All Aboard Andi's Dream Ch. 02

Paul went over his checklist one last time and everything was checked. "Let's fire this bad girl up." With a powerful snarl, the twin diesels came to life. Yi held them at a high idle until they were at a good operating temperature, then switched power generating from the standby generator to the mains and shut down the standby generators. They observed the mains for another minute, and when there was no reason not to call the start up a success, they put the engine control to full auto and climbed back up on deck, where Paul held a quick huddle.

"Andi, you probably want to show folks where their staterooms are. We'll be underway in five minutes. If anyone needs to run ashore, they need to go now. Sunny and Yi, let's single up fore and aft and be ready to cast off."

As Yi headed to the gunnel to step ashore, she whispered to Andi, "Did you marry a flight surgeon? or the Wing Commander."

Paul headed upstairs to the flybridge and got his navigation software up and running. "All are aboard, sir!" called Sunny.

"Thank you. Let's cast off!" Paul cried, and Yi and Sunny untied the last lines holding Andi's Dream to the pier. With the left thruster, he held Andi's Dream tight to the dock until both Sunny and Yi were aboard. Then he used the small joystick to control the thrusters, and they moved away from the dock until they were mid channel. He then engaged the shafts and was getting ready to start making revolutions, but he looked down and saw a manatee and her calf swimming alongside Andi's Dream. "I'm going to use the thrusters to head out to the river," he told Stan.

"Good call," grinned the captain.

Below decks Andi was giving a tour of Andi's Dream. "Here at the bow is the VIP suite for John and Marcy, full bed, 32 inch TV with access to the digital antenna and the on-board movie library. If you guys select something naughty, please let us know so we can watch along up in the salon." Andi showed them the head with the freshwater shower. "It's potable, but it is desalinated sea water. If you want drinking water, get it here at the tap," she pointed to a panel on the wall like the one on a refrigerator where you would get water, "it's been through reverse osmosis and tastes a lot better."

As John and Macy were setting up their compartment, Andi showed Gus and Lucy their compartment. "This is the port side compartment. As you can see, the bunks are the equivalent of a twin bed..." she looked at the looks on their faces. "Uhh... if you would rather not share a compartment, we can make other arrangements..."

"Oh no, this is just fine, we're just going to be here a couple of days before we have to get back to work," said Gus inspecting the tiny compartment. "Oh look, it looks like these two beds slide together."

"Are you sure?" asked Lucy.

"I've seen a lot of interesting sleeping arrangements in my years as a contractor and... yeah, there she goes." With a push, Gus was able to push the inboard bed until it met up with the outboard bed. "And it can probably slide back just as easy."

"No, I don't think it can," said Lucy, with a note to her voice that Andi had never heard before. Then she noticed that Gus and Lucy were staring straight into each other's eyes.

"You're right, I don't think it can," repeated Gus. "I'll look at it before we leave."

Andi was going to show them their shower/head that was shared with the starboard side compartment, but they were both a thousand miles away. She stepped out of the tiny compartment to meet a pair of twins in their orange bikinis with a stuffy under an arm. "Where do we sleep, mommy?"

Andi showed them how they're going to share the bottom bunk in the starboard compartment, with their heads at each end. The twins were tiny enough to make this work. "Yi will sleep on the top bunk if she wants, and Bitty can sleep on the floor, see? We have a cushion and pillow and blanket for her."

The twins pushed their mommy out into the companionway and closed the door after her. Andi looked around and all the compartment doors were closed. She wished she could be a fly on the wall in Lucy's room; she prayed that Lucy and Gus would hit it off. They don't have a lot in common, but they seem to communicate so well. Wishing them luck, she headed up to the flybridge, but as she walked through the galley, she could see Yi preparing a huge prime roast. It was at least 7 bones. "Wow, I don't remember seeing that on the manifest."

"Your friend Miss Nicoletta sent it for New Year's Dinner. I was planning something else but this," Yi looked at the roast with a grin and patted it. "You and I are going to make beautiful music together," she said to the meat.

"Will that fit in the oven, Yi?"

