The Toymaster's Castle

Chapter Twelve - Learning to Drive... and to be Driven

The next thing I knew, Daniel was waking me up by giving my thigh a squeeze, just above my knee. I mean... I gave a bit of a squeak but it definitely woke me up! "Come on!" he said. "We need to get moving if we're going to be back before dark."

He sent me off to the toilet and, by the time I joined him, down on the pontoon, he had undone most of the ropes leaving only two... one at the front and one at the back.

"Right," he told me, taking me up to the pointy end of the boat... the bow. You are to hang onto this rope until I tell you then you unloop it and step onboard, giving us a little push as you do. All clear?"

"Yes, Sir!" I replied giving a pretend salute.

He grinned then said, "Don't take any risks. If you find yourself stuck onshore, I promise to come back and collect you!"

Then he went down to the other end of the boat. He loosened that rope but didn't untie it and hopped aboard. He started up the motors and, after checking a couple of the instruments, he gave me a thumbs up.

So I unlooped my rope and hopped onto the boat, giving us a little push with one foot as I did. I mean... I tumbled over as I did it but I ended up inside the boat so that was OK.

By the time I got back to my feet, the current had caught the bow of the boat and it was swinging us around. Within seconds, we were heading off downriver as I struggled to make my way along the side of the boat to the cabin. It got much easier when I worked out that there was a handrail on the roof!

And, when I made it back, Daniel pulled me into a one-armed hug and gave me a sloppy kiss on the cheek which made me squeak. "Almost perfect!" he said. "We'll make a crew of you in no time!"

"The river's flowing much faster than it was before," I said. We were whizzing along at a fair old rate!

"Ebb tide..." he explained... "the tide's going out."

"So why are you still running the motor?"

"Because you don't have any steering unless you have water flowing over the rudder... and I really want to be able to steer!"

In no time, we were back on the open sea and, once he had taken us safely offshore, he reduced the throttle until we were just chugging along. Then he climbed out of his seat though he did keep one hand on the wheel.

"Right!" he said casually. "You're driving!"

"But I can't drive," I squeaked. "I can't even drive a car."

"It's much easier than driving a car. There's nothing else to hit out here."

And he was right. It really was pretty straightforward. Ease open the throttle a bit and keep the nose pointed in the direction that the chart screen was telling us to go... and keep an eye open... both on the screen and in real life... to make sure we weren't about to crash into anything.

And, once I was starting to feel comfortable with that, he got me to open up the throttle a little bit more until we were bouncing along over the tops of the waves. He even got me steering in tight, S-shaped curves to 'get a feel for what my girl can really do!'

That was totally wild!

It was great fun but I can't say I was all that sorry when Southend came into view and he told me we had to swap back. It was surprisingly exhausting, having to concentrate all the time like that! I sort of flopped back into the bench seat at the back of the boat and relaxed for a few minutes.

And, by the time we made it back to the tunnel which led to our underground marina, I was more or less asleep!

"I was going to invite you out to dinner tonight," he said with a laugh.