Phone Call

 

“What do you mean you picked up a hitchhiker? What was he doing? Swimming?”

            “She’s a sailing hitchhiker, and I haven’t picked her up yet.”

            “Oh, now I get it. Is this what you’ve resorted to in order to meet women?”

            “Well, perhaps it is. What of it?”

            “Everyone knows that picking up hitchhikers is a fool’s game. It’s like inviting a parasite into your life.”

            “That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?”

            “No. If they were intelligent, productive members of society, they’d have their own means of transportation.”

            “Not everyone who wants to sail has a sailboat.”

            “Aren’t there women out there that have sailboats?”

            “Yes, but they typically have husbands too.”

            “How about a little more effort? Surely you can come up with a better way to meet women than picking up hitchhikers. And what the hell is a sailing hitchhiker?”

            “She’s traveling alone and wants to sail. I’m alone and have a sailboat. I figured it’s worth a try.”

            “Isn’t there a library, or a birdwatching club where you can meet intelligent women?”

            “No.”

            “Where did you meet her?”

            “Online.”

            “I figured as much.”

            “Don’t sound so negative. She’s a nice girl.”

            “I hope she’s a woman and not a girl.”

            “She’s a nice woman.”
           “How do you know?”

            “She seems nice.”

            “Sure, she wants a free ride on your boat, so she’ll be on her best behavior until she gets what she wants. Keep that in mind. Her real personality might be diametrically opposed to the one she puts out when you first meet her.”

            “Amy, you are so negative sometimes. Why can’t a woman who seems nice actually be nice?”

            “It’s an outside possibility. Is she hot?”

            “Of course.”

            “That halves the odds. You’ll never learn, will you. Where are you taking her?”

            “Probably to Long Island, the Exumas, maybe Conception Island. I’d like to go to Samana Cay.”

            “But where is she going? Where does she need a ride to?”

            “Nowhere in particular. She just wants to sail and gain experience.”

            “Oh for Christ’s sake, Jake. She’s just a freeloader. Does she want you to feed her too? Buy her clothes?”

            “Give me a break. It’s not uncommon. People post online that they want to sail, and where they are, and so forth. People like me respond. It happens all the time, and I figured I’d give it a try. I mean, my life is fine the way it is, but everyone says sharing the experience with someone else makes it better, and I’ve been sailing solo for a few years, and I’ve been single long enough. I think it’ll be good for me.”

            “So you’re lonely, that’s the issue. It’s okay to admit it.”

            “Okay. I’m lonely. I’m lonely as hell. This was fun when it started, sailing around by myself, but lately it’s all been meaningless, like driving around a giant parking lot and never parking.”

            “That’s better. Now, that you’ve admitted you’re lonely, the next step is to meet people, not just take aboard the first chick you meet online.”

            “Well, it’s a done deal, and what’s the worst that could happen?”

            “She slits your throat while you sleep.”

            “Please.”

            “That shit happens, Jake.”

            “I’m sure it does, on TV. What have you been watching?”

            “Whatever. You know it’s a risk. What’s her name?”

            “Sonia.”

            “Sonia what?”

            “Hang on.”

            “You don’t even know her last name?”

            “It’s on my phone. Here it is. Sonia Temple.”

            “Sounds like a fake name. I’ll check her out.”

            “Thanks Amy, I don’t know how I’d survive without you, with all these assassin women coming after me, willing to kill for a thirty-year-old sailboat.”

            “Don’t be naïve. Women can be crazy too.”

            “Don’t I know it.”

            “And they can be ruthless. You better sleep with one eye open. And speaking of sleeping, where’s she going to sleep, and where are you going to sleep, and are they going to be different places?”

            “I’m cleaning out the forward berth for her, and I’ll sleep in my usual place at the other end of the boat.”

            “Keep it that way. As soon as you start sleeping with a woman, your ability to make rational decisions evaporates, and then you’re stuck with her, no matter how deep her character flaws.” 

            “Alright, enough sex talk, sis.”

            “You be careful, Jake. I don’t like the sound of this.”

            “It’s an experiment I have to do. I need to see if I can get along with a woman on my boat, if I can make space, if I can share space, you know, all that relationship stuff. And since she’s a hitchhiker, it’ll be short term, and I can get rid of her more easily than I could a real girlfriend.”

            “A real girlfriend wouldn’t need to be gotten rid of, or slit your throat. Why don’t you let me set you up with someone?”

            “Bring it on.”

            “Is she already on your boat?”

            “No. I’ll pick her up tomorrow at Spanish Wells.”

            “Don’t. Just tell her it’s not happening and I’ll work on finding you a nice woman who’ll be good to you.”

            “Too late, sis. I gave my word.”

            “Break it. It’s ok, people break their word every day. Think of the consequences of keeping your word, just this once.”

            “It’ll be fine.”

            “Stubborn as ever. So what else is going on? Have you been surfing?”

            “No surf. But I went for a nice swim yesterday. I swam all the way around the little Island here, about three miles.”

            “You swam three miles?”

            “I did.”

            “How far can you swim?”

            “As far as I need to.”

            “Ha, I bet. Be safe Jake, and stay in touch more than usual while the hitchhiker is aboard.”

            “I will. I love you Amy.”

            “I love you too.”

           

 

 

Sonia

 

A north wind stirred the clear water opaque and pushed grey clouds across the sky as Jake drove his dinghy to St George’s Cay. He slowed at the entrance to the turbulent cut leading in and idled through the narrow waterway with the town of Spanish Wells on the left and mangroves on the right. The water lay calm here as the island blocked most of the wind, but the clouds above continued their southward journey as if in a hurry to be somewhere else.

