Undine Chronicles Ch. 02

"Right now I feel like a baby who's been crawling across a busy street!"

"Well, how about rousting the troops? Breakfast in 5 minutes."

He headed aft to do as I asked, and I began dishing the meal. When he and the children were settled around the table, I set out their plates, already dished. That got me some funny looks.

"You do things differently aboard a boat," I explained. "We can't have large bowls of hot food slopping around while we're underway, or stopped in rolly anchorage." Everyone's eyes got really big, as I told them that we would be sharing galley duties, and that meals would be served on time, whether or not we were underway. Everyone would have to pitch in.

"You'll also have to get used to being on watch, too," I stated. "The person on watch is responsible for the safety of the entire crew, especially if we're underway. Everyone will have a turn." Karl looked at me, aghast, while Abi just said "Cool!"

"You mean you would trust me?" Kelly demanded.

"You bet," I said. "And I would expect you to do everything in your power to keep the rest of us safe. That means you would be responsible for navigating safely through busy waters, avoiding lee shores and other hazards, while making headway toward our destination. Our lives would be in your hands." He looked uncomfortable with the idea.

I was a little worried about Karl. He looked a little sick. "But none of us have ever sailed before!" he finally exploded.

"Not to worry," I told them, "In about thirty minutes, a couple of professional sailing instructors are going to be here, to help us learn to take Undine where we want her to go. We'll do the ground school course during the evenings, while we're here, and by the end of the week you'll know as much as most folks who set out on their first voyage."

They didn't seem reassured.

"Look," I said, "we're only going as far as Norfolk. We' probably won't ever be out of site of land. In fact, for most of the trip we'll be in the Intracoastal Waterway, with land on both sides of us. Our biggest job will be to avoid being run down by barges and bigger boats!"

"As if that weren't enough!" Karl grumbled.

"It is enough," I admitted, "and the danger is real, but if we all act sensibly, and follow a few safety rules, we'll be fine. Now finish up. The instructors will be here soon."

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The sailing instructors were a hugely successful investment. As experts, they commanded so much more authority than I could have, especially considering the complete hostility everyone held toward learning anything from me! In the week we spent in the vicinity of Palatka, my rebellious teens and sulky husband actually became a halfway decent crew, at least for sailing inland waters.

I had purchased a number of cruising guides, and on our last night at dock, we held a family caucus, to negotiate a float plan.

" I want to make Norfolk by Independence Day," I told my family. "That's far enough to go, on our first cruise, and we won't be so far north that we can't make it back here before school starts." What ensued more closely resembled a brawl more than an enthusiastic discussion, as everyone jockeyed for some advantage in choosing destinations. Funny, no one but me was concerned about routes.

Of course, after thoroughly reviewing the guides, everyone had a list, different from everyone else (naturally!), of places where we should stop and absorb the local "culture." I tried the make the point that such sojourns would be short, few and far between, but I don't think anyone believed that their preferred ports of call would be cut from the itinerary.

We did end up with a workable float plan. We would follow the St. Johns north to the Atlantic, then taking the only open-ocean leg of the trip, we would skip Georgia entirely, re-entering the Intracoastal Waterway in the vicinity of Beaufort, South Carolina. We would proceed northward on "The Ditch" into the Albemarle Sound, making our way through the Sound and then through the Dismal Swamp, and ultimately into Norfolk, at which point the plan called for reversing course and returning "home."

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We were midway up the Georgia coast, and it was my turn to be on watch again. For this leg of the trip we staggered the watches, six on, six off, Karl and I on opposites. Kelly and Abi took watches that overlapped Karl and I each of us by three hours.

Abi had just finished her watch, and as Kelly came up to join me, she went forward to spend some time with her Dad. I'd warned them that they should try and get some rest, but neither listened. [Big surprise!] I gave Kelly a big smile as he handed me a cup of coffee and took the wheel. He's not nearly as sulky as before.

I moved to the fore end of the cockpit, dodging the boom as necessary, and I noticed that Karl and Abi were leaning out over the pushpit rail, staring at the water. Following their gazes, I was delighted to discover that a pod of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins had found us, and were frolicking in our tiny bow wave.

