Reckoning Tide by Anneli Purchase

Author:Anneli Purchase
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: crime, stalker, boating, coastal british columbia, pursued, wilderness survival, fishing adventure, marine adventure, boat adventure, unstable mind
Publisher: Anneli Purchase

Chapter 30

The light was fading as we neared the entrance to French Creek. Andrea had been on the wheel. “I want to get back into practice for this season,” she said.

“Check the monitor,” I told her. “See the entrance?”

“Yup, I see it.” She started angling the boat towards shore.

“Not yet,” I said.

“But I can see the entrance right here, and if I don’t start turning, we’ll miss it.”

I zoomed in on the map on the monitor and pointed at the path she was planning to take. “If you go in here, you’ll take us up the creek, and all the paddles in the world won’t save us.” She hurried to correct the heading and turned us away from land again. “Look,” I said, “this first indentation is the creek—French Creek—and around that spit that comes out farther ahead, that’s where you go in for the boat basin. See it here?”

“Oh ... my....” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “I could have run us aground.”

“Don’t worry. I was watching too. It’s an easy mistake though, and you always have to look at the whole picture.”

“Sorry!”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s getting too dark to see the entrance, but on the Nobeltec map you can see it on the monitor. So go ahead and bring us in now. I’ll take it when we get near the floats.” She did all right then, and I finished off the last bit of maneuvering. Since there was no dockside space, I brought the Serenity next to another troller that was tied to the dock. “Throw a line around her poles,” I called to Andrea, who already stood with our midship line in her hand.

We shut the engine down and both of us sighed and then laughed. “Feels good to shut it down, doesn’t it?” I said.

She nodded. “You don’t realize how noisy it is and how you’ve tuned out the sound of the engine until you shut it off.”

I cupped my ear. “Eh?”

Andrea raised her voice. “I said you don’t realize—” She stopped when she saw me grinning, and punched my arm.

“Some old-timer told me once that these engines run quieter every year. You fish long enough you don’t even hear them at all.”

“I can see how that could happen. That constant engine noise must do some damage to your hearing when you’re around it so much.”

I pulled up a corner of the carpet on the floor and pointed. “And this is with extra underlay to insulate the wheelhouse from the engine noise.

“Here, we’d better plug in to shore power now or our freezer is going to thaw. You go outside and I’ll pass you the cord through the window. Plug it in to the pole with the power outlets down there.” I pushed the side window open a crack for the cord to fit through.

I turned down the diesel stove so it was on low, just enough to keep the chill off the wheelhouse. I checked the gauges and flipped a few switches off. Everything seemed to be running fine.

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