Chapter 14: Stranded

"Any idea where we are?" Celeste enquired as they lounged on deck. "Has anyone thought to check the GPS?"

The other two crew members lay sprawled on the aft deck, neither one at all interested in moving, for the afternoon sun and the humidity had induced a debilitating lethargy as they waited for the winds to pick up enough to fill the sails.

"Last time I looked," Tracy volunteered, "we were about two hundred miles south of Davao and about a hundred miles west of Karakelong. Why? Are you getting tired of this hectic pace?"

There was a groan from two impatient sailors heard on deck, for with the light winds they'd encountered, the little ship hadn't moved more than a hundred miles over the previous three days.

"Maybe we should make up another sea anchor," Brandon suggested, "and see if that helps. If it wasn't for the one we have out now, we wouldn't be going anywhere."

"That would take energy," Celeste responded to his idea, "and right now, I don't have any. It's funny, though. I'm getting used to just sitting dead in the water like this. Remember how antsy we got on our way to the Galapagos? Back then, that evening wind was something we all looked forward to. But now? If the winds don't come up, I really don't care."

"Maybe you don't," Tracy challenged her, "but I'd kind of like to be somewhere other than in the middle of an ocean when this baby comes. Think we'll make it through Indonesia in the next eight weeks?"

"At this rate?" Brandon speculated. "Somehow, Pip-squeak, I have a feeling that our little one is going to enter the world in the middle of the Pacific. That's going to look interesting on a birth certificate, isn't it?

"Lover, are you saying that we're still going to be out here, becalmed, when Tracy delivers?" Celeste's somewhat panicky tone enquired.

"I doubt it," he tried to calm her worries. "This current is taking us about twenty five miles west every day. Eventually, it has to find us some wind. I just hope it comes before we drift back into the equatorial counter current, because there isn't a lot of fuel left for the auxiliary."

"Maybe we shouldn't have used the engine that much when we were in New Guinea," she reminisced.

"How was I to know that we couldn't get more in Manokwari?" Brandon made his excuses. "Besides, the winds were perfect when we left, and I really didn't think it would be a problem."

"Hindsight is always a hundred percent," Tracy defended her brother. "This is what we have to work with, so there's no sense crying over spilled milk. So we don't make it to the Philippines. Is that such a big deal?"

"It's fighting that current that has me worried," her Captain disclosed. "If we get stuck in it, it'll drag us back towards Panama again, and we all remember how much fun that place was, don't we?"

"Panama?" Celeste questioned his projected destination, a note of panic in her tone. "We've got to be able to find wind before then."

"We will," he reassured her. "If we can stay north of the equator, both the winds and the current will keep on taking us west. The only question in my mind is where we'll be when the baby comes."

"Oh stop it, you two!" Tracy demanded. "If we make it, we make it, and if we don't, we don't. All your bickering isn't going to change a damned thing, and right now, I'd rather not listen to it."

"Someone's a little grouchy this afternoon, isn't she?" her brother observed. "Are you really that uncomfortable, Sis? Maybe a quick dip might help," as he suggested a refreshing swim.

"It probably would, except that moving would take energy, and I don't have any. Getting back onboard is a hassle, too. Your kid keeps getting in the way whenever I try to haul myself out on the swim grid," she complained.

"I could always grab a bucket and fill it, then throw water on you," Celeste suggested, a sly grin on her face.

"You would, too, wouldn't you?" her sister-in-law challenged the idea. "I suppose you'd leave me to clean up the salt left on the deck, too. And all this time, I thought you loved me!" her mock exasperated tone dared the other woman.

"Now who's bickering?" Brandon looked for his own brand of peace and quiet. "Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd think you two were angry with each other."

"She's just pissed because I can get to her pussy but she can't get to mine," Celeste made up an excuse. "Not with that belly of hers."

"Maybe she can't," he reminded her, "but we sure can get to hers. Think it would help?"

"Couldn't hurt," she giggled, "but if last night was any indication, I could go deaf when she cums. Gawd, were you ever loud, Sweetie! I just wish it was me that made you scream like that, instead of your horny brother."

