The Shipwreck of the Pelinaion

Chapter Five

Dedicated to A.R.Lockhart and HarlequinsMask, who made me feel so ashamed of my rough draft of this chapter that I had to completely scrap all three pages (it would have been the longest chapter so far) and rewrite the chapter in an entirely different POV. I hope you're happier with this version.

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He was falling off a cliff! Solid rock rushed up to meet him, and-

            Captain Janis Valikos woke up with a start. The hammock he slept in kept him from falling to the ground from the sudden spasm. He clambered out of the hammock, stretched his stiff muscles, and walked over to the porthole in his cabin. Opening the small, circular window, Janis took a sniff of the salty sea air and absentmindedly smiled. The normal creaks and shivers of his ship made him feel comfortable, even safe.

            Looking outside, the captain noticed the sky glowing gently with a pre-dawn light. He knew, almost instinctively, that the weather would be bad for a few more days, although the sky was mostly clear at the moment. He could feel it in the creaking of his joints and aching bones- they weren’t out of harm's way yet.

            This made the weathered captain slightly anxious. He knew this ship like the back of his hand, each of its windswept timbers and battered ropes unfolding the ship’s mysteries before him like the pages of a book. He wasn’t the ship’s first owner, but he had certainly grown to love the old girl more than any before him. With just a touch on the tiller, she could take him through whirlpools and narrow canals with ease.

In spite of all this, nothing was quite like the reefs of Bermuda. Notorious for sinking ships on the jagged rock just beneath the surface, inexperienced helmsmen could run right into them without noticing. It was practically required for tourists to see at least one shipwreck before heading back to the mainland, and all inhabitants of the island could point passersby toward their personal favorite wreck.

Even on a good day, the waters surrounding the island were difficult to navigate, but Captain Janis had calculated that in two days’ time the ship’s maximum speed would bring them to the island at night- nearly impossible to travel through. But the captain had faith in his men and in his own ability, so in the end he decided not to worry. He just had to keep his men motivated and his ship moving at full speed, and he was sure to win the race against the other captains.

With the further lightening of the sky, Janis rolled his shoulders to ease the stiffness and strolled out of his cabin to the kitchen for breakfast.