A Hydra with Six Heads by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The dinghy at Hamble was not at all intimidating, Lilian found. Not one of the fast racing kinds where the crew lay on a board outside the boat with his head practically in the water. She had foreseen something of the kind for herself, unless she was to be merely a passenger crouched in the middle of the boat, very uncomfortable and feeling in the way.

Roy’s dinghy or rather his half-share dinghy, was a solid little craft, the sort of thing to take children in for short trips, reasonably stable, not listing far, not sailing very fast, either.

“I wouldn’t have time for the class stuff,” Roy explained. “I just like being on the water, always have. And under sail, not power,” he added, as he pushed the dinghy into the water and held it while Lilian embarked carefully. As she did so the wash from a speed boat driving much too fast up the river rocked the boat so that she staggered but managed to sit down inside the hull instead of in the water. Roy, splashed up to the waist, said fiercely, “See what I mean? They ought to give the bloody things a marina of their own. They’ve no business to come among civilised craft.”

Lilian laughed. Roy pushed away from the hard, stepping quickly on board as he did so, dropped the centreboard, gathered in the sheets and they were away, slipping quickly down the river helped by the falling tide and a very gentle breeze from the north. He kept the dinghy on the shoreward side of the line of moored yachts. They were mostly deserted. A few had owners on board, sorting out and piling on deck all the blankets, sleeping bags and other movable fittings that they would take home to store in a dry place for the winter.

The sun shone low in the sky, a glittering orange-gold track on the water as they moved gently out into the winding open mouth of the river to join Southampton Water. A mild swell began to swing the little boat up and down, slapping her bows and running with a faint hiss to her stern.

“Like to take her?” Roy asked, offering the tiller.

“Not yet,” Lilian told him.“ I wouldn’t know how with all this traffic. Do we have to keep strictly inside the posts?”

“Not in this. If we pull up the centreboard we don’t draw more than an inch or so. But it does dry out both sides, as you can see.”

On their left going down Lilian did see there was hardly any water on the mud, with gulls and cormorants wading about. To the right a bank of mud showed clear of the little waves.

“It’ll turn in a few minutes now,” Roy said. “When we come back we can cut the corners.”

“Where are we going?”

He said carefully, not looking at her, watching his sail and the shipping, “If you really have to get that six-thirty train we’d better not go too far. This wind might pick up a bit but it’ll probably drop altogether by mid-afternoon.

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