The week was busy, but full of anticipation. I was anxious to find out what John would find out about the boat, as he had not come out on Friday night. His in-depth survey, and cost estimate to make the boat right, would affect the decision of what to do with it.
Tiny wanted to go to the docks and boat yard daily, but I kept him away so John could complete the work he was hired to do.
Thursday evening, John showed up for supper. He had his briefcase with him and was ready to show us what needed to be done. Once he was comfortable in a lounge chair, with a drink in his hand before supper, he gestured to his captivated audience that he was surprised at the interest.
Sue and Mercy were on the couch leaning forward toward John, while Tiny, Phil, Ruth, and Judy were all equally anxious.
"First things first," John began. "I heard from the Coast Guard that they have completed the investigation of the sailboat. We can pick it up from them as soon as you wish. They said they did not do any major cutting, so they didn't destroy the boat. The bad news is that the owner can no longer sell the boat to you."
There were groans all around. You could see the disappointment on Mercy's face immediately.
"But," John said, "Since the owners have fled the country, and the boat was confiscated, the Coast Guard has offered you the boat for a very nice price to make up for the interruption of our trip, and to thank us for taking the Hatteras off their hands."
Mercy's smile widened till I thought her face would split.
"We can go down and bring it up whenever you wish. I asked Tiny not to mention it but he has already transferred funds so the boat is yours. You have a berth in Dunedin for it that will be next to where you will probably berth the fishing boat."
Mercy looked at me with the question in her eyes. I smiled and said, "How about we go down Saturday morning, that way we'll have all day Saturday and Sunday to get it here. We'll check the weather first then make the decision."
I turned to John, "What's your opinion, do you think I need you to get the boat up here?"
John answered, "If they had done any major cutting or dismembering of the boat, I would have said yes, but you've shown me that you're capable of that trip. But do make sure of the weather before you go. If the winds are wrong, you could end up motoring most of the way unless you tacked way out into the gulf."
Mercy was smiling, "We'll check the weather before we go. We'll be fine."
"Now about the Hatteras," John began. "The forty-five foot fishing cruiser we picked up in the Keys is worth five to six times what you paid for it. The hull is sound, the engines are in great condition, and the boat is generally in great shape. The boat would have been considered pristine if the oxidized outer area had been polished and touched up in some areas. I had the hull cleaned and painted and also authorized the cleanup, polishing, and touch up painting on the boat. Knowing your desire for modern electronics, I have dual-display Garmin GPS, the new style close and long range color radar with dual displays, and a full complement of new radios, including a new satellite radio phone. In other words, the boat is ready for you whenever you wish."
Tiny and Phil looked at each other and Tiny asked John, "Can you take us out Saturday?"
John smiled, "I anticipated you would want to do that and have cleared my calendar. Both of you men, and possibly some more of you, need to go to the classes for your captain's license. I'll teach everyone who wishes how to operate the boat and how to care for it. This boat is not a toy. It can be a huge responsibility. If you are pressed for time, I would suggest you make arrangements to have concierge services at the yacht club. I think you'll find the prices are not bad. They will make sure the boat looking nice by keeping it polished and will have it ready for you when you wish to go out. If this is to be used as a business tool, it will definitely be worth it."
I think the entire patio was listening to the conversation. Two groups formed. One to talk about the Saturday adventure on the cruiser, and another interested in the sailboat.
The dinner conversation was all the boat, or rather boats. By the time the dishes were in the big dishwasher, Phil, Tiny, Kevin, and Bear, with several of their ladies, were going out on the cruiser. They weren't planning on fishing this inaugural cruise but just get used to handling the boat.
Mercy had convinced Sue that we should pick the boat up tomorrow instead of waiting till Saturday. I was going to have a crew of Sue, Mercy, Hap, and Margie. Sue called our friendly pilot, John, the former owner of the 200 and new head of our charter company, to see if he would mind ferrying us down to Key West in the morning. As usual he was ready to fly anytime, anywhere.
John Morgan, the maritime captain and engineer, suggested that anyone free should go out to the boat tomorrow to see what they should get to make the boat complete, things such as bedclothes, lots of towels, extra sunscreen, liquid refreshments, and possibly non-perishable food. John said he had double-checked all of the safety equipment and there were life jackets for up to twenty passengers. He didn't recommend that many passengers at a time but they were available if necessary.
The excitement was intense. I doubt many slept well that night. Sue had enlisted Juanita's help in looking after the kids while she was gone. Everyone figured Hanna and Juanita would be able to handle them and then, of course, Glenda was always around to help as well.
