Chapter 62: Where to Next?

It was late when I finally got to bed Saturday night.

After saying goodbye to Rachel’s folks, they and their middle daughter, Lynn, had piled in their new pickup for the six-hour drive back to Lubbock. Rachel then took me aside to explain why her youngest sister, Jana, was staying with us.

I guess, because it had been a long and somewhat unpleasant day for me, I was really only half-listening to her reasons. I knew she had already made up her mind about this and I was going to go along with whatever she wanted, when she suddenly said...

“ ... besides, she has a crush on you.”

“Whoa there! Wait-a-minute!” I exclaimed. “What did you just say?”

“Oh ... You HAD to know that!” Rachel said, looking at me in disbelief.

I just stared at her.

“I mean ... you did know she had a crush on you? Right?”

“Rachel, Darling. The last time I saw her ... the last words I spoke with her, was telling her we would have to see about her going on the yacht with us. And that was on Sunday!”

Well, of course, it didn’t matter that I had been playing in a golf tournament, or dealing with the FBI, or healing a small child of a tumor, or even that I had healed her father. No, the only thing that seemed important right now was how could I have ignored the poor girl?

There was no way I was getting out of a long, mostly one-sided discussion now. Thank God, I had the latest possible tee time tomorrow!

For the second time in two tournaments, I was in the final pairing for the final round. It turned out that my playing partner, the golfer who was in first place, was Tim Culpepper.

When I got to the practice tees, I picked a spot near the end again. Tim joined me a few minutes later. I told him congratulations on a great round yesterday and we talked about my yesterday’s playing partner having cost me a shot or two.

“Yeah. I saw that he was disqualified. The scuttlebutt was that they caught him cheating, but nothing has been said officially,” Tim told me.

“Good luck today,” I told him as I started my warmup. “You’ll need it!”

Tim just laughed and said that we might both end up needing a little luck with the way the wind was blowing.

When we got to the first tee, Tim was announced first since he was the tournament leader. I could tell when he hit it that Tim was on his game today.

As usual, I shuddered when the starter called my name. Then I tried to settle down and focus on not hitting a bad shot in front of the television cameras and the thousands of patrons surrounding the green and the clubhouse. For some reason, that never seemed to work for me, but today, I was lucky as I placed the ball up against the fringe of the first cut of rough.

It was a race from the beginning as we both started playing lights out. He birdied three of the first four holes, but then, so did I. From a fans’ point of view, it was a pretty front nine to watch. Tim and I seemed to elevate each other’s game. By the time we got to the turn, we had left the rest of the field behind with matching 31’s which still left him a stroke ahead. I made up my mind to try harder to catch and pass him on the back nine.

We went birdie, par, on Ten and Eleven, then Tim got a par on Twelve and I got a birdie! We were now tied for the tournament. And stayed that way until Seventeen. There, Tim had a thirty-nine footer for a par save. I then sank my ten footer for par. Still tied.

The on-course reporter following us was talking a possible playoff on his headset as we walked up to the 486 yard, Par 4. It was a mostly straight tee shot, but the 18 mph cross wind had been playing havoc with everyone’s shot today.

As Dad and I stood to the side while Tim lined up his tee shot, Dad whispered to me, “I’m proud of you, son. You’ve played well. But I will remind you that you are playing for fun and have a job to go home to. Tim has a new family and this is his only job.”

I just looked at my dad in surprise. Had he just told me to LET Tim win?

“I’m just reminding you that winning isn’t everything. Just do your best,” my dad whispered.

Tim did win. And no, I did NOT throw the match. Didn’t have to. I pulled an amateur boneheaded stunt and tried for a much longer shot than the conditions allowed for. A sudden gust of wind caught my tee shot and drove it into the lefthand rough. I ended up with a bogie to Tim’s par on a beautiful shot out of the sand.

Tim and I both shot 6 under 64’s but since he started a stroke in front of me, he won by a single stroke.

I was surprised by the number of golfers that had stayed around to watch us finish. Most were congratulating Tim, hugging and fist-bumping and loudly cheering his victory, but quite a few of them took the time to shake my hand and tell me how good I had done.

As I walked out of the scorer’s tent, I paused as some more of the guys, and officials, and even fans, pounded my back, bumped my fist, and even hugged me as they all talked about my achievement. I realized at that moment that the congratulations and recognition from my peers, which I had never really experienced before, was truly special. Maybe THIS was what my Dad was talking about when he said winning wasn’t everything?

I got to meet Tim’s wife, Lisa, and their seven-week-old son, as Tim introduced them to my family between interviews. And yes, I had a handful of interviews this time. It was nice. Paige MacKenzie, from the Golf Channel expected me to be sad, but I was happy for Tim and told her so. At nineteen years of age, I was certain I’d have another chance in the future.

I did learn that the big check they presented was a fake. The $150,000 winner’s portion would be direct-deposited into Tim’s bank by Wednesday. As an amateur, I was not sure how the second place money that I would have earned if I had not been playing as an amateur, would be divided, but the officials told me that it would go to the players as it was considered part of the payout.

In lieu of money, I received two trophies. One for second place and one for low amateur. I didn’t know it at the time, but my sponsor, the one that gave me the sponsor’s exemption to play in the Wichita Open, would send me a small check later in the week to help cover my expenses, the note said. Cynthiana returned it of course, with the appropriate thanks. She had decided that I might play college golf and didn’t want to jeopardize my eligibility.

I was also pleasantly surprised when Tim and Lisa followed us out to the Escalade in the parking lot.

“I offered the Culpepper’s a ride home. They live in Florida,” Dad told me.

