Chapter 5

We woke in our snuggled position, my face buried between her beauties. I could hear movement in the direction of the galley, so I got up, dressed, and walked out to the galley area.

A lady in her late forties or early fifties was preparing something. I introduced myself, but she wasn't very talkative. She finally said, "Mr. Dewey doesn't have people out here. He's a hermit. What made him bring you and that girl?"

"Dewey and I met here on the island and because I helped a friend of his, I think it was his brother, we ended up spending a week together in Hawaii. He met Sheila up in Anchorage and is quite taken with her. I think she could become a part of Dewey's life."

"In all the years, Dewey never brought a lady out here. Not even a girl, not a lady, he never brought nobody out here. Me and Sarah are the only ones that ever come out. We clean for Mr. Dewey and fix him breakfast, and often supper, if he's not drinking it. That's another thing. What did you do with the glasses you were drinking with last night?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

"Helen, my name is Helen MacDougal."

"Tell you what, Helen. You may not believe it but for the last few days, while Dewey has been serious about Sheila, he has not had much to drink at all. Last night was the most I've seen him drink in a week, but it was at the bar in celebration of us coming back."

"You say he hasn't been drinking because he's with that woman?"

"I think that's what the deal is."

"Hmm, maybe he is getting serious. It's either that or he's sick. Do you think he's going to want his usual Bloody Mary?"

"Maybe this morning, but he may not every morning in the future. He may have something more important than booze in his life now."

Helen stopped and looked at me, "You're a good friend to Dewey to look at him that way. Most people just want to take advantage of him."

"I don't think Dewey lets too many take advantage of him. He's too generous as it is."

"See, I told you that you were a good friend to him. Where's your missus, was she drinking too?"

"She still sleeping, she's pregnant and needs some extra sleep now."

"Oh, you lucky man. You're gonna be a dad, huh? How far along is she?"

Sue came into the galley. "I'm almost two months and I'm not even showing yet. My clothes aren't getting tight at all."

I said, "It's probably because you quit drinking beer with me. But don't worry, you'll be showing soon."

"Sue, this is Helen MacDougal. She and another lady named Sarah clean and cook for Dewey. I think they are both surrogate mothers to him."

Helen scoffed, "Oh you, we don't mother the boy, we just look after him."

"Helen, Dewey has to be somewhere in his late thirties or maybe even mid forties. He's hardly a boy."

Helen said, "To me he's still young. He came here probably fifteen years ago and lived on a small boat. About ten years ago he got this one, and that's when Sarah and I began coming out here. We both still think of him as that sullen little kid that came here one spring. We know he lost his parents in some kind of fire just before he came. He must have been taken care of, as he doesn't do much but write stories for outdoor magazines. He has to leave a couple of times of month, but it's probably to talk to the magazines. He's quiet, a hermit. The only time he's social is at the bar."

Sue said, "I think Sheila is going to be good for him."

"You do, huh?" Dewey said standing in the door. "Helen, I see you've met my friends. Did you make any of your Bloody Mary mix?"

"I did, Mr. Dewey. Do you want a little or a lot of extra in it this morning."

Dewey answered, "Tell you what, make two tall ones with just a little extra in them, and make one for Steve, but make one without any extras for Sue."

Helen was smiling as she poured drinks from a big pitcher and added some ice cubes to each glass. Dewey took his two glasses toward his stateroom while Sue and I sat at bolted-down stools in the galley. Helen poured herself a cup of coffee and sat with us.

Helen looked at her coffee and stated, "That's the first time in all my years that he asked for only a little extra. I've worried that he would kill himself with the drink. He is a good man, but he drinks way too much. I hope this is a good sign."

Soon, a smiling Sheila came through the door, followed by Dewey. Sheila announced that she didn't get hangovers, but the Bloody Mary tasted good this morning. We were all ready for coffee now.

Helen told them to sit at the counter with Sue and me. She was going to serve us something special. She put plates and flatware out for us, then pulled a large tray from the oven. She scooped out a baked omelet on each of our plates.

Dewey exclaimed, "My favorite. I love you Helen. You made a salmon omelet for me. She makes it with onions and small pieces of potatoes and wraps it all in dough. I just love this."

Helen was smiling at the compliments.

While we were savoring the delicious breakfast, we heard feet overhead. "Hello the ship," came a gravelly lady's voice.

Helen snorted, "Sarah's here and sounds like she's been to the restaurant already this morning."

"Now Helen, don't give her a hard time," Dewey admonished.

A fairly tall thin older lady came down the stairs. "Dewey, I heard you brought folks out here last night and I had to come see for myself. I told them no way you would bring someone out, but here they are."