Mercy and Sue had a difficult time going to sleep. By the time they were finally relaxing, I was done. I couldn't have loved up Kim Novak if she had walked in.
"Wake up honey, you need to get ready. We want to leave early."
I opened my eyes to see two faces peering at me. I glanced at the clock to see it was only five thirty.
"Come on," Mercy begged. "Get showered, we're supposed to meet John at seven."
Sue gave me a kiss then softly said, "If you don't get up soon, Mercy's going to pee in her pants, she's so excited."
We showered as a trio, with no hint of playtime, because the two of them were so excited about a dumb old sailboat. We dressed and put some extra clothes and deck shoes in my duffel bag, along with some extra towels and toiletries. I checked the case with my broken down AR-15 and Glock, and put it with the duffel bag to take along.
The girls fed the kids, then ate some breakfast before we had Tiny drive us to the Aero Park. John had the plane at the ops building, ready to leave. Sue wanted to fly right seat with John, so for the first time, I sat back in the passenger area for a flight.
Hap couldn't get over how luxurious the plane was. He said this was the way to travel and now realized why I had been enjoying flying all over. Two hours later, we were talking to the Coast Guard officer who had boarded the sailboat a little over a week before.
"We found some new electronics in one of the storage lockers and since our electrician's mate didn't have anything to do, he installed them while we were putting everything back together. You have a new GPS, an excellent new depth finder, a very nice set of radios with presets for emergency and weather, and this new Raytheon radar. This is the new style without the rotating antenna. All of the electronics have displays and access at the main helm, as well as the weather helm or indoor bridge. I like this boat and am envious of you, enjoy it. Next time you're out sailing in the area, stop in, we'll give you a first class safety survey and we'll have lunch together."
Mercy and I went through the boat to double-check everything from before. I checked the generators and engines then we both were checking on fuel levels and water. Everything was topped off, ready for a voyage. Mercy opened the venting hatches for engines and I turned on the fans. After the prescribed three minutes of venting, I started the two small diesels.
We had pulled the covers from all the sails, and tested the motors to make sure the sails would rise, before we finally began pulling lines. Sue was at the bow, while Mercy was on the rear deck. I slowly powered the large boat out of the slip, then changed to the forward gear and swung the boat around to head out toward the Gulf of Mexico. Once we were out about a mile, I began raising sail. The wind heeled us over a little as we had to tack in order to head in the intended direction. To be sure to catch the prevailing winds, we headed out northwest for about ten miles then headed fairly due north.
Hap was fascinated by the quietness of sailing. The water splashed against the boat, the sails snapped in the breeze, the rigging groaned from the strain, all new sounds to him, but relaxing just the same. Sue and Margie brought up some coffee, then soon disappeared with Mercy. Hap asked where they had gone and I pointed toward the forward deck. The three ladies were laying out in the sun, bare ass naked.
"I'm already liking this sailing stuff. Does that happen often?" Hap asked, pointing at the nude display.
I smiled before commenting, "Every chance they get, Hap. There's something about being out on the water that makes women want to get naked. Most women love to sunbathe and the ocean smell and the gentle rocking of the boat makes them free to do whatever they want without fear of others' opinions."
We sailed for most of the day then turned toward land. As we neared some barrier islands, we pulled down the sail and started the engines. I checked the tide tables and since it was low tide I decided to anchor out from one of the islands and to make sure we left plenty of slack on the fore and aft anchor lines. We dug out some fishing gear to try to catch dinner, but gave up after only forty-five minutes without even getting a small hit.
Sue fixed a great dinner for us that we ate in the lounge, with all the windows open. The girls announced that they had cleaned up the two staterooms and washed the sheets so we were set for the night. Once the dishes were cleaned up, we all went to bed. Sue mentioned that sleeping with the porthole open was one of her fond memories from our trip out west. Our noises mingled with those from Hap and Marge while we all enjoyed our lovemaking.
I awoke early, as usual, and slipped out to make coffee. Thank goodness the girls had left the coffeepot out so I could get at it. Before making coffee though, I had to go topside to open the vent for the generator and start it so we would have electricity. By the time I went back down to the galley, Mercy and Sue were beginning to get breakfast started. Sue suggested that Mercy and I start the engines and get us started back out to the Gulf.
Mercy and I were able to get the anchors up and began motoring slowly out to the gulf. Hap and Marge began bringing food up to the lounge where we all had breakfast while I used the weather helm to guide the boat. This morning we had a nice southerly breeze, so when we put up all the sails, the boat lifted up to enjoy slicing through the water at near its top speed.
