Ding-Dong cried out in alarm, and shouted, "Captain! Captain! Look! It's a shark! There's a shark following the boat!"

---

 

22. Amazons At Sea
 

Although we soon quit giggling every time the poop deck was mentioned, we all followed Ding-Dong's lead in calling the bathroom "the poop deck" — much to the crew's annoyance.

So what did we call the real poop deck? We called it "the real poop deck."

There wasn't a lot to do onboard other than shower, walk around in bathing suits, sun ourselves, read... but no one was bored. We could all feel ourselves ratcheting down to the slower, more natural way of life. I found that I went for long spells, completely unaware of the constant rocking of the boat. I mean, ship. When I did feel it, I found that I liked it, especially when it was time to sleep.

There was plenty of food, especially fruit, and the meals were very good. After each meal we went to compliment Tipper, the cook, who was quite pleased by our appreciation for her efforts. The kitchen (I mean, galley) was absolutely the hottest room, so that Tipper, even when she wasn't cooking, had the reddest cheeks of anyone. "Over time, those cheeks have been boiled permanently red like a lobster's tail," the Captain remarked.

Mirina organized stretching and exercise sessions twice a day: one just before dawn, and the second, just after sunset. Wiggy and I, the two teachers, and some of the sailors, joined in the stretches, but none of us could keep up with the Amazons once the more aerobic exercises began.

Riley was the only non-Amazon who lasted for the whole morning session, but she was too sore to even watch in the evening.

The first day was the most incredibly peaceful and relaxing day I've had. Maybe the most peaceful and relaxing day of my entire life!

"I told you," the Captain said, smiling. "Nothing can set you right the way the sea can. She's the mother of all life, and when you're at sea, you're lying in her arms."

Only two things that happened that day were worthy of remark.

The first came in mid-afternoon. Ding-Dong cried out in alarm, and shouted, "Captain! Captain! Look! It's a shark! There's a shark following the boat!"

"In the first place," Flannery said, prying Ding-Dong's fingers off her arm, "I'm not the Captain, and it's a lucky thing for you I'm not! This tub's a ship, not a boat! Get it through your head, girl! If the Captain heard you say that, she'd throw you to that fish down there — which, by the way, is NOT a shark. That there's a marlin."

"A what?" asked Ding-Dong. "Is a marlin a kind of shark? I thought a marlin was an old-time actor."

Flannery shook her head. "Don't talk crazy, girl. That fish is a marlin."

"So a marlin is a kind of shark?" Ding-Dong repeated. "Are they more or less dangerous than a regular shark?"

Flannery was not in the least amused. "Listen to me, girl: A marlin is a marlin; a shark is a shark. And never the twain shall meet! End of story!"

"How do you know?" Ding-Dong persisted, but Flannery had had enough. She turned and walked away.

Riley leaned over the side. "She's right, Ding-Dong. No sharks today. It's a just a friendly marlin."

Mirina saw and heard it all. "Ding-Dong," she scolded, "Don't court misfortune. If you start imagining bad things, bad things are going to happen."

"Sorry," Ding-Dong said, red-faced.
 

The second thing happened at about nine o'clock that night. It would have been dark out, but a quarter moon lit the surface of the sea.

Wiggy and I were sitting on deck with Graffy and Grooty, leaning against the side and looking at the stars. Grooty wanted to find the Southern Cross, but we hadn't been able to pick it out it yet.

Shaylen suddenly ran to us in a state of excitement.

"Come on quick, girls! Some dolphins are racing alongside the ship!"

The four of us ran to the starboard side and leaned over the rail.

There were three of them, swimming just a few yards from the side of the ship. We were going fast — I don't know how fast, but the dophins easily matched our speed.

"Wow!" I shouted. "That's amazing! I've never even SEEN dolphins before!"

"Quiet," Shaylen told me in a soft voice. "Stay quiet or you'll scare them off."

It was hard to see how the dolphins were moving. I mean, I know they wave their tails and use their bodies, but I couldn't see any of that. All I could see was their backs, the outlines of their noses, and the blowhole. It seemed impossible that they could keep up with us without making any apparent effort.

We watched in silence for about fifteen or twenty minutes, until the dophins disappeared. One moment they were there; the next moment they were gone. They didn't come back.

"You girls are lucky," Shaylen told us. "You don't always get to see dolphins."

"Could we maybe see a whale?" Ding-Dong asked in a shy tone.

"Maybe," Shaylen said. "We might see one or two tomorrow, if we're lucky. It's actually easier to see them than to see dolphins. A captain on another ship spotted some yesterday, and we'll be passing that point in the morning."

Most of us went to bed soon after, and we all slept deeply and well.
 

---

 

We woke in the morning to the ship's familiar gentle rocking, but something was different: it was gentler than usual.

"We're not moving," Wiggy observed, so the two of us went up to the deck barefoot, in our pajamas, to find out what was going on.

