Winchester Harbor Chapter 11
| Winchester Harbor | |
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| Chapter 11 of 36 | |
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Locations
- The Channel Stop
- The boat slips at Winchester Harbor
- On board the Mary Sue, a twenty-six-foot International Folkboat (a full keel fiberglass sailboat)
Characters
Summary
On the Saturday evening after the Fourth of July Nate asked Jake if he'd be interested in crewing on a boat delivery job, from Winchester Harbor to Sandusky, Ohio. It turns out that Nate is fully booked and wants Rachel to be the pilot and Jake to be crew and guardian for Rachel. They would sail the boat down the 400 or so miles (about 640-650 km) to Sandusky and take the bus back. It would take around four days plus the return bus trip. They'd leave early Monday morning.
This would be something different. Jake had spent a lot of days at sea in the Navy, but in a twenty-six-foot sailboat with a fifteen-year-old girl sailing it? He’d never have believed it a few months before - or even a few hours before.
Monday morning Jake woke up well before sunrise, opened the snack bar, and started breakfast for Rachel, Nate and himself. A little later he threw his seabag into Nate’s car, and they headed down to the boat slip area of the harbor.
Rachel stowed a couple bags of food below, started the engine to let it warm up. Nate and Rachel removed and stowed the sail covers and did some other things while Jake stood around and helped when he could. After the mandatory "Good Byes" and all, Nate cast off the bow and stern lines, Jake coiled them up, Rachel slipped the transmission into reverse and they backed out of the slip. She pivoted the boat on the rudder, shifted into forward gear, and they were gone. They slowly motored on down the channel, went around a small bend, then another one, and all of a sudden they were coming up on the Channel Stop. A few minutes later it was behind them, and a new adventure was ahead.
