After we reeled the nets on the boat one morning, I went home and spent the rest of the day packing and repacking. My mom asked, “How long will you be gone?”
“I don’t know for sure, but the opener is two days so probably around three days.”
She made spaghetti for dinner that night and scrambled eggs in the morning. For the first time, my dad set a half a cup of coffee in front of me while I shoveled down the eggs, then he drove me down to the harbor and shook my hand before I set off with my duffel. I was at the boat a few minutes before 7 am.
Mikey puttered around the cabin, having already been there a while. He showed me where my bunk was in the fo’c’sle, and I wedged my duffel into it. His safety rundown included the locations of the EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon), VHF radio, fire extinguishers, flares, and survival suits.
When he said ok, I untied the midship, bow, and stern lines and tossed them over the rail before I gave the stern a slomo shove and straddled over the rail myself.
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