The spring and early summer were busy. It had turned out warmer than usual, and that meant that the fish didn’t always do what they expected them to do that time of year, so the fishing got a little spotty at times. Amanda and her parents worked together on trying to figure out what was happening; they’d go their separate ways in the boats, but if one of them happened on a good spot they’d call the other boat in on it. They didn’t use the marine radios of course, since they didn’t want every fishing boat on Lake Huron finding out where the hot spot of the day was, and they even used a bit of a family code when they talked about the subject on their cell phones.

Even so, it had mostly been a good spring. Oh, there had been some not-so-good days fishing and there had been some skunk days, which they didn’t like to subject the customers to, but most days they brought back some fish, even if they didn’t limit out.

After a few days of getting her feet under her operating the bigger boat with Adam as her deckhand back in April, Amanda had moved over to the smaller boat. She had mostly been running the Coho ever since, but every now and then it worked out that she’d take the Chinook out. She was more familiar with the bigger boat, but now it seemed a little strange to her since she’d gotten used to the slightly different pattern of operation and setup of the Coho.

In fact, she’d come to like the Coho, if for no more reason than it was about the size of the Rag Doll, although a little higher and a lot lighter. Over the last two and a half months she’d often thought of her boat sitting on stands down there at Sims Boat Yard in Jacksonville, and in a way she missed it. Both Ron and Cordy had been keeping their eyes on it for her, and reported by phone calls every now and then that there had been no problems. Ron had even sent her a couple cell phone pictures of the boat, looking a little forlorn under the tarps that protected it from the Florida summer sun. Although Amanda was enjoying what she was doing, she was also looking forward to getting those tarps off, getting the last work done on the boat, and getting out to go somewhere with it.

At least it wouldn’t be as hot as it had been around here this summer. Sometimes the “Winchester Harbor Fishing Charter” polo shirt got pretty hot out in the sun on the lake. On really hot days Amanda might decide to wear a pair of shorts, although her family frowned on it a little – they liked to present a professional appearance, after all. According to Nate, who wasn’t around, shorts only cut it on days that were really hot. They had a lot of them that summer.

At least on this afternoon, toward the end of June, it was cool enough that Amanda was comfortable in black slacks, although they were going to come off as soon as she got the Coho tied up and could get back to the air conditioner in her motel room. That was something to look forward to, even after the good day they’d had – the Coho had limited out, which didn’t always happen this summer.

Beffy sat in her accustomed place by the wheel as Amanda steered the Coho up the channel, past the Channel Stop to the normal landing up in the harbor, half a mile from the lake. “Well, Beffy, we did it again,” she said to her cat, who really wasn’t a kitten any more. She was close to full grown now, although it was clear that she was going to be small.

Beffy went fishing with Amanda most days; she was a good boat cat and something of her good luck charm, as well. The only time Beffy got left behind was if a customer didn’t like cats, had an allergy to them, or something. Amanda was happy to oblige – after all, the idea was to keep the customers happy – but somehow the fishing always seemed to lack something on the days that Beffy had to spend in the motel room, enjoying a nap near the air conditioner.

It wasn’t that Beffy had any real chores on the boat, other than being a good luck charm. She often sat in a padded spot Amanda had made for her up behind the windshield, near the wheel, but if she was bored or wanted to get some sleep there was a cat bed down in the cabin. She made plenty of friends among the customers, who often were amused by the friendly little cat, and it seemed like Amanda told the story of rescuing her from the alligator at least once each trip.

At least it seemed pretty calm in the harbor. Landing the Coho alongside the dock could be a pain in the neck if there was a wind off the dock; while one or another of the customers was usually willing to help with the lines when that happened, it wasn’t something she could depend on. If the landing looked like it was going to be challenging, Amanda usually radioed up to the Channel Stop to have one of the fuel dock hands meet her to help with the lines, but that wasn’t going to be an issue today.

As the channel came to an end Amanda turned the Coho into the harbor proper and steered it across to the dock. She could see the Chinook was already in, so her mother must have had a pretty good day with it. The deckhand situation had been a little fluid for a while, and they’d tried several on the big boat, finding them all wanting, but then the daughter of one of her mother’s friends asked if she could try doing the job. She was just fifteen – in other words, older than Amanda or her mother had been when they’d started helping on the boats – but she hadn’t been brought up with it like they’d been. It proved that Sam – short for Samantha – was just about as natural at it as they could have asked for. While she was totally new to the business, and had only been working with them for a couple weeks, it looked like the deckhand problem was solved, at least until school started again. That was good; one of the guys they’d tried had been a real pain in the ass, and had even gotten fired from the fuel dock.

