Chapter 24

Chuck

Julie whispered into my ear, "It's almost four. Get up and get a shower to get your motor running." When I slid from bed and checked the clock, it was only three thirty. Wonder why so early. I can do everything necessary in five minutes flat.

As I slipped from bed, peed, and started the shower, a sexy older, or more mature, lady stepped under the spray with me. Julie whispered some more as she held on to my growing interest. "I need you, Lover; you make me feel so good, so alive. I keep wondering how long these feelings will continue and how long my lust for you and your ladies will last. They just make me crazy. I've had more sex in the last couple weeks than I've had in the last twenty years." She paused as she made me squat a little and she lifted her leg to put me into her. "And you, my young stud, you make me feel like I'm about twenty all over again."

As we slid together in the awkward position, Julie moaned, "I wish I hadn't had my change yet, I'd like to join some of the women having your baby. The way my body is craving what we are doing this very second makes it even worse. I used to never feel this hot before. My husband and I had sex, but not as much as we've been having."

As we groaned through our mutual orgasms, Lisa slid the shower door open and stepped in. She kissed both of us and went to her knees in front of Julie. Julie held Lisa's face to her center and groaned out another orgasm. For her age, she was a hot one.

Lisa came up and kissed me with her fragrant face, turned and kissed Julie, saying, "Don't you just love an early morning snack." When I tried to turn Lisa, she said, "Not right now, I have a plug. I'll be glad to help you out if you need me to, but save it for the other ladies."

As we washed, Lisa said, "I'm a little late, only a day or two, but I was wondering if my birth control didn't work. I was beginning to think in terms of what kind of mommy I would be. But I'm not, not even a real false alarm. But my starting makes me think of something we need to talk about."

The three of us finished showering, then dried, and dressed. We went up to the salon bridge and found Steve and Sue manning the helm. I think they were doing more kissing and groping than acting as captain. Sue smiled at us and said, "Just in time, another couple of minutes and we would have been copulating on a couch."

The way she said it made Julie and Lisa laugh. Steve and Sue straightened their clothes and Steve said, "Go do a visual of the lines and sails. I'll hold it up here until you get back."

I did the once over on the big boat, noticing the wind had picked up and the air felt moist. It felt like it was going to rain. I did the walk around, and back inside Lisa was looking at the weather monitor and said, "Looks like we're going to be in the soup very soon. The seas are going to be around four to six feet, so if any of our newcomers get motion sickness, they need to take some Dramamine or slap on a Scopolamine patch."

Steve and Sue said goodnight and went below with their arms around each other. I checked the long range weather and turned up the contrast. We were certainly in for some rain. It was only about fifteen miles out. I checked the anemometer and saw that we were being pushed by a strong wind, but as soon as we pass the front, we are going to have to tack as the wind will be almost a hundred eighty out of where we need it.

I pulled the sail configuration book to check what sail I needed to take down and what other sail I needed to put up. I went back outside to see if I could estimate the seas, but it didn't look like anything higher than three to four feet.

I turned the radar back to normal and checked our traffic. The ten mile radar showed only one boat and it appeared to remain idle off our port, probably a fishing boat. The GPS said we were doing a very respectable sixteen plus knots, and we were about two to two and a half hours or less out of Nice. That would be true if this front doesn't slow us down a lot. I was of a mind to just start the engines, but thought that wouldn't make me a very good sailor, would it?

The long range radar at twenty-five miles said there were several boats out there, but none were on an intercept. I knew if any of them started in our direction, the collision avoidance system would kick in and alert us. With the radar up on fifty miles, we were already getting ground clutter from our target landmass.

While I was doing all of this, I was explaining it to both ladies. Julie and Lisa were taking it in while they were both paging through the sail configuration manual.

Steve and Sue had made a fresh pot of coffee at the bar, so I poured three cups. Lisa said, "I know it's early, but I might try something a little stronger. I know, I'll make an Irish coffee. There is Irish whisky, Baileys, and I know I saw a can of whipped cream in the little fridge up here."

