direction. When the figure came under a light, Steve saw it was a middle-aged woman, in levis, sweat shirt, and windbreaker jacket. She was wearing a bedraggled pair of sneakers and a battered baseball cap covered most of her hair. When she stopped at his boat he saw that she was smiling brightly down into the boat at them.
'Hi there. Are you Mr. Lark? I was told I could find you down here and that you were still looking for a hand to help you sail her back to the States. Mind if I come aboard?'
Steve was sure she was going to ask him for the job, and he was just as sure that he would turn her down, but his, surprise and curiosity compelled him to invite her aboard and have a seat at their table.
Sandy, who had developed into a great little hostess, immediately asked the new arrival if she'd like something to eat or drink. The woman declined food but asked for a cold beer. Sandy immediately hopped below and returned a few minutes later with a cold can of beer and a frosted glass, which she expertly filled for the visitor. Sandy then piled their dinner dishes on a tray and excused herself to go below and begin cleaning up.
'That's some gal you got there, Mr. Lark. You must be pretty proud of her,' the woman said. Steve noted that her voice was deep and mellow. He saw a face that had spent many days in the sun, yet it hadn't lost the fine features that had once meant an attractive woman. Her eyes were grey and her hair, now visible with her cap off, was bleached by the sun with a few noticeable streaks of grey in it. The woman appeared to be in her late forties or early fifties, and her hand, when he shook it, was firm and dry, but had not lost its feminine softness. She wasn't a calloused woman, simply a person who had lived in the out of doors at sea a great deal.
Her name was Elizabeth Gower. She said that she'd been waiting for almost a month for a chance to sail back to the States, and that she'd just heard of his boat. It seemed that she and her husband had lived in Bali for almost ten years. He'd been a retired merchant skipper, and after leaving the tankers and freighters he'd sailed for forty years, he'd bought a sail boat a little smaller than Steve's, and he and his wife had sailed the world over for five years until they finally settled here on the island. About six months before Steve had arrived they had gotten caught in a storm and lost one of their masts to heavy seas. In an attempt to bring the crippled boat into safe waters, Buck, her husband, had been knocked over the side and his life line broke. She said that she never saw him come up. She had managed to bring the boat home, but that she didn't have the heart to have it fixed or to stay here any longer.
Her story was a dramatic one and certainly spoke well for her experience and ability. Steve was a good sailor, and he knew how much it must have taken for her to bring a damaged boat back from a storm such as she described. He was also taken with her forthrightness, and open manner. There was warmth and confidence that radiated from the woman. He simply couldn't imagine sailing with her as a crew member.
'Look Ellie, I certainly don't doubt you're capable of taking on the job, but you're a woman, and while Sandy is female, it's a lot different living in close quarters with a small child than it would be living with a woman whom I don't think is going to be married tome when we set sail. I'm afraid it just wouldn't be very comfortable for you. Why not just fly back? You've said you don't have the desire to fix your boat up again and use it.'
'Listen Steve, I love the sea. I just don't want to fix up the Tramp again. Buck and I bought her and sailed her together for fifteen years. I know that Buck is happy whereever he is, and so I'm not that broken up inside. We had a good life together. I just don't want to go back alone, by boat or plane. Besides, I love the feel of this boat already, and I think I'm old enough not to blush if I see you in your shorts, or you catch me on the pot some night. Hell, we're both grown adults, and sailors to boot. We can adjust, at least I can, I really would like to sail back just this one last time.'
'What are you going to do after you get back to California, Ellie?'
'I have a son there who's going to fix me up with a little place of my own over looking the Pacific. Buck and I bought the land years ago, and the boy has built a home there for him and his family to use in the summer. I'm just going to take it over and live there year round. I'll be able to keep busy, don't you ever doubt it. Hell, I'm a little salty, but I still can smell pretty good when I want to, and I can cook up a meal that would bring tears to your eyes. That's another reason you should take me on for this trip. You won't have to do all the cooking. I don't figure Sandy can do that much in the galley just yet. She's a little small to be able to even see the top of the stove.'
