Chapter 6

Kate Turner stood at the helm of the Lady Ester and watched a flock of brown pelicans as they flew across the bow, low on the water, in single file. They didn't fly in a V - unlike geese, they weren't migrating they were scanning the waters searching for fish.

The weather was perfect for sailing - a sunny and warm day with a strong following breeze that keep the sails filled as they made their way toward Santa Cruz Island, twenty miles distant. It was just past noon and the waters of the Santa Barbara channel were relatively calm as she stood behind the big metal wheel, relishing the feel of the wind and the taste of salt water, and the sheer joy of sailing a craft that was made for open waters and an unhurried pace. After an over-night stay they had sailed from the marina at Santa Barbara at mid-morning, the third day of a wonderful sailing vacation.

Kate wasn't alone in the cockpit, six year-old Jana sat on the cushions next to her, using her Bushnell's to track the pelicans as they swooped across the glistening late summer waters. She was pleased that Jana had taken to sailing, as she had, at an early age. Like her mother Jana loved the feel of the wind and the quiet of the open water and watching the creatures that populated the waters of coastal California.

To her right Jake was napping, stretched out on his back on the seats in the small cockpit. She loved him fiercely and just watching him sleep filled her with contentment. The two years they had been together had been the happiest of her life, and for the past year she had been Mrs. Jake Turner.

She and Jake and Jana had looked forward to this week away for months, ever since her friend Karen had first broached the topic of a sailing vacation. It was to be a time, without cell phones or schedules and the first vacation in more than a year for both of them. Their last vacation had been their honeymoon. That was a magical time when they had hidden away in an eighteenth century villa in Tuscany for two weeks, venturing out just a few times in their little rental Fiat to discover the markets and tiny restaurants in the hilltop towns that dotted the area. The rest of the time they were just together – waking with Jake's arms around her had filled her with wonder at the love they shared. As they strolled the Italian countryside hand in hand she came to know the rest of Jake Turner and love him all the more.

Now they were on the Lady Ester, a beautiful 43 foot North Wind which belonged to her friend Karen Wallace who was one of the attorneys at the medical center. It had a center cockpit and sailed like a dream. The high cockpit design made the visibility exceptional and it could easily be sailed solo. She knew that Karen had done so a number of times, but Kate preferred company, especially if that company was Jake and Jana.

Kate remembered the first time she had seen Ester. This was before she met Jake. She and Karen had been associates at the medical center, and had worked together on a number of legal issues that involved the Trauma Center. Over the months that professional relationship evolved into friendship and even though Karen was maybe fifteen years older they found they had much in common. Kate guessed that Karen was mid to late forties, although she still looked to be in her thirties. She had a youthful attitude, a terrific sense of humor, and a body most women her age would kill for – perhaps women of any age she thought smiling. Karen was a mother of two daughters and Kate found herself asking her friend for advice when it came to questions about raising her own daughter. Karen's daughters were in college and seemed to be doing well. As their friendship developed, Karen discovered that Kate loved the ocean and sailing, so one day she invited her to join her on the Lady Ester.

Kate didn't know what to expect but when they reached the slip at the Newport Beach Marina, she gasped as she looked at the sleek white-hulled beauty,

"My God Karen she's beautiful! I had no idea ... when you said we'd go sailing ... well I thought maybe something ... a bit smaller..."

Karen had laughed.

"She's not that big ... just forty-three feet of the most comfortable and smooth sailing you'll find ... two large sleeping cabins, fore and aft, real plumbing and a complete galley, plus all the latest electronic gear in the world."

Kate smiled at her as they boarded. Ester was bigger than anything she had sailed on. Her parents never owned a boat but that didn't deter her from spending much of her spare time mastering a small craft propelled by nothing but the wind. In her teens she had started working at odd jobs around the marinas just to earn enough to rent the small sail boats that were ubiquitous to the harbors and marinas along the coast of California, especially near San Diego where she grew up. She learned the skills needed to keep a sailboat moving, and most importantly, upright. In high school and college she was usually found herself helping to crew something in the thirty foot range along coastal southern California and Mexico.

As they cast off and made their way past the breakwater Kate wondered how Karen had come to have this magnificent craft.

"But how?"

"How did I come to own Lady Ester?"

Kate nodded.

Even from behind Karen's large green-tinted Aviators Kate could see the sorrow as she replied,

"A parting gift from my ex-husband..."

"Oh..."

Karen hadn't elaborated and Kate hadn't asked anything more. They spent the day cruising within sight of the coast and Kate spent a lot of time behind the big metal wheel getting familiarized with how Ester handled, and falling in love with her. She discovered Lady Ester to be very well mannered and easy to sail. Kate vowed that someday she would have her very own "Ester".