            Houses in pastel colors decorated the small hill above the waterfront and gave the town a postcard feel. Wooden docks reached out like crooked fingers from an aged concrete seawall. Humble, stout working boats sat in the still water, ready for work, or adventure, or both. People ambled along the one-lane street, and occasionally a car or a golf cart rolled by. Fishermen loaded supplies into a green and white boat; another sailor filled his dinghy at the fuel dock. A child holding his father’s hand looked at Jake and waved, and Jake waved back.

            Jake arrived at the dock five minutes early. He tied his dinghy to a rusty old bollard near concrete steps that looked like they had been hewn from the ancient coral bedrock by early settlers of the island. The steps led down to the water and continued beneath, as if someone might want to step into the deep water and transit the channel by walking across the bottom.

            He stood on the seawall at noon, expecting her to be punctual, and watched the people walking by. Sonia was generous with photos of herself on Instagram, and he’d seen many, in fact he’d enjoyed looking at them. Nobody here looked like her. Sonia was legitimately hot, and all these people were boring in comparison. Hot. That meant trouble, according to Amy. What if she was right? It wasn’t too late to leave and not look back. And do what? Go back to sailing around alone. No. This was worth the risk.

            At ten after five, he stared at the passerby with his arms crossed. Five minutes longer. Anyone more than fifteen minutes late was not someone he was willing to put up with.

            A couple in an inflatable dinghy pulled up and tied off next to Jake’s dinghy. Jake smiled and nodded to them as they climbed ashore.

            “What boat are you on?” the man said.

            “Poker Face. A Tartan 37, anchored out at Meeks Patch.”

            The man reached out and shook his hand. “I’m Darius. My boat is Malik, and Nixie is on Valhalla. We’re anchored in Royal Island Harbor.”

            “Where are you headed?” Jake asked.
           “We’re probably going to stick around here for a while, then head south. How about you?”

            “Hatchet Bay next, then probably the Exumas. I hope to make it to Samana Cay. Have you been?”

            “No, but I hear it’s nice. Good luck, and we’ll keep an eye out for Poker Face.”

            Jake watched as they walked away holding hands. Nixie was cute, and apparently she had her own boat. Another missed opportunity. He looked back at his watch. Twelve past.

            Two men on a dock turned to look at someone walking down the street. Jake couldn’t see who it was they were looking at, but the crowd parted and revealed a woman with straight blond hair and severe bangs. Sonia. She walked past the men without paying them any attention. She had the body of a rock climber – trim and muscular. She wore a tiny pair of shorts and a tube top that put her upper half on display. Her stride was graceful and carefree. She carried a purse and a large duffel bag. When their eyes met, he was already smiling.

            Jake expected an apology for being late, but he scarcely cared now that she was standing in front of him. “Sonia?”

            She smiled and extended her hand. “Hello Jake. I hope I’m not late. It’s so hard to keep track of time in a place like this.”

            Jake smiled and shook her hand. “Not at all. It’s nice to meet you in person.” Her touch excited him. “Right this way,” he motioned toward his dinghy.

            “It looks small. Will it hold both of us and my bags?”

            “Yes, of course. Don’t worry, my other boat is much bigger.”

            Sonia smiled. “I don’t doubt that,” she said, and handed Jake her bags. She put one foot at a time on the algae-covered steps, testing their surface before shifting her weight forward, and climbed into Jake’s dinghy.

            Jake had his back to town as he drove down the channel, and Sonia, seated opposite, faced the houses, boats, and docks.

            “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Have you seen the waterfront from this angle yet?” Jake said.

            “I haven’t. It’s so quaint, like a painting you’d see in a beach hotel in Florida.”

            Jake laughed. “Hold on,” he said, and accelerated. The little outboard motor roared as he drove them out of the channel and across the open water.

 

Jake held the dinghy tight alongside while she ascended the boarding ladder, then handed up her bags. “Welcome aboard,” he said as he climbed up. He led her inside and showed her around the boat. She took it all in, not looking at Jake or responding, but nodding to what he said while running a hand across the countertop, the locker doors, the handholds, as if caressing the interior of the boat. Jake stopped talking and watched as she sat at the navigation table exploring the surface like a blind woman reading brail.

            “I sleep here,” he said as he pointed to a berth by the companionway, then led her to the forward berth, in the bow of the boat.

            “This is your room. It’s not much, but you’ll have some privacy here, and you have a hatch for ventilation, or to climb in and out of.” Sonia reached up and put her hand through the opening.

            Jake continued pointing things out and they moved through the saloon to the galley.

            “Are you planning on buying a sailboat someday?” Jake asked.

            “Yes, someday. Right now, I want to learn all I can so I can do what you do.”

            “You want to sail solo?”

            “Yes.”

            “Why solo?”

            “So I can be the captain of my own boat, without having to depend on anyone else. Will you teach me?”

            “Sure. Teaching comes naturally to me anyway.”

            “I’d like that.”

            “What kind of boat do you want?”

            “Something simple and safe, and cute. A boat that doesn’t rely on a bunch of modern gadgets.”

            “Well, I can tell you that what you might think of as gadgets are extremely useful. Take the chartplotter for instance, which didn’t exist twenty years ago. It shows you where you are on a digital map that you can zoom in and out of, and the AIS, another modern piece of electronics, puts all the other boats in the area on the map too, so you don’t run into each other. There’s nothing not to like about the AIS and the chartplotter. And the depth sounder, you don’t want to sail without one of those, especially around here. I guess the windspeed indicator you could get by without, but it helps. And by yourself, especially, you need all this. Otherwise, you’d need a crew to get around in The Bahamas without running into reefs.”

            “But all the old sailors did it.”

            “Not alone, and not in unfamiliar shallow water with reefs all around.”

            “I’m sure a lot of them did.”

            “And a lot of them got lost, or hit reefs and sank.”

            “And became shipwrecks,” she said while looking at the open chartbook on the table.