Julie was watching Lisa, and asked, "Do you think it's too early to have something like that?" I'm getting so strange, craving lovemaking all the time, drinking in morning, and all. As much as I've been eating, I should be putting on weight, but I don't seem to have done that at all."

Lisa handed Julie the Irish coffee she had made for herself and made another. She asked me if I wanted one, but I declined. I knew I was going to have to be alert for the wind shift and to dock in a little while.

While we were sitting at the helm, Lisa said, "Julie and I have talked to the rest of the girls and we've come to the conclusion that it is really your decision to make about Gina. That said, we all would like you to bring her into our family." Lisa paused and continued, "Here's why. For one, Gina and Gio have both had babies and will be a help with the ones coming. I know we live next door to a whole bunch of women who've had babies and will help us, but it is one consideration."

Julie said, "Have you watched how starved for companionship those four little kids are. They've been like an appendage to Steve's and Dewey's kids since they met us. Their English is improving by the second and Beth even said she would begin tutoring them to make sure they are up to their appropriate grade with the other kids. I've talked to Gio, and she's said that the kids couldn't go to public school because of her father, too much danger of kidnapping. They were going to a small private school that both Gina and Gio didn't think was very good. You know how smart the kids from the trailer park are. That's not all natural ability, it's the moms teaching them. They are going to be some of smartest homeschooled kids you'll ever meet."

Lisa began again, "And, Gina has really got it bad for you. She loves the rest of us and enjoys us a lot, but she really has a thing for you. Is it an infatuation that will burn out, who knows? But right now, I think she would do anything for you and anything to stay with us."

Julie said, "We need to keep her. I know it's going to be difficult to get all of the visas and stuff to keep them in the states, but I'm sure we can do it. If I'm right, you're not hurting for money and you and I both know that if you grease enough palms, you get what you want. The kids' situation might be the same way, but if you can get a permanent visa for Gina, it will be easy to get them for the kids."

Lisa said, "Of course, she may want to become an American citizen. That would make it even easier."

I had listened attentively while still watching the approaching wind shift. "Look, I really like Gina and think she would probably fit in with us, but you have to remember, she has family in Italy, a big family that is probably very protective and could become jealous of us for keeping her. We don't need that kind of hassle."

Julie said, "I talked to their father, Giovanni Martinelli, at the concert. He was very curious about what position I had with the family. I jokingly said, 'on my back' and it took him a couple of seconds to mentally translate what I said and get the meaning. You probably saw him laughing. That was the reason. I told him that I was sort of a hanger on, as I had met you while we were doing business and have just stayed. He asked me about you and I told him what I thought. I won't go into what I said, but it was glowing. He said that since I was more mature, he meant 'old lady, ' he felt what I said had great value. He asked me to hold our conversation confidential, but I could talk to you and our family about it. Giovanni told me that he had kept his two daughters away from his family and family business to the extent that most of the family didn't really know much about the girls. He said he had arranged marriages for both girls, and obviously didn't do a good job. Gio's husband supposedly died of natural causes. Gina's husband just vanished. He said that he was negotiating a divorce with the church."

Julie stopped to drink some of her Irish coffee. "Anyway, Giovanni said he had a dream of his girls finding some good men and moving far away from his world. He said he thought you and Steve may be the answer. The man even asked if I thought the two of you could be bribed. I didn't laugh at him, but I assured him you had more than enough money."

Lisa said, "We're telling you all of this to let you know that Gina's dad wants us to take her and Gio, and he'll do almost anything for their happiness to happen."

I said, "Tell you what, while we're here in Nice, see if you can get hold of an immigration attorney. Sue and Steve probably know several. See what would have to be done, and when I talk to Giovanni, we'll see how he feels. I think I need to have a conversation with Gina about this, and it should be with all of you girls present. I'm not giving you a definite yes, what I'm telling you is that I think Gina might fit with the family. I really don't want another woman. Right now I think I have to make room for Julie."

