That morning
Sunday
10:00
The Atlantic Storm
Nassau, The Bahamas
Position: 25.0600° N 77.3450° W
145nm logged
The fun was cut off rather abruptly as we approached ten o'clock.
By then, everybody had had a go at driving the tender. We needed to get underway and head south, towards Antigua. Once the tender was safely stowed in its garage and the door closed and sealed, we completed preparations to weigh anchor.
Every hatch, was checked and double-checked. Every rope and cable, was checked and double-checked. Once all the necessary checks had been completed, and only then, the engines were started. Just one rope wrapped around a propeller at that point, could wreck the entire cruise. The twin diesel engines throbbed away ready to propel the Atlantic Storm through the calm azure waters.
..._...
At exactly 10:00, the anchor lifted off the sea bottom and I gently eased the twin throttles forward and span the wheel to starboard, taking us onto an easterly heading. Ahead of the bridge, I could see the Portuguese bridge settee crammed with Steph, Anne-Marie, Chloe, Abby and Megan, all enjoying the view and the cool breeze as we left Nassau, heading north-east to round Eleuthera.
Behind me, Ryan and Cathy were enjoying a beer and a glass of white wine, respectively, as they sat on the couch with Dave and Josh. Tommy and Curtis were visible on the bow, in the eyes of the ship, as far forward as they could get.
As we left the lee of the land, we began to pitch and the yacht casually absorbed the waves, the twin gyroscopic stabilisers keeping her on an even keel. We increased speed to twenty knots and I could not help smiling – everything was just perfect. Nothing could ruin our holiday; I had my family and my friends with me.
I was in heaven.
Two hours later
12:00
20nm northeast of Spanish Wells on Eleuthera
Position: 25.6525° N 76.9160° W
Course: 032°, Speed: 20 knots, 185nm logged
It was midday and my turn on watch.
On watch with me, I had Stephanie, while Mindy relaxed above us on the Sun Deck, in the Jacuzzi with Chloe and Abby. Ryan was on hand if required, but he too was enjoying some down time with his wife on the bow – you don't want to know! Half an hour later, we turned onto a new course of 095° and I put Stephanie to work, plotting our position on the chart and learning some nautical navigation. She was bright, despite only being nine and picked up quickly on the complexities of longitude, latitude and how to plot a position using a compass rose and parallel rules. The Atlantic Storm had every modern electronic navigation system available and they were bang up to date, but Ryan thought it important that everybody should know how to navigate with a paper chart – paper charts did not break down!
A little over an hour later, we were turning southeast onto a course of 136° – Stephanie proved very competent at the helm, too.
..._...
Cathy, Ryan and Chloe brought us lunch and stayed with us while we ate.
While we were talking, Cathy and I both noticed Chloe slowly and stealthily reaching for a bottle of Budweiser...
"Did I ever tell you about Chloe, when she was twelve?" Cathy asked me, pretending that she had not noticed.
Chloe froze.
"No," I replied, sensing a good story.
"It was the first time she ever had alcohol..."
Chloe scowled and withdrew her hand from the bottle of beer. Cathy smirked as she continued speaking.
"Ryan was at sea and I was at home with young Chloe... Late one evening, I heard singing from upstairs – but I thought nothing of it, until Chloe's bedroom door burst open and she came prancing out and stood at the top of the stairs, shouting for me.
"Well, I went to the bottom of the stairs and looked up... There was Chloe standing with her hands on her hips, staring down at me – only she was completely naked! Now, back then, Chloe did not have a figure – in fact she did not have much of anything, let alone hips for that matter."
Chloe was going very pink in the face, but she kept her mouth shut as her father smirked in her direction. I nodded for Cathy to continue.
"Well, Chloe started to come down the stairs, but when she only had two steps to go, she fell and sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, ending up on her back... She lay there giggling for about five minutes before she jumped up and bolted for the bathroom where she promptly and spectacularly threw up! She promised me then that she would never touch alcohol again!"
"Not my finest moment..." Chloe muttered.
"A certain young lady learnt something that day, didn't she?" Ryan commented.
"Yes, she did..." Chloe confirmed.
..._...
At 16:00, Chloe and Megan came on watch.
Ryan was there to watch the handover. Chloe had learnt navigation and boat handling from a young age, so she was entrusted to stand a watch, with Megan to assist.
"Course: one three six degrees. Speed: twenty knots," Stephanie advised Chloe. "No issues, no traffic."
"Thank you, Steph – you are relieved."
"Cool – I need to get a tan!" Stephanie said quickly as she departed the bridge at speed.
"You two behave, now!" I warned as I followed Stephanie.
"Yes, Dave – all under control," Chloe chuckled and Megan rolled her eyes.
"I'll make sure Chloe doesn't get drunk!" Megan said with a scowl at Chloe.
I found Mindy in the Jacuzzi, chatting with Abby and Cathy.