            “That’s right.” Jake paused and caught himself looking down at the exposed portion of her cleavage. She stared at the chart and clicked her tongue several times in quick succession. His eyes darted up to her face.

            “Speaking of lost, let’s talk about how not to lose things. Everything on the boat has an official place – one place where it lives. That way, you can find it in the dark, in a hurry, or in an emergency. These headlamps for instance. They’re always, and I mean that literally, hanging right here,” he reached for the hook by the companionway where they hung, “so when you’re in the cockpit at night and you need one, you can just reach in and grab it.”

            “So you can grab one from the cockpit in the dark?”

            Jake raised an eyebrow and continued. “Right, so you don’t have to go looking for it. That’s important, and everything on the boat is like that. There’s no sense in having to waste time and effort looking for things.”

            “Everything?”

            “Yes, well, almost everything. Certainly everything important. Safety equipment and the first-aid kit go in here,” and Jake pointed to a locker by the steps, then at the navigation table. “This is where the handheld VHF radio goes, and this,” he pointed to a small orange device with an antenna, “is the InReach. It’s a satellite tracking device, as well as a messaging device.”

            “It tracks you?” Sonia asked.

            “Yes, so family can see where I am – where we are, and I can send texts back and forth when out of cellphone range. It’s even tethered to my phone, so I can type on the phone and send texts via satellite.”

            “You don’t have internet?”

            “Not when outside of cell-tower range.”

            “I see,” she said.

            Jake continued. “Tools are in here. Dishcloths, when clean, are folded and put here. Once they’ve been used, they can be left on this counter.” He picked one up from the counter and wiped his forehead.

            “No,” Sonia said, which caught Jake off guard. She stood up and continued, “Now let me make a rule. Don’t wipe your face with a dishcloth.”

            “What? Why not?” Jake said.

            “It’s gross.” She reached and took the cloth from his hand. “Now your sweat and face oil are on it. That’s no good for cleaning dishes.” She dropped it in the sink and said, “I’ll wash it.”

            Jake looked at her, and for a moment, neither said anything. “Moving on,” Jake said, “let’s step up into the cockpit. I also have standard practice for a lot of things. Standard prac-tidence prevents accidents.”

            “Standard prac-tidence prevents accidents,” she repeated with a laugh. “Serious and silly at the same time. I love it.” She was giggling when Jake turned to look at her, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

            “Ridiculous, right, but useful. Seriously,” he said. “For instance, before starting the engine, you first look to see that the shifter is in neutral, and wiggle it, like this, to make sure.”

            “Wiggle before starting,” she said, motioning with her hand as if wiggling the shifter.

            “Next, you look over both sides of the boat to make sure there are no lines hanging in the water that might get caught in the propeller. It’s happened before, and it’s a bad situation. If a line gets caught in the prop, have to get in the water to cut it free.” Jake continued with details related to starting the motor, driving the boat, and shutting the engine off.

            Sonia nodded and listened, her eyes wide trying to take it all in. Jake went on to new subjects, assuming she was keeping up.

            “The boarding ladder always gets tied to the boat with this safety line,” he said as he held up a short line connecting the boarding ladder to the boat.

            “Why?”

            “So we don’t lose it.”

            Sonia looked over the side of the boat, down into the shallow water. “How would it be lost? Wouldn’t it just be right there?” she said, pointing at the sand twelve feet below the surface of the clear water.

            “In this case, yes, but somewhere else, in deeper water, or in dark water, it might be lost. It gets tied off every time, so you don’t have to think about it, so there are no exceptions. Lots of things on the boat are like that. If you do everything according to routine, every time, then you don’t end up neglecting something out of complacency.”

            “All these rules, don’t they inhibit your sense of freedom?” Sonia said.

            “Oh, I’m plenty free. It’s just the way things work on my boat. It keeps everything smooth and safe.”

            “I suppose you would know, captain,” she said with a wink.

            Jake continued and Sonia listened. She smiled and cocked her head one way or the other whenever Jake looked at her, and she occasionally clicked her tongue or made popping noises with her lips, which Jake noticed but didn’t comment on. “Sure is a lot to take in on the first day,” she said.

            “I bet, but we’re almost done. We just need to talk a bit about safety.”

            Sonia rolled her eyes. “I’ll be safe, don’t worry.”

            “I’m sure you will, but there are a few things we have to go over. We’ll be sailing offshore soon, too far to swim to land. If one of us is lost overboard, they’re going to die, and it’s going to be a long slow death, either by drowning, or more likely by dehydration. That’s not a good way to go.”

            “Or you’ll be eaten by giant eels.”

            “Giant eels?”

            “Like in The Princess Bride.”

            Jake didn’t get the reference and went on as if she expected giant eels to be a threat. “Eels live on reefs, but you won’t find them out in the open water, and none get big enough to eat you. But of course, sharks might eat you, or just bite you once and leave you to bleed out. Bottom line – do everything you can to stay on the boat. If you go overboard, I’ll do everything I can to rescue you, but there’s less chance of being rescued than there is of not. There’s an emergency strobe light in your lifejacket. If you’re in the water at night, turn it on and hold it up high. It’s a flashing yellow light. Hopefully I’ll see it. Now, let’s talk about what you should do if I go overboard.”

            “Jake, please do not fall off the boat while I am on it. I can’t imagine. That sounds like a nightmare.”

            “It hasn’t happened yet,” Jake said. He went over all the procedures of a man-overboard situation and Sonia kept her eyes on him throughout the entire speech.

            “Let me see if I remember everything. Throw things that float overboard, turn the boat around, mark the location on the chartplotter, call mayday, return to the location, heave-to, or drop the anchor, stay there and hope you swim back,” Sonia said.

            “That’s about it.” He picked up his water bottle. “Ah, and one more thing. It’s easy to get dehydrated out here. Right now, for instance, my mouth is like a brick.” He took a drink of water.

