Audrey proved to be a warm and friendly person, a bit on the talkative side; it was easy to see why she and Adam got along so well. Amanda could remember a little of Adam’s ex-wife – she’d never known the woman well – and this well-spoken Canadian matron was about as far different as could be imagined.

She couldn’t help thinking back to last spring, when she’d had a few idle musings about going with Adam on the Moonshadow. It never would have happened, knowing what she knew now, since he’d had a different game going and had kept quiet about it. But that had just been fantasizing; she’d never even come close to broaching the subject, and now she was very glad she hadn’t.

And they had stories to tell – both of them! They hadn’t had any close calls or hair-raising experiences, but they’d had plenty of good times and had visited some interesting places. One of the more interesting was their several weeks’ visit to Blanche Tickle, where Mary and Matty lived. Since her return to her home settlement after Matt’s death, Mary and an artist from the mainland had started to develop a little bit of a summer art camp or colony there, and it had been there that Adam had met Audrey the year before.

Audrey turned out to be a bit of a painter herself, mostly working in water colors and acrylics, and she had a collection of seascapes she’d painted aboard the Moonshadow. Amanda thought they were quite good, although she would have been the first to admit that she really didn’t know anything about art. Storage space was getting to be a bit of an issue, considering the limited space aboard and the fact that neither Adam nor Audrey had usable homes on shore. Amanda’s father said that if all else failed he could find some space for the extra paintings somewhere around Winchester Harbor, some of them perhaps on the walls of the snack bar.

“If we wind up going north next summer,” Adam told him, “we’ll probably take a swing by there anyway, if for no more reason than you still have my truck parked up there.”

“And I’m darn glad I have it, too,” Jake replied. “It gave me a spare vehicle to use when my truck blew a head gasket not long after Amanda left for the winter. I was sort of wondering what you wanted me to do with it, but I figured you’d want it sooner or later.”

Of course, Amanda had to talk a bit about some of the trials and hassles she’d gone through with the Rag Doll, but that cruising on the boat the past week showed that all the trouble had been worth it. “Would you do it all over again?” Greg asked.

“Let’s just say I’m not anxious to have to do another boat restoration away from home on a shoestring budget,” she smiled. “At least not right away, but who knows what’s going to happen eventually?”

The whole evening turned into a low-key party, with lots of story-telling and reminiscing. It was decided that since the next day was going to be Christmas and Ron and Cordy were planning to be there, they’d have a small-sized Christmas dinner on the Winter Haven and the Rag Doll. It wasn’t going to involve roast turkey or anything, but among the three boats they figured they ought to be able to come up with enough that no one should go away hungry.

The evening went later than Amanda was used to, or a lot of the other people, for that matter. By ten some of them were turning in for the night, while Adam and Audrey took a walk back to the Moonshadow. It had been quite a day.

Since it was a very long drive from Jacksonville to Key Largo, they decided to hold their abbreviated Christmas dinner in the early afternoon. It seemed a shame that Ron and Cordy could only stay for a few hours, but it could well be the last time the family got together for years, so they figured they might as well take advantage of it.

Ron and Cordy showed up earlier than they had been expected, while Amanda and Jake were having a talk about whatever came to mind in the cockpit of the Rag Doll. “Wow, you two must have hit the road early.”

“Way early,” Ron admitted. “We figured that we might as well leave early to be able to spend a little extra time here. It’s not like we had anything else to do.”

“Why does that sound like there’s been some trouble?” Jake asked from the corner of the cockpit.

“Well, there has been,” Ron nodded. “We have it taken care of, at least mostly.”

“We got back, and found that Pa had let Aunt Mildred bully him into hiring Ike,” Cordy explained. “I’d told Pa that if he hired Ike, I wasn’t going to be working for him, and that was final. But Pa said that he was going to need the extra hands if I was going to be taking off all the time, so I left.”

“It wasn’t quite as simple as that,” Ron explained.