Dewey did the honors, "Sheila, Sue, Steve, this is my Aunt Sarah. She really isn't my aunt, but I've called her that since I've been here."

Dewey took her in his arms and hugged her, "Aunt Sarah, you know I've almost quit drinking. Well, at least I don't drink as much. I think you should do the same thing with me. We'll both last a hell of lot longer if we do."

"You know why I have a little to get me by. Since I lost Henry, it's been the only way I can face the day."

"Well, you should slow down and give old Jeff over at the boat shop a chance. The man has been crazy about you for ten years. You know how he follows you around. How many times has he taken you home and put you to bed when you couldn't even walk. That man wants to take care of you. You need to be thinking about taking care of him."

You could see a tear in her eye. She looked at Sue, "You're a missus. You know how hard it would be to lose your man. Do you think you'd ever stop loving him, even though he was gone?"

Sue took Sarah's hand and said, "You're not supposed to ever stop loving your man. It's just that life sometimes takes a break, and you have to start over. I'll bet your Henry would want you to be happy and cared for. You have to have a life without Henry and sounds like this Jeff might be that new start."

"Oh, he's a nice looking man and he has a good job. He does treat me awfully nice and he does watch out for me. He was at the dock when I came out here this morning, making sure I was all right. He's too much of a worrywart."

Sue still had not released Sarah's hand. "Why don't you go back to the dock and see if you can find Jeff and take him to breakfast to thank him and to show him you can be independent. I'll bet that would go a long way to making you both happy."

"You know what, missus. I'll do that. You're a good lady. Thank you for talking to me that way, I wish you had been here a long time ago. I've wasted a lot of time."

"No you haven't, Sarah," Sue said. "You've just taken some time to find your way into a new life."

Sarah hugged Sue, hugged Dewey, and a watery-eyed Helen. She went to Sheila and hugged her saying, "I'll be seeing a lot of you. Thank you for being there for Dewey."

She went up the stairs with Dewey following her. Shortly Dewey came back down and went directly to Sue. He hugged her and said, "Thank you for talking to her that way. None of us ever had the words, but you spoke to her so beautifully. Thank you for helping Sarah, she's been special to me."

"All she needed was a push," Sue said. "Helen probably hasn't been pushing her fast enough toward Jeff and no one ever just talked to her. Everyone's afraid to talk about someone they've lost. If you do talk about it, it's easier and helps them get over that loss. They can put it in a drawer or store it or something."

Sheila said, "That was sweet of you, Sue."

I wanted to brighten things up. "Helen, that was the best omelet I've ever had. I need the recipe for that one. The only problem will be the fresh salmon."

"I'll write it out for Sue so she can make it. Where do you two live?" Helen asked.

Sue answered, "Tampa, Florida. We're just passing through for the second time on our vacation."

"Didn't you two go on a kayak whale hunt with my little Mink? You're both all she could talk about. She and Connie just talk and talk about you two."

Sue and I both smiled, almost blushing, thinking of the good time we had with the girls.

"Speaking of Connie and Mink," Dewey said. "We need to see if they can come out for lunch. I want them to meet Sheila. I bet they would love to take us on a kayak tour."

"My goodness, Mr. Dewey," Helen exclaimed. "When you decide to get friendly, you really let it out. These here are the first people you've ever had out here, beside me and Sarah, and now you're gonna get some of the locals out here too?"

"I think I'm through being a hermit. I want others to enjoy Sheila with me. She is so much fun and I'm so proud to be with her that I want everyone to meet her."

Sheila was blushing, "Take it easy, Dewey, give me a break. I'm sure I'll meet everyone that I need to soon enough. We'll just do it gradually instead of all at once."

We heard a plane land outside and Sue was up the stairs in an instant. I followed to see her excitement. It was a small red and white plane that taxied up to the harbor docks. A marina attendant helped tie the plane up. A couple of people got out and walked up toward the main street. The pilot got out and stretched. The attendant pointed toward a building and the pilot walked that way. The attendant pulled the plane around to where there was a fuel pump and began fueling the plane.

The weather didn't look like it was very nice to be flying in, but I guess these people were used to it. They probably flew between the islands and stayed below the low overcast. The ceiling couldn't be much over three thousand feet, so these guys must fly the shipping lanes pretty much.

Sue came over to hug me, saying, "I want an airplane. I promise to be careful, but flying is so much fun. I think I can fly right up to the time I have the baby. You need to get your license current too and we both need to finish our instrument ratings. I would prefer to file an IFR flight plan. These guys up here probably don't even file any plan. They just fly."

