The Mystic Adventure Ch. 05

"Okay. Now, see how the wind is coming from that direction? You need to head straight into it. Ease back on the throttle here so we're not slamming into the waves. That's it. We just need enough power to keep us moving forward a little so we can steer."

Steve looked back at us, "Ready for the Main?"

I gave him the thumbs up. Steve didn't need no stinking electric winch. He had the main up in no time.

The sound level on the boat increased dramatically with the Main flapping furiously in the stiff breeze.

I had to yell over the noise, "A little more throttle. Now ease off to Port just a little so the wind is just barely coming on the Starboard side. That will blow the jib to Port instead of straight back at us when we unfurl it.

"Ready for the Jib Steve?!"

Steve wrapped the Port jib sheet - the line that controls the jib - around the massive winch on the side of the cockpit. There is no effort getting the jib deployed - you just release the line that is holding it wrapped up and, once the wind catches just a corner of it, it unwraps in a heartbeat.

Steve grabbed the furling line to be ready to release it and looked back. I nodded to him.

He popped the furling line out of the cleat holding it and started pulling in the jib sheet.

More noise as the jib started shaking itself violently.

"Okay, now ease a little more to Port." Kelly turned the wheel a bit more to the left and the jib started to fill. The boat started to heel. I throttled back, took it out of gear, and cut the engine. The sails filled and quieted, the rail went down, and the boat transitioned from being an ungainly power boat riding on the waves and slamming into them, into a sailboat riding *in* the waves and almost being one with them.

Zen baby.

I helped steady Kelly and the wheel through this transformation since it can feel like the world is ending when this big boat puts her rail in the water and just fucking *goes*.

Kelly could not contain her excitement. She was actually jumping up and down. With my hands on the wheel she just let go, turned around and wrapped her arms around me. She screamed a happy scream.

"I'm beginning to think you actually like this sailing shit," I joked.

"Oh God Brad, I just about peed my pants. This is - fuck!"

"You're not really wearing anything that even resembles pants Dear."

She giggled and turned around and took the wheel again. "Okay, sorry. I got it."

I let go of the wheel and helped her get the feel of the wind and the waves. I showed her how you need to let the boat work it's way through the water and to give it a little freedom to find the best path. It's a skill that takes many, many hours at the helm to master but again, she picked it up like she had been doing it all her life.

"Okay, you're doing great Hon. One final thing to think about - we need to be on a heading of about 355 degrees. See the compass? You need to head up a little to put 355 on that center line there. Easy. That's it. Right there."

Like all newbies, she immediately tried to hold the exact course which meant that she couldn't let the boat do it's natural wander through the waves.

"This is impossible! I thought I was supposed to let the boat head up and fall off. How can I do that if I have to hold it on this course!?"

"You don't have to hold the exact course Babe. You just want to peek at the compass to make sure we are *generally* on course. A little bit of wander back and forth is fine. It's easier to pick something off in the distance - like a cloud on the horizon or something - to steer on, than stay glued to the compass. Just make sure you recheck against the compass every few minutes because that cloud is moving too."

She quickly settled into a rhythm and I moved out from behind her and up to the high side with the others. It was a glorious sail. Probably 25 knots of wind right on the beam and we were cooking. I looked back at Kell every few seconds it seemed and she was in the zone. She had the classic helmsman's pose - low side leg up and braced against the inside of the cockpit to compensate for the heel of the boat, arms spread across the wheel (which was about as big as she was) - totally focused on the wind, the waves, the course. She'd realize that I was looking at her and give me a huge smile - and then back to total concentration.

God, she is perfect. One minute she's going gonzo in a threesome doing things I'd never even dreamt of, the next, she's man-handling a 43 foot ocean-going sailboat in 25 knots of wind and 10 foot swells.

Damn. She could have anybody. What does she see in me? I looked back at her again. She looked at me, smiled, and mouthed, "I love you."

Instant inner peace. How does she do that?

With Kelly on the wheel, the rest of us were just sitting or laying on the deck on the high side. Kim was sunning (and having Steve and Jerry make sure she was properly covered with sun screen), and we were all just chatting about the trip, our lives, whatever. It was one of those "It doesn't get much better than this" times.