“Shit, no,” Cordy said. “Ike was there when we had our little discussion, and he was all bound and determined he was going to have a piece off of me right on the spot, whether Pa or Aunt Mildred or whoever was around. I had to whack him in the nuts with a crescent wrench. That gave me enough time to get in the car and get the hell out of there.”

“We had a heck of a time getting her stuff out of her place,” Ron added. “But she called me and I went over there with about eight of the guys from the station. Both Ike and Cordy’s dad were still in the mood to make trouble but they realized they were a little outnumbered.”

“I didn’t screw around getting my stuff out of there, either,” Cordy shook her head.

“We got into that a little quickly,” Jake looked up at the others who were standing or sitting around on either the Rag Doll or next door on the Winter Haven. “For those of you who don’t know her, this is Cordy Sims. She and Ron are planning on getting married before the Coast Guard ships him up to the wild, cold waters of Alaska.”

There were murmurs of greetings from those assembled. “So what does this mean?” Amanda asked.

“We got a place in a motel not far from the base,” Ron explained. “It has weekly rates and isn’t too bad. Since we’re only going to be here about five more weeks we ought to be able to make do.”

“Are you still planning on getting married before you leave?” Amanda’s mother asked.

“We’re planning on getting married tomorrow, up in Jacksonville,” Ron said. “But that’ll just be a paperwork thing in front of a judge. What with everything, I just don’t have the time off to do it any other way, and we really need to get rolling on paperwork with the Coast Guard for Cordy to be able to go with me at all. It’s not clear if we’re going to be able to get housing on the station or what, and that’s just one of a lot of things we need to get straightened out.”

“We’re thinking that it could take every bit of the five weeks we have to work with,” Cordy added.

“We realize that with all of you down here it’d be pretty inconvenient for you to be there, but we’ll understand,” Ron went on. “We figured that the best thing we could do is to come down here and let that be good enough.”

Audrey shook her head. “It’s too bad they don’t really let yacht captains do marriages at sea,” she grinned. “At least for marriages that only last the duration of the cruise.”

“Well, we could do it, I suppose,” Adam grinned. “I mean, the paperwork date might be tomorrow, but wouldn’t their formal wedding day be more important to them?”

“Adam,” Jake laughed. “You might have something there.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Cordy asked.

“There’s no reason you can’t get married right here, right now, at least in the eyes of your friends and family,” Jake explained. “After all, that’s what is important to you, and you’ll never have a better chance to get everyone together, not for years. So the paperwork has a different date, so what? You’ll know you’re married.”

“You know, Cordy,” Ron laughed. “That is not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. It would be nice to have Zack and a couple of the guys from the station here, but Dad is right. We may not get a better chance.”

“OK,” she grinned. “It’d be better that way, anyway.”

“You’d even get sort of a boater’s reception out of the deal,” Rachel grinned. “Let’s face it, a boater’s wedding isn’t unusual for this family. You may not know it, Cordy, but Jake and I got married on the stern of the old Chinook.”

“We did have a minister there, I do have to admit that,” Jake added. “But big deal. Cordy, I don’t know you very well when you get right down to it, but I really doubt that you’re the type of girl who was yearning for a big church wedding anyway.”

“Well, no, I’m not,” she smiled.

It all went together pretty quickly. There was no little interest, and even some help from people on the surrounding boats, and there was a small crowd on the pier when Ron and Cordy got married. Somehow Adam got elected to be the “minister,” mostly because the ceremony had been more or less his idea in the first place. It had been a long time since Adam had been to a wedding, and he more or less had to wing the vows, almost making them up as he went along, but somehow they came out pretty well.

The wedding was followed by a potluck Christmas dinner turned wedding reception dinner. There was even a cake – someone on a neighboring boat got into the spirit of things and donated a store-bought angel food cake to the proceedings.