When we went back into the deck cabin, Sheila and Dewey were up there. Dewey was calling someone about having his boat motors surveyed. I guess that meant "checked out."

When he finished he said, "How about us sailing down to San Francisco? We might possibly go farther, but definitely San Francisco."

"I don't know anything about sailing, Dewey, nothing," I said, thinking it would be important.

"Don't worry about it. Everything on this boat is automatic and electric. We have to uncover the sail, and wrap it when we're not using it, but everything else is powered. This thing even has an autopilot. If sailing gets to be too much trouble, we'll just use the motors to get us where we want. This thing has twin Cat diesels."

"If you think we would be safe, I'm for it. How about you, Sue?"

"Sounds like a great adventure to me. I'm going to need some heavier clothes though. We sent all our heavy stuff back. We still have our light windbreakers, but that's it."

"The boat shop is coming to check out the engines, so I'll get Helen to food shop for us and leave us directions as to what to fix. You three take the dinghy into the harbor and go to the outfitter right there on Main Street. He has everything you need. Tell him what we're doing and he'll fix you up. Sheila, tell Herb to put your stuff on my bill. I'll take care of it later. I need to set up the chart table in here so we can navigate. Let's get going, this is going to be fun."

I helped Sue and Sheila down to the dinghy and steered the boat to the dock. We tied up where we had the day before and walked into town. It didn't take long to get what we needed. The man had Sue and Sheila try on a couple of things, but he mostly just put stuff out for us. He included wet weather gear for all of us.

Sheila said she needed to pick up some feminine supplies and Sue said she wanted to get some more sunscreen, so we walked the half block to the drug store. We were back on the sailboat, with our new gear stowed, in record time. The mechanics declared the boat seaworthy and ready to sail.

Dewey and I stowed the cabin tarp in a locker on deck and took off the sail covers. We untied the sail lashings so the sail could be easily hoisted. Dewey then cycled each sail to make sure the hoist motors were working. After he finished, both of us went down to the boarding platform, covered the dinghy, and replaced the tie with a heavier duty towline. Helen returned with a boat full of groceries and we all got them to the galley. She had purchased a couple of cases of beer and said she expected some to be left when we got back. It took us a while to put everything away. She took some time and explained how cooking at sea was different. She checked to make sure that we had plenty of propane, gave everyone a hug, and told us to enjoy.

Dewey looked at each of us and sighed. "Let's do it. First we'll pull the aft anchor so we can release the line to the buoy. While you release the line, I'll start the engines."

Dewey went to the helm and flipped some switches. You could hear fans blowing for a couple of minutes before he fired the engines. They were very quiet. After engaging the gear, he slowly maneuvered us around to head out of the harbor and we were on our way.

It took us an hour to get out to where it looked like the horizon was all water. Dewey began hoisting sails until he had a full set. Since the wind was from the northwest, we were able to get up to a pretty good speed. The indicator at the outdoor helm registered nearly twelve knots. With the engines off, it was eerie; you could hear the bow slicing through the small swells, feel the damp wind on your face, and feel the motion of the boat.

Dewey had a serene look on his face as he steered the boat with the big wheel with Sheila hanging onto his arm. Sue and I stood behind them, enjoying their new closeness.

Sue and I went below, made coffee, and brought big mugs up for Dewey and Sheila. Sue said she would make sandwiches for us all and would be back up soon. Sheila went down with Sue while I stayed with Dewey.

"This is what I love about a sailboat. Do you feel the smoothness of how this boat sails though these seas? If we were in a motor launch we would be pounding over these swells."

"How big is this boat, Dewey?" I asked curious.

"A hundred five feet. It's classified as a sailing sloop, not a sailboat. There is plenty of room for more cabins, but all I wanted were two big cabins with two heads, the spare cabin, and a big eat-in galley. There was so much room I ended up with the dining area, plus the lounge. When I ordered this, they thought I was crazy, but so far it's been perfect. If you consider the huge lounge and bad-weather helm on the deck, I have a living room, complete with TV and stereo, to go with a kitchen and bedroom. When I'm anchored, I have all of Friday Harbor for my family room."

We sailed without talking for a couple of more minutes, and pointing he said, "In the lounge up here, on the right side of the door, if you lift up the cushions there are several rifles and some pistols. There hasn't been any trouble lately, but every once in a while we do have some pirates out here. They want a boat like this to run drugs. If someone approaches us, get a rifle and pistol, if they try to board, we're in the open sea, so shoot to kill and don't worry about it. The people who would try to board us will try to kill you, so be careful and be accurate. From what John said you know how to take care of yourself. You need to take care of all of us."