I could hear Abi ooh-ing and ah-ing as her father played the font of wisdom, dispensing all kinds of dolphin lore harvested from PBS. She responded with wide-eyed amazement. They moved closer together, each holding an arm around the other as they watched the pod. I watched them bond as loving father and daughter for the first time since before she entered middle school.

Happy tears. [Thanks, Dad.]

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In the Intracoastal Waterway, the danger of running aground is often too great for night sailing, not to mention that maintenance of the (Coast Guard required) lights on barges and other boats can be somewhat lackadaisical. Believe me, colliding with another boat, especially a bigger one, was not on my list of things I most wanted to do.

All that being said, safe anchorages along "The Ditch" aren't all that plentiful either, so we have to plan each day's journey very carefully. We were inside now, near Beaufort, South Carolina. I knew that Beaufort had a nice municipal marina, so I decided we would spend a night at the transient dock. It's not cheap, but we need the time to plan our route to the next anchorage. Besides, everyone was pretty tired of ships stores, and a restaurant meal would go a long way toward heading off a mutiny.

We ate at the John Cross Tavern. I'd eaten there many years ago, and really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. It didn't disappoint me this time either. It's also convenient to the marina, so it wasn't a difficult walk for our bloated bodies.

Beaufort is a pretty town, with shops of all kinds only a short walk from where we were tied up. The kids wanted to go exploring, and in a moment of insanity I gave Kelly a couple of twenties, telling him "Take care of your sister."

He looked at the money, then at me, then back at the money, then at me again, and asked, "You want change?

I shook my head and said, "Be back aboard within two hours. " He gulped, grabbed his sister's hand, and they both disappeared, leaving a vapor trail. Karl looked at me as if I'd lost my mind.

"Think about it," I told him. "We now have two hours that we can be aboard the boat alone." He brightened up at that thought, and quickly led me back to Undine.

We weren't in a rush, and we were alone for awhile. We had a very nice time. Karl took his time undressing me, covering each bit of exposed skin with little kisses. [Hot!] I hadn't worn anything special, but he treated me as if I'd dressed up for the prom. When he was done, I was almost done too... But then it was my turn, and I did the same thing for him.

He still had concerns about his ability to perform, but I wasn't about to let this rare opportunity for uninhibited lust evaporate over them. I met the problem, "head on" if you get my drift. He had no problems with performance that night. In fact, he performed so well that I had nonstop shuddering climaxes the nearly the entire evening, finally coming down moments after the kids burst into the salon. Oh well. At least we had the curtains drawn.

Karl and I cleaned up and entered the salon to see what kind of booty they had claimed for my forty dollars, and were met with a dreamy-eyed smile (Abi) and a shit-eating grin (Kelly). [Kids! Don't even know the meaning of respect!]

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We spent many long days dodging the other traffic along "The Ditch" through South Carolina, sharing crowded anchorages with others who, like us, were too cheap to pay marina fees. We finally made the Albemarle Sound, and decided to take a brief respite from the constant motion.

We found the perfect place to drop anchor, or actually, Karl did. Abi named it "Perfect Comfort", after a story in Don Berry's Magic Harbor* collection. I'm not sure she should have been reading that stuff, but her grandfather introduced her to it.

The anchorage wasn't in any of the guide books; Karl just used his engineering skills, along with maps and charts of the area to figure out where a good anchorage should be. And there it was! And I'm not telling either...

Kelly and Abi had taken the dinghy to do some fishing. Fishing! Can you believe it? A brother and sister, without coercion, actually deciding to spend time together... fishing, no less... boggles the mind. Karl was rummaging around Undine, looking for things to fix, and it was hours before anyone needed to think about preparing a meal, so I lay in the cockpit with the bimini down, soaking up the weakening rays, and sipping a sundowner.

I heard a crash below, and moments later Karl was cursing up a storm. "Are you okay Hon?" I yelled down the hatch. It's hard to believe he could hurt himself down there. There weren't even any swells that would merit the name.

"I'm fine," he yelled back. "I just bumped my head." Mystery solved, I returned to my urgent tanning session.

