train station to pick up Monique and the five teenagers, then they were going to try to pick up some supplies and something for dinner.”

“Okay,” I replied.

“That left me with the difficult task of looking out for you,” she teased. “I think there should be some sort of compensation for my hard work and sacrifice. Don’t you?”

I crossed to the sofa where she was laying and bent down to gently kiss her on the lips.

“It HAS been over five hours. A very long, HARD five hours. Don’t you think I should get something more than a kiss?” she asked as she peeled the blanket away and began unbuttoning her blouse.

I sat down on the edge of the sofa next to her hip and placed my hand on her crotch. Her leggings were so tight, I could feel the contours of her pussy.

“I’ve been waving it naked in front of you for the last week,” she purred.

“And I have enjoyed every minute of it,” I replied as I ran my fingertips up and down the sheer fabric covering her crotch.

“Bastard! You’re just teasing me because you know that they will be here any moment!” she laughed. “C’mon. You can help me start putting some of this away.”

She was obviously referring to all the bags and boxes we had transferred from the Friedlich earlier. She handed me a box and then grabbed a couple of bags and led me down to the Steward’s locker. The Steward’s locker was a small room that you passed through to get to the crew quarters in the port aft hull. It held a large built-in refrigerator and another equally large built-in freezer, plus a washer/dryer combination unit, and many shelves and lockers as well as ample countertop space for working.

She lifted a large hatch in the floor and directed me to climb down the attached ladder into the hold. It was over ten feet deep below the floor. There were two more freezers and a bunch of shelving down here. Sarah began handing (dropping) me down the provisions.

“Just put them to the side and I’ll put them away later,” she instructed.

“Why don’t we trade places and I’ll carry everything down and you can go ahead and put it away?” I asked. And that is what we did.

I was on my fourth or fifth trip down the stairs when I heard a mob approaching the catamaran on the pier.

“Sounds like the calvary is coming,” I told her.

“Good! It’s about time they got here. I’m starved!” she replied.

Soon, eight ladies arrived on board and within minutes of their arrival, the salon looked like a small grocery store with boxes and bags of food everywhere. Then came a string of teenage boys pulling carts full of more groceries.

I was suddenly aware of just how much food was needed for twelve people for three weeks. And I became even more hungry as I looked at all the food. Then I began to smell the Chinese carryout they had brought with them and my stomach growled.

Captain Tony’s wife, Monique, and their daughters, Cécile, Fleur, and Marta, along with the Fourreau’s daughters, Anna and Charlotte were all busy getting reacquainted as they went about stowing all the provisions. Archara directed the unloading and took care of paying the lads while each of the teenaged girls took turns kissing me.

“We’re going to have so much fun on this trip!” Charlotte whispered sexily in my ear.

“Did you catch up on your sleep,” Archara asked me as she cleared a spot on the table and started setting out the carryout containers full of Chinese foods.

“I’m not sure,” I replied.

“Well, from the way the girls were all talking, you’re going to need all the rest you can get. So grab yourself some Chinese and go get re-acquainted with them.”

“Where is Samantha?” I asked her.

“She’s on the bridge with Alfred and Tony,” she told me.

So I grabbed some Chinese take-out and climbed the stairs up to the bridge deck. In most ships, the stairs are called ladders, but on larger yachts, that’s not always the case. In any event, if Captain Alfred wanted to call them stairs, then they were stairs, as far as I was concerned.

Captain Tony was showing Captain Alfred his bridge and so I sat on the sofa to the side and listened. When they took a break, Captain Tony greeted me heartily.

“It sounds like you had another adventure,” he said. I was sure then that Captain Alfred had already told him of our brush with the NATO troops.

“It was interesting for a few hours at Messina, but other than that it was a fantastic cruise onboard a wonderful yacht,” I said and then began to tell him about the Bering 75 and how it compared to the catamaran.

“Captain Tony? Just what is the name of your catamaran?” I finally remembered to ask.

“Ahhh, let me show you,” he said as he led me back to the cockpit and down the sugar scoops to the fantail. In large cursive silver letters that were backlit at night, was the name “Windsong”.

“They didn’t get it installed in Antalya, so I had it shipped to Nice and installed,” he explained.

When we returned to the bridge, Captain Tony laid out our plans.

“I want you to be the skipper on this cruise. Al and I will be here if you need us. You will be responsible for scheduling and training the watches, and keeping us on track and as nearly to schedule as possible,” Captain Tony said. “I have done numerous inspections over the last week while she was hauled out and everything seems to be in good shape, but I want you to keep your eye on the new rigging and let me know if it appears to be loose.”

“Yes, sir,” I replied. “What’s the schedule?”

“I thought we could shove off as soon as the ladies have the provisions secured. That is, if you’re comfortable sailing at night?”

“I’m okay with that. I slept most of the day and ready to do something,” I replied.