It even turned out that Sam had waited around the dock to help Amanda land the Coho, not that a lot of help was needed; that meant that the Chinook must not have been in for long. She helped the customers unload, and Amanda said goodbye to them and thanked them for fishing with the company.

“Well, that’s it for another day,” Amanda said to Sam as the last of the customers departed. “How’d it go on the Chinook today?”

“Limited out,” the girl replied. “The customers were pretty happy, too.”

“I’ll bet,” Amanda agreed. “There hasn’t been enough of that this year. So has this day been hot enough for you?”

“It gets warmer out on the lake than I thought it would,” Sam admitted. “I guess it’s from being out in the sun all day. I rode my bike home to change my clothes. I was heading down to the jetties to go for a swim when I saw you coming in, so I thought I’d stop and help.”

“You know, a swim sounds like a real good idea,” Amanda said. “Why don’t you ride up to my room at the motel? I’ll drive there, drop off Beffy, and get on a bikini. We can go down to the lake together.”

“Sure, that sounds like fun.”

“I’ll have to walk down to the lake,” Amanda told her. “I think my bike is in the boat shed but I’m pretty sure the tires are all flat.”

“Maybe I’ll leave my bike at the motel and walk with you,” Sam agreed.

It didn’t take Amanda long to get up to the motel room and get ready. She’d been kicking around plans that included Dot’s Tavern out on the highway and an ice-cold beer, but a swim was almost as good, and going with Samantha made it even better. It had been years since Amanda had a girl friend to mess around with in Winchester Harbor, and being around Cordy the previous winter had made it clear just how much she missed it. Samantha may have been quite a bit younger, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be friends.

A few minutes later Amanda and Sam were walking down the lane to the breakwaters, a couple hundred yards away. Most of the lakefront was private property and swimming wasn’t exactly invited, but there was a small patch of beach that was part of the breakwater system that the locals used when they wanted to go swimming.

As warm as it was, the lake was still cold, and it didn’t take long to get cooled off. The two spread their towels out in a small patch of shade, and flopped down on them in their bikinis to let the breeze from the lake dry them off. “So,” Amanda said, just to try to make conversation, “how are you liking this job?”

“It’s just fine,” Sam grinned. “I can see why you like it. Maybe you and I can go out on the same boat sometime.”

“It could happen,” Amanda agreed. “I’d like that. But it probably won’t be while I’m running the Coho. That boat is set up a little different than the Chinook.”

“That’s what your Mom said. I’d kind of like to see what it’s like, though. Do you plan on keeping on doing this?”

“Probably. It’s what I wanted to do since I was a lot younger than you are, and now that I’ve made it I don’t plan on changing anytime soon.”

“What about when you get married? Isn’t that going to change things?”

“It could, but I’m not planning on getting married anytime soon. That involves finding a guy, and I figure I need to find a guy who will put up with me fishing up here in the summer and sailing down south in the winter.”

“That could be a problem,” Sam grinned. “What’s your boat down south like?”

“Sort of like the Pixie, a little smaller, and set up a little differently.” Amanda made a mental note that if Sam worked out all right as a deckhand this summer, maybe her mother and father would be open to her coming south to sail with her on the Rag Doll for a week or so this winter, probably over Christmas. That could be fun, but she decided that it wasn’t something she ought to bring up right now. There was plenty of time to see how the girl worked out the rest of the summer.

While Amanda enjoyed sailing and looked forward to doing some exploring on the Rag Doll, she’d come to admit to herself that while being alone would be all right, it could be more fun to have someone with her, at least some of the time. It seemed likely that she’d have her parents with her a little of the time, maybe Cordy, maybe Ron – and maybe both of them at the same time – and possibly someone else here and there. All in all, it looked like it was going to be a fun winter, even though it was still months away.

After a while the two of them walked back up to the motel, and Sam got on her bike to head for home. Amanda gave some thought to picking up on her original plan of going to Dot’s for a beer, but now she was a little more cooled off and decided against it. It was late enough now to head over to the snack bar for dinner – in the summer months the Lewises usually ate there, since it was a lot less trouble than cooking in the house.

Rachel was nowhere to be seen around the snack bar – possibly she’d headed into town for something – but her father was there; it was his day to oversee the place, along with the motel and the fuel dock. Unless things changed, it would be Amanda’s turn tomorrow, and as hot as it had been on the lake today, she wasn’t sure she minded; it would almost seem like a day off, even though it meant she might have to work in the kitchen for a while.

