Winchester Harbor Chapter 17
| Winchester Harbor | |
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| Chapter 17 of 36 | |
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Locations
- On board the Harvest Time
- A marina at Saugatuck Harbor
- Tarpon Springs, Florida
Characters
- Phil, the owner of a marina at Saugatuck
Summary
Nate and Jake returned to the little restaurant for lunch, then returned to the Harvest Time, where they reviewed the charts and pilot books for most of the rest of the trip. They turned in early, when they woke up they found stars shining overhead and the storm had blown itself out. It wasn't long before they were past the breakwaters and heading for Chicago using the course that they’d worked out.
Arriving at Chicago they started down the canal. It took three days to pass through several locks and get to the Mississippi river.
At one point Nate brought up Jake's staying over the winter and working the following summer. Nate had a problem - he may need to spend time with Marge that he should be spending with customers. Rachel can't get a Coast Guard passenger license as there is a 21 age limit and that's 5 years from now. Nate is planning ahead for days that he's not available, and would like Jake to get the license so that he could be the official captain and Rachel would actually be in charge. Jake agreed to take the classes and get the license. They also discussed the Parabellum and Jake pointed out that he didn't have a place to work on it, and no money. Nate offered his shed and pointed out that Jake hadn't been cashing his paychecks.
Nate and Jake found a phone at St. Louis, the next fuel stop, and called home to check in. Nate then called Phil in Saugatuck and asked him to get in contact with the owner of the Parabellum. The next leg was around a thousand and sixty river miles between St. Louis and New Orleans at less than two hundred miles a day. When they arrived another call to Phil resulted in a message that yes, the guy was interested in selling, but he wasn’t sure on a price. They told Phil that they'd think it over and call him back.
The next day they arrived at Tarpon Springs, their destination. They called Phil and made a low-ball offer. They flew to Detroit, changed planes for a flight to Alpena, and Rachel met them to take them back home.
On Monday Jake called Phil down in Saugatuck, to find out that the offer was accepted.
