Multi-Hulled Watercraft

Julius and Andrea clean their white multi-hulled sailboat with soap and water in the driveway of their home. Julius hooks the sailboat to his red truck. They got in and drove to the docks.

Upon arrival, they drive through a curved sign reading, “Wells Brooke Harbor”. Julius backs his truck behind the docked boats and he puts it in park.

“Watch the truck as I unhook the sailboat from the truck!” He yells, walking around the truck.

Once the boat settles in the sea, Andrea gets out of the red truck. They step onto the sailboat and Julius wiggles and unties the rope from the dock cleats. He opens the sails from the masts to let the sea air rush through them. He unties the ropes connected to the boat.

“And away we go,” Julius says.

“What now?” Andrea says as she pours herself a glass of wine from the wine cooler.

Julius walks into the deck of the boat and turns the key to start it. He turns the steering wheel to the right to move it away from a nearby buoy.

“I brought some fishing poles and worms if you want to fish,” Julius says, pointing at the hutch next to the mini-fridge.

“I mean, I used to fish with my father as a little girl. He always wanted a boy though, but he got stuck with me,” Andrea says as she sits on the deck’s couch. “

Did you enjoy your fishing trips?” Julius says, looking out to sea. He spots a dark gray cloud in the distance.

“I did at the time. I got to talk to my father in private about life and my mother. But he was an awful father,” she says, imagining the good and bad times she spent with her father.

“What did your father do to you?” Julius asks in curiosity. “

I don’t want to talk about it,” Andrea replies.

Clouds from a far begin to precipitate and slowly come toward the white sailboat.

“Looks like a storm’s a-coming, we better sail back to the dock,” Julius says, turning the metal steering wheel all the way to the left.

The rain clouds hover overhead faster than they anticipated and the strong winds pull them back into open waters.

“Close the doors to the boat’s deck!” Julius shouts as he turns on the windshield wiper.

“Okay!” Andrea yells back.

The wind blows harder and harder. She closes the dock doors and sits back down on the couch. Julius turns the steering wheel left and right, trying to maneuver the multi-hulled sailboat back toward land. He tries to keep the steering wheel steady and the boat stable. Andrea gets out of her seat and wobbles over to Julius steering.

“Let me steer, my father taught me how to steer a boat when I was younger,” Andrea says as she put her hands on Julius’ shoulders.

“No, I’ve got this. I have a handle on it,” Julius says, trying to steer with one hand and pushing Andrea away with the other.

“Let me do it!” Andrea says anxiously. She pushes Julius to the floor and she attempts to turn the boat back to shore.

“Fine, by all means, you give it a whirl,” he says as he sits in Andrea’s original couch seat.

The wind blows even harder and a bolt of lightning strikes the metal pole holding up the sails. The boat sways as the pole absorbs the lightning and heat and it flows into the boat. “Put your life jacket on, they’re in the compartment under the couch,” Andrea says, as she quickly turns her head to look at him.

Julius sits up, opens the compartment, and grabs a life jacket for him and Andrea. He buckles it around his torso and says to Andrea, “Here, think fast.”

She grabs the life vest with one hand and buckles it up. Andrea honks the horn to let anyone nearby know where they are. She steers the boat into the wind, but the wind keeps changing positions. Small waves begin to thrash onto the boat’s hulls. The sailboat rocks left and right. The waves get bigger and lean the left side of the sailboat into the sea.

“I’m going to make a hard-right turn — Hold on!” Andrea shouts.

Julius clutches the arms of the couch as she turns right.

She rebalances the sailboat. “We’re too far from the dock. We better take shelter on that island,” Andrea says, pointing at the small island.

“Okay, but we can’t stay long. I have work tomorrow.” Julius says, grabbing his wrist.

The wind picks up again and pushes the sailboat swiftly onto the shore of the island. The sailboat stops abruptly onto the beach. The sail and its pole collapse onto a pointy rock.

The fall tears the sail and Andrea says, “I guess we have to find something to fix this rip.” The rain now drizzled.

“What are we supposed to use? We’re on a deserted island,” Julius says, looking around.

“We’ll find something,” she says, walking into the forest of the island.

She sees drops of sap on a tree close by. “Now, if I use some tree bark or big leaves as tape and some sap as glue, then we could repair the sail,” Andrea explains. She then collects sap on a leaf.

“I don’t think that’s going to work, but it doesn’t hurt to try,” Julius says, willing to try anything. Andrea fills a big leaf with sap and she snatches another big leaf from a low-lying plant. She walks back to the sailboat and Julius follows. Taking sap from the leaf, she rubs it around the tear. She strokes the other big green leaf onto the tear and she jabs the pole back into the sailboat’s pole hole. Julius pushes the boat into the water and they both jump into the sailboat. The rain continued to drizzle.

Andrea rushes back to the steering wheel and says, “Looks like we have enough gas to get back to the dock.”

“That’s good, I can still go to work tomorrow,” Julius says excitedly. Andrea restarts the sailboat by turning the key. The wind flows through the newly repaired sail.

Andrea says, “We have about an hour to sail back to the docks.”

They sail back to the shore smoothly and return to the docks. “Thank God, we’re back,” Andrea and Julius say in unison. They step off the boat and hug each other in excitement.