Page 59 of The Hitchhiker in Panama
Groggily, I blinked up at him. “I guess I took a nap, huh?”
He smiled gently. “Yes, but that is good. It is almost time for your shift. Do you want anything to drink?”
“Is there some coffee?”
“Of course. I will be right back.”
I eased myself up and looked around. There were some islands off in the distance, but they were hazy and behind us. I was the only one up top, and I could pretend I had the boat all to myself for a moment. How surreal it must be to sail alone.
Eivind came back up and my personalized briefing began.
“This box is the autopilot. Do not touch it. Because we have such a long way to go, the plan is to just set the sails right, set the autopilot, and let the boat do her thing.
Eivind pointed to big letters that spelledcog;this was followed by numbers: 187, 192, 189, 194 . . . the number kept changing. “This number here, this is our course over ground. We want it to be between 180 and 210. If it goes outside of that range, get Jonas. Next, look at this number.” The letters readaws. “Apparent wind speed. If this reads over fifteen, get Jonas. If you see something on the horizon, get Jonas. If you hear any weird noises—”
“Get Jonas?”
Eivind tweaked my nose. “Cheeky. Yes, get Jonas. But for today, I will be with you on watch, so you do not have to worry too much.”
“Okay, the course over ground needs to be between 180 and 200?”
“Two hundred and ten.”
“Two hundred and ten. Apparent wind speed is less than fifteen?”
“Yes.”
“I need to write this down.” I pulled my phone out and made a note.
“Most of the time,” Eivind said, “you will do nothing. You can sit up here and read or whatever. Make sure every ten minutes you check the horizon around us. Look for anything new. That will be your whole watch.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It is. When everything is going right. When something goes wrong, that is when it is hard. But the rest of us are here to help you.”
“Thank you.”
“And do not leave the cockpit. Always wear your harness. Be safe, yes?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “What’s this thing here?” I pointed at a triangle on the screen.
“That is another boat.” Eivind showed me how to pull up information on the boat. Through this system, we could learn the name, speed, destination, all kinds of interesting things.
“Here it says that we will pass twenty miles from this boat.”
“Is that close enough to see?”
He shook his head. “Probably not. Maybe if it was a big cargo ship, but this one is a sailboat like us.”
After a few more questions, Eivind settled in to play games on his tablet, and I had my e-reader, but it remained in my lap, untouched. Instead I sat still, quietly listening and looking around the boat.
Elayna came up and said lunch was ready. I stayed up top while Eivind made me a sanger—tuna salad. He brought it up for me to eat at the helm. A few minutes later he joined me and we shared a bag of chips.
I stayed alert the rest of my shift, and when it was done, Marcella came up to take over. We had our mini debriefing, led by Eivind, and I was off duty.
Plopping down next to Eivind, I snuggled up to him. He raised his arm to let me in closer, and I watched him move the cards around on his screen. He kissed my head. “We should go try to sleep.”
“Yeah?”