"Pajamas, is it?" said the Captain. "I don't mind you walking around in bathing suits, but I draw the line at nightwear." She was smiling, so I wasn't sure whether she was joking.

"We were just curious..." I began.

"The ship's not moving," Wiggy said, finishing the thought.

"No, it's not," the Captain said. "We're way ahead of schedule, so I thought we could stop here a bit. Let you girls have a deep-ocean swim."

"Oh!" Wiggy cried, delighted. Her face lit up and she asked, "Could I row the dory for a bit? Just around the ship?"

"That sounds more like punishment than fun," the Captain laughed. She was in a very good mood this morning.

"No, I love rowing!" Wiggy declared. "I've won some contests."

"Contests?" the Captain asked. "What, like races?"

"Long-distance rowing," Wiggy said. "Races that last an entire day."

"Are you kidding me?" the Captain responded. "A little slip of a girl like you, rowing all day?"

"You take breaks," Wiggy said, "and there are safety precautions... people following and all that."

The Captain nodded, impressed. "Well, sure you can take the dory, but there are conditions. One, you can't go alone. Two, you stay near the ship, and three, make sure one of my sailors checks that you've tied it up right when you're done."

"Great! It's a deal!" Wiggy enthused.
 

Over breakfast, Shaylen explained to us and to the Amazons that we were well ahead of schedule. "We're very close to the island," she said. "We've made excellent time. If you like, we can press on. We'd arrive before nightfall, and you could sleep on the island — if that's what you want.

"OR," she continued, with a great big smile, "We could goof around here until you're tired of swimming, and then go look for whales. After that we could find a nice spot to stop and swim some more. Then we'd sail all night and land at the island in the morning!"

Everyone liked the second idea better, and soon we were all in bathing suits, jumping and diving off every part of the ship possible. Graffy and Grooty, after doing some amazing dives off the side of the ship, wanted to climb the mast and dive from there. The Captain immediately squelched that idea.

"NOBODY climbs the mast," she said with great finality. "Unless I specifically order it, NOBODY goes aloft."

"But why?" Graffy demanded. "It would be the coolest thing!"

"Because, for one thing, it's dangerous. You could fall. Remember that the ship's not standing still. You could aim to dive in the sea, and find yourself diving deep into the deck, or the railing. For another thing, you can't because I say you can't. I'm the Captain; what I say goes. If you don't like it, you can stay below for the rest of the trip, and I'm not fooling.

"For once and for all: NOBODY goes aloft. Nobody climbs the masts or the halyards or the jibs. Nobody."

Sulkily, Graffy turned away. Grooty whispered something to her, and after a glance at the water, the pair launched themselves from the deck into the air, over the rail and down, head first, into the ocean.

I ran to the rail, but there was nothing to see at first but the rings of bubbles where they'd entered the water. They must have gone deeply down, because it was a long time before they emerged, shaking back their long, blonde hair. They turned their backs to the ship and swam away with powerful, easy strokes. We all watched as they got smaller and smaller in the distance. I'd never seen anyone swim so far.

The Captain looked concerned. Mirina said, "Graffy and Grooty are the best swimmers of us all. If our school had a swim team..."

Flannery interrupted, "You want me to call them back, Captain?"

"No," she said. "Keep an eye on 'em. A close eye. I don't want any blonde heads disappearing."

"I could go after them in the dory," Wiggy offered.

"No," the Captain said. "That might push them farther off. Give them a little time. Let's see if they don't come back by themselves."

It was easy to see that the Captain was nervous and trying not to show it.

A few moments passed, and Flannery announced, "Cap'n, they're coming back."

"Good," she sighed. "Will you continue to keep an eye on them, Flannery? And all the girls? You, Shaylen, will you use your people skills, the ones that I don't have, and ask that pair to keep close to the ship from now on?"

"Aye-aye, Cap'n," Shaylen replied.

"Well done," the Captain said, and walked away.
 

---

 

Wiggy finally got a chance to row the dory, and she asked me to come along.

"Okay," I said, "but I don't know how to row."

"You don't need to," Wiggy replied. "I need you to be my passenger, and I want you to be with me. I like rowing, but I don't like being alone."

"Okay," I agreed. "So how do we get in? Do we jump into the dory from the side into the boat? I mean, ship?"

Wiggy giggled. "You're kidding, right?"

"Since you put it that way," I said, "Yes, I was kidding." (But I wasn't.)

After Wiggy explained what we were going to do, the two of us jumped off the side, feet first, into the water. Then we swam around behind the boat. There was a platform there, just above water level, and Wiggy climbed up. I pushed the dory over to her, and held it against the platform as she undid the knot. Then she fastened the loose end to the ship, and held the dory as I climbed in. It wasn't easy, and in between my second and third tries Wiggy said, "You *can* come up on the platform here and just step in."

"No, I've got it," I said, and heaved myself inside the little boat. Once I settled myself at one end, Wiggy stepped inside and sat down facing me.