Things were pretty light-hearted all through the affair. As they were winding down and the crowd was dispersing, Jake turned to Ron and said, “You know, son, you’re a lucky man.”

“To have Cordy? I think so!”

“Well, more than that,” Jake laughed. “You ought to never have any problems remembering when your anniversary is. And, even if you do manage to forget it, you have yourself covered on anniversary gifts.”

Ron shook his head. “Never even crossed my mind. It probably would have sooner or later.”

“Oh, you’re going to have plenty of settling in to do, but I think Cordy is a very special gal. It’s a little bad that things had to come down like this but I guess that it’ll work out in the end. Look, I know you have to think about getting back to Jacksonville so maybe you’d better get to it. I also know it’s probably going to be a long time before we see you and Cordy again, but try to make it back home once in a while. I don’t know how the summer season is going to come together, but there’s a good chance that your mom or I or the both of us may be able to make it up to see you in Sitka sometime.”

“I’d like that. The place is supposed to be awful pretty but the weather can really get snotty, I’m told.”

“My guess is that’s why the Coast Guard is there in the first place. Look, you be careful up there. I know it’s going to be a lot different than Jacksonville, but there ought to be plenty of chances for you to learn something new and useful.”

“I’m sure hoping there is. I’ve liked the Coast Guard so far and I’m planning on making a career out of it, unless something goes way wrong on this tour. Having Cordy with me is going to make it even more interesting.”

“She’s a pretty independent girl, so be sure to give her some space. But have fun, since you’re only young once.”

“It’s been a lot of fun with her so far, and I can see that there’s going to be more ahead of us.”

It was starting to get late in the afternoon, by then. Ron and Cordy still had a long drive ahead of them and probably another tough time the next day, so soon the “newlyweds” were on their way back to Jacksonville. “I’m a little sorry to see them go,” Jake said. “They’re off to a rough start, but I think things will work out for them.”

“I think so, too,” Amanda said. “They’re not people who let things get them down easily. That counts for a lot.”

There were still a few days left before Greg and Lisa had to be getting back to Michigan. The plan was that they’d ride up to the marina in Hollywood with Amanda and Samantha in the Rag Doll. The three would fly back north together, and Greg and Lisa would see to getting their young visitor home while Jake and Rachel continued on down the keys in the Winter Haven.

“It’s good to be together for once,” Jake said as they lolled around on the deck that afternoon. “But I don’t think we want to spend the rest of the trip in this overcrowded marina. What would you say if we went somewhere and anchored out until Amanda has to take the gang back to go to the airport?”

“We can’t go very far away,” Amanda pointed out. But I could probably push it and get back to the marina up there in a day, weather permitting. It would be nice if we had time to go as far as Marathon, but we don’t have to.”

“There are a couple places right around here we could try,” Jake said.

“Whatever the rest of you decide is fine with Audrey and me,” Adam said. “We really don’t have any plans other than staying out of the cold weather. We’ve been thinking about going to the Bahamas sooner or later.”

“That’s what I’m planning after I drop Greg, Lisa, and Sam off, and pick up Zack,” Amanda told him. “We’re mostly planning on hanging out and having a good time. I want to see some new country. I’ve seen a lot of the Keys and the Gulf Coast while I’ve been down here in the Winter Haven in the past.”

“I don’t want to say that Audrey and I had our fill of it last winter,” Adam said, “but it would be nice to go somewhere new, too.”

It took a little planning and working things out, but the next morning the three boats set sail out of the marina and Key Largo and headed west. They wound up spending the night at anchor in a little cove not a great distance away, just hanging out together. While they were there, Audrey did some watercolor sketches and studies of the Rag Doll, and promised to do a painting of it someday. Samantha spent a lot of time in her bikini as she continued to work on her Florida sunburn. Mostly they didn’t do anything special, which is just exactly what they wanted to do.

