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 Brook Harbor”. Julius backs his truck behind the docked boats and he puts it in the park. “Watch the truck. I’ll 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,” he says.

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

He 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,” he 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,” she 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. Her father pushed once into a shed. Her father bought her ice cream at the park.

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

I don’t want to talk about it,” she 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,” he 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 the open waters.

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

“Okay!” she 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. She 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,” she says as she sets her hands on Julius’ shoulders.

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

“Let me do it!” She says with anxiety.

She pushes him to the floor and attempts to turn the boat back to shore.

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

The wind blows even harder and a bolt of lightning strikes the metal pole that holds up. 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,” she says as she quickly turns her head to look at him.

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

She grabs the life vest with one hand, buckles it up, and 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!” she shouts.

He 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,” she says, pointing at the small island.

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

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

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

The rain drizzled.

“What are we supposed to use? We’re on a deserted island,” he 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 sap as glue, then we could repair the sail,” she explains. She then collects sap on a leaf.

“I don’t think that’s going to work, but it doesn’t hurt to try,” he says, willing to try anything.

She fills a big leaf with sap and snatches another big leaf from a low-lying plant. She walks back to the sailboat and he follows. Taking sap from the leaf, she rubs it around the tear. She strokes the other big green leaf onto the tear and jabs the pole back into the sailboat’s hole.

He pushes the boat into the water and they both jump into the sailboat. The rain continued to drizzle.

She 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,” he says excitedly.

She restarts the sailboat by turning the key. The wind flows through the newly repaired sail.

She 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.