Some months later, after Jake was introduced to Karen and Ester, and Kate told him of her goal to own a similar vessel some day, he reminded her, with good humor, that the only thing better than owning a boat was having a good friend with a boat. She responded in kind by reminding him that the same could be said for owning a pickup – but Jake still owned a pickup. Laughingly he acknowledged her point.

Now Kate was at the helm, feeling as content as she had ever felt unconsciously shifting her weight as the boat moved through the small swells. Her quiet contemplation on the wonders of sailing and her happiness with life in general was interrupted as Jana called out,

"Daddy! Daddy! Look, Dolphins!"

Kate smiled. Jana was now standing on top of the large amidships cabin holding onto one of the supports that held the fiber-glass bimini sun shade that covered the cockpit. She was wearing a yellow one-piece bathing suit, her florescent orange life vest, and a pink baseball cap. Jana's blonde hair flowed out the back of the cap held in a ponytail by a scrunchie. She pointed excitedly at a large pod of dolphins just off the port bow which had overtaken them.

Kate remembered reading that there were more than fifty thousand dolphins that called the Santa Barbara Channel home – a testament to the abundance of bait fish in these waters and the health of the channel ecosystem. She studied the sleek creatures as they surrounded the boat, putting on a show just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

She was amused and pleased that Jana had called out to Jake and not her. She loved it when she heard her call him "daddy". And he was her father legally now since the adoption was finalized about six months ago. Jana had been two when, Greg, her biological father had been killed. Like Kate, he was a surgeon but he had felt compelled to change the world and spent his summers providing medical help to people in the more wretched parts of the world. He died in a helicopter crash in a sandstorm in Somalia.

She thought she had loved Greg. They had lots of mutual interests, met in medical school and took their surgical residency together. She looked back on it now and her marriage to Greg seemed more of a marriage of convenience. Not that they didn't love each other – or at least what she thought of as love at the time, but it really was two people with a lot in common who were of marriageable age thinking they ought to get married.

When Greg died, she had searched her feelings. She missed him and often thought of his wonderful sense of humor, tenderness, passion for the underdog, and boyish good looks - and she missed those, but where was the real sense of loss? At the time she thought perhaps it had been swallowed up by the fact she had a two year old to take care of and she was still trying to complete her surgical residency which had been delayed by her pregnancy. Maybe she just hadn't had time to dwell on it. Thank God her parents had been close by and willingly pitched in to help with Jana and everything else while Kate finished her training. They continued to help after she took the job at the Trauma Center. There was no way she could have kept up her schedule without their support as babysitters and grandparents and most importantly, the moral support they provided.

So when she met Jake the contrast had been shocking. What she felt for him transcended anything she ever felt for Greg. Her analytical surgeon's mind had been overloaded by such raw emotions that for the first time in her life she felt out of control and vulnerable. It was disquieting but there was no fighting it – she was Jake's woman and he was her man. Her tough as nails reputation at the Trauma Center also suffered – in a good way.

As she watched the dolphins play around the Ester, she thought about the wonderful day at Camp Pendleton when she met Jake Turner. She had never felt such attraction. By the time that luncheon was over she was convinced he was the man for her. That first afternoon she discovered Jake was a man of deeds, not words - a wounded veteran and a hero. But she had not heard it from him – no, from a chance meeting with a Marine gunnery sergeant. And then a few nights later, shoulder to shoulder in the operating room, she watched his unflappable demeanor as he helped her save the life of an accident victim.

Her parents seemed reluctant at first about Jake. Of course they were protective of their only child and granddaughter and Kate had not dated much since Greg's death and then suddenly along came Jake and he had swept her away. The day after he had first kissed her she announced to them that she was in love and would marry him. They, of course were concerned that he was four years younger than Kate, didn't have a four year degree and was a "fireman".

But Jake had won them over. He had made a friend of her father at their first meeting, a Sunday brunch hosted by her parents at their home. Kate's father had been an aerospace research scientist all his life, a graduate of Cal Tech – yes a rocket scientist. But he and Jake found lots in common, especially since he had served a hitch in the Marines, although he was a supply officer and never got farther away than the training area at Twenty Nine Palms, out in the California desert.

Kate's mother took her time warming up to Jake, even after they were engaged. She could see the love they had for each other and how Jana adored him but she was cautious. She had also loved Greg and losing him had been a blow.

The Christmas after they attended Pete and Emily's wedding in Tahlequah, Pete and Emily came to visit along with Jake's parents. It was their first trip to California and they joked that a Christmas without frigid weather seemed strange but they might get used to palm trees and 65 degree weather. Kate's parents hosted a family barbeque in their big back yard on a cloudless warm late December day. Seeing Jake through the eyes of his parents and sister and his best friend Pete, plus hearing the family stories, helped her see him as a loyal friend and caring brother and son – a man worthy of her daughter and granddaughter.