At one point when Hap and I were at the big wheel, Hap said, "With the wind in face out here and as peaceful as it is, this is almost better than my Harley between my legs." That was a tall statement for a true biker such as Hap.
The morning was once again a time for the girls to sunbathe and wander around nude, while Hap and I enjoyed the view. During Saturday afternoon, we saw literally hundreds of fishing and sailboats of all sizes. We went a little farther out into the gulf to avoid the congestion around the mouth of Tampa Bay and even had to steer around an incoming fuel barge being pushed in.
We used the GPS to bring us into the yacht club in Dunedin. We used the radio to contact them and were directed to the north end of the slips where we slowly drifted into the berth after putting out bumpers on both sides of the boat. Across the walkway, the cruiser had just come back from being out all day. Tiny, Henry, Kevin, Bear, and Phil looked a little burnt from the sun, but the ladies all looked like they had done well with the trip.
As soon as we were tied up, the folks from the cruiser swarmed the sailboat to get a look at it. John came aboard to inspect the equipment that the Coast Guard had installed. He found the old equipment that had been taken out and said he would put it in the second-hand consignment shop for other boaters to buy.
Mercy and I got all the covers on the sails then pulled the tarp over the lounge and tied it down. The boat was now stored properly. I helped John cover and store the Hatteras. The boat looked brand new after the work he had done on it. I was really impressed.
John asked me, "Do you want to rent either boat out for charters? I bet we could probably pay for a lot of the upkeep on the boats with some day charters, and an occasional weekend charter."
Mercy answered the question for me, "You can do that on a demand basis, but don't plan any charters in the near future for the sailboat. I may convince Steve to take this thing for a longer vacation soon. Most of the big spenders want to go out on a powerboat anyway, so make a bunch off the Hatteras. It is a beautiful boat, but no where as nice as what a big sailboat is."
"I have a couple of old guys that are good captains for both cruising and fishing," John said. "I'll get in touch with them. I'm sure they will jump at the chance to use a boat like this."
Luckily they had brought two big vehicles so we all could ride back to the park together without having to take a taxi or someone coming back for us.
My two ladies were happy to be with the kids. They loved them up before putting them to bed. Sue, Mercy, and I took showers to get the salt spray off us, then sat out on the patio with all the folks enjoying the mood. Tiny and Phil had plans to invite various customers down to stay in the hotel and go out fishing on the boat. They felt the boat would be great public relations.
Tiny, Henry, Kevin, and Bear had signed up for a captain's class. Phil said he didn't want to be a captain, he wanted someone else to drive him around. The classes were starting the next week so we would have a group of trained people to take the fishing boat out. Our John was still going to be in charge of the boat and for chartering it whenever possible.
When we went to bed, Sue and I sandwiched Mercy, loving her up so she knew how special she was to us. Mercy sighed, "Thank you both for indulging me with the sailboat. I love to be out on the water like that. It is so peaceful and refreshing. I like this boat but can see how an even larger one would be nice as well. I'd like to take a long trip on the boat. Maybe we could sail across the Gulf or down into the U.S. Virgin islands. But I want to take the kids with us on a trip soon."
Sue answered, "I think it would be nice too. The kids could be a chore to take care of on the boat. We might want to take someone along to help."
Mercy said while groping me, "We'll probably have to share, Steve, but I'd bet Juanita would love to go sailing with us."
"I guess we could share our guy with her. She is nice to be with and she dearly loves the kids."
We went to sleep with our individual visions of a long sailing trip.
Sunday morning found the crew in a happy mood. Tiny had a group of people ready to go out on the boat again. He was limiting the passengers to around ten to keep the crowding down. Today's cruise was going to include some fishing so he had a big pile of fishing equipment he had purchased. Today had all guys going out with Charlie, Hank, and Jim, joining Tiny, Phil, Hap, Bear, Abe, Darnell, Tom, and Al. I cautioned them all about drinking too much out in the hot sun and to listen to John while he gave directions. Tiny said that John had hired another expert fishing guide to help everyone on the boat.
Sue, Mercy, and I kicked back and enjoyed playing with the kids. Mercy and Sue had several long conversations with Juanita throughout the day, until finally, Juanita came to sit me with on the couch, asking for a Cuba Libre before she sat down.
"Mr. Steve," Juanita began. I raised an eyebrow at her and she corrected herself. "Steve, I want to go with Sue and Mercy and you on a sailing trip, but I don't want to go to close to Cuba. I don't want to have to go back there and stay."