Before I could say 'before I take on another woman, ' Julie almost knocked me over in her enthusiasm over my statement. Lisa was hugging us both, and said, "Good job, Chuck, I was wondering when you would recognize how much we all want Julie to be as much a part of our family as possible."

Julie said, "I'll have to travel back and forth to England quite a bit, but I will be spending most of my time with my new family. Thank you, Chuck, and I mean that sincerely."

Lisa said, "There is something that has come up that we need to talk about. When my period started, I was reminded of when the girls, our Asian sisters, first began becoming an intimate part of our family. They said their birth control kept them from having periods. What has changed?"

Remembering that conversation I said, "You're right, what has changed? When did this revelation hit you?"

"Actually, this morning when we were in the shower," Lisa said. "Don't go postal over this, but we need to find out how this occurred. It would almost be impossible for them to have periods so quickly after having the implants removed, if they did get them removed, and did both of them have it done at the same time?"

I said, "Didn't they say there was almost a year after removing the implants that they were safe from pregnancy."

After Lisa agreed with me, Julie said, "Let me talk to them. I'll be Scotland Yard for this one. I think I know what may have happened, but let me find out."

Lisa said, "Just what we need, two more pregnant women. At least Tina doesn't want to do that right away. She has so much on her plate with school and internship; I'm surprised she was able to come to Italy."

The boat began to slowly rock and I began the sail configuration change to tack toward Nice. Almost as soon as I had the sails changed, the rain and wind hit us hard, really hard. I think those three to four foot seas were now closer to ten feet. The wind was nearing thirty knots, and I was about to start the engines and take down the sail. The ten mile radar showed we were going to be in this squall for a while, so I did start both engines and began lowering sail before lines tore loose.

All of the sail came down properly, at least as much as I could see from the indoor helm, and we began to head straight at Nice, directly into the storm. The boat actually smoothed out a little since we were no longer being hit broadside by the waves.

About this time, Steve came up to the salon. He looked out and said, "This is a pretty good storm. What's the wind?"

"It's hitting thirty-five pretty steady, with a couple of gusts over fifty." I kept checking the wind gauge and the radar, not believing how fast the wind was blowing and how fast the storm had come up.

Steve said, "Keep the bow into the wind, you're doing fine, and you did right to lower the sail right away. Good job, you're going to be an old salt pretty soon."

Steve looked over at the bar and saw the Irish whiskey and Baileys on the bar, and said, "Ah ha, some Irish coffee this morning. Good choice, Ladies, I think I will join you."

Julie quickly went behind the bar and had a mug made for Steve in just a minute. While she was there, she made another pot of coffee. Lisa did a once around in the salon, making sure everything was stored properly for heavy seas, then said, "I'm going below to make sure everything in the galley and in our head is secure. I know I wasn't planning on having any bad seas when I went to bed last night."

Mercy came up and joined Steve with a cup of Irish coffee. She said, "This is a nice change of pace. I like this, but it seems like it takes more to make than a Bloody Mary."

Julie told her, "It does take a little more as you have to use two separate bottles and the whipped cream. Some people just like to use milk or cream, but I like the whipped cream."

Steve nodded and said, "The Bailey's cuts the Irish whiskey and the whipped cream makes this almost like a dessert."

The storm began easing and we noticed the wind was dying rapidly, but still coming right at our bow. When the wind was down to about fifteen knots, I asked Steve, "What do you think, should I put the sails back up? We're not very far out of Nice."

Steve didn't hesitate and said, "You have enough fuel to motor us all the way home, so that isn't a problem. Go ahead and motor in. We'll need to hoist the sails in port to make sure they dry out properly. We'll spray them down with fresh water, using the high pressure hose, when we do. We can do that and scrub the deck at the same time."

Carlos and Ramona came from below and sat in the high bar chairs. Carlos said, "What's with all the noise outside. We could hear the waves up against the boat and feel us moving around kind of weird. It only went on for a little while then we sort of felt like a motor was running, but the boat was going like up and down, on a mini-roller coaster."