She pushed off from the platform and worked the oars into the oarlocks.

I looked back at the ship and said, "We were lucky that little platform was at water level just when we wanted to go."

Wiggy glanced at the platform, then back at me, but she didn't say anything. She didn't need to. I reddened and said, "That platform's always at water level, right?"

"That's right, Ding-Dong," she laughed.

"Ooh! That's mean!" I cried, and as she laughed, I added, "Doubly mean!"

Wiggy moved the oars back and forth, making the dory shift a little bit. She suddenly seemed quite at home, as if she belonged exactly there, in a little dory on the water. The dory and the oars seemed to be a part of her. She gave a gentle pull on the oars, easily and efficiently, and we moved quite a bit each time she pulled.

"Why is it *doubly* mean?" Wiggy asked.

"Because it's mean to me and mean to Ding-Dong," I replied.

"Huh," she responded. "I guess you're right. Do you think I'm mean to Ding-Dong?"

"Um... no. But I don't think you're very patient with her."

"Yeah," she agreed, "but I've known her a lot longer than you have, and she has driven me up the wall and over it more times than I can count."

"But a lot of that is Cakey's fault, isn't it?"

"Probably. Maybe Ding-Dong wouldn't be such a pest if Cakey didn't always set her up."

We'd already gone half the length of the ship. "How come you have to row backwards?" I asked.

"It's easier to pull than to push," Wiggy explained. "But watch this: this is one of the cool things about dories like this one." With a few movements of the oars, we came about. Now *I* had my back to the sun, and Wiggy began pushing on the oars. "See? Not all boats can go so easily in both directions, but this one can. It's useful in awkward places, but even so..." She repeated the movements she'd made a few moments ago, and we came about again. Wiggy had her back to the sun, and she returned to pulling on the oars. "Pulling always beats pushing."

Now we came under the prow of the ship. It was interesting to see it from this angle, and I looked up at the... ah...

"What's that long stick called?" I asked Wiggy. "The cowcatcher?"

"That's the bowsprit," Wiggy said. "It's just there to hold the sails. It's not for jabbing things or for pushing things out of the way."

When we came round the ship to the shady side, we saw several of the Amazons and sailors in the water. One of the teachers, Bossy, was also in the water, doggy paddling with a serious expression on her face. Several sailors watched from the side, and when they saw Wiggy's performance, they began to call to her.

"Hey, did the Captain make you do that for punishment? What did you do?"

"Look at that girl go! Hey, hey! Go, Wiggy!"

"When we get underway, you can race the Seward! What do you say?"

"Watch your heads, Amazons!" Wiggy called in warning, but she steered clear of the swimmers, and asked me to warn her if anyone got in front of us. "Watch the sides, too," she said. "I don't want to whack somebody in the head with an oar."

Graffy and Grooty swam up, one on each side of us, and began rocking the dory to try and tip us over.

"Good luck with that," Wiggy laughed, and in fact, they couldn't tip us. "Dorys are hard to tip," she explained.

But while we were tipping and shaking, Cakey snuck in and made off with one of the oars. Wiggy didn't find it at all funny, and shouted at Cakey to bring it back.

"Don't worry, Wiggsy," Graffy (or Grooty?) told her. "We'll get it back for you." The pair swiftly overtook the laughing Cakey. She knew she couldn't get away from the stronger swimmers, so she did her best to keep the oar from them. She wrapped her arms and legs around it, but not for long.

Graffy and Grooty didn't go for subtle means: Cakey was wearing a tie-side bikini, so they untied it, and would have pulled it away from her, but it turned out not to be necessary.

Red-faced and angry, Cakey gave up the oar and clutched at her swimsuit. She turned her back to us, and (with some difficulty) straightened out her bathing suit while treading water. A few times her head went under, and she came up spluttering. If she had more breath, I'm sure she would have been swearing.

"Wow, you don't fool around, do you?" I observed, when one of the pair handed Wiggy the oar.

"You wanted the oar back, didn't you?" she said. "Cakey would have kept it going as long as she could."

"I'll be careful not cross you two," I told them. I said it as a joke, but thankfully, my two swimsuits were both one-piecers.

The pair of blondes laughed and swam away.

Wiggy took a few more turns around the ship. Then she tied it up, and the two of us swam for a bit. I'm not much of a swimmer, but I was surprised to see that Wiggy wasn't either. She was more comfortable *in* a boat than out of it.

Riley dove from the side, and went to check the dory.

"Did I tie it up alright?" Wiggy asked, when Riley returned.

"You know you did," smiled Riley, and she climbed onto the ladder.

"Hey, Riley," I called, "you were right!"

"About what?" she asked, pausing on the ladder.

"You *are* a handsome sailor!" I laughed.

Riley waggled her butt, grinning. Then she licked her forefinger and touched herself ouch! as if she were sizzling.

© 2008 by Kaleigh Way

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