“Well, it’s about 850 nautical miles to Málaga and another 900 nautical miles to the Canary Islands. Then it’s 3000 miles across the Atlantic to Martinique,” Captain Tony said. “So you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

I had already decided I would do the overnight sailing and set up watches for the daylight hours. So I ran it by them, explaining my reasons.

“That’s an awful lot to take on, skipper,” Captain Alfred said. “Although I agree with your points about a regular sleep cycle and having the girls on watch during the day. Let me offer you an alternative. Limit your bridge time to eight hours and give Tony and me an eight hour watch along with a couple of the girls to help. Divide it up as you see fit, but remember, we may be older than you, but we’re not dead. We’re going to need something to do for the next three weeks.”

I let them spend a few more minutes talking me into it, but I was mainly making sure that this was something they wanted to do.

“Okay,” I said. “Who wants the morning shift?”

“Will you trust us to work that part out?” Captain Tony asked. “What you CAN do is work out a schedule for the girls to help.”

“Then all you have to do is tell me when we’re ready to get under way,” I said in agreement.

We shoved off about nine o’clock that evening. This time, I had two Captains manning the lines for me. I kept telling myself not to let it go to my head.

“Alex, I gave your timesheet and check to one of Reggie’s people to give to Cynthiana,” Captain Alfred told me later that night. He was hanging out on the bridge with me. I’m sure it had something to do with all the women working to get their staterooms the way they wanted them for the next three weeks, but I kept that to myself.

“Thank you,” I told him. “Any trouble turning in the Bering 75 to Herr Oberland?”

“He was as giddy as a kid when we delivered it. Craig and I spent an hour going over some of the things that Alexey had shown us. There was a little blood on one of the sofas, so I offered to replace the whole sofa. He wouldn’t hear of it. Said it gave the Friedlich character and something to talk about. We had to tell him the whole story and show him Craig’s scar.”

“Just as long as he was happy,” I replied.

“Oh, he was happy alright. He even gave us a very generous tip which Craig and I will split with you. I’ll send you a check when we get back to France,” he told me. “This is in addition to the twenty-five thousand he paid you for the delivery,” Captain Alfred added.

“Wait a minute!” I almost shouted. “Did he pay US or did he pay ME twenty-five thousand?”

“I take it you didn’t look at your check or the note with it,” he said.

I just shook my head. At the time, I hadn’t been concerned about the money.

“He paid us fifty thousand for a safe and timely delivery. Craig and I split twenty-five and paid you the other twenty-five. He gave us an additional fifty thousand as a tip. We split that the same way. We thought it fair. Although you should probably call Craig sometime and thank him,” Captain Alfred told me.

“I will,” I said as I contemplated earning fifty thousand dollars for doing something I love.

“What about the money for all those provisions?” I asked suddenly.

“You should take that up with Archara in the morning. She already knows what you were paid,” he said.

I decided to call Cynthiana in the morning and find out the best way to handle this.

“Captain Alfred?” I said a few minutes later. “Is there any way we could rig the bridge for red?”

‘Rigged for Red’ was the euphemism for ‘Darkened Ship’ in the navy, mostly on submarines and surface ships at sea. It entailed low level lighting, usually red, to enable sailors to keep their night vision.

Captain Alfred didn’t answer but instead, walked over to a large panel of switches and studied them for a moment, then he reached up and flipped about a half-dozen of them. Suddenly the bridge was bathed in the glow of an indirect red light and all of the lights, both on the bridge deck and on the bow were extinguished.

“I had to leave the nav lights and the running lights alone, but they shouldn’t bother you too much. If you need some more light to adjust the sails, you can switch this one back on,” he said, pointing to a particular switch. “I had never thought about it on the Serendipity simply because I never really thought I needed it. But after seeing how much difference it made on the Bering 75, I decided I was going to do it from now on when we get back to the Serendipity.”

On any long watch, especially at night, there can be long periods of silence. It doesn’t mean the watch detail is mad at each other, it’s just that there is always something to keep your eye (and mind) on and conversation is often minimal.

So it was, that sometime after midnight, when most of the boat had finally settled down for the night, when Captain Alfred spoke.

“What you did for Craig and Maria was a good thing,” he said out of the blue. “Are you okay?”

“Ask me in a few years when they are in their terrible two’s” I replied. “To be honest, it hasn’t really hit me yet. I just know that I had a hunch and acted on it. And so far, my instincts have not betrayed me.”

“Well, I can understand that. I just want to ask you to be gentle with the girls on this trip. I don’t want them to be hurt,” he said.

“I’m not sure I understand, sir. Do you wish me to stay away from your daughters?”

“My god! How ghastly! They would string me up by my gonads if I asked you to do that!” he exclaimed. “It’s just that I saw how you treated Maria last week and I hope that you will show my girls the same kindness and respect.”

“Sir. I hope you know me well enough by now to know that I would do everything in my power to keep them safe and happy,” I replied, my ire rising.