“So how did it go today?” her father asked.

“Limited out, but I think we got lucky,” Amanda told him. “We got lucky early, but then we lost the fish, I’m not sure how. We were two shy of the limit and had decided to come back in when we hit a small patch on the fish finder. Good ones, too. We had some happy customers. Did anything happen around here today?”

“One interesting thing. Adam called from Channel Port Aux Basques, that’s on the western tip of Newfoundland. It seems like he’s doing real good.”

“Wow, that’s good to hear.”

They really hadn’t been hearing much from Adam, although it wasn’t surprising considering how little they’d heard from him the winter before when he’d been cruising in Florida. He’d managed to stay in Winchester Harbor through April, although he might have been on his way sooner if some things needed for the Moonshadow had arrived when they were supposed to have. It was less than a day after the final bits of the electrical system and new electrical refrigerator had been installed before he had the sails up and was heading downstate in weather that both he and her father had characterized as “semi-crappy.”

He’d made good time heading downstate, though, and within a few days was tied up at Frenchtown Harbor on Lake Erie, getting a few final things done before heading out on his big trip. He’d apparently made good time heading down Lakes Erie and Ontario, then down the St. Lawrence. He’d last called from near Montreal on a day that he’d been weathered in, but said he looked to be under way soon.

“Yeah, he said it went pretty good. He said he went straight across the Gulf of St. Lawrence from Rimouski to Channel Port Aux Basques and was at sea for two nights. It sounded like a big deal for him, his first crack at a real salt water passage. He sounded pretty tickled when I talked to him. I wish you could have been here.”

“It would have been nice,” she agreed. Once again, she envied Adam his trip, and a little part of her wished she could be with him. But now that she was running the Coho, she wouldn’t have wanted to give that up to make the trip. She’d have her own trips, her own salt-water passages to make. “I’m glad he’s having a good time. He’s not far from Blanche Tickle, is he?”

“Not real close, it’s going to be a few days yet before he gets there. Those waters have a reputation for being hard going, and he’s planning on taking it easy and only running in daylight. But I would think he ought to be at Mary and Matty’s in another week.”

“That ought to give him plenty of time to hang around there for a while if he’s still planning on sailing down the East Coast this fall.”

“I’d think so. That’s a long haul, but he’s not going to want to get south of the Chesapeake before the end of October. If he leaves, oh, the first of August, he’s still going to have gone farther getting to Newfoundland than it would take him to get to Norfolk.”

“He could make it to Florida next fall, then,” she smiled. “Maybe I’ll get a chance to see him there again.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me. It sounds to me like he’s going to be spending the winter down there again. If it works out, maybe you could set something up.”

“I guess we’ll have to see.”

Being on summer hours, the snack bar was still open, so Amanda had the waitress – her old friend Shannon, who was home from college for the summer – bring her an egg salad sandwich and a glass of iced tea. They didn’t talk much then, but from earlier in the summer she knew that Shannon was still hard at her studies, had a couple years to go, and was piling up a huge student-loan debt. The job at the Channel Stop this summer wasn’t going to even make a dent in it. Once again, Amanda was glad she’d put aside the idea of college; she was doing what she wanted to do, after all. Shannon wouldn’t be spending the winter cruising on a sailboat in Florida, that was for sure.

Once again her thoughts turned to the Rag Doll. She was still four months at best from being able to get back to the boat, and it seemed like it was going to be a long four months. Although she’d been busy, she’d made progress on her summer work list. On several evenings back in the cooler weather she and her mother had made the new cushions for the boat; they were all done now and sitting in her tiny old room in the house waiting for when she headed south again. Several other things were with them, and she was keeping her eye on the Internet for sales on some other items. She’d managed to come up with some deals on a good marine radio and a depth finder. A GPS chart plotter was still on her want list, but she had months yet to shop sales before it became imperative. As the chances arose she was stocking up on some of the little items it would take to live on the boat; dishes, silverware, and many other things were on her list, but she was slowly collecting them, some from garage sales.

A few things were still a ways off. She’d picked out the Bimini top she wanted from a catalogue, but had decided to hold off a while on ordering it, partly to see if a sale price were to come along, but partly because it would be a pain in the neck to ship. She didn’t want to have to haul it down there with her; it could be sent directly to Florida, but she didn’t want Ron or Cordy to have to store it for long, either. She was going to need deep-cycle batteries for the electrical system, but she’d decided to just get them in Jacksonville since the shipping costs were going to be high if she ordered them to be sent to her.

