Page 5 of The Sailor in Polynesia
He smiled weakly without meeting my eyes and then paddled over. I helped him up and when I turned to follow him into my boat, a shadow in the water caught my eye.
I only made it a few steps before I ran into his back. He stood at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes tracking all around the salon. I cleared my throat, and he shook himself as he moved out of the way.
“So you arrived from Rangiroa?” I asked, fishing out the bottle of tequila from the cabinet. There were only a few inches left in the bottle, but I waggled it at the man anyway.
He swallowed and nodded. My muscles still felt jumpy and quivery, the adrenaline working through my system, and I hadn’t even been the one in the water. I fished out two clear plastic tumblers—cloudy with age and remnants fromWelina’s previous owners—and sloshed a finger of tequila into each one.
“Cheers.” I offered up my glass, and he clinked his with mine and quickly tossed the tequila back. With his chin raised, the long column of his throat throbbed as he swallowed, and I turned my attention to my glass. I wasn’t a big tequila drinker, but sometimes it was called for.
I tossed mine back too, grimacing.
Then I busied myself with the tuna, chopping it, sealing it, and putting it in my fridge. My guest stood in the center of the cabin, his gaze flitting around. I saw the guy run his hands over his face and then he actually... laughed?
When he caught me watching him, he broke into a smile that lit up his whole face. “I cannot believe I am here. This is surreal. You always filmed your outros in that corner”—he pointed to the couch with the globe behind it—“and I remember there used to be a heater in here that you ripped out.”
“Oooooh,” I said, realization dawning on me. “You’ve watched my videos.”
While it was true that in the whole scope of the internet, my little sailing videos were moderately successful, one of the unexpected pleasures of making videos was howpassionatethe audience was.
When Liam and I had leftWelinain Apataki and flown home to Seattle, we had thrown a little meet and greet. It was our first “public” event, and we walked into the bar thinking that there was an office happy hour or something going on, but no. It had all been for us. People had taken time out of their lives to come meet us, and in some cases they’d even driven up from Portland.
We had spent the entire night talking with like-minded people, fellow sailors or future sailors who had watched our videos and learned from us. I’d left feeling energized and nostalgic to get back to the boat, something I desperately needed at the time.
So I was, in a sense, mildly famous, and I had an enthusiastic—and nervous—fan on board.
“Yes!” he said. “They were amazing. You did a great job with them.”
“Well, thank you.” I held out my hand. “I’m Mia.”
“Ja, I know.” He grinned and shook my hand enthusiastically.
I leaned in and stage-whispered, “That’s my way of asking what your name is.”
He laughed and palmed his forehead, pulling his hand away. “Ah, of course. Jonas.”
Standing inWelina, he made the space look small.He must have been around six feet tall and he towered over me as he carefully made his way around the boat, ducking slightly to protect his head.
Jonas looked around the boat and I braced myself, expecting him to ask about Liam. Instead he turned around and gaveWelinaa once-over. “She looks good. You have worked hard on her,” he said approvingly.
“Thank you,” I said. “She was hauled out for nearly a year, and it was tough to have the boat out of the water for so long, especially one that shows her age likeWelina.”
His eyes turned to me and they were startlingly blue. “You have not made a video in a while.”
“Right. Well...” I let my words trail off, not knowing how to explain to a total stranger that I wasn’t very inspired to create anything right now. I finally went with: “I don’t have any internet out here.”
He nodded, accepting my answer. “How long have you been here?”
“A few weeks. I saw a few people on your boat. Are you the owner or crew?”
“Eikis all mine. My brother is with me, his girlfriend, and two other crew members.”
I raised my eyebrows. “That’s a pretty full boat.”
He chuckled. “Some days it feels more full than others.”
“Well, thank you for the tuna,” I said, and his face fell.
“Ja, of course.” He hesitated before climbing up the companionway and into the cockpit, with me following closely behind. Before he could climb down onto his paddleboard, he stopped and palmed the back of his neck. “How much longer will you be staying here?”
