Page 70 of The Hitchhiker in Panama
* * *
“Lunch today is tuna poke. This is the last of it.”
We’d been eating tuna at every meal since we’d caught it several days prior. Marcella mixed the menu up, making sushi rolls one day, seared tuna another. She had to be creative with serving the same thing for days on end.
“Yum. What do we have for the condiments?” Eivind gestured at the various bowls and jars open on the tabletop.
Marcella pointed out each one. “Soy sauce, pickled ginger, here are some quick-pickled cucumbers and onions I made, brown rice . . .”
I started scooping items into my bowl, adding some wasabi and carrots, secretly wishing for some edamame to go with it.
“I looked at the weather forecast,” Jonas said over the cacophony of noises as everyone made their plates. “The wind is dying, and should stay pretty low over the next few days.”
Eivind perked up. “Does that mean we should get the spinnaker out after lunch?”
Thanks to my sailing book, I knew that spinnakers were very big sails made of thin material that could be used when the wind was really light.
“Ja.It is a good day for it. We can get it up this afternoon and then take it down before sunset.”
“We don’t leave it up all night?” I asked.
Eivind shook his head. “It is too dangerous. If a storm came up and we had to take it down quickly, we would need several people, and the risk of losing someone overboard would be too high. So we will only use it during the day.”
“You know, I could start taking a night shift now. I’m comfortable during the day watches, and I’m sleeping well and not seasick anymore.”
Jonas shrugged. “We are set in our schedules now—there is no need to change them.”
We ate quickly, and then the rest of the crew got to work. I stayed out of the way as they ran around the deck, positioning the lines just so. Finally, from the helm, Jonas used a crank to raise up something called a sock, which bundled the sail up. As he hauled it up, the sail filled with wind andEikflew.
Jonas sat back and wiped the sweat off his brow. The huge crimson sail led the way, a startling color against the blue sky and sea around us.
“What is our speed now?” Jonas asked me as Eivind and Elayna climbed back into the cockpit.
I checked the screen. “Eight-point-one, eight-point-three . . .”
“She looks very good.” Eivind wrapped an arm around his brother’s shoulders asEikcut through the water.
* * *
Our routine was fairly stable now, and I slept well enough that I woke up with Eivind and we did his morning shift together.
I climbed up the cockpit stairs to look for Jonas. He sat at the back of the cockpit, sipping a hot drink—decaf tea, probably—and gazing out at the ocean. The look on his face was so peaceful and serene, I hated to disturb him.
He turned and spotted me anyway.
“Morning.”
He smiled and tipped his drink to me, shifting in his seat and dropping his feet to the deck. I took the corner opposite him.
“You look so peaceful out here.”
“I love sunrise. Sunset is nice to enjoy with the crew, but I have the schedule that gives me sunrise all to myself. It is a beautiful way to start the day.”
Eivind appeared at the companionway and handed me my coffee.
“Yeah, nah, I like a leisurely morning in bed.”
The two brothers went over the conditions and sail plan, and once Eivind and I were settled in, Jonas disappeared down below.
