Amanda and Jake got on the road early the next morning, driving their separate vehicles. With an early start they hoped to be able to make the trip back to Winchester Harbor with only one night stop, but they’d also agreed they weren’t going to kill themselves driving, either. They decided to run more or less together, although they had their cell phones to coordinate with each other in case they got separated.

The one real concern that Amanda had about the trip was how well Beffy was going to take riding in the car all day. She’d gotten used to riding back and forth between the motel and the boat yard in the kitty carrier, but going all day was another story. As it turned out, Beffy didn’t seem to mind it a bit. Amanda kept the kitty carrier on the seat beside her, but with the door open and held back with a rubber band. Beffy spent much of the trip curled up and sleeping in her familiar nest in the kitty carrier, although occasionally she’d get out, look around, and perhaps get on Amanda’s lap for a little pet-and-purr session. Amanda had set the litter box up on the floor of the back seat, and every now and then Beffy used it, but that was no problem, either.

Of course it was a couple of long days with many hours behind the wheel, so there was plenty of time for Amanda to think. Much of her thinking concerned the Rag Doll, of course – things that had been done, and things left to do. There might be as much as two weeks or a month worth of work to be done next fall, but they would mostly be finishing-up items before she could sail the boat south, and perhaps onward. Since she had seen much of the southwestern coast of Florida in years past aboard the Winter Haven, she wasn’t especially interested in heading down there. Down the East Coast of the state, yes, and the Bahamas definitely drew her attention.

There was one good idea that had come out of Adam’s trip, and that was putting a Bimini top on the boat. There had been some warm days working on deck over the winter, but only rarely uncomfortably warm, and that might not be the case farther to the south or in the Bahamas – in fact, probably not, to hear Adam talk about it. The Winter Haven had a Bimini, but for some reason it hadn’t crossed her thinking for the Rag Doll. In any case, it wasn’t something she had to make up her mind about right away; she could spend her time with catalogues and online over the summer to come up with a good deal on one. With her boat fund in better shape than she had anticipated, it would probably be money well spent.

It was a shame that the Rag Doll was going to be in Florida all summer while she was at Winchester Harbor. She knew she would probably think of many things she could do to the boat, but there would be little she could do about it while she was over a thousand miles away. She was actually a little worried about leaving the boat behind for seven months, with a hurricane season coming before she would be able to see it again. She knew that Cordy had promised to keep an eye on it for her, and Ron said he’d look in on it from time to time too, but that wasn’t the same as being there.

But then, Ron and Cordy would probably be checking on the boat together. The two of them seemed to be pretty close, and considering each of them, there was little doubt in her mind that their relationship would soon lead to a bed, if it hadn’t already. It might have; she’d seen little sign of it, but then she often wasn’t with them when they’d taken off for an evening the last couple of months. With her gone, with her parents not down there helping her with the Rag Doll, who knew what would happen? Not that it mattered to her all that much – both Ron and Cordy were adults, older than her, for that matter, and what they did was largely their business. Still, it took a little imagination to consider Cordy as her sister-in-law, but that was one of the things that could happen if things continued to go the way they’d been going. About all she could do was wait and see what happened while she wished for the best for both of them.

On reflection, she was a little sorry that she’d had to leave Zack behind in Florida, too. He was a nice guy, quiet and well-spoken, and they’d hit it off to some degree. But she was aware that she’d been holding back on him a little too – her mind had been more on the Rag Doll and what she would be doing next summer than it had been on getting a real romance going. There was an obvious problem laying there with him, or with most guys, for that matter – getting involved with someone could louse up what was in many ways a pretty good job in the Lewis family businesses. After all, she was paid well, had next to no living expenses, which added up to being able to save the money to afford a boat like the Rag Doll, and spend her winters traveling.

Cordy and Ron faced a similar problem and she wondered if they’d even thought about it. Cordy worked with her father in their family business, and while there were times she didn’t like the job it kept her pretty well tied to Jacksonville. While Ron could look forward to a fairly long tour of duty there, sooner or later the Coast Guard would be moving him on. When that happened – there was no “if” about it – would Cordy be willing to follow him? That was a darn good question in her mind and she wouldn’t be surprised if the answer was “no.”