When we reached the rental house, our luggage was already packed and sitting in the garage. Dad tied it to the luggage rack while we squeezed the eight of us plus the baby, back into the Escalade and then closed the garage door. We were finally on the way to the airport.

Murph had gone back to Oklahoma City earlier this morning to pack his stuff. He would resign Monday morning and meet dad in Atlanta later Monday.

We landed at the private terminal in Lubbock long enough to pick up the five Lopezes, then headed to Galveston. There, Rachel, Jana, and I caught an Uber to the marina.

The plan was for dad to fly on to Orlando, where the Culpepper’s lived, and then on to Atlanta tonight. Tomorrow, Monday, he was to meet Murph, and then leave Monday night for Zurich with the five Lopezes and Murph. Mom and my sisters would be staying in Atlanta for now.

As Rachel, Lana, and I walked down the pier with our luggage, we spied Captain Tony tied up alongside the pier in the Cécile’s tender. He was there to take us out to where they had tied the Cécile on a mooring ball.

“It was a lot less expensive,” he informed me. “And we didn’t have to worry about the boat dragging at low tide. If I had known how shallow it got here, I would have waited to fill her up.”

“How’s everyone else?” I asked.

“Monique and I had a good time, and everyone else seemed to as well. Of course, there was the usual drama with four teenagers on board, but they are behaving themselves for the most part,” he said apprehensively.

“What’s going on?” I asked, suddenly suspicious.

“Well, it seems like they all got themselves grounded,” he started.

“Grounded?” Rachel asked.

“Yeah. The night Monique and I got back, we took Al and Archara out to a nice dinner since they had been on the boat all week. While we were out, the girls invited a couple of guys they had met at the amusement park to come aboard. We came home fairly early to find six half-naked teenagers playing on the bed in the owner’s suite!”

“Did anyone get hurt?” I asked immediately. I was leery of lawsuits from strangers on the boat if something should happen.

“No one was injured, but there were four very bruised backsides the next morning,” he chuckled. “And they have been confined to their cabins for two days.”

I knew that Captain Alfred and Archara both strongly believed in the value of corporal punishment. But it caught Rachel and Jana by surprise.

“They spanked them?” Jana asked wide-eyed.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t step too far out of line while you are on the Cécile,” I told her with a wicked grin.

“How did the golf tournament go?” Captain Tony asked me.

“Second place,” I replied.

“Are you kidding me?” Jana yelled above the wind noise. “You just tell him second place like it was the most normal thing in the world?”

“Sweetie,” Rachel said as she patted her sister’s arm. “Get used to it. It’s the way guys communicate.”

Jana was quiet the rest of the way out to the yacht. When she climbed on the stern platform, her mouth was hanging open. When she could finally stop swiveling her head around, she asked, “This is your boat?”

“It’s really beautiful when it’s lit up like this,” Rachel told her. The marina had repaired the blast damage and installed the new backlit nameplates.

Captain Alfred helped Captain Tony stow the tender on the swim platform while I carried our luggage to the salon. I had no idea which stateroom Jana would be using.

After stowing mine and Rachel’s luggage, we set down with the adults in the salon. Rachel introduced Jana to the four teenagers and they all promptly disappeared out to the cockpit while Rachel and I caught the adults up on our week and they caught us up on theirs.

“We’ve already checked out with the port authorities, and we can get going at daybreak,” Captain Alfred said. “However, we probably need to discuss where we’re going.”

“I’m good with whatever you guys want to do,” I told them.

“Well, right now, there is a tropical depression forming about 900 miles east of the Lesser Antilles,” Captain Alfred said. “Forecasters are calling for it to become a full-fledged hurricane sometime within the next week. The question is, which way will it go.”

“What should we do?” I asked. I had zero experience with Atlantic hurricanes.

“The first thing is to find out the parameters of your insurer’s hurricane zone. That will help us determine which way to head. You should be able to do that sometime after midnight since your insurer is seven hours ahead of us,” Captain Alfred told us.

“While you have them on the phone, ask them about any other special hurricane-related requirements. They’ll probably ask you for your Named Storm Plan,” Captain Tony added.

“What’s a Named Storm Plan?” I asked.

“What a Named Storm Plan does, is tell the insurance company what you plan to do with your yacht, should there be a named storm approaching. And while the threat of a tropical storm is never a good thing, having a plan is what makes the situation manageable.”

“For instance, because the Windsong is a sailing Catamaran, my insurance company requires that the vessel be north of 30.5 degrees latitude or south of the 10^th Parallel (10 degrees north latitude) from July 1st to November 1st. As a yacht owner, if I should decide to sail my yacht inside the Hurricane box during this time frame, my insurance premiums will be higher. The standard deductible may not go up, but if the yacht is located inside the box during hurricane season, the named storm deductible would be considerably higher in the event of damage caused by a named storm. My named storm plan calls for putting the Windsong on the hardtop if a facility is available. It’s one of the reasons we had her hauled out in Martinique,” Captain Tony explained.

“The other reason was to keep certain persons from taking off with her in the middle of the night!” Archara quipped.

“So I guess the next thing I’m going to learn is how to prepare a Named Storm Plan?”

“First light, tomorrow,” Captain Alfred said.

Monday morning, I was in the pilot house with both Captains. They had me prepare the Cécile to get underway, and then, we made our way out through Galveston Bay, past Pelican Island to the Gulf of Mexico. Once there, we headed for Key West. If nothing went wrong, we should be there Wednesday around lunchtime. My hope was that we would know where the low pressure system was headed by then.

I had just started my Named Storm Plan when the satellite phone rang.

“I need you! Sofía has been kidnapped!” Cynthiana said.