"He does tend to do that to me whenever I get a good licking," Tracy admitted, "but I still say that you're better at it than he is. Not by much, mind you, and he's definitely getting better. Still, I miss making love with you, Sis. Think after the baby comes, we'll be able to make up for lost time?"

"We might not make up for all of it, but I have intentions of giving it my best shot," Celeste snickered happily, the lascivious thoughts of times spent with her sister-in-law roaming around in her brain.

"Give it another ten weeks, and we'll get started," Tracy reminded her sister-in-law. "The things I'm going to do to you, too."

"I'm not sure I can wait that long," Celeste moaned, the aroma of her arousal drifting through the still air to her two lovers. "Gawd, remember that night in Colon? That was one of the most erotic experiences I've ever had! Both of us licking your pussy. Sure made you cum hard, that's for sure!"

"What I remember the most," Tracy put forth, "was that night in Turtle Bay. Wasn't that the night that we both had you, Babe? It felt so good to feel you inside me at long last, too. Just remembering Celeste riding your cock while you both licked my pussy sends shivers up my spine. But when she and I traded places, I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven!"

"It was only fair that he came in you first," Celeste pointed out. "You'd waited so long for that night, and damned if I was going to ruin it for you."

The memories of that night, and several similar ones, were having their effect on Brandon, and he could feel himself hardening in response. The evidence that both women were becoming just as aroused assailed his nostrils, with the accompanying desire to taste their pussies further inducing his own lust.

"Looks like someone else remembers," Celeste mentioned. "You want to suck him before I ride him, or after, Sweetie?"

"Both," was Tracy's answer, as she shifted position to use her brother's stomach for a pillow, then took his erection in one hand and began to lick all around his glans.

"Oh my Gawd!" Brandon howled as his sister's lips slid over the head of his cock on their way down his straining shaft. "I don't know how you do that, Sis, but it feels..."

That was as much as he got out before Celeste squatted over his head, her moist pussy mere inches away from his lips. Between the aroma, her beauty, and what his own sister was doing to his manhood, there was no way Brandon could refuse the invitation. As his hands reached up to caress her distended butt cheeks, he pulled Celeste into position so that he could sample her juices. At the first touch of his tongue on her clit, she jumped, then surrendered to the pleasure in her pussy as Brandon spread her lower lips, lightly bathing every sensitive place she had.

Tracy had rearranged herself so that she was now laying with her head on her brother's thigh, and had taken his cock in one hand so that she could run her tongue up the underside from the base to the tip, savouring the taste and texture that she'd come to know so well. Even so, as many times as she'd had him this way before, she still couldn't get enough, and that lust-driven heat inside drove her to consume all that she could, starting with his purple helmet, and slowly extending her lips down his shaft until she felt him pushing against the back of her throat. Inhaling deeply, it was a matter of only a second or two before her nose collided with the skin of his groin.

Letting her esophageal muscles instinctively try to force her prize deeper into her belly, Tracy held that position for as long as she could, then let Brandon slip back out of her throat. Moving at a slow and deliberate pace, she slid back up until only his glans remained between her lips before resuming her downward slide again. With each cycle, her pace became faster, and soon she was sucking on him in complete abandon, almost fixated on the flavour of his seed that would soon be hers.

Brandon groaned a warning of his pending orgasm, and Tracy immediately released him. As much as she loved to taste him, there was a demand in her body to feel him exploding inside her.

"Oh no you don't!" she growled in her lusty delirium. "I want to feel you go off, but not like this."

Without further pretense, she changed position so that his manhood was at her entrance, then slowly sank down on his shaft as he filled her as deeply as she could get him.

"Sis? Is that wise?" Brandon's concern for her pregnancy forced him out of the sensual world he'd been in and back to reality.

"I don't give a damn if it is or not," she declared. "I want to feel you spurting inside me, dammit!", and Tracy began to slowly ride up and down on her brother's member, grinding her clit against his pubic bone in the process. Within minutes, she was as close as he was to slipping over the edge, both of them encouraged by Celeste's moaning as he went back to teasing and tasting her pussy.