Steve was at the bar and explained what had happened. Ramona said, "For some reason, I wasn't scared or worried. I knew we would be alright, but Carlos is a worry wart. He made me get up at this God forsaken time in the morning. Believe me; I only know five thirty in the morning by not going to bed yet."

"If you didn't lie in bed reading those romance novels all night," Carlos needled, "You would know how to get up in the morning. You've been better on this trip, but it's probably from having to work so hard with the band."

Ramona was nodding in agreement when Kenny and Barbara came up. We had almost the exact conversation as we had with Carlos, and when Fred and Caroline arrived, I had to repeat everything again. Dan and Jack came up, rubbing their eyes. Jack spied the bottles on the bar and said, "Oh boy, Irish coffee. Let me run down and get some mugs. I'll make some for all of us."

Jack came back up the stairs with Glenda, who was carrying a fresh pot of coffee and a small container of cream. Glenda said, "When Jack said what he was making, I thought I would indulge. Sounds like a great idea this morning. Can you believe it? This storm isn't bothering me at all, and I wouldn't even ride on an airplane before Mercy helped me that time."

Jack said, "Let me show you how my folks taught me to make Irish coffee. You start with Irish whiskey in a wine glass – tempered is best, but these thicker ones will do – and hold it over a flame, like this," as he demonstrated. "After a minute or so, you bring the flame near the lip of the glass, and, whoops, the vapor from the whiskey ignites, like this," he showed as a blue flame rose from the glass, "and then you snuff the flame by pouring coffee in the glass and topping it with Bailys and whipped cream, just so. It makes a show out of mixing a drink."

Steve took the coffee and cream from Glenda, put them on the bar, then turned and hugged her. He told everyone, "This is my morning girlfriend. We've been having coffee in the morning for years and years."

As Sue came up to the salon, she said, "Glenda was my only competition when I went after Steve."

Glenda scoffed, "That ain't true. First, there was Kathy, then that busty little barmaid Shawna brought home. Denise, wasn't it? She married that county deputy."

Sue was smiling, "Steve was hardly without a special friend from the time he moved in. I had to wait my turn to get him. But I didn't let him go."

Steve was grinning, "When she came to meet me that first morning, our good friend and neighbor, Ruth, was wearing a sexy gown. This luscious creature, Sue, came to our little patio in a bikini, I mean a tiny bikini. Can you imagine all that lovely flesh she has bulging out from a tiny piece of cloth? Let me tell you, I was impressed."

Sue said, "The best part was that Steve didn't talk to my tits. He actually talked to me, looked me in the eye. He was checking me out, but doing it while I wasn't supposed to know he was doing it."

Glenda said, "The little tart had him hooked and reeled in before he knew it. That was when both of them were just starting their businesses. Their getting together seemed to make both of their businesses explode. It's been nothing but growth and babies since."

Listening to the banter was fun and kept me alert as we approached our GPS numbers to find the yacht club. When I radioed to alert the club that I was nearing, they responded that a customs and immigration boat would come alongside before we tied up. They told me to watch for it and assist the agents coming aboard.

Sue said, "Guess I better round up passports. Everybody, go get yours. If we have them all up here, they are usually easy on us."

Julie hurried down to wake up the girls so they could get their passports out. I sent Lisa to the office where I had put Gina's, Gio's, and their kids' passports. I asked her to stop by the cabin and get mine too.

The salon and bridge, or helm area, was soon crowded. Everyone on the boat was up here now, including the kids who were having juice, excited about docking on the Riviera. Stevie and Mike were trying to tell the other kids what they remembered about coming here before. The whole bunch of them was snickering about going to a nude beach. Liz told the other kids, "I was little then and I remember that we had fun. Maybe we can go back to that beach."

