The Island Ch. 02

I stood in the shower letting the hot water pound against my forehead as I slowly began to feel fully conscious. I was not a morning person and it always took me a while to come around after waking up. I began to be able to formulate thoughts as I slathered shower gel into my closely trimmed hair. Inevitably, my mind drifted back to the shed yesterday with Sarah. I felt myself start to get hard as I recalled the sight of her bent over the quad and the noises she’d made as I’d pushed into her.

I forced my mind onto other things, I’d be seeing her again later on today and I didn’t want to get too excited before then. That said, I had no idea what to expect when I saw her again. She’d certainly sounded as if she was keen for this to continue, but neither of us had spoken to the other since we’d finished in the shed. I didn’t want to message her this morning and seem overly keen – even though I clearly was.

I dried myself off after the shower and checked myself out in the mirror as I got dressed. I had been making a real effort to cut all the junk food from my diet over the last couple of months. The way my abs had started to show now, made me feel as If it was worth it. I finished dressing, took a banana for breakfast and grabbed my helmet and bike lock keys. I was running slightly late as usual, but I rarely left the house when I intended to and I always managed to be ready for the first trip of the day so maybe that really meant that I was on time.

It was another lovely sunny day on the south coast of England as I closed the door to my stairwell behind me. It was still early in the season but if it stayed like this it was going to be a treat – in more ways than one. The journey to work was mostly downhill so I freewheeled the majority of the way through the relatively quiet fishing town. There were a few people about already, mostly locals setting up shops and getting ready for the day. By the middle of summer, the town would be so packed it would be hard to ride the bike through the volume of people absentmindedly stepping out into the road, so for now I enjoyed the peace. I was sure it would pick up in the middle of the day, but that would be nothing compared to the number of people that would be milling around in a couple of months.

I locked the bike up at the top of the harbour and went to get the boat. The harbour itself only had a small sheltered pen, so the boats were kept ashore on trailers overnight. Each morning the boat would get towed 50m from the storage area, down the slipway and launched. Each evening the reverse would happen. It was a bit of a faff launching and recovering the boat by yourself but after a few weeks, I had it carefully choreographed. One positive was that hauling the heavy rib with her twin outboards around meant that trips to the gym were seldom necessary when I was working.

I had about an hour until the first group arrived so I set about fetching the tow truck and getting on with the launch. I worked solidly for forty minutes, for the first time since I’d woken up that morning I wasn’t thinking about what the rest of the day might have in store. As usual, when you are working away on something, the time passed quickly. Other than my usual fight with the trailer’s winch the boat was launched smoothly and I quickly parked the trailer and truck back in the compound.

I carefully climbed around the passenger seats to check the engines and switch on all the boat’s electronics. After seeing that all was well, I lowered the engines and turned them on to warm them up for a few minutes. It’s only a short trip out to the island and we are going fast as soon as we cleared the harbour entrance so it was always best to have given the engines a chance to wake up as well. I checked the log and found I had two trips today, one starting shortly and then another in the early afternoon. It was a shame that it wasn’t just one and staying on the island all day but that still gave me plenty of time.

A short while later the passengers began to arrive. As usual, most were in a good mood, it was a lovely day and most of them were on holiday. I gave them the quick welcome spiel and safety brief – the boat was only half full this early in the season – then I was letting lines go and we were off. I carefully spun the boat in the narrow space and we nosed out through the entrance. The passengers were talking excitedly amongst themselves and once I could see the bay was clear I pushed the RIB up to full speed, thankful for the lack of speed restrictions in this part of Cornwall!

The settled spell in the weather meant the ride out was fast and smooth. The wind flapped my t-shirt against my chest and the sun glinted off the sea enough for me to have my sunglasses on. The only thing for me to pay attention to was the array of lobster pot marker buoys that littered the coast – particularly close inshore near the cliffs.

