‘great potential’. George could see more in me than I saw in myself, and it was one of the reasons I liked to be around her so much. I wondered what she was seeing in Nick that maybe I couldn’t.
‘She’s a beautiful yacht, Nick.’
‘Yeah, she is. Want to steer for a bit?’
‘Sure.’
I watched George shuffle along the seat and take over from Nick, her fingers resting lightly on the wheel next to his. It was stupid, but I couldn’t help feeling a little uncomfortable about their closeness.
‘You’ve got the touch,’ Nick said, admiring the way The Dolphin responded to her steering. ‘Most people try to choke her. She hates that.’
‘It’s like riding a horse. You can feel it when they’re happy.’
Nick nodded as if he knew exactly what she meant. To say The Dolphin was his pride and joy would be an understatement. I remembered the first time I had seen her. Nick had sent me a picture of the yacht as he and his dad were towing it to Shell Harbour. Under the photo his text said: What a beauty! It looked like a piece of junk to me.
He and his dad had been out fishing up one of the rivers and found it abandoned on a muddy bank. By some miracle when they tugged it off the bank it still floated, so they brought it back to the harbour and Nick started fixing it up. He didn’t have much money so he used old ship parts and worked on it every chance he got. I remembered thinking he was nuts to even try, but the end result was unbelievable. That was Nick for you. When he set his mind to something there was no stopping him.
The sun was now almost directly overhead and starting to burn. I lathered on more sunscreen and settled back against a life buoy tied to the rail.
Matt sat picking at a scab on his knee. He was always covered in them. After a minute of fruitless picking, he got up and asked Nick to show him how to tie a reef knot.
‘Sailing is kind of boring,’ I heard him declare.
‘Ha,’ said Nick. ‘This isn’t real sailing. You wait until I get you out on a real sail, when there’s a bit more wind.’
Matt shrugged. ‘Bet it’s still boring.’
George kept steering for a bit, but I could see she was getting tired. After stifling a huge yawn she passed me the wheel and went over to lie down on the deck in the shade of the sail.
Our tack to the island was so straight and the ride so smooth that I hardly needed to steer at all, so I stretched out across the stern seat and hooked a toe through the wheel. The sun and rhythm of the ocean were as soothing as a lullaby.
Soon even Matt started to conk out. He lay down in the cockpit using his rolled up shirt as a pillow and went to sleep. Nick came back and took over the wheel and I tucked myself in the corner of the seat where I sat listening to the gentle splash of water that came each time The Dolphin ’s bow sliced through a wave. At some point the hypnotic combination of warm sun and rolling sea got the better of me and I nodded off.
I came to with a start. George was kneeling over me, her hand rocking my shoulder.
‘What’s up?’ I said groggily.
‘Looks like we’ve all been asleep, including the skipper,’ she said, nodding towards Nick. He was slumped on the bench beside me, and was clearly sound asleep. His head was tilted back and mouth wide open like a carnival clown.
‘Major fail,’ I said, laughing. ‘The things you see when you don’t have a camera.’
‘I’ll grab mine,’ George suggested.
I grinned but then thought the better of it. ‘Not unless you want to swim home.’
‘Mmm, best not have the skipper holding a grudge, I suppose. Anyway, you better give him a nudge. The wind’s picked up and it’s getting a bit moody out here.’
She was right. The clouds we had seen on the horizon earlier were now much closer and about to blanket the sun.
Suddenly George cried out. ‘Hey, isn’t that the island?’
Following her gaze I swivelled round, back the way we’d come. There indeed was the island, quite