Chapter 47: Refueling in Messina

Sarah had me a sandwich and a glass of milk when I came into the dining room at ten ‘til four. I took them both and headed to the bridge. Captain Alfred was waiting on me and went over where we were and where we were headed, then gave me the seas and the wind direction.

“You’re relived,” I told him as I began to check all the instruments. I paid particular attention to the bilges to make sure they were functioning properly.

One thing about the Friedlich that was different from the catamarans, was the weight. Catamarans were made of aluminum and fiberglass composites to make them light. Consequentially, if the wind was right, they could fly across the top of the water.

Whereas the Friedlich was built along the lines of a commercial trawler with a heavy steel hull and aluminum superstructure and simply plowed through the water without much rocking back and forth or up and down. It had stabilizers, but you could barely tell the difference when they were engaged. And you had to be really quiet to even hear the engine running in the pilothouse because of all the layers of sound insulation.

The afternoon became evening and we ran through a number of squalls, but nothing major. Towards 11:30pm, Admiral Craig came up to discuss a problem with me.

At our current speed, we would reach Messina where we would take on more fuel and some extra provisions, long after dark Thursday, and after the port and the stores were all closed. He wanted to see how I would handle it.

After studying the charts, I suggested that we anchor about a mile off the southern Italian coast near Lazzaro. It wasn’t the most perfect of solutions, but we should arrive there before dark and then we could continue the three hours into Messina at first light. After we re-fueled and re-provisioned, we could head past the point at Torre Faro before sundown and make our way up the coast of Italy towards Monte Carlo. If plans held, we would arrive in Monte Carlo next Tuesday afternoon, February 23^rd. My birthday.

“Excellent! Enter the data into the chart plotter and we’ll make it so, Skipper!” he told me.

When I finished, he told me to go to bed.

“Aye, aye,” I told him. “The admiral has the bridge!”

Maria was alone in the dining room when I went down.

“Alex, I ... uh, I may need some of that healing you talked about. I’m afraid that Craig and I got so excited about finally having a child, that we got a little carried away. And I had hoped that you would try again tonight because it’s my fertile time, but I’m kind of sore,” she told me.

“Let me get a Coke and I’ll follow you,” I told her.

It took but a moment for the amber glow to match the silvery/white of my hands. And Maria was immediately ready to get on with the festivities. However, I felt she needed to give the healing some time, so I explained and then asked her to tell me about growing up in Barcelona.

“Poppa became the head of the mathematics department at Universität Pompeu Fabra (Pompeu Fabra University) right after I was born. I am the third of four daughters. My oldest sister became a professor like my father, and had two daughters. You met Danièle. The other one is twenty-one and about to graduate from the University of Wisconsin in the USA. She wants to be a veterinarian.

My second sister is married to a rancher and they have two sons and a daughter. They also have one of the larger ranches in southern Spain. My youngest sister is working on her graduate degree in Aeronautics. She could have been finished if she hadn’t fallen in love with a musician and followed him around Europe for two years.

It was interesting hearing about her family and it was obvious that they communicated frequently. I asked her what they would think about her turning up pregnant.

“They are devout Catholics and I am not sure how they will handle our arrangement. They know how much I have wanted a baby, but they sometimes listen to the Padre instead of their hearts,” she said sadly. “However, Craig’s family will be thrilled. Especially if it’s a boy. Craig has only three sisters and they have seven girls between them.”

“You can tell me to mind my own business, but is Craig going to initiate Danièle into the family lifestyle?” I asked.

“We decided that this is not the time. Much more discussion with my sister and her husband is necessary before we take that step. I’m sure Craig is disappointed, but he is the one who made that decision,” she said. “Now enough about my extended family. It’s time for you to work on my immediate family!”

Then throwing her arms around my neck, she began kissing me.

“It’s almost time for lunch,” Danièle said as she sat on the side of my berth, moving the hair from my eyes. “And Uncle Craig said that you’ll need to start looking for an anchorage this afternoon.”

“What time is it?” I mumbled, only half awake.

“It’s just past 11:30 on Friday morning,” she said cheerfully. “This trip has gone by so fast. I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy being trapped on a small boat for a week even though I knew you were going to be here.”

“Small?” I asked.

“Compared to my last cruise. That was on a battleship,” she told me. “But it was nowhere near as nice as this yacht!”

Then she kissed me and left me to get a shower. I didn’t have to shave that often, but I knocked off the few whiskers that were there and after my shower, headed for the dining room.

“Reggie called and said for you not to go ashore when we get to Messina,” Samantha reported. “He would prefer that you stay out of sight. He didn’t say what was going on, but I could tell that something is happening.”

“Okay. Did he say how they’re tracking us?” I asked.

“He didn’t say, but probably through Ship Tracker or one of those other websites that track your AIS,” Sarah provided.

I hadn’t thought of that. “Should we turn off the AIS?” I asked.

“Probably not. If something happened to this beautiful yacht, we would not have any insurance coverage if you do turn it off,” Sarah told me.

So my enemies know exactly where I am and there is nothing I can do about it. “Oh well,” I thought. “I’ll just deal with them when the time comes.”

I spent the afternoon on the bridge studying the charts with their known currents and tides, while also keeping an eye on the computer that showed the projected wind patterns. Finally, just a few minutes before sundown, we found a small cove that was ideal. There, we dropped both the fore and aft anchors. Then Captain Alfred showed me how to set the perimeter alarms that would let us know if anything approached the yacht while we were at anchor, before we finally went down to dinner.