After about an hour or so, I went below to get drinks and snacks for the motley crew. I offered to give Kelly a break but she didn't want to stop. I think I've created a monster.

After about another hour of chatting, laughing, and just enjoying this sail, I tell the gang to start looking for signs of the island.

A few minutes later, Steve says he thinks he sees something on the horizon. Trying to spot something low on the horizion, it's really hard to tell if you are actually seeing some of the few trees on the island or if your eyes are playing tricks on you. After another ten minutes or so, some trees appear in the middle of the ocean. The island is still too low so the trees seem to be just sitting on nothing.

A few minutes more and a few more trees are visible and the white roof of a the Anegada Beach Hotel is barely visible. I head back to the cockpit and my favorite sailor and check the GPS. Right on course. Damn, she is good.

The approach to Anegada is extremely dangerous. There are coral heads just below the surface and boats go aground there all the time. Putting your charter boat on the reef will ruin your vacation - big-time.

I grabbed the chart book and went back to the wheel and Kell. "I better take her from here Babe. You did fantastic!"

"God, that was a blast!" She moved up to the high side but stayed back with me.

I handed her the chart and showed her how we had to make our approach to get in the channel.

As more features on the island came into view, I matched them up with the markings on the chart and made sure I knew where I was. You don't want to be dealing with sails as you go through the cut and up the channel so you need to get everything down outside the reef and motor through. I called up to Steve to start getting sails down.

I fired up the engine and headed into the wind to release the pressure on the sails. Steve, Jerry, and Kim dropped the main and furled the jib - Jerry and Kim looking like old pros helping Steve with the lines and getting things tidied up. Kelly helped me with the navigation and watched for coral heads and shallow spots.

The cut in the reef is very narrow and, like I said, you really don't want to misjudge it. With the sails dropped and furled, I spotted the marker at the entrance to the channel and headed in. Yes, there *is* a marker there but it doesn't really show the path through the cut. It takes a couple of quick turns at the right time to get through safely. The waves quickly subsided as we got inside the reef and the bottom came up fast.

The other thing that happened was that the color of the water exploded into an almost fluorescent blue/green mixture that simply boggles the mind. People see this kind of scenery in a postcard or picture but until you have actually experienced it, you have no fucking idea what it's like. The gang, standing on deck taking it in as we motored toward the anchorage, were transfixed.

"Hey Steve!" He snapped out of his trance and looked back at me. I motioned for him to come back to the wheel.

"Damn, man. This is unbelievable!" he said as he got back to me.

"I know huh? Hey, I think I want to put her right over there, just to starboard of that big cat." I pointed to a large catamaran - a two hulled sailboat - just up ahead. "Can you get the hook ready? The girls know how to do it but there's not much room for error here. If something goes wrong, I want you up there." I looked over at Kelly, "No offense Babe."

"Non taken Hon. I know my limitations."

Steve moved up to the bow and readied the anchor. I slowly maneuvered into the anchorage, got about where I wanted to be, and gave Steve the signal. As soon as the anchor went down, I took the engine out of gear. The wind was still pretty strong so our forward motion stopped quickly and we started to drift back. I felt the anchor take hold and bring the big boat to a stop.

"Let out about 15 more feet!" I called up to Steve. I wanted to make sure we had the proper angle of pull on the anchor and chain. We drifted back a few more feet and stopped again. I checked our position relative to the other boats to see if we were dragging.

"I think that's a good set Steve!" I killed the engine and quiet - except for the wind in the rigging - returned.

Despite having done this approach and anchorage at Anegada several times, it's a nerve-wracking experience. Seasoned sailors fuck it up *all the time*. At best, it's a tow off of a sand bar and embarrassment at the local bars. At worst, it's running into a coral head and getting people hurt or even killed.

With the anchor set and holding, I plopped down on the cockpit cushion and let out a big sigh of relief, "Fuck. I need a beer." Kelly seemed a little surprised to see that I had evidently been rather tense. I could see her start to put two and two together.