"Juanita, you have legal residency in the U.S. now and are close to becoming a citizen. You even have a U.S. passport now. You don't have anything to worry about. You're employed, you have a permanent home, Sue and I are your sponsors, and you are loved by all of us."
"I'm just afraid if Castro gets hold of me, I'll have to stay in Cuba."
"Don't worry Juanita, we won't go to Cuba. We have to go near but we won't go there.
"Miss Sue said if I come you could love me too?"
"We already love you, Juanita."
"Oh, Steve," Juanita blushed. "You know that I mean, will you make love to me? Really, you would do that?"
"I would love to make love to you anytime, Juanita. I thought Luis might be loving you up. What happened with him?"
Juanita frowned, "He doesn't want to make love as much as I do. He says I have something wrong with me to want to do that so much. He thinks I might be a, what you call it, a postulate, or prostrate, or something like that. You know a lady that does it for money."
"Ah," I said, "you mean a prostitute. No, you're not a prostitute. You enjoy sex and the feeling it gives you."
"Yes, I enjoy it a lot. My husband and I enjoyed making love all the time. I still want that feeling and hope to have Luis give it to me all the time, but if he doesn't or won't, then I have to have someone else give it to me."
"You need to talk to Sue about this a little more so she can help you or perhaps we need to take Luis to the doctor. Make sure you talk to Sue about this, okay?"
"I will, Steve, but will you give me that feeling soon. I enjoy feeling like a woman."
Mercy had been listening to us and came over to hug Juanita. "I'll make sure Steve has time to make you feel like a woman, Juanita. You're special to us and perhaps Steve and I will both help you feel like a woman."
"Oh stop, Miss Mercy, you'll make me wet my panties."
Mercy hugged Juanita and told her, "We all love you, Juanita. I'm glad you want to go sailing with us."
The three ladies had already begun planning the trip. They had some sailing charts that John had lent them, deciding where all they wanted to go. They were figuring on probably two weeks, and were planning on food, clothes, and all the baby provisions we would need. Sue said that I needed to take Mercy and Juanita to the gun shop to get them some instruction. So I got out my little notebook and began making notes on things to do for a long trip.
Monday I asked John to provision the boat with charts for the Caribbean as well as the Texas and Mexican Gulf coast. I wasn't planning to go to Mexico, but you never know when you have to seek shelter. The plan was to go to the U.S. Virgins, over to Puerto Rico, up to Key West for the promised lunch, then across the Gulf to Texas. From Texas, we were going up toward New Orleans, skirt the coast to Panama City Beach, then home. That should help Mercy's wanderlust and desire to sail for a while.
Monday afternoon, I took Sue, Mercy, and Juanita to the gun store. He had expanded his gun range to where four shooters at a time could be firing. I took Mercy first and showed her the safety procedures of using a handgun and then a rifle. I had her fire a couple of clips from a 9mm.
Next was Juanita, who was not afraid of guns at all. She said she had experience with a rifle, but none with a handgun. Juanita was able to get the hang of shooting a pistol quickly. I told her we would fire a rifle tomorrow.
I brought Sue in, after she had already shot up a small fortune in 9mm rounds practicing with a handgun. I instructed her in using an M16 and the slight variation of the AR-15. She did well. Sue hit the target with all of her rounds and was scoring small groupings after the third magazine.
The gun store owner suggested the lighter Glocks for the three ladies and the ARs, because of the ease of use and lower recoil. I made the order, but also wanted one with a military scope with low light capability. He showed me a swing away scope, that could function with and without the scope, and had the low light capability as well. Sue wanted each of them to have a case like I used so the weapons would not be so conspicuous. I told him we would pick up the weapons tomorrow.
Tuesday morning Sue, Mercy, and Juanita took the kids to a marine supply house to find appropriate life preservers. I hope we wouldn't need them, but it would be good for them to have them ready should the need arise. The little ones' preservers came with a long tether that hooked to an adult's life preserver so the two wouldn't get separated. I thought that also might be good for the adults in the event of a storm.
That afternoon, we went back to the gun shop to shoot the ARs. The girls did better than I expected, with Juanita showing she had some extensive training with rifles. She was very accurate. When the shop owner put a small scope target at the end of his range, I shot a couple of rounds into the target then, after replacing it, gave Juanita the opportunity to use the scope. She was right there, very accurate. She hit dead center of the target with every shot.
I felt good because if the need would arise, I had three good shots to back me up. We left the shop with five hundred rounds for the ARs and five hundred 9mm rounds. We would have plenty for shooting practice and our personal defense should the situation arise.