"Gawd, I'm going to cum in a minute!" Celeste let the other two know. "Cum with me? Both of you?"

That was all it took to push Tracy over the edge of her precipice and send her soaring into the euphoric elation of her orgasm. The wild convulsions in her pussy milked the seed from her brother's balls as he joined her in flight, with Celeste scant seconds behind. The sounds of the orgasmic release from the two women mingled with the forced grunts of their lover as Brandon shot streamer after streamer of seed deep into his sister. Each eruption created an electric-like shock of sensations that radiated from Tracy's clit to every nerve ending in her body, and she rode her brother in full abandon until a loss of muscle control forced her to collapse into Celeste's arms.

Their afterglow held the three for many wonderful minutes as the magic of their loving caressed and cradled them, and only when Tracy finally eased off to one side of her brother did they drift back down.

"Are you okay?" Brandon's concern finally overrode the hazy fog in his mind. "You worry me sometimes, Sis. I'm always afraid that we'll hurt the baby."

"You worry too much," she reassured him. "As much as I love the taste of you, I needed to feel you cum inside me. When I'm too close to my time, I'll know, and I'll let you know, too. Okay? I love you too much to hurt your little one, Babe. You have no idea how much I want to give you this child, and nothing is going to change that."

"I love you too, Pip-squeak," he softly told her, then took a last swipe at Celeste's pussy lips, who was still squatting above him, and he lapped the last of her juices in the process. She jumped slightly at the unexpected stimulation, then gazed down at the man between her thighs with a look of pure adoration.

"Not trying to ruin the moment, but isn't it amazing how we have the energy to make love, but not to make up another sea anchor? Or go and check the GPS for a position?" Celeste observed.

"Making a sea anchor is work. Making love isn't," her sister-in-law pointed out. "If I had to make a choice, I know which one I'd choose."

"You two can argue all you want, and maybe you'll eventually figure out the difference between work and making love. Me? I'm going to take a nap," Brandon declared, as the remaining energy of staying awake left him. Within minutes, he was asleep, vaguely aware of two women curled up on his chest, one on either side.

Afternoon slipped into evening, and it was dark out when first Celeste, then Brandon finally awoke. Between their earlier exertions and the humidity, both of them felt clammy and in need of either a good shower or a swim in the warm waters of the Celebs Sea. When Tracy finally woke, she had to agree with their idea, and proposed that they all take a swim, as long as they'd help her get back onboard afterwards.

"Think we'll need some light to find our way back?" Celeste's concern had her asking.

"We're not going that far away from the ship," Brandon reminded her, "and with our luck, the light will attract some kind of fish that we really don't want to share the night with."

Despite the warning he'd given out, Brandon was the first one in, followed by his sister, with Celeste right behind her. They spent a good half hour frolicking in the refreshing sea, until Tracy began to tire. With her brother's help and her sister-in-law to steady her once she was back onto the swim grid, Tracy found getting out of the water again to be less difficult than she'd originally anticipated.

"Gawd, that feels better," Tracy remarked as the three dried themselves off. "I might even have the energy to make love again."

"If you're that energetic, how'd you like to whip up another sea anchor?" Brandon teased her, and got an angry scowl for his efforts.

"I don't know about you two, but I'm ready for bed," Celeste informed the siblings. "You guys can stay up and argue about sea anchors if you want, but I'm heading below."

Tracy had to admit that her sister-in-law had a good idea, and between the energy they'd expended that afternoon and the rigours of their impromptu midnight swim, she was more than ready to retire, with her brother making the idea unanimous.

"Think we should drop the sails before we go?" Celeste enquired. "If the winds come up, we won't know from which direction, or how strong. We could get completely turned around and not know it."

"Good idea, Angel. I'll get the jib if you and Tracy furl the mainsail," Brandon took charge, although with the electric motor that would roll the sail into the mast, the women had been given the easier chore. Only when he was satisfied that the sails had been properly taken in did he usher the other two below.