After a while, Karl popped up through the hatch, carrying a book of some kind. "Your Dad sure had a vivid imagination," he said.

"Hmmmm?" I queried, looking at him blankly.

"This book," he shook it at me. "There was a hidden drawer under the nav station. I was tracing some wiring under there when I banged my head on it. The drawer opened up, and this book was inside. I recognized his handwriting. I never knew he wrote stories though. Most of it is pretty dull, but the last one is a doozie!"

I sat up to see what he was talking about. [Oh shit! The note! That's Dad's log book!] "Umm.. may I see that?" I asked sweetly.

"Sure, Babe," he gallantly yielded. "I'm finished with it anyway." He handed over the log book, apparently without a care, and went back to whatever he had been doing.

Karl was right. The last entry was a doozie. It had to be fiction, but it couldn't be! This was his log book for Chrissakes! An actual legal document! You don't put crap like that in a log book... unless you really believe that it happened...

I heard the kids' approach and quickly hid the log, both to avoid having to explain it to them, and in hopes that Karl would forget he ever saw it. It happens... right? I did add one more stop to our itinerary, though...

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Having spent several days in "Perfect Comfort," we were well behind schedule, so after consulting with the crew, I decided to take the Sound in one leg. We would visit the Outer Banks on the return trip. We stood watches on a two-on, six-off schedule this time, with no overlap. Over the length of the Sound, everyone got to experience a watch covering each different part of the day.

Kelly was the first to hold a night watch by himself, and showed both excitement and trepidation at the prospect. Karl was opposed to allowing either of the children to pilot at night, but I was adamant.

"We have to have faith in them, and be willing to show it," I declared, although inside I was terrified. "If we don't, who will?"

Kelly came through with flying colors, and it wasn't just a milk run either. Several times during the watch the wind shifted, and he had to compensate for a new lee shore, as well as carefully thread Undine in between the barges that never stop moving.

When it came time for me to relieve him, he was showing a lot of fatigue, but he looked very happy.

"Thanks, Mom," he said.

"For what?" I asked.

"Just thanks," he replied, and gave me a very solid hug, before going below.

Even little Abi got a chance to pull a night watch, but Karl couldn't stand the thought of her being alone in the cockpit at night. He stayed up with her, missing a couple of prime sleeping hours because of it. She handled it fine, though, and then dressed him down thoroughly for not having any faith in her, pointing out that fourteen-year-olds regularly sail the Sound in all kinds of conditions. I think she may have overstated her case.

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We stayed at a transient slip in Elizabeth City for a couple of days, resting from the long passage, and restocking the ship's stores. While everyone else spent some time sightseeing, I re-read Dad's log to get the coordinates for his anchorage. I needed to find that spot.

In addition to the regular, established anchorages spaced along the main channel, the Dismal Swamp is criss-crossed with canals. The canals were dug with the intent of draining the swamp, way back in our history, and they did succeed in lowering the water level, but not completely, and not permanently.

It was in one of those canals, far enough away from the channel so as not to be disturbed, that Dad had spent most of his time, following Mom's death, and before he met Pearl.

For most of the distance through the Dismal Swamp, the journey is not a sailing experience. Open water is a rarity, the navigable channel is narrow, reliable winds are non-existent, and when there is a wind, lee shores are far too close. Bottom line is, when you cross the Swamp, you're probably using the Iron Genny. Finding the exact spot of Dad's anchorage was tricky, even with the GPS coordinates that he had carefully recorded, but find it we did.

Everyone looked at me as if I'd lost my mind when I gave the order to drop anchor, but they did it anyway. I drew the first shift as cook, so I called a family caucus while I set about preparing the evening meal.

"I know you're all wondering why we stopped here, and for how long," I got lots of nods in response to that. "Well, the why is a lot easier to explain than the how long. I expect that each of you will want to have some input on that." Again with the nods.

"This spot," I waved my arms to indicate the area around our anchorage, "was where my Dad came to recover from Mom's death. It hit him pretty hard." They all listened intently. "It took awhile, but I think being here helped heal him. I kind of hope to find out how that happened." That got some shrugs and mumbled "okay's," but no further comment, so I let them all go back to whatever they were doing.

