The following morning
Monday
20nm west of Crooked Island
Position: 22.2777° N 72.6209° W
Course: 187°, Speed: 20 knots, 467nm logged
At midnight, Cathy and I took over the watch from Mindy and Tommy.
I gave Mindy a big hug as she went below to bed – she looked very tired; Tommy too. We both settled down to another watch at sea. Cathy enjoyed the night – she said it was peaceful. At a little after one in the morning, we turned southeast onto a course of 154° heading towards the eastern tip of Cuba – we were also joined by another body for the watch.
"Can I join you guys? Please."
"Feel free, Steph," I replied. "Can't sleep?"
"I'm still getting used to all of this, Dave – it's not easy..."
"No action, is that it?" Cathy asked with a smile.
"Something like that – the past few years have been all go, with very little down time... and now, all of a sudden, I can be a normal child and enjoy myself... I can never get rid of that other part of me, but at least that is not all my life is... Does that make sense?"
"Yes, I suppose it does," I replied, offering the young girl a Coke.
"Thanks."
Whatever Stephanie was, she was always polite. She was also a cold killer and we had seen her in action – only the once, but we knew that she was capable of killing with as little emotion as Hit Girl. The rest of us actually felt emotions when we killed and we fought them constantly, but Hit Girl and Psyche; they were different, from a psychological point of view at least.
I left Stephanie and Cathy talking out on the port bridge wing while I updated our position on the chart.
At five that morning, we were passing between the eastern tip of Cuba and the Inagua Islands. Fifteen minutes later, we altered course to the east, onto a course of 092° to bypass the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands.
We had a full day at sea, plus most of the following morning.
..._...
Despite us being on holiday, I was not about to let my fitness lapse.
Each and every morning, before breakfast, I did my exercises before heading up to the Galley to eat. I also tried to spend at least an hour each day on some Taekwondo, which was safe when Anne-Marie and Danny were around. I would have loved to have been able to get some weapons practice, but that was not possible – no weapons would come out during the cruise.
When I practised, others joined me – sometimes Megan and Stephanie, sometimes Josh and Chloe and even Anne-Marie and Abby! It gave us all an appetite and also built up a sweat.
..._...
That morning, after breakfast, I signalled for Dave to cut the engines and we lay hove to, gently rocking on the waves. We were alone, with no other ships visible. I ordered everybody to come aft on the Main Deck – for some reason Josh hung back, well away from me!
"Time for some fun – who has noticed the large 'item' on the aft end of the Bridge Deck?"
"I did!" Curtis called out with a grin – he knew what it was; he'd peeked.
"Anybody else...?"
I was interrupted by the hum of hydraulics and electric motors as the coaming at the rear of the Sun Deck opened and a telescopic crane made its appearance. The crane jib swung aft under the control of Ryan, lowering the steel cable with a hook at the end, towards the Bridge Deck where Dave attached the hook to a four-point sling on my newest toy.
"Damn!" Megan breathed as the, jet black metallic and deep pewter satin, watercraft was lowered over the side and into the water.
Once floating alongside, I reached out and secured the painter to a cleat. I smiled hugely as Dave appeared beside me at the stern.
..._...
"What is it?" Danny asked, looking at the new arrival as we launched the Tempest too.
"That, is the Twister," I explained. "Twister, is a 295-horsepower, 3.5-metre jet ski that can carry three people at over sixty miles-per-hour..."
"She insisted on speed and went for the 1,600-cc engine!" Dave said with a grimace. "Now, I am going to take the Tempest – who wants to ride with Mindy?"
Two nutcases raised their hands.
Fifteen minutes later, I was racing over the waves at over forty miles-per-hour.
Behind me, I had Chloe and Stephanie. Both were holding on very tight! Fifty yards away, Tempest raced around – we were much faster, so we ran in a large circle around Tempest and Atlantic Storm. Speed! It was awesome. Behind me, I could hear Chloe giggling and laughing, along with Stephanie who was doing much the same.
I took every opportunity to jump over the waves, crashing down again and riding up the next. The spray was cool in the hot sun and I was enjoying myself. As we swept past Tempest, I saw the smiling faces and the laughter. That was what everybody needed – time to be a kid, time to be a teenager – time to have fun...
The holiday was perfect.
Mindy was fucking nuts!
I held on as tight as I could – you could say, for dear life; quite literally! My arms were wrapped very tightly around Chloe's waist and the teenager was giggling fit to burst, with the odd scream thrown in as we periodically crashed down into the water.
I just prayed that I would live long enough to see my tenth birthday!
I was seriously worried about my wife.
She had gone completely nuts over power and speed!
I knew that she was skilled and that she had excellent reflexes, however she often pushed things too far and... I trusted her, but I also knew her – very well... I angled Tempest towards the speed freak on Twister and moved to intercept.
Not an easy task, Twister was far more manoeuvrable than Tempest and Mindy was not making it an easy intercept, either!
I had to be careful as I did not want to empty my six passengers out into the open ocean. I kept Tempest on an even keel as much as possible, but Twister still had the edge and Mindy knew what she was doing. I had to outwit Mindy if I wanted to gain the upper hand.
"Hold on!" I called to my passengers.
I received yells of acknowledgement and excitement as I increased the throttle and executed a sequence of manoeuvres that tricked Mindy into thinking we were moving to port when we were actually heading to starboard and we soon found ourselves in a position to cut her off.
Mindy wisely decided to call it a day, rather than risk anybody getting hurt.
That night
100nm north of the Dominican Republic
Position: 20.4450° N 68.9659° W
Course: 092°, Speed: 20 knots, 859nm logged
At eight that night, we were passing north of the Dominican Republic.
It was my first nighttime watch and I was more than a little bit nervous, however I trusted Chloe and knew that despite our rivalry, she would help me get things right. We often argued and teased each other and I knew that I got on her nerves which had resulted in us fighting, on more than one occasion.
As Chloe updated our position, half an hour after we came on watch, I asked her a question.
"Chloe... I..."
Chloe turned and smiled at me.
"Spit it out, Megan."
"Why do I antagonise you?"
Chloe grinned and sat down on the couch, patting the seat beside her.
"When you first appeared, I saw you as a threat – another girl who was surprisingly good at what she did."
I felt myself blushing at the hidden compliment, but let Chloe continue.
"I also saw a lot of me, in you. When I was younger, about nine I suppose, I was a major bitch and I often went out of my way to piss people off – I enjoyed it, seeing the reaction that I had caused. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I began to see the hurt that I caused by my acting out. I suppose that I didn't want you to go the same way.
"I have the utmost respect for what you do, Megan, and I would fight by your side, any day, any place... Despite the way that I often treat you, I see you as a younger sister and a very good friend. You have saved my life on more than one occasion, Megan and to be honest, sometimes I am jealous of you..."
"What?" I exclaimed, stunned at that revelation – the famous Shadow was jealous of little Wildcat!
"Just don't go spreading it around – I have a reputation to uphold."
I grinned back at my friend.