Amanda knew it was a problem that many service families faced. Even if the family businesses and her boat weren’t involved, she wasn’t sure how well she would get along having to pull up stakes and move, sometimes far away, every few years. Since she was involved in the family business, it made considering a life like that even more unacceptable. One of the basic facts of her life revolved around the fact that if she were going to get involved with some guy it would have to be on a basis where she’d be able to stay doing what she was doing. Only something really favorable would give her cause to quit, at least as things stood now. That wasn’t saying that things might not change, and after a few years she might feel differently. But, for now, she was satisfied with what she was doing and had no desire to try to build a relationship that would lead to having to change what she had.

This was nothing new; she’d known it for years. It was part of the reason she’d held back from Zack a little, and part of the reason she’d never spent much time hanging out with boys in high school who planned to head out for some city as soon as they graduated. If that meant she had to pass up some other opportunities, well, so be it.

She thought about Adam a little, too. Her fantasy of going with him on the Moonshadow had proved to be just that, and she’d never thought of it as being much more than that. Still, he was going to have a great trip and would be seeing a lot of new sights and having some interesting adventures on the journey. Given the choice, she’d liked to have gone along to see some of the things he was going to see, do some of the things he’d be doing, but it just wasn’t going to happen. Besides, she was planning on having some fun of her own the next winter.

She was happy with what she was going to be doing this summer anyway. She’d been looking forward to being the skipper of one of the boats ever since she’d been a little girl, and now it was going to come to pass. That was pretty exciting by itself, and she hoped she’d do well with it. There was every reason to expect that she would, but how well it would actually work remained to be seen. In any case, she didn’t lack for things to think about over the many weary hours that she wheeled the Chevy northward.

Toward the middle of the day on their second day out of Jacksonville, Amanda and her father caught up with Adam, towing the Knick-Knack back northward. She knew that the boat and trailer were almost too much for the pickup truck, and that he liked to take it very easy when towing it. In fact, he didn’t have much choice, and had said that the hills on the way down had meant he’d sometimes had to crawl up them on the shoulder of the road. But considering that they were now out in the flatlands of Ohio, it seemed like he ought to be able to make it the rest of the way.

Even with the long days, it was well after dark when Amanda and her father turned off the highway at Winchester Harbor and went down the twisting side road to the Channel Stop. In spite of everything, it felt good to be back to the familiar north country, to see that the familiar salt-free waters of Lake Huron were still there.

It had been long worked out that Amanda was going to move back into her familiar room at the motel at the Channel Stop. It was her room, after all, and much of her stuff was there just as she’d left it when she’d started for Florida months before. In talking things back and forth with her parents down in Florida over the winter, they’d come to the conclusion that they weren’t going to have all that many chances to rent it out over the summer. The motel was rarely full and it was a pain in the neck to move her things in and out, so it was going to be her room all summer. What with everything else that was expected to go on, it could prove to be a real time saver.

Everybody had already had dinner, so Amanda took Beffy into her room along with a few things she’d need overnight, and spent a few minutes letting her kitty get used to what would be her home for the next few months. She went over to the house for a while, where everybody got caught up on everything, but it had been a long day, and she was tired, so soon she was back in her room.

It seemed a little strange to be there; she’d gotten used to the motel room in Florida, and more to living on board the Rag Doll. That didn’t keep her from having a good night’s sleep, with Beffy sleeping on the pillow next to her, like the little cat normally did.

They were having an early spring in Winchester Harbor, although by now Amanda had gotten used to living in Florida and it seemed a little chilly to her the next day as they set to unloading the car and the pickup and getting things put away. The boats they were concerned with were still out of the water – the Chinook and the Coho, along with the family’s sailboat, the Pixie, and Adam’s new boat, the Moonshadow. It would be the end of the month before the crane showed up to get them back on the water, but there was still a lot that needed to be done before then.

