Through The Storm (4 page)

“Right. Time to
end the suspense.” There was an excited mutter and mumble , quickly
shushed by those who wanted to hear what Nick was saying “I’m going
to start by reading out what activities you will be doing today,
and on the way out, or later on, after your duties you can pick up
the list with your name on to find out what you’re doing the rest
of the week. Keep quiet because I’m not going to shout over your
mutterings. Here we go.” He looked down at his list. “Tennis with
Jane: Susan, Jo, Leah, Patrick”.

Somebody wolf
whistled at Patrick’s luck, and Nick paused to glare. Silence
returned.

“
Archery
with Owen: Jack, Maureen and Arthur. Skiing with Jerry: Ross,
David, Kerry, Dean, Rhiannon, Ray, Derek and Laura. All the others,
meet at the kitchen door for sweet making. That’s all this morning.
This afternoon it will be Canoeing with me: Kerry, David, Jo,
Arthur and Derek. Sailing with Jerry: Ross, Jack, Susan, Patrick,
Maureen and Dean. All the rest, Hill walking with Tess and Owen.
When I’ve finished talking, remember to get straight on with your
tasks, QUICKLY. Activities begin in half an hour. If you’re skiing,
you should be at the mini bus at this time. The others, except the
sweet makers, on the back patio. Lunch will be at 12.45, and
afternoon trips begin at 2.15. OK. Let’s go”.

There was a mad
dash to tidy up and get going. In order to get the most amount of
time for skiing, allowing for the travelling time, the skiers found
themselves with the quickest jobs and were ready and waiting as
Jerry appeared with the mini bus keys twirling from his fingers and
his arm struggling to find his anorak sleeve.

“In you get”,
he said, unlocking the doors and hopping out of the way of the
scramble.

“Bags I sit
next to Jerry”, whispered Rhiannon as the girls headed for the
front seats. Jerry suggested they sing without him if they wanted
to as his cat was a better vocalist than he was, “I croak just like
a frog”, he laughed, “ so I’ll just concentrate on the
driving”.

Ross was hard
put to find words to describe the wonderfulness of skiing. He tried
great, excellent and brilliant but they didn’t really get the
message across. Jerry was a clown, showing them what not to do and
what happens if you do, “Just to save you learning the hard way,”
he said, struggling up from the floor after his fourth fall. “Now
practise with me, the right way to do it”. The group dutifully went
through the motions, Rhiannon giggling at the daftness of doing
everything without actually going anywhere, but even she found it
the difference between success and failure when they really got
going. Only Dean, in his enthusiasm managed to forget the drill and
end up on his bum. Ross’s eyes lit up on his first run. The air
whizzed passed as he pushed off and glided down the slope, as
graceful as a swan. David was not far behind.

“Winter
Olympics, here I come,” he yelled as his confidence and speed
increased.

“Yippee!” Laura
screamed.

“Can we ski, or
what?” Derek called as they all successfully completed their last
twist.

“How did it
go?” Jack asked at lunch. He looked at the glowing faces. “No.
Don’t tell me. I can tell already. It was magic, right?”

David and Ross
agreed. Jack wished he’d gone with them. “You know what? Arthur’s a
born Robin Hood. He’s probably Robin Hood reincarnated, but
Maureen’s too much of a tom boy to be Maid Marion. Me? I’m going to
stick to sailing. Every time it was my turn, someone moved the
rotten target.”

Arthur was
listening. “He wasn’t that bad”, he said thoughtfully, “I think,
really, he was as good as us, but sometimes he was just a bit
impatient and kind of snatched at it”. He turned directly to Jack,
“When you did actually aim, you were spot on”, he said
sincerely.

“And how often
was that?” David asked curiously.

“Er”, Jack
said, “Nice sausages, these.”

Despite several
more blunt questions about Jack’s ability as an archer, Jack
refused to go into detail, and Arthur said he was sworn to secrecy,
so they all concentrated instead on the sausages, which were as
nice as Jack said.