Steve smiled. 'You'll be surprised about that little gal. She may only be eleven, but she's going on twenty- one. I may have a precocious child on my hands if I'm not careful. She's been living with me on this boat now for almost five months, and she's beginning to get a little possessive.'
'Oh boy, I've seen some of those situations. You're going to have a hell of a time some day when you decide to remarry or get interested in another woman. She may get too close to you, Steve, and then you'll both get hurt.'
'Well, I'll worry about that when the times comes. I sure don't figure on remarrying any time soon, and as long as I have enough to keep me busy with the boat and trying to write full time now for a living, maybe I can exclude other women, as you put it, from my life until Sandy grows up. Right now she needs all the love I can give her. Her mother never did show her much affection, except as a center piece for her social gatherings with the other campus hens.'
Ellie shook her head and smiled. 'I think you may be a little quick to judge your ability to abstain my big young friend. Wait until you've spent a little more time at sea before you go excluding women from your life.'
'Well to get back to your immediate problem. Do I have the berth on this cruise or do you still worry about my virtue and abilities?'
'Ellie, somehow I suspect I may have to worry about my virtue. I have no doubts that you're a better sailor than I am. If you think you can live with a bachelor and a eleven-year-old woman-child, and help sail a boat three thousand miles, then the berth's yours. I'll pay you the standard crew's fee of course, but you have to provide your own personal items. There's a cabin you can use that Sandy has moved into, but she can sleep in the salon with no trouble at all. Does everything sound all right with you? I'd like to take her out for a shakedown in the next couple days and get the tap root of her, and then maybe we can head home early the following week.'
Ellie smiled and finished her beer. 'Sounds good to me, Skipper. Don't worry about my living with you here, I'm real adaptable. My Buck and me saw a lot of the world, and not always under the most comfortable of conditions. I'll take care of myself, and I'll help look after little Sandy down there. She sure is going to be a heart breaker when she fills out.'
Steve stood up when Ellie climbed back upon the dock and waved as she strolled away. She was quite a woman, Steve thought. He could imagine her fifteen years younger and maybe little less muscle, loving away the nights with her Buck aboard their boat Tramp.
CHAPTER NINE
The trip home took them almost two months instead of the expected one. The journey also changed the lives of two of the crew, most dramatically.
They took the Happy Gal out for a shakedown cruise and stayed gone two days. Ellie proved to be an experienced sailor and delightful companion. Sandy was a bit put out when she had to give up her quarters, but Ellie's warmth and good humor soon won her a spot in the child's heart. Steve also noted that Ellie seemed to have adopted Sandy as a young protege. He was convinced that the three of them would have an enjoyable cruise home.
The boat was stocked with all the provisions they would need, and an ample supply of spare parts and equipment were securely stowed away on the day before they set sail. Ellie had moved aboard that afternoon, and as a pre-sailing party, Steve invited both of his crew members to supper at the Yacht Club.
In order to allow Sandy and Ellie to shower and dress in leisure, Steve went to the club to settle his account and file his sailing date and proposed course. After completing his business he was chatting with some acquaintances in the informal dining room, at the bar. When Ellie and Sandy stepped into the room, Steve was amazed. His daughter had worn nothing but shorts or jeans for so long be didn't recognize her in the powder-blue dress she now wore. He noted that she had had her hair done in an upsweep that made her look beautiful. Her tiny ears now held small white coral earrings. She was wearing thin-strapped heeled sandals. The entire picture was one that brought a flood of pride and love to his heart. Ellie was nearly as great a surprise as Sandy had been. Her sturdy frame was now encased in a lime-green creation that flared out from the waist and hugged her bare shoulders and proud breasts. She too had done something to her hair, and with makeup and the high-heeled