I had to chuckle a little as Lizzy was still little. The kids were still kids, with Stevie still chasing her around calling her name, "Lizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." He was good at making a buzzing sound that seemed to infuriate her, but I think she liked the attention.

The radar picked up a small boat coming right at us when we were less than a mile from shore. The collision avoidance system alerted me of the oncoming boat. I pushed the reset button to clear the alarm, and asked Kathy, who was standing there, how about watching the helm while I go and put some fenders out? You might as well shut down the props now, as it's going to take a bit for us to stop.

I was going to put on a poncho, but noticed that the rain appeared to have stopped. When I went out, the air still smelled like rain, but no drops were hitting me. Steve came out with me and both of us put fenders out. I climbed down and dropped the boarding platform, and we waited for the little boat to arrive.

When the boat came alongside, we directed them to the boarding platform and ladder. They were able to tie up to the small cleats on the platform and came up. We led them to the salon where everyone was doing something. The kids had started to get their instruments out, while most of the adults were near the bar with either Irish coffees or juice.

After a quick greeting, Sue offered them coffee. The officials spoke decent English and welcomed a mug of fresh coffee. They didn't want any goodies for added flavor, but were smiling when they were asked. We had all of our passports out on the bar and they began going through each one, stamping them as they went. When they came upon the Asian sisters' passports, they wanted to see them, which was easy, followed by them checking Julie out, and finally Gio, Gina, and the kids. All in all, they were very cordial and finished quickly.

The official asked, "Are you planning on a lengthy stay?"

Steve told them, "We will be here through the weekend. We will probably leave early next week."

The official suggested, "Please keep your passports with you while you travel around the area. All foreign nationals are subject to inspection at any time. You must produce the passport if asked, the same as a citizen must produce their identification."

Sue made the offhand remark, "That must be difficult at some of the beaches."

The same official said, "Oh that isn't a problem. You can't have it in your pocket when you don't have a pocket. Just have them with you. Put them all in a big bag or something. The government is trying to make sure unsavory people are not hiding in our country."

The officials finished their coffee, climbed back down to their boat and left us. I went down the ladder and pulled the boarding platform up and latched it.

Back inside, the yacht club was calling to direct us to our reserved space. As we neared, we saw that it was again across the dock walkway from the Irish Bell. It was now six in the morning and everyone on the boat was up and awake. Mercy came up to be with me while I was being directed to head into the dock area bow first. I like the way we usually backed into moorings, but I would do as requested.

I eased toward the dock ever so gently. As I was getting closer, I eased the bow toward the dock in order to make it easy for Steve to toss the line and snug it to the bollard on the dock.

Kathy was aft tossing her line to an attendant as I reversed the props to swing the stern into the dock. As soon as we had the two main lines secured, the big center lines were tied down, followed by a couple of springer lines between the stern and center as well as center and bow.

I had shut down the engines and was preparing to match power. Steve hurriedly came in and said, "Shut everything down. Use the switches on the console. They don't have anything but 220, 50 Hz. We'll have to use the converter/transformer. That will be better than running our generator the whole time."

I flipped all the switches off, and that left only the battery powered instruments, some dim lights in the salon, and emergency lights lit throughout the boat. As soon as Steve had the power connected, he came back in and showed me what switches to throw.

He had me flip each of the switches, one at a time, and wait until a green lamp showed below the switch. He said, "You turn them on slowly so there aren't as many voltage spikes. When you cut power like that, you never know what is on, so you don't really know what requirements there are going to be for the circuit."

I had shut the engines down and now all of the electronics. The anemometer still showed the wind speed and direction, and the sensors still gave us accurate temperature in Fahrenheit or centigrade and dew point readings, along with the conversion to relative humidity. I hollered at everyone, "What do you think? Do you want to go back to bed for a little while or maybe take a nap later?"

The consensus was to take a short nap now, get up about eight, and another nap later. That sounded good to me. We all went below where we all snuggled into sleeping positions in seconds.