CHAPTER 5

“Gosh. It’s
lucky Dad’s not here”, Ross said as they galloped downstairs,
stuffing spare clothes and a towel into his rucksack. “He’d never
manage without his after lunch snooze.”

Dean was right
behind him. He’d had to promise to tidy up on his return having
hurriedly tipped everything out on his bed to find his towel and
then been told to hurry or he’d miss the bus. Maybe Arthur, with
his neat stacks, had made a good move, Dean thought.

David was just
in front of Ross. “Yeah, my Dad’s the same. Can’t do anything for
at least two hours after lunch. I mean what a waste of a life”, he
agreed, also battling with spare clothes which seemed to prefer
fresh air to the inside of his rucksack.

“Everybody in”,
Jerry was waving them, chauffeur like into the bus, and leaping
into his seat. They were on the way. Over a tiny ridge of hills the
sea sparkled its welcome. Jerry looked thoughtful and a little
concerned.

“Hmm. White
tops out of the bay”, he said, “I think we’ll stay well inside
today, and as Owen said, you will all listen and do very carefully
to avoid nasty accidents.”

Patrick perked
up, anticipating excitement.

“Will it be
dangerous?” Susan asked anxiously.

“Not if no
one’s stupid”, Jerry replied. Susan eyed the rest of the group
doubtfully, wondering if any of these people she hardly knew would
be stupid. Maureen read her look.

“Don’t worry,”
she said. “If we see anyone being stupid, we’ll just drown them
quick and have done with them. Then the rest of us will be OK”. Her
eye fell on Dean.

“Don’t look at
me”, he spluttered. “I’m going to me the most sensibilist I’ve ever
been!”

Susan still
looked as if she hadn’t much faith in the overall intelligence
level of the group, but nodded worriedly. The mini bus indicator
clicked as they approached the sailing club grounds and pulled in
through some wire mesh gates. Jerry pulled on the handbrake and
leapt out before the others had moved. He was standing by the door
dishing out bright orange buoyancy aids and waterproofs as the
group jumped down. “First rule. These go on now, and nobody takes
them back off again until you’re back in the changing rooms to
shower”, Jerry said. “Now. Let’s get these boats rigged”.

They tagged
along behind Jerry as he led them over to some boats called Toppers
and allocated them one each.

“Susan and I
are going to rig this one between us, and you are going to copy
us”, Jerry explained. “First, we put the mast together”, he picked
up two metal tubes and showed Susan how to slide them together.
Ross nervously copied and Jack followed suit. Patrick had obviously
done this before, and had his mast together before Jerry. In a
hurry to get sailing, he gave Dean a hand, while Jerry slipped over
to help Maureen.

“Now put the
sail over the top of the mast and feed it down, like so. Make sure
you have the sail the right way up, starting with the widest end
going over the mast first.”

There was a
pause and a lot of rustling noises while sails showed their
character, some sliding on with no trouble at all, and others
putting up a fight, hanging on to anything they could manage to
wrap themselves around. Somewhat out of breath, Jack won his battle
and looked around to find the others waiting for him. Jerry,
however made no comment, other than a brisk nod of approval. “Now
roll the sail around the mast so’s it can’t blow around in the wind
and then we make like a pole vaulter and put the bottom of the mast
in that slot in the boat. Push it straight up ‘til it slides into
the hole properly…”

RIGGING IN
PROGRESS

To Ross, it
felt like one of those challenge games on TV, trying to keep up and
put everything together right, but eventually six little boats sat
ready to launch.

“The most
important thing to know when sailing is where the wind is blowing
from”, Jerry told the group. “So, everyone, point to where the wind
is coming from”.

Patrick rolled
his eyes and lifted a lazy arm. Jerry said this every year, and it
was so obvious. The others were a little more hesitant, but all, in
the end, decided Patrick was right, give or take the odd degree and
pointed in the same direction.

“Good start”,
Jerry said. “We always set the sail, er that means tie in all the
strings to hold it in place, with the boats pointing into the wind,
so take them down the beach and point them the right way.”

