Tough assignment at Green Turtle

It was to be a weather day, rain and wind forecast so we cowered at the dock, exercised and did errands. Too boring, Jim said, and assigned me to write something interesting while he took a nap. I couldn't think of anything we had done that fit into that category except the BBQ chicken we got at WalMart (no hyphen anymore, remember?) and decided to check the oil.

I grabbed a flashlight and some paper towels and headed down the ladder. As I walked around the port side of the port engine, I heard something. I looked and noticed a blanket and some food wrappers. I suddenly realized we had a stowaway and had an immediate attack of remorse for blaming Jim for all that missing food. I looked around but couldn't find anyone in the expansive engine room. (There are advantages in smaller boats, harder for stowaways to hide.) I decided to engage in some subterfuge, a tactic I learned studying for the captain's test. I walked all the way around to the starboard side of the other engine, out of sight of where I believed him/her to be hiding. I stopped to catch my breath, as this is quite a distance on this boat.

I then ran around the back of that engine, and peeked out between the massive fuel filters. I saw some movement and knew I had made a decisive achievement. I ran forward, a tactic I had learned from years of hunting the mighty grey squirrel in Brainerd, Minnesota, back in anther lifetime. I saw what appeared to be a younger guy, maybe 18 to 20 years old, small in build and obviously quite frightened by my presence. He bolted, with me in hot pursuit. We then had quite the chase, all around the hot water heater, genset, oil filtration system, watermaker, spare anchors, barrels of window cleaner, racquetball court, spare filters, engines, extra food, VacuFlush tanks, and too many pumps to mention. I was exhausted.

I crawled up the ladder, already planning my next move....