I fiddled with the radio and double-checked the engine panel as I slowed the boat when we approached the island. I was trying not to pay too much attention but I could already make out two figures standing on the wooden pier. To my great disappointment, I could see another boat also tied alongside the jetty. I hadn’t realised that anyone else was likely to be here today.

I carefully brought the RIB alongside the jetty just behind the other boat. In a similar fashion to the last time I was here, as I closed the dock Dee reached down and hooked the mooring line from the bow. She deftly flicked it over the cleat built into the dock. I nudged the engines astern and did the same at the aft end.

‘Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen…’ I launched into my introductions with my usual well-practiced false enthusiasm, pleased that for whatever reason the other boat crew were not around to add to my feeling of self-consciousness. As always, the guest’s attention was focused outwards on the island rather than paying any attention to what I was saying. I didn’t blame them, I had far more interest in things on this island than what I was saying as well.

Still moving in autopilot I finished my talk and began helping people clamber up onto the jetty, collecting lifejackets back from them as they went. I’d already introduced the girls as part of my initial speech and they took over as soon as the guests were ashore on the dock. I didn’t get a chance to say anything other than professional chat to Sarah and Dee when, to my disappointment, they both walked away with the guests and led them up onto the island.

I was hoping that Sarah was going to be able to slip away the same as she had the last time I was here, but the last thing I wanted was to come across as needy, and she still had her job to do. I set about giving the boat a quick clean and organise. It didn’t seem to matter how many times you went through and organised things, boats just seemed to attract mess. However futile it was I knew that I’d never stop repeating the process. I took a lot of pride in keeping the boat looking as smart as she did. I knew it was one of the reasons the owners had given me the boat to run with such little oversight, they knew they were going to get the job done right. The price of such little oversight was going to quickly pay for itself in other ways.

A few minutes passed before I was distracted by a group of people coming down from further up the beach. I looked up and saw a small cluster of people moving into view, led by Sarah and Dan. I was surprised to feel a small amount of relief in knowing that the reason she had left so quickly with my group was that she was also looking after another one.

Dan called out a hello as the group made their way down the pier to their boat. We’d only met a couple of times so far in the season, but I had no doubt that we’d be seeing a lot of each other over the coming months. I climbed up onto the jetty and shook his hand as he approached.

‘How’s it going?’ I asked.

‘All good.’ He replied, ‘Straight out this morning but it’s the only one of the day – still early in the season.’ I nodded. ‘You busy?’ He asked.

‘Yeah picking up, not flat out yet though. Give it a couple of months and you’ll be begging for a quiet day.’

He laughed as he jumped down onto his boat and started helping his guests back on board. They seemed a happy and able bunch and it didn’t take him long to have them all safely back onto the boat.

‘I’m not out for the next couple of days, but I’m out every one for the next four after so I’ll catch you then.’ He walked to the back of the boat and keyed his engines to life with a soft warble. Sarah had made her way over to his bow line, so I bent down and untied the one at the stern. Dan looked up and gave us a nod, and we both chucked the ropes back onto the deck. He skilfully nudged the nose of the boat against the pier to swing the stern out into deeper water and roll the boat away from the quayside.

Dan’s jet-black boat looked good as it lolled gently in its own wake. He swung her around to point out through the harbour entrance. Sarah waved to the guests and they waved back, thanking her for the tour. Although there would be more wildlife come the height of summer the relaxed pace of things at this time of year meant that the tours were often better and people more content. The boat accelerated slightly as he straightened for the entrance, and a couple of seals lounged in the shallows staring back at the tourists.

The engines of Dan’s RIB disappeared around the corner and out of sight. I heard them throttle up as the boat increased her speed again. Gradually the noise decreased as the boat got further away and the wake I could see left behind in the mouth of the entrance flattened to nothing. I checked my watch, there was only an hour left until the current group I had on the island was due back – that probably meant I only had around twenty minutes until people started arriving back on the jetty. A frustratingly small amount of time – at least I’d make the next shuttles happen in record time.