Now laying on their oversized berth, the three arranged themselves into what had become a customary orientation, with Brandon in the middle, Celeste on his right side, and his sister once again curled up on his chest on the left. Within minutes, he heard the soft and gentle breathing of two women who had returned to the relaxation of slumber. Soon, his own gentle snores harmonized with the sounds of unconscious bedmates.

It was barely light out when Tracy woke to a strange sound, and she raised her head in an attempt to get a better idea of what made the noise. Try as she might, identifying it was more than her semi-conscious mind would allow, yet the need to find out became stronger with each passing minute. That curiosity drove her to wake Brandon and ask for his opinion.

"Babe? What's that noise I'm hearing? It sounds like waves breaking on the shore, but it can't be, can it?" she murmured to him.

"You stay there, Sis, and I'll go topside to see what I can find. Back in a moment," he muttered as his muscles dragged him to the foot of the berth, then propped him onto his feet.

Once upright, Brandon searched for a robe that would fit, but couldn't find one. Why he bothered was beyond him, though. He wrote it off as being instinctive, and after all those months of spending most of their shipboard time naked, it seemed ridiculous anyway. Without a second thought as to who or what might be outside, he shrugged his shoulders, then made his way topside.

Looking aft as he climbed out of the hatchway, all Brandon could see was the usual expanse of water that had been their constant companion for the last seven months. but the sounds that had woken his sister came from towards the bow, and he stepped onto the deck, then turned to survey whatever lay ahead of them. What he saw sent a chill through his body.

Directly ahead of them lay a substantial-sized island, surrounded by the unmistakable sight of waves breaking over a reef that surrounded the land mass. As a guess, the distance between them and that reef was less than an eighth of a mile – with the current pulling them directly towards it on a collision course.

"Tracy! Celeste! Topside! Now!" he hollered, with the two women scrambling up the ladder moments later.

"Holy shit!" Tracy spat out in shock. "Where the hell did that come from?" as she took in the sight of the island directly in front of them.

"It's probably been there for centuries," Brandon told her, "but if we don't get our asses moving, we're going to hit that damned reef. Take the helm, Sis. Angel, I need you to break out sails. Maybe we'll get lucky and find enough wind to steer clear. I'm going below to see if I can get the auxiliary started. It won't respond to the key."

That had been Brandon's first idea as soon as he realized that they needed power for steerage, and while the little engine had turned over freely, it wouldn't stay running for more than a few seconds. They'd have to rely on whatever wind they could find to fill at least one of the sails if he couldn't breathe some life into the little diesel. Unless the problem with starting was obvious through a quick and cursory glance, there might not be enough time to worry about it. At the speed they were approaching the reef, immediacy spurred Brandon to get into the engine compartment as quickly as he could.

A fast look around the compartment revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Using the engine's localized starter button, Brandon cranked the little engine, which still refused to fire. He wondered if there was enough fuel left for the pump to pick up, and opened the tank's access cap to check. By dipping a stick into the opening, he'd be able to find out how much they had. Looking down the tube cursorily, his dismay at seeing light caught him off-guard. Only with a flashlight should he be able to illuminate anything inside.

Running back up on deck, Brandon found the source of the light, and of his trouble starting the engine. Somehow, the cap had been left off the on-deck filler, with a good chance that water had got into the tank. Returning below, he grabbed the first thing that came to hand, an old piece of rubber hose, and shoved it through the access opening. The reading on the tubing showed that the tank was over half full – but most of what was in it was water.

"Son-of-a-bitch!" he screamed out in frustration.

"That damned pump is trying to feed water into the injectors!" he told himself. "I wonder if I have time to siphon off enough so it'll pick up fuel instead? And how much water is in the fuel line?" all went through his mind. With the hose still in the tank, he tried to get a siphon flow started, hoping that he could get the fuel level down to where the pump would pick it up. But the flow was slow, and it became obvious that he wouldn't be able to get the little Yanmar running in time. Leaving the hose to pour water into the bilge opening, Brandon ran back up on deck to assess how much time he might have.