It was Julie again telling me, "Come on, Sleepyhead, it's eight thirty already and breakfast is ready. I think everyone is up except you."

With a soft kiss, I got up, put on some shorts and T-shirt with my peg, and went out to breakfast. Everyone was sitting down to eat, so I joined them, listening to what their plans were for the day. Mercy asked Kenny, "Do you guys need to practice today?"

Kenny said, "We have a practice studio set up beginning Wednesday, tomorrow. What I would like to do is to have some fun today and perhaps go to a casino tonight. The suggestion of a nap later is a good idea. Another thing is to have all of the kids practice the set we're going to do. We can do that late this afternoon and every evening until the show. Friday, we'll go through the set in the early afternoon as a final run through."

I thought that would be a good plan, as I was a little nervous about having our amateur group in front of thousands of the band's fans. Sue said, "How about we go to the beach if this cloudy weather goes away? We can stay here and go to the yacht club and hotel beach, or go over to Monaco to that beach. As I remember, this one is as nice as any."

Kathy commented, "If we use this beach today, it will save the time going back and forth. We can go over to Monaco tomorrow and do some shopping before we come back."

Dewey's kids asked, "Can we go see if Mom and Dad are awake? We would like to see them."

Sue and Mercy said, "Yeah, we would want to see ours too."

When breakfast was finished, Sue, Mercy, Dewey's kids, and Chanda's and Michael's kids, all headed over to the Irish Bell. I was kind of surprised the folks from the Bell had not been over yet. They were probably already staying in the hotel, which we could easily see from the boat, so that wouldn't be an excuse unless they didn't expect us until later.

The group came back to say that the family was in the hotel. They all washed their faces to go see their folks. Steve and I went below to shower and dress real quick. When he came back, he said, "Why don't you guys get your stuff together to go to the hotel. Chuck, you can have the club attendants wash the sails and deck for us. Let's get going so we have time for the beach this morning, the sky is clearing and the sun is already out

All of my crew went below for showers and to pack for the hotel. I was ready to go, so I went out to get some attendants to help with the baggage. As soon as I was out on the dock, I met two security people from the State department. The one man asked, "Are you going to need the same type of security here as you had in Italy?"

I thought about it for a couple of seconds and said, "Probably not. We should be fine here. It would be good if you were to have someone watch the boats for us, but a couple of you guys chaperoning us around should be all we need."

The guy said, "Put this number into your phone. If you need anything, or something happens that you need support, call it. Someone will get to you faster than you will believe."

There was an attendant concierge hanging out on the dock to solicit services. I gave the man a list of things to do that he wrote down. I asked for at least two attendants to help get our luggage to the resort/hotel. He used his cell phone to call for luggage help, and I saw four guys with two large rolling flats come from the yacht club.

I took the concierge up on deck and showed him where the outdoor helm was in order to raise the sails to wash them. I cautioned him to make sure only one sail at a time was raised, or our big boat would want to go somewhere. He thought that was funny.

I helped haul luggage from our cabin up to the deck where the attendants took them. Everyone was soon ready to head to the hotel. I locked up the salon doors and checked the rear sundeck doors as we were leaving our precious instruments on board.

We walked the few hundred yards to the resort and found Dewey waiting for us. He said, "The hotel needs to see your passports so they can record you being here." Dewey looked at me, "Does that bag you're carrying have all of the passports?"

Nodding with understanding, I began to get them out so names could be recorded. I noticed that the clerks were more interested in the stamps as anything else. I hoped this didn't continue in many places, as there were just too many of us with too many passports to do this. I gave all of the band members their passports and distributed passports to Steve's group, Glenda and Martin, Don and Jan, and Kevin and Susan. I cautioned them to protect their passports and make sure of where they were. I passed out all of my people's passports then and Steve came over. I gave him Gio's and her two kids' documents, and only kept Gina's and her kids'. Julie said, "Give them to me. I'll be with her all the time, and if you're afraid she might misplace them, I can keep them with me." This was good, one less thing to carry around with me.