The little lull lasted for a couple days, until Amanda had to be heading north with Greg, Lisa, and Samantha. The Winter Haven and the Moonshadow planned on heading on west together for a while, and probably wouldn’t be heading toward the Bahamas until Amanda’s parents handed the boat off to another couple, probably down at Marathon although the details remained to be worked out.

They left in plenty of time, and the weather was favorable so they took their time on the trip. Amanda knew that it would still be a few days before Zack could start his leave, but she was looking forward to seeing him. It had worked out they would have six weeks together, and she really hoped to answer some questions she had about herself and the two of them in that time.

It was a little sad to see Samantha leave. She’d had a good time on her Florida winter vacation and got all the suntan or sunburn or whichever it was that she wanted. Amanda liked the girl a lot, and hoped that she’d be available to help out on the fishing boats in the summer for at least a few years.

The next few days went slowly. Amanda worked on the boat a little and gossiped with some of the other people in the marina, but didn’t take the Rag Doll anywhere since there wasn’t any place she really wanted to go with it until Zack showed up.

It had been worked out that Cordy was going to drive Zack down to meet her – since she wasn’t working now she had the time to do another all-day drive. Finally, in the early afternoon of the appointed day the two of them showed up at the marina. Not unexpectedly Amanda and Zack were in each other’s arms about as soon as they saw each other. It had been nearly a month, after all, although there had been some phone calls along the way.

As happy as she was to see Zack, she still had to catch up on things with Cordy a little bit. “So how’s married life treating you?” Amanda asked.

“Actually, a little dull right now,” Cordy admitted. “I don’t have much to do but sit around the motel room and wait for Ron to get there, but at least we’re able to spend the nights together. When I’m not sitting around, I’m working on getting stuff ready to head for Sitka. That’s going to be a heck of a long drive across the country, plus going up the coast on the Alaska State Ferry. I sold my old clunker of a car, not that I got a lot out of it, but we can’t see much need for having two cars up there since there ain’t much in the way of roads.”

“I have to say, that sounds like it ought to be a fun drive.”

“Yeah, it should, but it’s gonna be right through the heart of the winter on the plains and in the mountains, and I’m a Florida girl after all. Do you know you can’t get shit in the way of winter clothes in Jacksonville?”

“Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” Amanda smiled. “You might want to put most of that off until you get to Seattle or something. You might just be able to save some bucks on end-of-winter sales.”

“Yeah, well, that’s a thought.”

“So how is it going with your dad?”

“Beats the hell out of me. I’m planning on staying the hell away from the boat yard. I figure I’ll drop them a letter from Sitka. That might be a safe distance. If it’s not I don’t know what would be. Anyway, it’s only a few more weeks before we get on our way, and I’m really looking forward to getting on with doing the next thing.”

“Well, hey,” Amanda sighed. “I guess about all I can tell you is good luck, and take it easy on my brother. I know it’s going to be a while before we can get together again, but I’m looking forward to it.

“Yeah, maybe we’ll have to go sailing down here on the Rag Doll sometime, just so I can get a taste of Florida again, or maybe up on the lakes or something. I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to see.”

They talked a little while longer, but they both knew it was a goodbye they didn’t want to see coming. Finally Cordy got back into Ron’s car and took off on the long drive back to Jacksonville, and Amanda could turn her whole attention to Zack. “Sorry we had to talk girl talk there for a while, but it may be the last time for a while,” she apologized.

“That’s all right,” he told her. “It’s good to have friends, and there are times that you have to maintain a friendship. I think that’s something I learned from you and Ron. I’m going to be missing him, too. They’ll both be gone when I get back, and it’s going to get to be a little lonely.”

“Well, we’ve got six weeks to fill up your friendship tanks,” she grinned. “Let’s get your stuff on board and packed away. I don’t want to say this afternoon is shot for going anywhere, but there aren’t many good places for us to stop to the south for a ways. So let’s get reacquainted, go out for dinner, and then maybe get reacquainted again.”

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