Seafarer

Chapter 1

This book is a work in progress

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It was staring to get dark as dusk was approaching. We had to seek shelter from the seas, the weather reports were calling for some isolated storms heading our way. A quick check of the charts showed that Peter Island had a few good anchorage spots available, the closest being Dead Man Bay at the north east tip of the island. Good news for us we were only a few nautical miles away as we just past Dead Chest Island. They had not seen another boat for the past couple of hours, but with a storm coming that was not all that strange. 

"Take me somewhere" Leo wife, Claire said only a year ago "Lets go on an adventure" she continued. So they did. Their daughter was already off to college at MIT so they were empty nesters now. It had always been their dream to sail around the Caribbean, just island hopping. Both Leo and Claire were far from seasoned sailors, in fact they had never sailed before a day in their lives. The pull of sea and the dream of being on the ocean was stronger than their inexperience, and they were never the types to back away from a challenge. 

They had the funds for such a venture, ten years earlier Leo started Nixoping Animation, which created a new technology that revolutionized film making. Before Nixoping's technology existed, studios use to use motion capture technology that required actors to where green leotards with white balls stuck to it so cameras and computers could track the movements of the actors. Nixoping changed all that by allowing actors to wear any costume the wardrobe department dreampt up, and all they needed to do was use a special thread stitched in, a special computer would measure the movement and send it down to the computer. This allowed actors to move more naturally, and on any location. Leo and retired the day of his wife's proposal to go on an adventure; they were financially secure and ready for a change.

Claire and Leo could see the storm now, more importantly they could feel it as the 42 foot vessel bobbed up and down in its moorings. Lightning bolts flashed across the dark sky. "Lets make sure all the stuff is stowed away and get down below before its on top of us" Claire's face darkened "Are you sure this is a safe anchorage?"

According to the charts they were in the best spot, but Dead Man Bay was fairly large and with the storm raging towards them, they didn't have much options. "It will have to do. I'll setup two more anchors to keep us put" Leo set forth putting in two more anchors off the bow. The first was set straight ahead, and the two others were set off behind and to each side, locking them into place with the bow pointed ahead at the oncoming surf. 

"There, I think we'll be good now" Leo said as he was closing the hatch. The rain and started to come down hard, as he closed the hatch to find Claire pulling out a tomato, olives, ham & parmesan pizza from the small oven. "Oh that smells good" Leo sat on the bench on the starboard side, behind the fold down table. Clair sat across from him as she put down a couple of plates and started to dig in "Its amazing how hungry you get while being out here" Claire said while still chewing down her food and a string of cheese dripping down over her chin. Leo reached over to whip it away with his napkin. She smiled as he did so "Its a good thing its just you and I out here" Leo winked and a smile in reply.

The boat, which they named Serenity was a brand new 42 foot Hunter was starting to bob up and down as the swells from the storm surge moved forward. "I'll take first watch, I'll wake you up at at 11:30" Clair said. She was watching Leo wash the dishes with a towel in her hand ready to dry them and put them away. "Thanks. Wake me up if you need anything" After everything was cleaned up Leo went to bed and fell asleep immediately. They had setup a storm watch schedule of an hour and a half per shift. Usually they would do 4 hour shifts, but with the storm raging outside they wanted to make sure both were alert and able to quickly respond to any situation, yet long enough that they gave their bodies and minds enough rest.

Claire sat at the table going over charts on her iPad, trying to keep herself busy as the rain poured down the boat rose and fell with the eight meter waves. She had the CB radio on low enough to hear but not wake up Leo; thankfully the emergency channel was fairly quite and all boats seemed to have made it to safe anchorage. After a quick last check, she woke Leo up for his watch and fell asleep in an instant. Watches can be boring, even when your boat is being tossed around in a storm, but they are very stressful as you have to be ready to react if something was to go wrong but after 4 watches nothing had. The storm passed around 4 o'clock in the morning during Leo's watch. He opened the hatch to take a look outside.