Read Online Fallen Palm (Jesse McDermitt Series) by Wayne Stinnett - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Wayne Stinnett
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mostly with the throttles. Once we were clear, I called down, “Y’all come on up!”
The bridge has two seats at the helm and a bench seat for three on the port side. Once all three of them were up the ladder, I steered the Revenge along the channel toward Sister Creek. “Jimmy,” I said, “we’ll take Sister Creek out to East Sister Rock and then around the point to Rusty’s channel. Seas are only about five feet, outside. So I doubt we’ll have any trouble at all. But, once we turn toward the channel, we’re going to have a fast moving following sea and I might have to come into the canal pretty hot to have any steerage at all, so stay on your toes.”
Jimmy nodded and Deuce asked, “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“Not really. Jimmy’ll keep an eye out forward as we near the channel. Extra eyes won’t hurt, though. You can watch the starboard side as we come into the channel and if Tony watches the port side, we’ll be fine. The channel’s a bit narrow, only about forty feet across and the Revenge has a sixteen foot beam. That’ll leave us a good twelve feet of channel on either side.”
As we passed the end of the private docks, I turned sharply left into Sister Creek, which winds between Boot Key and Key Vaca, where the town of Marathon is located. Boot Key is mostly undeveloped and since the bridge over the mouth of the harbor was closed a couple of years ago, the only way on or off the island is by boat. A number of fishermen live on the island in houses built before the bridge was closed. The federal government maintains a broadcast tower there, which sends propaganda in Spanish to the people of Cuba. It’s called Radio Marti, but the Cuban government blocks the transmission, so only people in the United States can actually hear it. Our tax dollars at work.
“Who’s Gaspar?” Art asked.
“He was a pirate,” Jimmy replied. “Jose Gaspar was his given name, man. But when he left the Spanish Navy, he took the name ‘Gasparilla’. He was one of the last real buccaneers, bro. His base of operations was up in the Port Charlotte area where Jesse’s from. He and his crew plundered ships all up and down the west coast of Florida, man. When he finally decided to retire from pillaging, he was about sixty five. But as he and his crew were dividing up their booty, they spotted a fat merchant ship offshore, flying the Union Jack. They just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add a bit more to their booty, dude. They sailed out toward the merchant ship, but as they got close, she lowered the Jack and hoisted the American ensign. It turned out that the fat merchant ship was actually the topsail schooner USS Enterprise, a notorious pirate hunter. Gasparilla’s ship was nearly blasted apart, man. Gasparilla went down with her, just off the island now known as Gasparilla.”
“Is that all true,” Tony asked me.
“Well, that’s the way the story goes,” I replied.
We were coming out of the last turn in the creek and about to move into open water. I nudged the throttles up to 1200 rpm and the Revenge dropped down at the stern, lifting the bow slightly higher, until the horizon was lost below the windscreen. In just a few seconds, though, the bow came back down as she lifted up on plane. I love the feeling I get when my boat changes from a displacement hull, to a planing hull. I added a little more throttle, bringing her up to about twenty knots, at 1300 rpm, as we left the creek and started to encounter the wind driven waves. The Revenge is a forty five foot Rampage convertible, which is one of the best offshore fishing boats available anywhere. The deep vee design cuts through even the roughest water and the Carolina flair of the bow just knocks the spray out and down, so even in rough seas like today, it’s always a dry ride.
My guests knew about boats, that I was sure of. You don’t make O-4 and E-6 in the SEALS without having a whole lot of time on the water in all kinds of
The bridge has two seats at the helm and a bench seat for three on the port side. Once all three of them were up the ladder, I steered the Revenge along the channel toward Sister Creek. “Jimmy,” I said, “we’ll take Sister Creek out to East Sister Rock and then around the point to Rusty’s channel. Seas are only about five feet, outside. So I doubt we’ll have any trouble at all. But, once we turn toward the channel, we’re going to have a fast moving following sea and I might have to come into the canal pretty hot to have any steerage at all, so stay on your toes.”
Jimmy nodded and Deuce asked, “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“Not really. Jimmy’ll keep an eye out forward as we near the channel. Extra eyes won’t hurt, though. You can watch the starboard side as we come into the channel and if Tony watches the port side, we’ll be fine. The channel’s a bit narrow, only about forty feet across and the Revenge has a sixteen foot beam. That’ll leave us a good twelve feet of channel on either side.”
As we passed the end of the private docks, I turned sharply left into Sister Creek, which winds between Boot Key and Key Vaca, where the town of Marathon is located. Boot Key is mostly undeveloped and since the bridge over the mouth of the harbor was closed a couple of years ago, the only way on or off the island is by boat. A number of fishermen live on the island in houses built before the bridge was closed. The federal government maintains a broadcast tower there, which sends propaganda in Spanish to the people of Cuba. It’s called Radio Marti, but the Cuban government blocks the transmission, so only people in the United States can actually hear it. Our tax dollars at work.
“Who’s Gaspar?” Art asked.
“He was a pirate,” Jimmy replied. “Jose Gaspar was his given name, man. But when he left the Spanish Navy, he took the name ‘Gasparilla’. He was one of the last real buccaneers, bro. His base of operations was up in the Port Charlotte area where Jesse’s from. He and his crew plundered ships all up and down the west coast of Florida, man. When he finally decided to retire from pillaging, he was about sixty five. But as he and his crew were dividing up their booty, they spotted a fat merchant ship offshore, flying the Union Jack. They just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add a bit more to their booty, dude. They sailed out toward the merchant ship, but as they got close, she lowered the Jack and hoisted the American ensign. It turned out that the fat merchant ship was actually the topsail schooner USS Enterprise, a notorious pirate hunter. Gasparilla’s ship was nearly blasted apart, man. Gasparilla went down with her, just off the island now known as Gasparilla.”
“Is that all true,” Tony asked me.
“Well, that’s the way the story goes,” I replied.
We were coming out of the last turn in the creek and about to move into open water. I nudged the throttles up to 1200 rpm and the Revenge dropped down at the stern, lifting the bow slightly higher, until the horizon was lost below the windscreen. In just a few seconds, though, the bow came back down as she lifted up on plane. I love the feeling I get when my boat changes from a displacement hull, to a planing hull. I added a little more throttle, bringing her up to about twenty knots, at 1300 rpm, as we left the creek and started to encounter the wind driven waves. The Revenge is a forty five foot Rampage convertible, which is one of the best offshore fishing boats available anywhere. The deep vee design cuts through even the roughest water and the Carolina flair of the bow just knocks the spray out and down, so even in rough seas like today, it’s always a dry ride.
My guests knew about boats, that I was sure of. You don’t make O-4 and E-6 in the SEALS without having a whole lot of time on the water in all kinds of
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