Getting set to get the boats back on the water for the summer was familiar; it had been done every spring as long as she could remember, and she’d usually been a part of the work. She could remember coming home from school, changing her clothes, and going out to help out on the project even when she’d been in lower elementary school. There was lots to do, and while her father had gotten much of it done over the winter, there was still plenty left. The Chinook and the Pixie only needed routine spring maintenance and a little cleaning and painting here and there, but the Coho had needed some engine work over the winter. After her father had more or less finished up with the Moonshadow before coming to Florida the first time, he’d moved Adam’s boat outside the boat shed and moved the Coho inside. There were some things that still needed to be put back together, and that was the first thing they got busy on.

To some degree it looked like the Coho was going to be her boat for at least the summer. By now it was definite that her grandfather Nate and her step-grandmother Barb were planning on being gone for much of the summer, and a small Dodge motor home parked down by their house near the boat shed only underlined it. Nate promised to stick around until the boats were in the water, just in case some problem came up, but the two planned to be on the road not long after that and didn’t expect to be back soon. In fact, there was some discussion of their spending a significant part of the winter in the south, probably some of it on the Winter Haven, and it was not beyond possibility that the two might be guests on the Rag Doll for a while. Amanda was actually looking forward to showing her pride and joy off to them.

One evening, a couple days after she and her father had gotten home, Amanda, her parents, and her grandparents were sitting drinking coffee in the snack bar after it would normally have been closed. They had been talking about the work being done to get the boats ready for the summer, but it slowly developed into a family strategy session. “As I see it,” Nate commented at one point, “You’re going to pretty well have to come up with a mostly permanent deckhand, and I don’t have anyone I could recommend to you.”

“I’m sort of out of ideas on that one, too,” Jake agreed. “We know the Coho can be operated solo, you’ve done it for years, it was set up to be done that way, and probably it won’t be any problem for Amanda to pick up doing it.”

“I don’t think so, either,” she agreed.

“The heck of it is that while it’s possible to operate the Chinook solo, it’s a pain in the neck, and not real efficient. I can probably do it if I have to for a few days, Rachel too, but I don’t think we want to saddle Amanda with that chore just yet.”

Amanda understood why; after all, it was something else she’d grown up with. The smaller Coho was intended to operate with a smaller load than the Chinook, two or three customers. It was steered from the cabin, and although things could occasionally get hectic they usually managed to stay under control.

The Chinook, though, could handle up to six customers, and to make room and for other reasons the deckhand usually steered the boat from the flying bridge; Amanda had done that job for years and had done it before she’d been in her teens. It gave a better view of things happening around the boat, and a second set of eyes on the fish finder. It was where she’d learned much of what she knew about charter fishing. It was possible to operate the Chinook from inside the cabin, but the confusion with that many customers made it a real pain in the neck to do so, which was why they usually only did it if they were short-handed, or if the weather was really lousy. There had been many times Amanda had preferred to be on the Chinook’s flying bridge to handle the boat even then.

“Well, I’d just as soon not,” Amanda agreed. “I don’t think I’d have any problems handling the Chinook with a deckhand, at least as long as they have some idea of what they’re doing. If we have to have a total greenhorn, I’d just as soon you and Mom break them in.”

“And that gets us back to the problem of finding a deckhand,” Rachel nodded. “I can’t think of anyone who’s experienced enough to want to send them out with you on your first season as a skipper. I know of a couple of college kids we could try out as soon as they get out of school at the end of April, and there might be a high school kid worth a try once we get into June. But they’re all totally inexperienced, and we’re going to have to find a body or two to work the fuel dock, too. I think we’re probably set for the snack bar, except for days off, but I think that between your father and me we can juggle things around enough to keep that under control.”

“At the same time, it probably would be best if you weren’t out on the Coho every day, too,” Jake pointed out. “That solo stuff gets old after a while. So I think we need to leave you in the Channel Stop rotation at least some of the time.”

“Well, you’re probably right on that,” Amanda agreed. “Although I’d do it if I had to.”

“No, your dad is probably right,” her grandfather said. “I did it for years, sure. That doesn’t mean I liked doing it day in and day out. Even I needed a break.”

“I guess we’re going to have to play it however it comes,” Rachel shrugged. “With the warm spring, both boats are already booked solid as soon as the season opens, so we’re just going to have to hit the ground running and hope we can struggle through until college gets out.”