            “Like a brick? I’ve never heard that one.”

            “You know, like brick dust.”

            “No, I don’t know anything about brick dust.”

            “I don’t suppose you’ve ever laid brick.”

            “Laid brick? No, of course not,” she said.

            “Brick dust is dry and it sucks the moisture out of anything it comes in contact with. Sometimes it gets in your mouth when you cut brick.”

            She pulled her head back and said, “That sounds positively horrid.”

            “Anyway, don’t forget to drink water more often than you’re used to. My rule is that I drink whenever I think about water, or whenever I catch myself looking at the water bottle.”

            “Oh my god, another rule,” she said with a laugh. “Let’s see if I got them all. Drink water, call mayday, don’t fall overboard, hang the headlamps up the hook, tie the ladder to the boat. Got it. And don’t wipe your face with dish towels!” She looked at him with a crooked smile. “Can we go sailing now?” she asked as she caressed the wheel.

            “I know it’s a lot, and I don’t expect you to remember everything, at first, but it’s all important and has to be gone over. In a few days, when the wind is right, we’ll go for a real sail, to Hatchet Bay. That’s what this is all about.”

            “And you’ll let me steer?” she asked as she gave the wheel a playful back-and-forth turn.

            “Sure,” Jake said.

            The cricket ring-tone of Jake’s phone interrupted the conversation. It was on speaker when he answered.

            “Hi Mom.”

            “What’s this I hear about you picking up a hitchhiker?” his mother, Abigail, said.

            Jake switched off speaker and inadvertently looked up at Sonia, whose hands were still on the wheel but no longer moving. Jake stood and walked to the bow. Sonia went below and quietly walked to her room in the forward berth, right below Jake.

            “Well, Mom, I thought I’d try having a woman aboard. Something different, you know.”

            “Sounds risky.”

            “Maybe, but I can’t just deny women and relationships and be single forever.”

            “You deny it until you find the right one, and picking up hitchhikers is a sure way to find the wrong one. And, consider that even among couples who think they found the right one and get married, sixty percent fail, like my marriage, for instance.”

            “Mom…”

            “All those people would have been better off staying single. Think about that, and think about all of your past relationships. All failures, and a few of them, including the last one, disasters. Haven’t you been happy lately? Haven’t you enjoyed being alone out there on your boat? You’ve said so, about every time we talk.”

            “Well, yeah, I guess so, but.”

            “But you decided to pick up a hitchhiker, someone you’ve never met. And what is it about this woman that makes you think you’re going to like her? Would it be her looks?”

            “Yes, and that she is, or wants to be, a sailor.”

            “Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?”

            “About what?”

            “Basing a relationship on looks, as I believe you’ve done in the past, as you have told me.”

            “But I’m attracted to beautiful women. What’s wrong with that?”

            “Nothing is wrong with that. But looks are not nearly enough to base a relationship on. And this woman, you’ve never even met her, and you’re going to take her on your boat? Jake, this has all the ingredients of a disaster.”

            “And yet it’s a chance I have to take.”

 

Jake made spaghetti with lobster sauce for dinner, and they ate in the cockpit while the sun set. They sat across from each other at a table just big enough for their two plates. Jake told her about his older sister and mother, and how his father left when he was ten. Sonia told him about her older brother and father, and that her mother died in childbirth. She got quiet after that story and Jake didn’t press for details, but they laughed at the realization that his sister and her brother were both overprotective.

            Sonia did the dishes and told Jake goodnight. She filled a plastic water bottle with water, crawled into the forward berth, and shut the door. She fished around in her purse and pulled out a prescription pill bottle labeled Trifluperidol. She swallowed a pill and went to sleep.

​

​

Sailing

 

Jake trod softly to the bow as the eastern sky showed the first hint of purple morning light. He took a sip of hot coffee and carefully set the cup on the deck behind him. A gentle breeze blew and the only sound was the air passing through the rigging and the water lapping the hull.

            He extended his arms, looked at the sky, and began his daily routine of stretching, yoga, and pushups. All was quiet until the forward hatch opened and Sonia’s head emerged.

            “What are you doing?” she said.

            “Good morning. I hope I didn’t wake you. I do yoga on the deck every morning and take in the sunrise. Want to join me?”

            “Is there coffee?”

            “There is, in the French press. There’s sugar, but no milk.”

            “Just sugar is perfect. I’ll be up in a minute.”

            Jake continued stretching in the silence. Sonia joined him with coffee in hand. She wore a blue bikini and watched Jake while sipping from her mug. She set the coffee down and put a hand on his back.

            “Reach further with your right arm, twist at the hips counterclockwise, head down. That’s better.”

            “Are you a yoga teacher?”

            “Instructor. Yes. Or I was. It’s been a while, but I still practice.”

            She began her own routine and Jake followed.

 

When the sun was high in the sky, Jake invited Sonia to go spearfishing, and offered to let her use his extra gear.

            “Do you have an underwater camera?” she asked.

            “I do.”

            “Can I use it? I’ll take video while you fish.”

            “Sure.”

            They loaded up in the dinghy and Jake drove to a nearby reef. He slipped into the clear water and forgot all about Sonia and his sister and mother and everything else, for in front of him was clear water and coral reef and down there somewhere was dinner. He dove and swam to the bottom, twenty feet below, and peered under a ledge of ancient coral. The big black eyes of a red and white squirrelfish stared back at him. He swam in slow motion along the bottom with his spear ready, rounded a corner, and there before him was the grey body of a fish. Soft corals and sponges obscured its identity, but Jake narrowed it down to one of three species, all desirable.     