Patrick was
already on his way. The others might think he was showing off, but
really, he just wanted to get out there before the wind died away.
The other would be sailors followed along like a mother duck with
five ducklings in tow. Jerry started unrolling the sail on one of
the boats which flapped, snatched and cracked, as if trying to
escape as he fastened the clips (shackles, Ross corrected in his
mind). Susan had jumped at the first loud flap and was looking more
worried than ever at each clatter, rattle and slap. Jerry hardly
seemed to notice it.

“OK. I’m going
to take you out one at a time to start with and show you the ropes,
as they say. Please be patient. Depending on how you do and what
the wind does, we’ll follow that with sailing in pairs, and then
all on your own, with me in the motor boat, there.” He nodded in
the direction of a bright orange boat with an engine on the back.
“We’ll start with Susan, then Maureen, then Ross, then Jack, then
Patrick …” Patrick shuffled his feet impatiently,” then Dean”.
Jerry looked sternly at Patrick. “I haven’t forgotten you’ve done
this before, and following your turn out, you can stay out without
me while I sail with Dean, but don’t go beyond the striped cans,
and don’t go alone until I’ve been out with you. I need to be able
to concentrate on helping the others get started and I can’t do
that if I’m also keeping an eye on you. I’m responsible for keeping
you all safe so don’t make it difficult for me. OK?”

Patrick
shrugged. “Sure”, he said. He was sure Jerry didn’t need to keep an
eye on him, but arguing would just slow things down even more. When
he was sailing, he could show Jerry then. Jerry positioned the boat
in the water, but close to the beach.

“Come on then,
Susan,” he invited. “In you hop, and sit on that side up the front.
That’s it, just behind the mast”.

With teeth
chattering, Susan did as she was told, and looked for things to
hang onto if she needed it. Jerry gave the boat a gentle push and
jumped in at the back as the boat set off towards the ripples. Like
magic, the sail became quiet and spread itself into a graceful
curve. That was much better. The wind puffed in Susan’s ear, and
the boat picked up speed and dipped its side a little, as if bowing
to the sea. Susan managed to stifle a squeak as the water lapped
nearer, and then as Jerry moved the sail, went away again. Jerry
gave her a grin.

“In a minute,
I’m going to let you steer, so this is how you do it,”

Susan listened
carefully, and forgot to be afraid of the water lapping cheerfully
along the sides of the boat. “To steer straight, just keep the
tiller (that’s this stick thing) pointing down the middle of the
boat. If you look where you are going, you can easily see if it is
in the right place”. Susan nodded. “If you want to turn to the
right, the tiller goes to the left”, Jerry gave a demonstration.
“If you want to turn to the left, the tiller goes to the right”.
Again the boat made a graceful curve. “OK, your turn”.

Jerry was
almost too big for the little boat as they wriggled about to change
places.

“I’ll keep hold
of the rope which controls the sail, to start with”, he promised.
“We’ll let you hold it once you are happy with the steering. Now,
look forward, so that you can see where you are going and gently
push the tiller away from you”.

Susan did as
she was told and gasped as the boat obediently turned.

“That’s it. Now
go straight again”.

The instruction
continued, and then Jerry handed over the “sheet” or rope that
controls the sail and explained how that worked, and before she
knew it, she was sailing. Turning around seemed a bit complicated,
but Jerry talked her through it and the water stayed on the right
side of the boat (the outside). Susan returned to the shore with a
radiant smile. First out and no mishaps. Sailing was still a bit
scary, but great fun and she could hardly wait for her next turn
afloat. Maureen took her place as Susan splashed ashore and the
boat shot out again across the bay, wiggled a bit awry and then
turned and soared back to the beach with Maureen whooping with joy.
Ross was in before Maureen had paddled ashore.

“OK. You’re
steering with this, and this rope controls the sail”, Jerry
instructed. The boat was already moving and Ross could feel the tug
of the tiller and the pull of the rope as the wind tried to blow
his sail away. The boat was alive, and playing like an exuberant
puppy on its first walk, tugging on his lead and trying to go in
all directions.