I am left to be the Captain

Allan has a job that comes up and he has to leave and fly to Paris. It is a scary thing for me to be left as the Captain. Thoughts run through my mind and fear wells up. But, Allan calms me by his confidence and trust to leave me in charge of what we jokingly call his mistress, "Odessa". Will the other woman and I get along on our own?

As soon as Allan gets on his flight the weather changes and the white caps are visible in the lagoon. Odessa moans and groans as she pulls on her lines. Late that night the wind still increase and I am forced to go out on the decks in the dark and pull down the awnings.

The next morning the wind was still howling and I had to go out in the rain and fend off a 32 foot sail boat that was drifting to close to Odessa. The captain came out and readjusted his lines. Few, one near miss.

Then a 50 footer, steel hull comes right next to us and glides in like an ice skater doing figure eights. The captain a Brobdingnagian man called Frank with a booming voice shows his expertise by coming with in inches of our hull and turning on a dime. I met Kat his wife as we both fended off from each others bows. My wide eyes telling the story of my inexperience.

The children and I wanted to surprise Allan so we washed and waxed the hull and polished all of the stainless steel rails, winches, pulleys, And never ending life lines. Odessa was a gleaming site to see.

In the end Odessa and I are very good friends.