“Relax, skipper!” he told me. “I’m not speaking man to man here. I’m talking to you as a father of young daughters.”

We were silent for a very long moment as I mulled over his words. Finally, he spoke again.

“You’ll understand one day,” he said. “Maybe about fifteen years from now.”

And with that, he left the bridge.

It’s estimated that people who live aboard their sailing yachts, spend 90% of their time at anchor awaiting the perfect wind conditions to sail to their next destination. They study the projected winds (you can get any number of apps for your computer that forecast the winds) and wait for the most favorable wind conditions before sailing to their next destination. Even if this means a wait of days or even weeks for the right conditions.

But the Windsong did not have that luxury on this trip. We had a schedule to keep. So when the winds shifted to the southwest, and our speed dropped to almost nothing, I furled the sails and started the engines, pushing the yacht to its cruising speed of eight knots.

According to the wind charts, we would probably be running on the engines for the next ten hours or so. Our fuel capacity gave us a range of about 2000 nautical miles on the engines, so we would not need to refuel until we reached Málaga, Spain.

The bigger problem was time. On a catamaran of this size, the normal cruising speed, with favorable winds, was fourteen to sixteen knots, so the next ten hours would find us approximately sixty to eighty nautical miles, or roughly six to eight hours behind schedule. I said a little prayer that the winds would become more favorable soon.

I also spent an inordinate amount of time studying the radar, trying to determine if there was anyone taking an undue interest in us. But I couldn’t really see anything. There were a couple of ships headed the same way we were, but it was a common sea route towards the Strait of Gibraltar so I didn’t put much credence in them actually following us. I did go so far as to look up their AIS online, and discovered that they were both container ships. Still, I was relieved when they both passed us just before dawn.

Was I paranoid? I can’t say. I can say that I was concerned that something might happen that I could not prevent and the idea of losing even one of the precious souls I had onboard shook me to my core.

Finally, as dawn broke, my night of worry came to an end and I heaved a sigh of relief. I don’t know why I had felt so troubled last night. But I was glad to leave the fear behind me as I celebrated the new day. I also realized that yesterday (Tuesday) had been my birthday and I had not even remembered it.

Oh well, Happy Birthday to me! I was nineteen years old now but I didn’t feel any older. However, I would have to remember to call my twin sister and wish her a Happy Birthday soon.

Captain Tony came up to relieve me around eight o’clock Wednesday morning. I explained about the winds and why we were using the engines. I told him to wake me when they changed, and I would help him unfurl the sails. Then I went downstairs for some breakfast. I felt unusually tired after my night of worrying.

“Why don’t you take our cabin?” Monique offered while I was eating my cereal. “I’m sure it would be better than that hole we’ve got you in.”

I thanked her and went down to the owner’s stateroom where I had napped yesterday. She had left the blackout blinds closed, so the room was reasonably dark. Retrieving my backpack through the hatch in the bathroom, I showered off the night’s sweat and crawled into bed.

“It’s about time you got here,” a voice mumbled sleepily.

“Charlotte?” I asked.

“I’ve missed you,” she purred in my ear as her hand slid down to my groin. “I see that you have missed me too!”

My tiredness evaporated when the nubile sixteen-year-old began to kiss me as her hand stroked my manhood. Then rolling over on top of me, she slotted my cock in her pussy and scooted down to engulf me. It was over in less time than I wanted, but she had been primed and waiting on me. I simply rolled on my side and fell asleep. I’d have to make it up to her later.

“Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes,” Sarah said as she sat on the side of the bed running her fingers through my hair. “And you need to call Cynthiana A.S.A.P.”

I felt behind me, but there was no one there.

“She came upstairs hours ago, the little hussy!” Sarah said with a laugh. “All the older girls were arguing about who was going to get you first when she came smirking up the stairs.”

I could tell right now that it was going to be a hell of a cruise!

I went up to the salon to call Cynthiana. Better reception on the satellite phone. Also, I was nearer the dinner table that way.

“Alex?” Cynthiana asked when she answered the phone.

“Hi Cindy-lou,” I said using the nickname the President had used.

“I’ll Cindy-lou you!” she said with a laugh. “Don’t you start that!”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist!” I told her.

“Well, you sound in fine spirits. I guess you had a good birthday?” she replied.

“Actually, I forgot about it being my birthday until early this morning. Then I have been sleeping most of the day. Besides, I don’t think anyone onboard even knew it was my birthday,” I told her.

Cynthiana just let out a little smirk. Then she turned serious.

“I presume that you did not open your pay envelope since it was still sealed when I received it this afternoon,” she said.

“Yeah, about that ... What should I do with it and the check for ten thousand Tony gave me last week?” I asked. “Oh, and there is another check coming for the tip. It’s the same size as the one in your hand.”

“Another twenty-five thousand?” she gasped.

“Herr Oberland was very glad to get his yacht and so he was very generous. Captain Alfred and Captain Tony are the ones who divided it up that way.”