One fine day the Forty-Niner lay tied to a logboom in Halkett Bay. Ray’s father stood on the logboom as Ray manoeuvered his sailing dinghy through all the steps. He could raise the sail and lower it too. He even knew how to fold it and put it away. Putting the rudder on was the hard part. As he struggled with pintles and gudgeons, he would roll his sleeves practically up to the shoulders. Then they would fall again and get all soaked anyway. You had to line them both up and push down on the rudder and pull on the catch that held it.
Abner looked intensely up at Mae. He hoped his wife would be O.K with his idea of letting Ray sail out of the harbour. “I don’t think so, Ab?!” said Mae as if she could read his mind.
“Look dear, he really knows how to sail and he is having such a good time. The weather is good. Why don’t we just head off to Pirates Cove now? He’ll be fine and if he gets into trouble we’ll just pick him up.”
“OK, Ab. If you got to let him sail out of the bay, we better stay real close to him and I hope you do not mess up on picking him up.” Mae replied.
“Oh come on, dear, you know the Forty-Niner can keep up with a sailing dinghy! We can even give him Peaches, he’d love to go for the ride too!” Abner explained.
Abner started up the Forty-Niner’s two-stroke engine and put the hand crank back in its special place by the engine cover. Ray pulled up the dinghy to the log boom. His dad leaned over offering to put Peaches in the dinghy. “How would you like to take Peach for a sail?” Abner asked.
“Where we going Dad? Why you got the engine running?”
“We’re heading off to Pirates Cove and you can sail your boat real good. So keep your life jacket on and you can sail around the point. If you want, you can even sail to Pirates Cove and Peaches will keep you company. We will stay right with you and if you want we’ll pick you up,” his dad explained.
So Ray and Peach cast off and started to sail the tiny dinghy with only a very light breeze. Once Ray was on a good heading for the point, Abner and Randy cast off the lines from the logboom and the Forty-Niner soon was following them under power.
The sea was flat and calm with only a slight ripple in patches here and there. The only sound was the put-put of the engine on the Forty-Niner and Peaches meowing a little as if he was saying something to Ray. The light ripples were filling in the clear glossy patches that covered the deep sea. The hard-chined sailing dinghy started to pick up speed a bit and its light plywood skin was slapping against the ripples. Soon it was picking up even more speed and darted off with a light, fresh breeze in her sail. Then suddenly as if Mother Nature had to sneeze, off Ray went with the sail out and heading down wind. Ray held the tiller firmly as the dinghy began to heel. Peaches leaped up on Ray’s lap as he seemed frightened by the wind and the increasing speed. The spray was starting to come off the bow wave and the water was coming over the gunwale a little.