Steve came back from his duties on the bow, "Dude, that was a masterful bit of seamanship. I don't really know how you did that. That channel was not marked clearly or properly. The cut in the reef was - Fuck. I'm impressed."

"Well, I've done it a couple of times but thanks."

Kelly sat down next to me with a freshly cracked beer. She looked at Steve and me, "So, I'm coming to the realization that that was really, really dangerous."

Steve answered her, "Honey, I consider myself a pretty good sailor but I would have completely misread the way in here and would have put us on the rocks about 5 different times. This guy is good."

I was a little embarrassed now.

Kelly snuggled up to me, "Wow. I always knew you were more than just my little fuck toy - now you're my Hero!"

I almost spit my beer across the cockpit as the whole crew cracked up. I looked at Kelly and she had the cutest, most beautiful, most devilish grin on her face. I didn't think it was possible to convey all those looks at the same time but she did it. Again.

We all cracked beers and sat in the cockpit as I told them about the island. The plan was to go ashore and put in our orders for dinner later that night. Basically, you tell them what kind of fish or lobster you want for dinner and once they get all the dinner reservations and orders, they go out and catch it. It doesn't get any fresher than that. After putting in our orders, we catch a taxi - okay it's the back of a pickup truck - to Loblolly bay for the some of the best snorkeling in the world.

With the plan set, we finished up our beers, buttoned up the boat, and climbed into the dink for the quick trip to the dock at the Anegada Beach Hotel.

From the name of it, you might envision a fancy resort with pools and ritzy restaurants. Nope. Despite the beauty of the place, it is barely developed. The Beach Hotel is little more than a cinder block building with some rooms. This ain't for the luxury crowd. This is all about slowing down to island time, eschewing the modern conveniences, and relaxing. There is no wifi, no cell towers, nothing much at all really.

At the beach, we walked over to the little shack to place our requests for dinner. Everybody chose something different - from lobster, to swordfish, to dolphin (not the flipper kind). The truck to Loblolly Bay pulled up at the same time so we jumped in and headed to the north side of the island.

Loblolly is a picturesque beach protected from the swells by a massive reef that sits about 100 yards offshore. The reef creates a lagoon that provides spectacular snorkeling and sunning.

As we arrived and pulled through the palm trees that line it, Kelly took it all in with a gasp. She looked over at me, smiled and just shook her head. I though to myself that it was like a little duel. Who could top the last high - either sexually or umm, locationally? I'm not sure who was ahead at this point but this was a good entry.

We piled out of the truck and went down to the beach. The girls immediately peeled out of their shorts and shirts revealing their bikinis. Fuck. Both were wearing thongs of course. Kim had on a bright blue number that was trimmed in white. Kelly's was white with kind of a Hawaiian tropical flower print. The girls really should take them back to the store since the suits were doing a terrible job of containing their tits. Right.

There is a little bar on the beach - actually, calling it a bar is a bit generous. It's a little palm frond covered cabana where you can get a cold beer and that's about it. Normally, you have to walk up there yourself and get your drinks. Today, as soon as the girls revealed their suits, two guys from the bar came down and asked us if we wanted anything. I'm not sure they would have heard our answers if we did - they were too busy ogling the half-naked babes to even care about drink orders.

We grabbed our masks and fins and headed down to the water. I gave the girls a quick lesson in surface diving and snorkel clearing and we waded in. We spent the next hour or so exploring the reef and being dazzled by the beauty and wildlife.

Back on the beach, we grabbed some beers from the guys who magically appeared again and just sat and relaxed under palms that drooped over the beach. I had to practically pinch myself as I thought again of how lucky I was to be where I was.

I had my eyes closed when I heard Kelly say, "Ooh, those two are cute." Hmm, I opened my eyes and propped myself up on my elbows.

"Spot some tasty hunk girlie?" I looked around but there was virtually nobody on the beach.

"No silly, those two girls over there." She pointed to two women who had evidently just gotten delivered to the beach by the taxi/truck. Wow, yeah. They were kind of far away but they did look pretty cute and from what I could tell, the bodies under the cover-ups weren't bad either.