“Hey,” Amanda said as the thought hit her. “Isn’t Adam going to be up here through most of the month of April? Could he help out?”

“Well, maybe,” Jake nodded. “We’d have to ask him, and he’s been a deckhand on the Chinook with your mother and me so that he isn’t totally inexperienced at it. But I don’t want to have to ask him to do it every day since he’s going to have his mind on getting the Moonshadow set up for that big trip of his.”

“That might work,” Nate agreed. “From what I could tell he wasn’t a bad deckhand last fall. Barb and I don’t have to get going right at the first of the month, either. We might be able to patch something together until we can get some college kids helping.”

“Maybe a high school kid on the weekends, too,” Barb suggested.

“Adam ought to be up here in the next few days,” Jake said after a moment of thinking it over. “There’s only so much work he can do on the Moonshadow before he’ll be chomping at the bit to get out of here, and I don’t think he really should push the spring weather too much solo. I guess all I can do is ask.”

As it turned out Adam pulled in the next afternoon, towing the Knick-Knack behind his small pickup. He parked the boat right next to where the bigger cruiser was sitting on its cradle to facilitate moving things from the boat he’d taken to Florida – some of them had come from the Moonshadow in the first place. Amanda and Jake took a couple hours helping him with that project, and he anticipated a long but enjoyable period of getting everything set up just the way he wanted.

Early on Jake and Amanda hit him with the idea of helping out on the Chinook through April. “I don’t want to have to do it every day,” he told them. “After all, I do have the Moonshadow to think about. But you people have been nice enough that I can’t say no. Besides, if I spend time helping with the fishing, maybe that means that you’ll be able to help me with a few things, like that electrical system upgrade.”

“That’s not going to take a lot of time,” Jake said. “Just the parts. Once we have them everything ought to go together in a day or two. We’ll probably catch some crappy weather days in April when we could all work on that. The Bimini, the same thing. Once we get it here, it won’t take long to get it set up and working, especially if we all work on it. As long as Nate stays around, that’ll give us an extra set of hands if we need them.”

The days of March dwindled down, and a little before the end of the month the big mobile crane used for handling the boats showed up. By great effort of all hands, including Nate, Barb, and Adam they were ready for it. One by one the crane picked each of the boats off the cradles where they’d spent the winter and set them into the water. The Moonshadow was the last, since it needed to have its mast erected and standing rigging set into place, but soon it was floating on the still-chilly waters of Winchester Harbor.

Adam moved aboard the Moonshadow the next day, wanting to get used to living on the boat before he actually set sail down the lakes with it. Back in Florida, he’d taken Amanda’s advice and gotten an electric heater and an extension cord to ward off the chill of the evenings on the Knick-Knack, and he reported that it worked just as well on the bigger boat.

The fishing season wasn’t far off now, and they all had to work hard at getting the Coho and the Chinook ready for it, but after a few late evenings they were ready to go. On the day before the season opened, Amanda and her father took the Coho out of the harbor and out onto the lake. It was partly a test run for the boat, but partly to scan around with the fish finder to see if there were fish in the general areas they expected to find them this time of year. They were often deep, but there were some places that experience had taught the Lewis family to look early in the season. The two of them found several places that seemed worth checking out the next day.

It was then that Jake made a suggestion to Amanda: “I know you’re planning on pretty much using this boat this season, but for the next few days, I think it would be good for everyone if you were on the Chinook with Adam as your deckhand.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Mostly, that means your mother, your grandfather, and I won’t be looking over your shoulder and be there to back you up,” Jake grinned. “But you’ll have an extra set of hands if you need them. This way, you’ll really learn that you’re the one in charge.”

Thus it was that the next morning, Amanda greeted the customers, most of whom she’d met before on early season trips. None of them seemed to have any problems with this being her first day as the skipper, and Amanda even felt enough confidence to let Adam take the Chinook out into the lake on the flying bridge while she rigged the boat for fishing. It wasn’t much different from many other trips she’d taken out for the day, but it sure seemed like it to her.

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