The Landlubber: an erotic romance

It was a windy, gray autumn day, but Aryn didn’t mind. She never let the weather stop her. Every day, five times a week, she did the one mile jog from her house to the Coast Guard Station. She’d skippered rescues boats for three years. But today was special.They’d be trying out their new one, a 45 foot RB-M. The boat was named Tilly, after some Rear Admiral’s dog.

She stopped at the top of the hill and looked out over the sea.

Five foot swells were rolling in, wisps of sea-spry blowing off their tops. In the distance she could see the flag at the station flying straight out. It’s going to be a rough one out there today, she thought with a smile. Aryn loved being out on the water, the rougher the better.

She’d spent most of her teenage years working with her father hauling in salmon on his purse seiner. The sea was part of her DNA, she couldn’t imagine living inland.

Aryn sucked in the clean salt air and finished her down-hill run to the station. No one was in yet. She always arrived early enough to take a shower and get ready for her day. Finally, wet and clean, Aryn was toweling off when she heard the crew.

Barney, Aryn’s second in command, shouted at the entrance to her shower room, his voice echoing on the tile walls. “You in there? Coffee’s on.”

“Yeah, Barney. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Working uniform on, Aryn grabbed a cup. “You boys ready to take the new boat out?”

Tom, the new guy, nervously looked out the window. “You sure this is a good day for it?”

“Don’t worry rookie,” she said. “Tilly will do just fine.” Aryn gave Barney a wink. “The boats designed to right herself if she capsizes. I’m told that actually works. Well, at least most of the time.”

“You’re kidding right?”

Barney returned Aryn’s wink. “No, really, They tested it. The boat popped back up after a knock-down at least, what was it Aryn? Five times out of ten?”

“Come on,” Aryn laughed. “Let’s take her out.”

The wind was howling through the trees as Aryn climbed aboard, ran the blower, then started Tilly up. Barney and the rookie cast off the lines, then joined Aryn in the cabin as she backed the boat from the dock and headed out.

When they cleared the breakwater Aryn turned Tilly west to meet the waves head on. The boat’s bow rose at each crest and plunged down in every trough. Aryn turned the boat sideways to the waves causing it to rock violently side to side. Tom was turning green.

Barney whispered, “You’re being a little hard on the kid, ain’t ya?”

“Just testing Tilly out,” Aryn laughed. But she nodded to Barney and pointed the bow back into the waves, slowing the engine down.

“Well, would’jah look at that,” Barney exclaimed.

“What?” said Aryn.

“To our starboard, there about 100 feet out.”

A small boat, maybe only 18 feet long was passing them, heading into the swells at full throttle, jumping out of the water as it crested each wave.

Barney looked through the binoculars, then handed them to Aryn. “You’re not going to believe this,” he said.

“Take the wheel, Barn.” Aryn stepped to the window, searched through the powerful lenses, then spotted the boater. “Is that...?”

“Yep. One of those fair-weather ski boats with nice cushy seats in the front so you can get a tan.”

“Damn”, she said. “Open bow.” As she watched, the driver waved. He was laughing.

“Well,” said Barney, “Looks like he’s having a good time.”

“Good Time?” said Aryn. “I’ll bet ya dollars to donuts the idiot’s going to drive deep into a wave and swamp that thing.”

The small boat headed off towards the islands, but Barney kept Tilly straight. “Well, we can check up on him on our run back.

Barney and Aryn took turns at the wheel, putting Tilly through her paces. The rookie finally got his color back and was working the deck.

Let’s go check on that halfwit and his boat now,” Aryn said. "It looked like he was heading towards Matia. Maybe he’s there.”

She pushed Tilly to 3/4 throttle. Within minutes they were a half mile out from the island. Aryn squinted her eyes. “What’s that?”

“Where?” Barney asked.

There, on the reef.”

“Barney grabbed the binoculars. “Ah... looks like you might’a been right. That’s our friend.”

As they approached she could clearly see a man, standing on the reef waving, this time not laughing. His boat was half sunk, banging against the rocks.

“Damn it, I hate being right. Who the hell is that guy? Did he leave his brains back on shore.”

“I don’t know,” said Barney. “But if we don’t do somethin’ his brains are going to be all over those rocks.”

Aryn pulled up closer, but held back. “There’s no way we can get to him. If we try we’’ll likely pile Tilly up on the reef. Barney, call it in. We’ll have the chopper fly out and pick him up.

“I don’t think we’ll need to do that.”

“What?”

“He just dove in.”

Aryn’s ey...