"Don't worry about this, it's your other dinner guests I'm trying to figure out," and the slender Asian woman led Andi down to the cockpit. She opened a door in the teak deck of the cockpit and showed Andi the starboard fish bin. The fish bins are below deck 'bathtubs' where caught fish would be iced down and kept fresh. Now one was full of ice and lobsters. "Miss Nicoletta sent them along with the roast."

<><><><><>

As everyone settled in, Andi and Macy were sitting in the foredeck sipping wine and watching the Treasure Coast of Florida slide by. "Your new friends have good taste in wine," said Macy as they sipped from a bottle that Andi received yesterday.

"I still have more stashed under our bed," said Andi. "And we have enough champagne to float this barge."

"This thing is beautiful. Why would we need a vacation house down here? We could just sit right here on the foredeck and sip wine all winter," said Macy.

"I wish we could put it in Paul's pond," said Andi.

"He's going to need a bigger pond."

They were moving south on the Indian River, a natural brackish river that parallels the Florida coast, and were heading for the Sebastian Inlet where they could get through to the ocean. Andi had already guided Andi's Dream in through the Canaveral Barge Canal and south from there to Melbourne and now Paul was in the fly bridge, with Stan taking her south to Jupiter.

The plans for their New Year's cruise was to head out to sea through the Sebastian Inlet, parallel the coast, then rejoin the Indian River through the Jupiter inlet. That evening they were planning to tie up at the house that John and Paul own in Jupiter and dine on the boat there, then dress up and head over to the Jupiter Yacht Club, the new home port of Andi's Dream. They planned to load the zodiac onto Andi's Dream on New Year's Day and head out to Barnabas Island and fish offshore and go on to the island for a picnic. The zodiac is a small, semi-inflatable boat with an electric motor that can be charged up from Andi's Dream. They planned to use that as a dingy to go in to shore when the water is too shallow to allow Andi's Dream close to shore.

Macy and Andi watched the houses with docks and boat lifts slide by. Andi's Dream was almost silent as she purred down the river. Years ago, a boating channel was dredged in the river and the soil left from the dredging was used to make a series of islands known as spoil islands. They're now covered with full size trees and most islands showed evidence of camping. Small boats and jet skis were beached on most islands. "This is heavenly," sighed Andi, as she slipped off her blouse and cutoffs to reveal the bikini that she swears was too small for her.

Seeing Andi strip down to her bikini, Macy slipped off her shorts and blouse to reveal her bikini, which was the same shade of coral as Andi's. She lay face down on the couch and reached behind her and unhooked her bikini top. "What are you doing?" asked Andi.

"Getting some sun. Working on my tan." Macy waited to see if Andi would have said something, but the poor Denver girl just looked confused. Macy let her off the hook. "I left Quebec ages ago and I cannot get enough sun! I like the feeling of the wind and the sun on my skin. Hopefully, we'll be able to do some proper sunning on Barnabas Island."

"Proper sunning?"

"Mmm oui ma sœur. If the children were not on board, I'd be naked right now."

"Oh, yeah... Paul and I were out here for sunset last night and we were out here for quite a while."

"Doing what?"

Andi looked at her sister-in-law in shock. "What do you think we were doing?"

"Hopefully taking advantage of the opportunity," said Macy as she hooked her top back up. She needed wine more than sunlight at the moment and sat up with her glass.

"We did some of that."

"How did Paul do with the Dynamic Duo in Disney Land?"

"Oh, that poor guy, they ran him ragged," chuckled Andi. "It was nonstop insanity. The only rest he got was on It's a Small World. I think he fell asleep on the ride."

"The poor guy," said Macy.

"I don't think he realized what he was getting himself into."

<><><><><>

Below deck, Gus and Lucy were laying on their bed. They had changed from their heavier winter clothing to swimsuits. Lucy was terrified to put on her swimsuit, but Gus seemed to be so understanding. She decided to give it a try. "Macy picked out a bikini for me in Melbourne and said that it would show off my body perfectly. 'Including my surgery scars?' I asked her."

"If anyone makes a remark about that, we'll give them their own surgical scars," said Gus.