There seemed to be little doubt that as soon as the boats came out of the water this winter, she was going to be heading south. It still seemed so far away!

She was sitting there, drinking her iced tea and thinking about the Rag Doll when the phone rang. Shannon was busy doing something in back, so Amanda got up and answered it, “Winchester Harbor Fishing Charters and the Channel Stop.”

“Hi, Sis!” she heard her brother say. “Long time, no talk to.”

“It sure is,” she said. “Is the Rag Doll all right?”

“It was last night, and nothing much has changed since you left,” he told her. “Don’t worry, Cordy and I have been keeping a close eye on it, and if something happened we’d let you know.”

“I know,” she sighed, “but still.”

“So is anything happening around there?”

“Just the usual summer stuff. The fishing has been so-so, although I limited out on the Coho today.”

“Beats a skunk day, that’s for sure. Is Dad or Mom around?”

“I think Mom went into town, but Dad is over in the corner shooting the bull with someone.”

“Well, get his attention, would you? I need to talk to him.”

In a minute Jake was on the phone with Ron, while Amanda had joined in on the line in the kitchen; it was good to hear from Ron, after all, and there hadn’t been a lot of real news from him all spring. She couldn’t help but wonder how things were between him and Cordy.

“Hey, Dad,” Ron said. “It’s taken a bit of arranging to get everything worked out, but I can get leave for a while, starting next weekend. I’m thinking about coming up and seeing you.”

“It’ll be good to see you,” Jake said. “It’s been too long since you were home.”

“I know it. Anyway, I was wondering, what’s the chances of me borrowing the Pixie for a few days?”

“Probably pretty good, but I’d have to run it past Greg and Lisa to be sure,” Jake replied. The family sailboat, the Pixie, was a little larger than the Rag Doll. However, the Lewises weren’t the sole owners; they shared ownership with Jake’s sister Lisa and her husband. “I don’t think they have any plans for it for the next couple weeks.”

“Could you ask them if it would be all right?”

“Sure, I can do that. I take it you want to use it for something.”

“Well, yeah,” Ron replied. “Cordy and I have been talking it over, and we’d kind of like to sail it over to Georgian Bay, or up to the North Channel or something.”

Wow, Amanda thought. That sure tells me a lot about how things have been going with Ron and Cordy! She glanced around the corner to see her father with a knowing grin on his face, so he must have been thinking pretty much the same thing. “I wouldn’t mind taking that trip myself,” her father said. “Adam and I took the Pixie up to the North Channel a few years ago and had a real good time.”

“I knew that,” Ron said. “And I was over to Georgian Bay with Matt years ago. I don’t have the details worked out yet but I’ll bet that Cordy and I can find something to do.”

In more ways than one, Amanda thought but carefully did not say. That might even include sailing up the coast to the next quiet harbor and spending a few days by themselves, doing, well, what comes naturally. In fact, that may have been the whole point of the trip in the first place, and probably was.

“Well, now that I think about it a little,” her father said, “there might be an insurance issue if you were to take it to Canada, I’d have to check. And make sure you both bring your passports, and if Cordy doesn’t have one, well, these days it’s a real pain in the neck to get across the border. You can’t do a remote check-in without them.”

“Shit, I didn’t think about that,” Ron said, a little deflated. “I don’t know if she has one or not.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t have a pretty good week or ten days if you stay on the American side,” Jake grinned, apparently just about as sure as Amanda what Ron and Cordy had in mind. “You can still go up and screw around Drummond Island, that’s pretty good, the Les Cheneaux islands, or maybe sail over to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. Amanda and Adam stopped there last fall in the Moonshadow and they said it’s pretty neat.”

“Yeah, that’d work. Can you check with Greg and Lisa for me, and let me know as soon as you can? I’d like to get this all pinned down before someone changes their mind, or some asshole lets a couple hundred gallons of diesel fuel leak out of a tank and I have to spend weeks on oil-spill cleanup.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jake replied. “They ought to be home around now, I’ll call down there and ask.”

“Thanks, Dad. Cordy says she’s never been north of Georgia and is wondering what we’ve all been talking about.”

“It’ll be good to see her,” Jake grinned. “And good to see you, too. I’ll see if I can get hold of Greg and Lisa and get back to you as soon as I can.”

The call came to an end quickly after that. Jake looked over at Amanda with a grin and said, “I’ll give you just exactly one guess about what that means, and if you can’t figure it out it must mean we didn’t raise you right.”

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