We stayed at the anchorage for about five days, and in that time, not once did I hear anyone complain about having nothing to do. We would take the dinghy and go fishing in two's, write in our diaries, play board games, do maintenance things, and in general, just enjoy living and being together.

I knew we had to leave, though, and on our last night there, I asked everyone for some time alone in the cockpit. As I sat there alone, sipping my sundowner, I began to hear sounds that could only be described as singing. [It couldn't be!] I thought about rousting my family, to verify my perceptions, but I was afraid they'd have me committed.

The songs seemed almost wordless, but clear and pure in tone and harmony. They weren't close, at first, but they got closer. Shadows on the water can play tricks on your eyes, even under a full moon. It seemed to me that something was moving in, on and around the water, just out of visual range. Maybe several somethings.

I wasn't really worried. Swamps are renown for their wildlife and night sounds, but the singing didn't sound like any animal I've ever known. It sounded human, just not like any human I ever heard sing.

As I took another slug of my sundowner, I caught a swirl on the water, just a few feet from Undine's hull. It seemed to be coming my way. Curious, I peered over the gunwale and into the water. In the water, I saw a face looking up at me. Not my face, it wasn't a reflection.

A beautiful face, surrounded by a halo of silver-white hair, reflecting the moonlight. For a long time, I stared at her, and she stared back at me. Unexpectedly, another face joined hers, also looking up at me. It was a younger face, and male. It was a familiar face. As I remembered where I had seen that face, they disappeared. It was my Dad's face.

Funny. Judging from what Dad wrote, he didn't think it was possible, but I believed, and I still believe, I had just met my little brother.

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I needed to leave something behind for them. Some sign that I knew who they were, and how much they meant to Dad. While the others were out fishing again, I wandered through Undine, looking for inspiration. My eyes fell on Dad's old guitar, sitting in its cheap gig bag, and I knew I had my answer. I rummaged through the ship's stores and found some dark chocolate miniatures, to complete the package. I put the chocolates into the gig bag with the guitar, and move the bag outside on deck.

I got more funny looks about the gig bag on deck, since none of us played, but after I explained that I wanted to leave it here as a kind of monument to Dad, they were all really sympathetic, and kindly left me to my madness. As twilight settled, I heaved the bag into the dingy and quietly rowed to the near shore. I didn't want the motor noise to disturb my quarry. There were a lot of trees, but I chose one that was easily visible from the water.

I removed the chocolates and the guitar from the gig bag, hoping they were watching how it was done. I laid the bag on the ground at the foot of the tree, then I set the guitar and the chocolates on the gig bag, and leaned the guitar against the tree. That done, I returned to the dinghy, and rowed back to the boat

As I stepped over Undine's transom, I looked back at the tree. I could clearly see where I'd left my offerings. They were gone. I smiled. That was exactly what I intended to happen. I extracted Dad's log book from its hiding place, and stood up again. Looking back toward the shore, I imagined that I saw the vague forms of a pale, beautiful woman, and a shorter, darker boy, blowing kisses in my direction. I blew some back and waved goodnight.

I took Dad's book below, and stowed it back in its proper place, then I went to bed and woke up Karl. He was happy to see me.

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We made it to Norfolk in time to help celebrate Independence Day. In theory, we were supposed to turn around and head back to our "home" dock the next day. When I brought up the subject at the evening meal, I got only gloomy stares and protests.

"But Kelly," I said, "don't you have plans for the rest of the summer? And Abi, what about cheer camp?" Before I could say more, they interrupted.

"I don't have anything to do that can't be done when we get back. I like what we're doing now!" Kelly said firmly.

"Me too," shouted Abi, "I can go to stupid cheer camp over Thanksgiving break!"

"Like you said," Karl added, "Up until now, I haven't had a vacation in five years. If the company can't make it without me for a little while longer, I need to find another company anyway."

"Well, since you all brought it up," I drawled, "I have sort of been thinking about going a little further North... maybe as far as New York or Rhode Island..."