In the tiny cabin she turned her back on Gus and pulled off her t-shirt, it's been so long since she's been topless with a man in the room... she felt Gus come up behind her, his big, strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her close. She realized that he was topless, too. She felt his warm skin against hers. When she found that he wasn't grabbing her, that he was just holding her close, she relaxed. Soon Lucy wanted this moment to go on and on forever. She leaned her head back onto his shoulder and he began nibbling at her ear, but he go any further. He sensed that she was content and was happy to remain in his arms for a long time, and he was good with that, too.

"You don't mind my being... skinny?" She didn't have the guts to say "titless."

"Our bodies are transitory shells," said Gus softly. "I loved my wife very much, but I had to watch her waste away a little more every day. You're healthy and strong and you're not in agony every day, so what's not to love?"

She turned around in his arms and pushed him back, then held her hands out to the side. "You're telling me that you're happy with this?" Her breasts were slightly more than barely noticeable mounds topped with an erect nipple and not much of an areola.

"I'm not sure what you're complaining about," he said as he brushed his fingers across her erect nipples. "It looks like they're happy to see me."

"You... goober!" She wrestled Gus to the bed and began hitting him with bunched fists, which caused him to laugh.

"Come here darling," he said as he caught her delicate hands in his large powerful hands. "Why can't you let yourself enjoy our moments together? Lord knows how long it's been for either of us to be able to do this."

She leaned over and they kissed. "I don't know. Something inside of me demands that I make sure that everything is real."

"Goober? You called me a goober?"

"Stop," groaned Lucy. "It's all I had in the moment."

<><><><><>

Up in the flybridge, Paul and John were talking about the fishing experience they had that morning. "Paul's best catch of the day was the mullet," said Stan.

"Hey now, fishing without bait is just washing hooks."

"You caught mullet?" asked John.

"I netted up some, then I spilled a few mullet on the deck and the twins were chasing them around," said Paul. "I gave each of them their own fish to hold and I thought they were going to toss them back into the ocean."

"What did they do?" asked John, knowing that the answer was going to be good.

Paul shrugged. "They took them up to the bridge to show mommy." Stan tried to stifle his laughter in case Andi was listening, and Paul continued. "Bitty and I were cleaning the deck in the cockpit, and I hear this scream from way up on high, then these two poor mullet come sailing down and hit the deck."

"Ok," said Stan, "we have a hard turn coming up. The channel for the Indian River meets the channel for the Sebastian Inlet at a ninety-degree angle. You have to take the turn at ninety degrees, you can't take a shortcut. You'll ground this boat sure as shit."

"I take it the channel is marked poorly?" said Paul.

"You got it. We need to use GPS as much, if not more, than channel buoys."

"Oh boy," groaned Paul, and he nudged the throttles back. He studied the gps read out as they came up to the intersection. Under Stan's tutelage, he put the left screw into reverse and the big boat turned on its own axis, making the hard turn easily. Paul was shaking. He didn't want to ruin his new million dollar toy on his first day driving, but Stan patted him on the shoulder. "You did good."

"Thanks. Just for that, I'm going to make sure you get first dibs on John and Macy's cabin in Springville."

"New cabin?" asked Stan as they edged toward the Sebastian inlet.

"Yep, Paul said he's going to build us a cabin this summer."

Stan laughed and patted Paul's shoulder again. "See what getting laid regular will do for a guy?"

"I wasn't getting any!" insisted Paul. "Not until Saturday night we got married."

"Then your eyes were clouding over." As John laughed in the background, Stan continued on. "Ok, Pop quiz. We're heading out. The tide is heading in. What does that make?"

"Roller Coaster?" asked John.

"Dead on. You need to get everyone inside. Someone on the foredeck can be tossed into the air if we're popped by a wave."

Paul got on the intercom and said, "We have some rough seas ahead. Please get inside."

Andi could see the US A1A overpass over the inlet ahead of them. They made the 90-degree turn to stay in the channel. With a draft as deep as Andi's Dream has, cutting the corner could have grounded them. Bitty, Sandy and Madeline were in the bow looking for dolphins and manatees, while Andi and Aunt Macy kept an eye on them. Occasionally, the girls would call out an exciting new find, but when Andi and Macy got up and walked to the bow to investigate, it would turn out to be a tangle of seaweed.