            He held his spear out at arm’s length and crept forward. The changing of the fish’s position relative to him revealed a black spot on its back and its identity, mutton snapper, one of his favorites. He took careful aim and released the spear, which pierced the fish in the back below its dorsal fin. The fish tried to take off swimming, but Jake held on and began swimming for the surface. Blood streamed from the fish’s wound while it struggled in vain, thrashing and bleeding and, as Jake knew, attracting sharks. But the dinghy was close, as this was his first dive, and he hefted the fish in, kicked with his fins, and pulled himself up and out of the water.

            Sonia swam to the boat and squealed with delight. “Yes! And on the first dive!”

            “We’ll be eating fish for dinner tonight and tomorrow night,” Jake said.

            “Do you have curry powder and coconut milk?”

            “No, but they probably have it in town.”

 

That evening, they shared another meal in the cockpit.

            “This might be the best dinner Poker Face has seen. It’s certainly the best I’ve ever had aboard her.”

            Sonia smiled as best she could while she finished the bite in her mouth. “It’s so nice to cook with fresh fish. I don’t get to do that often. It’s always a bit old when I buy it at a store. This is something special.”

            “Seriously, your cooking is fantastic.”

            Her face glowed in response. The sun descended below the blue horizon and the sky drifted through all the colors except green, but the color excluded flashed almost imperceptibly at the moment the sun disappeared for the night.

            “The green flash! Did you see it?” Jake said.

            “I thought I saw a flash of green.”

            “That’s rare, almost a fable. Some think it doesn’t exist, but we just saw it.”

            “It’s magic.”

            “It is.”

 

Three days later, Jake and Sonia raised the mainsail together as the sun rose. Sonia helped Jake pull the anchor and Poker Face sailed off toward Current Cut without making a sound. Jake let Sonia steer as they crossed the open water for the first hour. Dark patches of coral passed beneath in the clear shallow water. Royal Island passed by to the north and Eleuthera to the south. Nearing the narrow cut, which separated Eleuthera from Current Island, he took the helm.

            “Where is it?” Sonia asked, looking at the rocky shore to the left.

            “It’s up there where the trees start, just to their left. But you can’t see it yet. The tide is coming in and the current will be strong, but it’s going our way. It’ll be fun,” Jake said.

            Jake told Sonia what to do and she trimmed the sails to go more upwind as Jake turned toward the cut and more into the wind.

            “Can I steer?” Sonia asked.

            “No. This is too critical. Too much opportunity for disaster. I need to get us through the cut, but you can take the helm on the other side.”

            Sonia pouted and clicked her tongue five times in quick succession, but didn’t press the issue. Ahead of them the opening to the cut was just visible between the jagged rocks of the two islands on either side. The water in the cut was dark blue, in sharp contrast to the bright blue shallow water on both sides of the entrance.

            “How deep is it?” Sonia asked.

            “About fifty feet,” Jake said.

            The boat accelerated as the current swept them in. Poker Face heeled in the wind and the rocky shore swept by on both sides. Once through the cut, the channel stretched and curved in a dark blue a ribbon ahead of them. The water to the left was so shallow that the white sand below reflected the sun through the blue water. A few small boats floated in the shallow water in front of a small town beyond. To the right were dark rocks and water tinted green from seagrass on the bottom. Jake looked back and forth at the water ahead and the route on the chartplotter, making sure he stayed in the channel as the depth decreased to ten feet.

            “We’re almost through,” Jake said. “We’ll need to turn more into the wind, onto a close reach. You can take the helm if you like, and I’ll trim the sails.”

            Sonia smiled and traded places with Jake. She stood erect with her legs splayed wide and peered straight ahead.

            “Now, slowly turn to port as I take the sails in. Set a course for 102 degrees.”

            Sonia steered and Jake took in the headsail, then the main. Poker Face heeled more and sliced through the clear water. Jake studied the shape of the sails, adjusted them, then sat back and enjoyed the ride as Sonia steered.

            Sonia smiled big. “This is incredible!” She laughed and steered Poker Face with the focus of a racecar driver, then made a quick series of popping noises with her lips. Jake looked at her with cocked head, but Sonia didn’t seem to notice.

            Two hours later, they switched again, and Jake took them through another narrow cut into the calm and dark green water of Hatchet Bay.

 

Pig Beach

 

Jake was scrolling through social media trying not to listen to Sonia’s music, which was just audible coming from the forward berth, and wishing he could read his book in peace, when his phone rang. He glanced below, stood up, and stepped across the cockpit to the stern and stood facing aft.

            “How’s it going big brother?” Amy said.

            “All’s well. It’s another beautiful day in The Bahamas. How are things in your world?”

            “Just boring land life. But tell me the good stuff. What’s it like having a woman on board? Are you two getting along? You’re not sleeping with her already, are you?”

            “No, we sleep in separate berths. It’s been fun. She’s easy to get along with, and she cooks better than me.”

            “Very good. Don’t go knocking her up.”

            “No chance of that. Yet.”

            “Yet? So romance is inevitable.”

            “Oh I don’t know, but I’m certainly not ruling it out.”

            “I checked her out online. No obvious red flags, but she doesn’t seem to have anything stable, like a career, and it doesn’t look like she’s lived in any one place for very long.”

            “So nothing to worry about then.”

            “She looks like a vagabond, or a hippie.”

            “How’s your love life? Are you sure you’re qualified to be giving out relationship advice?”

            “Mine’s a disaster too. But the difference is, I can see yours from the outside. It’s easier to see the picture when you are not in the frame. You pick women by looks alone, and that always leads to trouble.”

            “Yeah, I’m a sucker for the hot ones. But at least Sonia and I have a few things in common, like sailing and snorkeling, and yoga.”

            “Maybe it’ll work out. I hope it does. Stay safe.”

 

A week later, Jake and Sonia sailed out of Hatchet Bay, through the Davis Channel, and set a course for the Exumas.

