In the Beginning of the Night by Rimmer Peter

Author:Rimmer, Peter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kamba Publishing
Published: 2021-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

9

Cara Mia

The black launch rode like a cork on the slight swell of the sea and was only kept in leash by the mooring rope that intermittently twanged and slackened as the sea and the Cara Mia exchanged brief, challenging words.

Dacks’s captain was hunched at the other end of the small dinghy, boasting all of six inches freeboard, on its way out to the big launch. Gabe Saunders had his left hand on the tiller attached to the Seagull outboard motor that was phut-phutting its way and pushing the bows of the dinghy surprisingly easily over the ruffled sea.

Studying the fluted lines of the bows of his ship up ahead, Dacks was strongly satisfied. At speed, the water pushed in and under the hull and made the craft plane. The Cara Mia could travel at forty-two knots. The short-range radar sat fixed to the cockpit roof and the big, swaying aerials of the short radio transmitter and receiver pointed thinly at the morning sky of blue and dark patches of thunder cloud. It rained in Mozambique at that time of the year. When the deep-sea big game fishing launch was running among the marlin, the aerials looked like two more fishing rods, except that they didn’t have lines with barracuda bait at the end, flicking the water while the fishermen watched and hoped for the big fish to come up and bite. With twin guns on the cockpit roof she would have looked more like a warship. The black of her steel body shone with the dull power of gun metal and the two 250-horsepower engines waited patiently below the waterline for the single touch of a commanding hand.

Gabe Saunders, the permanent captain, turned off the outboard motor of the dinghy, having judged that their speed was enough to bring them up to the big launch without pushing them past. They drifted in and Dacks gripped the flat, blunt stern and held the dinghy steady enough for Saunders to tie it up to the Cara Mia. Dacks leaned his weight on to his arms and pulled his body up without forcing down on the dinghy. He swung a leg over the side and trod the duck-boards that would let half an inch of water wash underneath them before the water was pushed out by a pump. The Cara Mia had every device for comfort.

He went up the two steps into the cockpit, followed by the captain, and seated himself on the high bar-type swivel stool in front of the wheel. With customary ease he checked the dials in front of him then fired the one engine, listened to its perfect roar with satisfaction, fired the second and listened intently to their joint power.

“You really look after these, Gabe.”

“My job.”

“They sound perfect. Pull up the anchor and we’ll be on our way.”

Dacks looked out of the Perspex windshield across the top of the foredeck at his friend pulling in the chain and finally the sea anchor. Gabe Saunders rolled with the boat as he came back, and went out of Dacks’s sight.

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