They waved for me to join them and it felt glorious being able to snuggle up to my wife and I gave her a very deep kiss – much to somebody's discomfort!
"Ewww!" Stephanie moaned as she slid in beside Mindy. "God, it's only been four hours since you last saw each other!"
Ryan laughed as he appeared on the deck and heard Stephanie's comment. He began to prepare the grill, to the starboard side of the Sun Deck for an early dinner. He also passed his wife a chilled glass of white wine, which she gratefully accepted. Mindy and I each received a beer. Abby and Stephanie had cold Cokes with ice.
..._...
Our tranquillity was destroyed when there was a violent ear-splitting scream from aft and I turned to see Anne-Marie berating her brother who had just emptied a bucket of cold water over his sister – with the help of Curtis. Tommy was laughing fit to burst.
"Boys!" Anne-Marie exclaimed before sliding into the Jacuzzi next to Stephanie.
"It's getting a bit packed in here," Cathy observed. "I need to go get the meat out of the fridge."
While Cathy headed down the steps to the galley, I laid back and enjoyed the view. There were a few other vessels about, some large container ships and a few yachts of varying sizes, but nothing came close and our gentle rolling on the waves went uninterrupted. I must have dozed off as I soon found Mindy prodding me and I could smell steaks cooking on the grill a few feet away.
..._...
"Looks good – I assume Chloe hasn't collided with anything..." I quipped.
"No, they seem to be doing well; they turned onto a course of 142°, heading between Rum Cay and San Salvador, a few minutes ago – although I think Megan is getting a little annoyed with her instructor!" Mindy replied, indicating the deck below.
I listened and I could hear Megan complaining bitterly and loudly, while Chloe told Megan that her markings on the chart were 'a load of shit'! Chloe could be a real bitch when she wanted to be, but I also knew that Megan was very keen to learn how to navigate, so she took Chloe's bitching, like the bitch that she herself was.
The steaks were done, as was an enormous pile of salad and other delicacies from the Galley.
Curtis took a pair of steaks below for the two girls on watch who, it seemed, were very hungry and desperate for some food! I had to admit that I was quite surprised that Megan and Chloe had not fought while on watch together. Sometimes the two of them wound each other up, with bad results. However, at that moment, I was impressed; both could be very professional when the need arose.
An enormous cruise ship passed us, heading north at a distance of two miles and we could see a lot of people waving at us and we waved back. Other than that, we were very much alone as we continued to head south. Which turned out to be good as Curtis and Josh had decided to see how loud they could get the almost five-figure sound system in the Main Salon!
..._...
Everybody aboard was soon dancing to Duran Duran and the track: 'Hungry like the wolf' – hey, it was an awesome song with cool lyrics. I may only have been an egg at the time when it came out, but I loved 80s music and, so it seemed, did almost everybody else. Anne-Marie was not too amused at first, but she soon got into the music and enjoyed dancing about like a lunatic!
Chloe thought it was incredibly embarrassing when her Father appeared on the bridge – dancing!
It then got worse as Josh went on to play the uncensored version of the Beautiful South and 'Don't Marry Her'... That did not exactly help as Danny, along with Curtis and Tommy, took great joy in following Josh's example and using the original wording: 'Don't marry her, fuck me', while Anne-Marie wanted to know what 'sweaty bollocks' were...!
..._...
The ever perceptive Josh seemed to notice that Dave and I were not impressed by his choices of music, so he selected a tune that he knew would calm me down – cunt!
'Now, I've had the time of...'
I smiled at Josh and he shrugged before he headed up to the bridge. There, as I understand it, he began dancing, somewhat provocatively, with Chloe – which freaked out Megan more than a little! Me, I just clung to Dave and we enjoyed the track.
I had to admit that on the cruise, I was having '…the time of my life...'
That night
20:00
Midway between Ponta Guarico, Cuba and Southwest Point, Inagua Islands
Position: 23.6098° N 74.4365° W
Course: 142°, Speed: 20 knots, 387nm logged
At 20:00, the helm was put over and we turned 45° to starboard and onto a new course of 187°, to pass between Long Island and Crooked Island.
It was a perfect night and I was standing watch with Tommy. The light was fading, but we still had very good visibility. I hoped that my steak and the beer that I had drunk at dinner would not put me to sleep during my watch!
It was awesome being out in what was almost total darkness. Tommy and I were both fascinated by the stars above us; they seemed larger and brighter for some reason. Apart from keeping an eye on the radar and our position, we both enjoyed identifying the formations of stars – it kept us awake too.
Tommy, despite the boy only being two months short of his twelfth birthday, was interesting to talk to. His childhood had been ripped apart too. His kidnapping had forced him to learn new skills very rapidly so that he could survive. The kid continuously impressed me with his skills and I enjoyed sparring with him as he often liked to fight dirty, which gave me a challenge.
We whiled away the hours until midnight chatting and laughing – Tommy also knew some very crude jokes! We were both looking forward to when we could go to our beds.