            “Can we go to Pig Beach?” Sonia said.

            “Why do you want to go there?”

            “To swim with the pigs, of course.”

            “I don’t get it. The Bahamas is full of natural beauty and solitude, coral reefs, beautiful beaches, things you can’t see anywhere else, and then tourists want to go see farm animals on the beach.”

            “Where else in the world can you swim with cute little pigs? Only at the Pig Beach. It’s a dream.”

            “I was planning on anchoring in Pipe Creek. It’s incredibly beautiful and secluded. You’re surrounded by little islands. The water is clear and perfect. There’s coral and fish and lobster. Pig Beach is full of tourists and hundreds of noisy boats. And the pigs are neither little nor cute. In fact, I heard they bite if you don’t feed them.”

            “So you feed them, and we go to Pipe Creek later. Expand your horizons. What’s the big deal. Come on, I’ve wanted to swim with the pigs since I was a little girl, and I told all my friends I was going to do it, and they’re all expecting video.”

            “Christ. Okay, one day at Pig Beach and then we go to Pipe Creek.” Jake altered course by a few degrees and shook his head. Sonia sat in the cockpit and looked out across the dark blue water and clicked her tongue.

            “What’s that thing you do with your tongue?” Jake asked.

            Sonia took a moment, looked at Jake, and said with a dismissive wave of the hand, “It’s a side effect of a pill I have to take.”

            “Pill for what? If I may ask.”

            Sonia paused, then said, “It’s for a gastrointestinal issue, believe it or not. It’s genetic. I have to take this stupid pill, and it gives me ticks. Makes me feel like a freak sometimes.”

            “I think it’s cute.”

            Sonia blushed. “Oh please! Cute. Give me a break.”

            Jake laughed.

            Later that day, they anchored amongst a crowd at the island Big Majors. Constant wakes from speedboats ferrying tourists from Staniel Cay to Pig Beach rocked their boat. Jake put the dinghy in the water while Sonia gathered offerings for the pigs.

            “This is so exciting! I can’t believe I’m going to finally get to swim with the pigs,” Sonia said as she climbed into the dinghy. Jake just nodded and wore a more reserved expression. He started the motor and drove them to the storied beach without comment. A swarm of other dinghies and tourist boats were anchored or pulled up on the sand. People stood in the water and walked on the beach. Pigs roamed among them all, taking offerings from most.

            Jake dropped the anchor in shallow water. A pig swam right up to the boat.

            “Here’s you first customer,” Jake said.

            “Hi little piggy,” Sonia said as she held out a piece of bread. The pig gobbled it up and looked at her as if it wanted the whole bag of food.

            “That’s it for now,” Sonia said. “We have to share with all the little piggies.”

            The pig grunted and remained where it was. Jake slid over the side and stood in the waist-deep water. Sonia transferred to his side, away from the demanding pig, and got in next to Jake. They began wading towards the shore, but the pig swam around to face them.

            “You better give him some more. He looks serious,” Jake said.

            “He’s going to have to learn to be patient. I want to feed more than just one pig”

            Sonia held the food bag up high and shook her head at the pig. They waded around the pig and another smaller pig swam up to them. Sonia gave it a carrot. The other pig swam behind her. She screamed. “He bit me!” Sonia yelled. “Oh my god, I can’t believe he bit me!”

            Jake saw it and threw a punch like a boxer, a downward right hook, at the pig who had just bit Sonia on the rear. The pig took the punch in the ear and squealed. Sonia spun around and fell. Her bag spilled. Other pigs swam onto the scene and began devouring the food like sharks in a frenzy. The offending pig circled around the others to escape Jake’s wrath and join in the feeding.

            “I’ll fucking kill that pig!” Jake said as he tried to maneuver around the others in pursuit. He got close and swung at it again, hitting it in the rump, and it swam further away. Jake looked up and saw children and their parents and previously happy couples watching, some scowling, others agape, and none showing any signs that they supported Jake’s revenge. Sonia was wading back to the dinghy. Jake came to his senses and swam to her.

            “Let me see,” Jake said.

            Sonia pulled her torso aboard and exposed her butt. A red bite mark showed just beneath her bikini bottom.

            “It didn’t break the skin. You’ll be alright.”

            “That terrible pig. How dare he!” She sat up, clenched her teeth, shook her fist at the pigs, and cursed.

            “Let’s get out of here,” Jake said.

            Jake drove back to the boat while Sonia looked down at the floor of the dinghy and muttered curses, clenched and unclenched her fists. Once home, Jake tied the dinghy astern. They motored out of the anchorage and headed north toward Pipe Creek. Sonia sat at the bow where Jake couldn’t see her and cried.

            Two hours after the pig incident, Sonia lowered the anchor in a secluded spot with neither tourist boats nor pigs. Little islands surrounded them. Visible beneath the boat was clear white sand, and the water reflected the bright blue sky. Jake was in paradise. Sonia sat cross-legged at the bow and assumed a meditation pose.

            Jake put on his snorkeling gear. “I’m going to check the anchor,” he said. Sonia nodded her head once in response and remained in her pose. He swam out and dove to the anchor, made sure it was properly set in the sand, then swam to a nearby group of emergent rocks.

            She was still sitting at the bow when he returned, but looked at him and smiled.

            “Are you alright?” Jake asked as he climbed the ladder.

            “I’m fine.”

            “Can I see the bite again?”

            Sonia leaned over and showed him her butt.

            “It’s just a bit red. I think it’ll be fine.”

            “I know the bite isn’t serious. It’s just that I wanted to swim with the pigs since I saw a video of it online when I was a little girl. I thought they would be sweet. But they aren’t. They’re little fucking devils.”

            “We’ll get bacon at the next stop and think of them when we eat breakfast,” Jake said.