We watched as they picked out a spot and set their stuff down. Am I scum to admit that I get a certain thrill out of watching girls peel their clothes off at the beach? It's like they are doing a strip-tease right there in public basically so I guess it's only normal to be turned on by it. It just seems a little voyeuristic though. It's gotta be tough for the girls too - basically exposing practically everything for the world to see.

These girls had no reason to be self-conscious. They were spectacular. Both were blonds. One was wearing a hot pink tonga and the other was wearing a yellow and green thong. I guess they had tops on but I was just looking at their butts.

They went down to the water and splashed around a little bit but they didn't have any snorkel gear so they weren't really getting the full effect of the place which was too bad.

Kelly was evidently thinking the same thing because she popped up on the blanket, grabbed two sets of our gear, and headed down to the water where they were.

I watched her introduce herself, point back up to all of us in the shade (we waved back), and hand them the gear. More conversation and then Kelly yelled for me to come join them.

Whoa little buddy, take it easy. If I show up with a pup tent, that will be embarrassing. And by the way, how the fuck do you think of a foursome with those three before Kelly's "Brad, come here!" finishes filtering through my brain?

Kim of course, is just as quick as my cock, "Wooo, Brad. Think you can handle that many holes?"

I just grinned and headed down to the water.

As I got closer, I could see that these two girls were gorgeous. Like Kim and Kell, they weren't dressed up super-models, just down to earth, fundamentally beautiful women with basically perfect bodies.

"Hey Brad, this is Annika and Britta. I wanted to lend them snorkeling gear but they don't know how to do it. I told them you wouldn't mind giving them a lesson."

I stole a quick glance and Kell and saw she had the slighted twinkle in her eye. Hmm.

"Hi girls, Brad. Great to meet you. Where are you from?"

Annika answered, "Hi Brad. We are from Sweden. We heard about this place from the hotel on Tortola so we took a plane flight here to see it. It's so beautiful!"

Holy shit. Her accent was so sexy - well that and she was half naked in front of me.

"Well that's cool. Yeah, the water is fantastic. I'd be happy to show you how to use the snorkel gear. It's a whole different world down there."

I spent the next 15 minutes or so, showing the girls how to snorkel. I went through clearing the mask, clearing the snorkel, equalizing the pressure in your ears, and the most important technique of all, the surface dive.

The surface dive is a way to get a boost downward when you want to switch from cruising on the surface to checking out something deeper down. It's important here not because I really cared how deep they would be able to dive but because the basis of the technique is that you have to bend at waist and kind of stick your butt in the air before you dive down. Poor me had to check their positions and stare at their butts to make sure they were doing it right. I suffer so.

I stole a glance at Kelly back on shore and she just grinned.

I looked over at Kim and she was pretending to jack and suck a cock. Everybody else was cracking up.

It was all I could do to not sprout wood with these girls so I quickly turned away from the antics on the beach.

I finished up the lesson and sent them on their way to paddle around the reef. I walked back up the beach to the gang amid hoots and whistles.

Steve tossed me a beer, "You should definitely buy lottery tickets man. You are one lucky son of a bitch." I just shrugged and grinned.

"Did you have fun Studley?" Kelly whispered into my ear and "accidentally" brushed her hand against my cock.

"You are terrible woman." I pushed her down and rolled on top of her. I had some pent up urges but despite the laid back attitudes of the islands it's actually frowned upon by the locals to get freaky in public so I rolled off and went back to work on my beer. Damn.

After a while, Annika and Britta finished up their swim and headed up the sand to bring back their gear. That's another sexy thing about the beach - watching a girl (or two) walk up the beach out of the water. Something about soft sand and the incline makes them really have to work their hips and it turns into a sexy/slinky cat-walk coming right at you.

So yeah, two blonds with perfect bodies and skimpy suits heading straight for you in the sand - works for me (and my little buddy).

Kelly introduced the girls to the rest of the group and they thanked us for the use of our equipment. There was a moment of awkward silence and then they turned to head back to head back to their towels and gear. I looked at Kelly with kind of "Should we ask them to join us?" gesture. She nodded vigorously.

"Hey girls!" I called after them as they walked away. They turned to look back. "Why don't you bring your things over here and join us. We've got great shade and lots of beers."