By Wednesday, I discovered the anticipated departure date was the following Monday morning. The girls went to the Dunedin yacht club marina to begin stocking the boat. They had the boat clean, neat, and ready to sail by Friday. I spent time observing the construction of the hangars and at the shop. Phil and Tiny were working on acquiring the Kansas City distributorship. They felt as if they were close and used the 200 to go out there to try to close the deal.
Apparently, Ryan and Michelle met them there, as did Jed, to see what it would take to put the distributorship in physical shape for our purposes. The owner was retiring and one of his people had thought the owner would give him the store. There was a rift as the owner had to keep explaining that, without the money from the distributorship, he couldn't retire. The disgruntled employee decided they couldn't get along without him, so he quit thinking we would be begging him to come back. He didn't know Ryan very well.
I talked to all of them by phone daily and made sure they knew I was leaving Monday with the family. They understood and said they were going to delay the closing for one month to make sure the disgruntled employee didn't cause a problem. They had made a deal with the owner for Jed to remain and begin remodeling and cleaning the distributorship to get it to look like our others.
Friday evening, we had a small party for the two companies. About sixty to seventy people came to enjoy the fellowship and the conclusion of a successful week. It was pretty tame, considering some of our parties include several hundred people at a time.
Saturday, we all took a ride. This night, Sue rode behind Mickey, as Samantha was working. Mercy rode in the sidecar and Juanita rode with me. We stopped by the Tampa clubhouse and visited with the new president a while. Hap was still held in honor, as was Bear, but you could tell the allegiance had shifted to the new president, as it should. Once we were gone heading to see Double D at Big Jim's, the two clubbers stored their colors so as not to upset the bar patrons. From there, we went to the St. Pete club bar putting their colors back on, then riding up to the Crab Shack without the colors. We made it back to the house as it neared midnight. Everyone was tired, and no one wanted to party at the hot tub, so we parted for our individual places.
When I had closed down the patio and come to bed, I found an extra lady. Mercy and Sue had Juanita between them, withering from their sensual assault. I joined in to bring Juanita to multiple peaks, then buried myself inside her to feel her convulse over and over until she finally went limp.
Sue had me love up Mercy, until I was filling her with the stored up seed that I didn't plant into Juanita. Mercy moaned and shook from the intensity of our lovemaking.
It's a good thing I was still alert, as Sue was now boiling over, with the re-awakened Juanita busily enjoying some ladylove with Sue. Mercy loved me with her mouth, until I had to be buried into Sue's welcoming center. There, I thrust and plunged until the neighbors were probably tired of the animal noises coming from our home.
Once we settled down, sleep came over us as we snuggled beneath the covers peacefully.
If you're not used to the group, Sunday morning is always an eye-opening occasion. About the time all of the sexily dressed or undressed women were present, teasing the men, the two Johns showed up. They were both in awe of the display from the wonderful assortment of women. The pilot John came by to tell me that he had found another 200 that appeared to be a good deal. He had a Beechcraft factory mechanic going to inspect the aircraft the coming week. He also had another 210 for us. He said that we might want to wait before ordering a new Gulfstream as a couple leasing companies said they might have a default coming up. I gave him my itinerary for the next two weeks telling him we would have a satellite phone but he should use it only if he had to. Tiny should be able to take care of most decisions and that I trusted his judgement as well.
John Morgan, the maritime engineer, was reporting on the sailboat and was going to ride over with the group going out today. He said the sailboat was in perfect shape. The girls had it well stocked with food, but he wanted to make sure we had extra bottled water and powdered milk for the kids, as a lot of the milk in the islands was not well taken care of. We should buy milk only from USDA approved dairies while we were out. He also cautioned us about purchasing fresh meat or poultry. He said that we should take as much frozen food as we could, and try to eat as much fresh fish as we could. The girls all had made lists for some last minute shopping before taking off in the morning.
Mercy had John install a gate across the stairway going down into the galley from the lounge. That way the little ones could roam around in the lounge without crashing down the stairs. I'm sure Steve would find a way over the gate during the trip but he was pretty resilient and didn't cry much when he fell as a result of his daring. My sister Susan said he was just like me when I was little.
Juanita had her clothes ready, as did my two ladies, along with the clothes and supplies for the three kids. We were ready.
We all went to sleep Sunday night with the thoughts of our adventure on our minds. I prayed we would be safe, as we would be out on the open water almost continuously for two weeks. Sleep came, but it was a while before it did.