            Sonia looked at him and smiled, then looked back out at the view before her, clicked her tongue a few times, and slipped back into meditation.

            Two days later, they set out for Samana Cay.

 

 

A Net and a Squall

 

Jake woke to the sound of an alarm, soon followed by Sonia’s voice. He longed to roll back into his dream and the dream held part of his mind, reminding him of the bliss that awaited if he would just keep his eyes closed. But the alarm was not the familiar crickets of his phone, and the sudden notion that something terrible was about to happen wrenched him from his slumber.

            “Jake? Are you up?”

            “I’m up,” he said as he made his way to the steps leading up to the cockpit, trying to figure out which alarm was going off.

            “It’s coming from the panel with all the gauges,” Sonia said, looking down at him from the cockpit, pointing at a flashing red light. “It’s the one that looks like a thermometer.”

            He leaned out, rubbed his eyes, and looked at the panel.

            “The engine is overheating,” Jake said.

            “Why would it be overheating?”

            “I don’t know. It could be something simple. Look over the side and see if water is coming out of the exhaust.”

            She leaned over and looked. “I don’t see any water.”

            He climbed up the steps and took a look, then shut off the engine.

            “Something must have blocked the water intake,” he said, then went back below. He removed the engine cover and held a hand just above it, then went back outside to the cockpit and sat down with Sonia.

            “I’ve got to check the impeller, but the engine is too hot to work on.”

            “What is the impeller?” Sonia asked.

            “It’s a little rubber wheel that pumps seawater to cool the engine. It’s the first thing to check, but we’ve got to give the engine a few minutes to cool down first.”

            As they sat in the cockpit, Poker Face drifted with her momentum in the calm water. Not even a breeze moved the air, but the boat rocked back and forth in the small swell. The bright sun reflected off everything, and water absorbed the sun’s rays like deep blue glass.

            “Is it normal for them to just break?” Sonia asked.

            “They all do eventually, if you don’t replace them often enough. I replaced this one at the last oil change, so it should be ok. But if the water intake gets blocked, then the impeller runs without any water in the pump. It heats up and tears apart fast.”

            “Are there many other things like that in the engine that can just break?”   

            “Well, of course, but the impeller is the most likely part to fail. Luckily, it’s easy to replace.”

            “I want to watch when you do it.”

            “Let’s go. I’ll put on a pair of gloves and see if I can open the pump,” Jake said.

            After a few minutes he pulled the broken rubber wheel from the water pump. “Damn, look at this.”

            “It looks broken.”

            “It is.”

            “Is that bad?”

            “Not really. I can fix it. I have a spare. But the real problem is that something is blocking the water intake, so the engine isn’t getting seawater and can’t cool itself. That might be more difficult, but I’ll fix it too.”

            A half hour later, Jake had replaced the impeller and Poker Face sat on the calm sea, having given up all her momentum. She rolled back and forth in the undulating swell like a giant metronome on its slowest setting, moved by energy propagating thousands of miles, destined to travel without change until landing on a beach somewhere far away.

            Though the air was still, clouds in the distance painted a faint black line across the sky just above the horizon. Jake studied the clouds, then the water. “I’ll have to get in and see if I can unclog the water intake,” he said.

            “Are you sure? Is it safe to get in the water out here?”

            “It’s actually quite beautiful, the deep water. There’s nothing like it. If you swim down, it’s just bright blue, all around you, like floating weightless in outer space.”

            “Yeah, but is it safe? What about sharks?”

            “It’s unlikely I’d encounter one way out here.”

            “But if you do?”

            “If I do, I’ll get out of the water, because any shark this far offshore is a threat.”

            “Are they more dangerous out here than on the reefs?”

            “They are. Out here, this far from land, there’s not much to eat, so a shark has to investigate anything it comes across.”

            “Investigate?”

            “And consider eating. But, out here, they’re so spread out, across the whole ocean, that it’s very unlikely to encounter one.”

            “But don’t they follow boats?”

            “Yeah, sometimes they do, but I still have to get in the water to clear the intake. It has to be done, and I’m the guy to do it.” He went below to get his gear.

            “I’ll get the ladder ready,” Sonia said.

            He put on his fins while she hung the ladder over the side. Jake looked up at the clouds and strapped the dive knife to his leg. The black line on the horizon was expanding and creeping forward, but it was still far away.

            “Keep an eye on those clouds. That’s probably a squall line. Let me know if it gets much closer.”

            Sonia looked out at the line of clouds, then at the empty blue horizon to its left where the last island they passed disappeared over an hour ago. “Will you be in the water long?” she said.

            “Probably not long at all. Hopefully it’s a plastic bag or something, and I can just pull it out of the intake.” He put on the mask. “But first I’m going to do a little freedive.”

            “You’re going to do what?” she asked

            The ladder dipped in and out of the water as the boat rocked and he climbed down facing forward with his fins pointing out. He took the snorkel out of his mouth and said, “Just one dive for fun. It’s a rare opportunity.” He took a big breath, slipped quietly into the endless expanse of clear blue water, and swam straight down.

            Saphire blue stretched off to infinity in all directions and he drifted in a weightless void like an astronaut on a spacewalk. The water was free of anything large or small – no fish, no particles, nothing to see except the color blue. He took a moment to look around and take it all in, hovering in the blue nothing a mile above the bottom. Up, down, left, and right, were all the same bright blue shot with yellow-white beams of dancing sunlight and nothing else. Jake lost all sense of place. With nothing to see, he couldn’t even tell if he was rising or sinking, and he had the sudden urge to get to the surface, but for a moment, the direction eluded him. All was a uniform blue.

            His chest contracted. It was time to go. He blew a tiny bubble and followed it up, and on the way, he became buoyant and regained his sense of direction. At the surface, he exhaled and took in huge lung-fulls of air.

