Chapter 21

I awoke with a terrible pain in my abdomen! My bladder was extremely full and my wife was lying on top of me putting pressure in a bad place. I, not too gently, moved Adin to the side and rushed to the head. Things were so bad that even starting to urinate hurt terribly. However, things settled down soon enough except that now I was quite cold—apparently a cold front had arrived during the night.

As I was finishing up I heard a frantic pounding on the door!

"Hurry up! I'm freezing out here, and I really need to pee," Adin called.

"Here you go, honey," I said as I exited the head.

Adin quite nearly bowled me over as she rushed past me. I shrugged my shoulders and went to the galley for a glass of orange juice, before returning to bed. After all, it was only four-thirty in the morning, and quite cool.

Just as I lifted the covers so that I could crawl back into bed Adin dove past and slid into the bed before me.

"Hurry up and get in here! I'm freezing!" she said through chattering teeth.

Her tiny nightie was just not made for such cool temperatures. The poor girl was shivering terribly. I slid into bed and pulled my wife into a bear hug, trying to warm her up.

"Brrrrrr..." she said as she tried to get closer to me.

"You really are chilled," I said with growing concern.

I started to rub her arms and back vigorously, trying to warm her with friction.

"Yeah, I am. Cold never used to bother me. I guess it's the hormonal changes that are doing it."

I did a quick scan, and found nothing bad, so had to agree. I conjured her nightie away.

"Hey, what..."

I then conjured a warm pink pair of footie pajamas for my love.

"Ooooo ... these are so warm. Thank you, my darling," Adin purred as she snuggled up to me again.

We remained curled up together until my wife warmed up enough to stop shivering, then we both went back to sleep.

Erik came knocking at seven, "Time to get up if we're going to stick to the plan," he said.

We got up and groggily did our morning toilette, though the cold soon brought us totally awake. As we sat eating breakfast, Erik told us that we would need to add sail today, so that he could show us just how beautifully the Rum Runner sailed.

Once out of the harbor and clear of the island Erik turned Rumrunner due east. The wind was from the north and that meant that the wind was coming over the port rail causing the ship to heal over. Erik kept ordering his crew, us, to put on more and more sail. With the addition of each new sail, Rumrunner healed over more, until finally the starboard gunnels were in the water and the schooner was almost flying.

I looked aft after setting the last tops'l. What I saw was a reincarnation of the Viking sailors of old, as Erik stood at the helm. The Norseman was standing with bare chest, and spread legs. The sun was on his face while the wind tore at his hair. He was smiling from ear to ear with the sheer joy of being out on the water, on board his beloved Rumrunner.

I then looked forward and saw my wife standing in the bow, braced against the rigging, hair streaming in the wind with the ocean spray hitting her and she too was smiling from ear to ear.

It was a beautiful morning and we were all in good spirits. Even Rumrunner seemed sprightly and joyful, like a young gazelle, as she dipped and rose on the waves with a bone in her teeth.

She was, indeed, a very fast vessel!

I went forward to stand by my wife. I put my arms around her shoulders and hugged her to me. We just stood there enjoying the freedom of sailing. After an hour or so Erik called to us. We strode aft and were quite surprised when Erik gave us instructions on how to take control of the helm. We each took a turn at standing behind the beautiful wooden wheel.

Getting on toward noon I noticed some bumps on the horizon and mentioned them.

"That's where we're going," said Erik. He then continued, "Interesting place."

As Erik was talking, Adin stuck her head out of the companionway and asked if we wanted to eat together on deck or in shifts below in the saloon?

[Author's note: The large living/eating areas of the passenger sailing ships of the nineteenth century were called Saloons and the name was adopted by the bar owners of the old west for their establishments.]

Erik looked at me and I looked up at the blue sky and said, "Let's eat up here, Honey."

Since it was my stint at the helm, Erik went to help my wife bring the food and drinks up on deck. The ships wheel was attached to the aft part of a box that housed the steering mechanism and Erik placed the tray on the flat top of that box.

Adin handed up a drinks pitcher filled with fresh lemonade. It went on the box next to the tray then she joined us on deck.[1] While we were eating I asked, "Is there a story about the place we are going?"

"Yes, there is," said Erik with a smile. "Not as infamous as Mark Island, but interesting all in the same. Back in the early eighteen hundreds an enterprising man by the name of Albert Gray arrived in the area. He was the fifth son of a Duke and therefore not going to inherit the title or any of the lands. He was, however, given a decent sum of money with which to start his life.

"After his arrival most people thought that he was shiftless and lazy since he just wandered around exploring, watching and listening as the others worked. The thing is that Albert was searching for a way to earn big money not just a paycheck. He finally found the niche that he thought would earn him a lot of money. In his explorations Albert discovered that the islands ahead of us had some unique qualities.

"First, the islands were mostly pure granite ledges that were high enough to weather the worst of storms. Second, what was thought to be five different islands were, in fact, all one island at low tide. And third, there was a nice little harbor."

"I'm sure you're going to tell me what the significance of those facts are, although I do know that a natural harbor is always a good thing," I said.

While we were talking Erik took control of the helm again, but he did continue his narrative.

"Once Albert had found the islands he hired a crew of quarry men and their families and moved them out to the largest of the islands along with all of the needed support supplies and so forth. That first summer that crew cut an incredible amount of stone blocks.

"While the men were cutting stone Albert hired the youngsters, both male and female to gather seaweed from around the beaches and had them spread the stuff along with the manure and straw from the animals all over the other islands. At first it was living rough for those people but the money from the sale of the granite blocks was good, and those few families were soon better off than their compatriots who were living on the mainland.

"The next summer, Albert hired builders to erect cisterns and small stone houses on one of the other islands. Albert was building a small village out here on what became known as Gray Rock Isles."

"Why on earth did Albert hire the kids to spread seaweed around the islands?" asked Adin.

"Until that time, nothing grew on the islands but a few patches of grass in some of the crevices, while the rest of the islands were covered with bird guano. What Albert was doing was building top soil so that the people would be able to grow some of their own food. At least, that is the legend. It could be that they shipped topsoil out to the islands and then supplemented that with seaweed. At any rate the islanders were soon growing much of their own food and had enough grass for the animals that they used. By the end of the third summer all of the areas that connected the islands were walled off and paved with smooth stone blocks, the people had better homes than they had before on the mainland and a new industry was well under way."

Erik was a real story teller and kept the suspense going!

"Well? What was this new industry?" asked an exasperated Adin.