Soon the turn was made and as they approached the inlet Andi called, "You girls come with us, we're going inside for a little while. It's going to get bouncy." The Sebastian Inlet is notorious for swift currents and rough water and Captain Stan will rarely take a charter boat through that passage unless the tide was following, drawing him through the inlet. Andi's Dream weighs in at 60 tons and 3,600 horsepower and it was a different story. She should handle the inlet easily. The tide was against them, and it was going to get rough, but not horribly so.

Andi and Macy led the girls inside and just as they were passing under the A1A overpass, Paul called out on the intercom, "Sunny to the bridge, please, Sunny to the bridge."

Sunny stepped up the stairs and said, "What's up?"

"Listen," said Stan as Paul adjusted the squelch on the radio. A voice from afar called again, "... say again, SOS, SOS, SOS. ... craft ... distress ... boat is breaking up ... three souls on board ... fifteen miles ... east of Mico."

"I got it," said John. "Fifteen miles due east of Mico. They're not far."

Without a second thought, Paul grabbed the microphone and said, "Vessel calling mayday, vessel calling mayday, this is MV Andi's Dream. We copy your location as fifteen miles due east of Mico. We are responding to your location, how copy?"

While Paul was responding to that call, Stan picked up the satellite telephone and called the coast guard and relayed the information that Paul was getting from the vessel in distress.

"We are ... sailboat ... fire ... mast failed ... we're taking on water ... wife is pregnant ..."

It was dead silent on the bridge for a long second, then Paul got on the intercom to all portions of the boat. "Clear all exterior decks. Could everyone come to the salon? Clear the foredeck, everyone to the salon. Yi, prepare the galley for a heavy seas."

Yi looked up from the oven. The roast should be done by 8:00 PM. The little guys on ice in the cockpit waiting for her attention will cook quickly. She hit the intercom and said, "Aye-Aye captain," and she began lowering glass walls, turning the open air mezzanine into an indoor dining room.

Andi gathered up the twins and Bitty and shooed them into the salon while Macy picked up their wine glasses and bottle and headed up the side decks into the salon. Gus came up from below decks leading a sleepy-looking Lucy. This was their first time above deck since closing the door on their cabin. There was a lot of shoulder shrugging and wondering what the call was about until Paul, John, and Sunny came down from the flybridge. He held his hand up and asked for their attention as Yi grabbed her hearing protection and headed for the engine room.

Paul pressed the intercom button and said, "Everyone is in the salon, Stan."

"Copy," said Stan. "Hold on to something."

Paul asked for quiet and when he had everyone's attention he said, "About eight minutes ago we monitored a distress call from a small one family sailing vessel. Details are sketchy but it sounds like there was a fire and the boat started breaking apart, and the family is in the water. All we know for sure is that there are three, maybe four, people on board. The mother is pregnant and due soon, and that someone is tangled in the rigging..."

Just then, Andi's Dream cleared the inlet channel and was on the open seas. The twin diesel engines roared into life and Andi's Dream shot forward, leaving the A1A overpass in her wake and she started into an easy turn toward the north, cleaving the sea like a hot knife through butter.

In the salon, Andi's Dream started a rhythmic bouncing as she hit wave after wave at thirty nautical miles per hour. Paul continued, "Sunny has plotted a course and at this speed, we will be on the scene in under 30 minutes. The Coast Guard cutter Venturous is due north and turning south, but they're an hour away. Their helicopter has been transporting people from another incident, so it's not available yet."

He paused for a moment and made sure he had eye contact with everyone. "I'm not asking anyone to do any more than they are moved to do, but John and I are going to do whatever we can to save this family. Folks, this is going to change our plans, but we're sailors, we're doctors, and we're Christians. We have to respond."

Andi suddenly felt sick. She knew she had to respond; She was a doctor. Paul and Lucy are doctors, they have to respond... but she had a sick, terrified feeling that Paul will be going into the water.