            “Did you get it?” Sonia said.

            “No, that was just for fun. I couldn’t resist.”

            Sonia looked out at the horizon. “This isn’t fun time. I think the clouds are getting closer,” she said.

            Jake, still euphoric from the dive, paid no attention to the clouds. He rested face down on the surface, breathing through his snorkel and looking straight down, wondering how far he could see. Three sleek silver fish swam up and passed close to Jake. He raised his head out of the water.

            “Sonia! Get my spear. Three mackerel just swam by. They’ll probably come back.”

            “I’m worried about the clouds. They’re getting closer.”

            “I’m not going spearfishing. I just want it in case they come back. Cero mackerel is one of the best eating fish out here.”

            Sonia went below and came back out with Jake’s nine-foot pole spear. From one end dangled a long loop of surgical tubing. On the other was a sharp point with a hinged barb. The spear was awkward to maneuver, and Sonia looked at the wall of dark clouds slowly creeping up as she maneuvered the spear through the tight cockpit. The loop of tubing caught on the rope clutch that held the genoa’s roller-furling line. Sonia simply pulled on the spear and it came free, but the rope clutch opened, and Sonia didn’t notice. She handed the spear down to Jake.

            He took the spear and dove into the bright blue, now a shade darker, hoping the fish returned. But they didn’t, and he surfaced and breathed slowly, paying no attention to the sky.

            He counted ten slow breaths, then dove and looked at the hull underwater. Protruding from it like a giant ectoparasite was a torn piece of a green fishing net, the same as the ones that littered the windward side of all the Bahamian islands. The net was tangled with smaller lines, and the mass was jammed up in the raw-water intake. He put his arm through the loop on the spear and let it dangle from his arm as he worked. He pulled on the net, but it remained stuck.

            He surfaced and looked up at Sonia, who was leaning over the rail looking at him.

            “It’s a fishing net. This might take a minute.”

            “Jake, the clouds are getting closer.”

            “Ok. I need you to tie a fender to a long line and toss it over the stern, then tie off the other end to a cleat, just in case the wind comes and I get separated from the boat.”

            “Ok, but hurry. I don’t like you being in the water, and me by myself on the boat. It doesn’t feel right.”

            “We’ll be fine. I won’t take long.”

            A light rain started to fall as Jake worked underwater. He didn’t notice the rain or the breeze that came with it. The net was caught on something inside the raw-water intake, but he was confident he’d have the net removed and the problem fixed shortly.

            The rolling of the boat made the work difficult, and Jake bumped his head into the hull twice, but eventually he managed to pull the net out of the intake. He surfaced and finally looked up at the sky. What was sunny and blue before was now dark and stormy. The wind blew across the water and kicked up little whitecaps. It took him another moment to realize it was also raining.

            “It’s free!” he yelled before swimming around the stern, under the rope tied to the fender that Sonia had thrown out, and to the ladder on the other side.

            The line of storm clouds crossed the sun and darkened the sky, and a heavy gust pushed Poker Face sideways. Jake grabbed the ladder just in time.

            Holding the ladder with one hand, he handed the spear up to Sonia, then his mask. He took off his fins one at a time and handed them up as the boat rolled back and forth. The ladder lifted and dipped with the rolling of the boat. Before Jake got his feet on the ladder, another gust of wind pushed and leaned the boat, which was already drifting downwind. Jake noticed that the genoa was not furled all the way. Only a little corner of the sail was out, but he knew it had been furled all the way when they were motoring.

            This ran through his head as he held the ladder and was pulled horizontal by the boat. A wave broke behind him and smashed Jake into the ladder. He lost his grip in the melee and almost drifted away from the boat, but he reached and grabbed the lowest rung of the ladder as the boat rolled away from him. The boat then rolled toward him on the backside of the wave and his hold of the ladder and his natural buoyancy caused the ladder to rise, and the hooks came off the raised edge of the boat.

            Suddenly, he was in the water holding the steel ladder. Its safety line, which should have been tied to the boat, lay in a curve on the surface, tied to nothing. The ladder weighed him down and nearly pushed him under, but he kicked with his feet and tried to lift the ladder up and hook it back to the boat. Sonia reached for it, but another gust and another wave pushed the boat away from Jake. The situation was becoming chaotic. The boat was moving away, and the weight of the ladder made him have to struggle just to keep his head above the surface. 

            He heard Sonia shout his name before his face went underwater, and it became clear to Jake that the ladder was a liability and not an asset. He let go. He started to swim, but something grabbed his leg and pulled him down. He gulped half a breath of air before his face went underwater.

            A knot in the end of the ladder’s safety line had caught between the handle of his dive knife and its sheath, which was strapped to his leg. He hadn’t taken a proper breath and was now underwater with the ladder pulling him down. He reached for the line and pulled but the knife slipped to his foot and the straps hung loose. Jake kicked and let the knife and ladder sink into the abyss. He swam back to the surface, breathed, and forgot all about the ladder and the knife.

            The squall was fully upon them and the wind howled and blew spray off the tops of the growing waves. Jake inhaled a bit of salty foam, coughed, and had to take a moment to clear the tiny bit of water from his constricting throat. Poker Face was now leaning with the gusting wind and drifting away from him. He felt the first hint of distress as it became clear that the situation was getting out of his control.

            Sonia yelled his name and he swam hard. He reached the boat and Sonia held her arms down to him. He took her hands in his and felt a sense of relief. Above him a line whirred and this was immediately followed by a loud boom. The boat heeled and began moving forward, accelerating. Jake held Sonia’s hands while he dragged across the water, but the resistance was almost immediately too much, and his hands slipped from hers.

            Jake was left behind. The genoa was completely unfurled and Poker Face was sailing downwind in the squall.

            He turned and swam for the safety line with the black fender at its end, but it was moving away fast.