Chapter 7

 

The following morning was bright and sunny without a cloud in the sky. The wind was still blowing pretty good but it was in the direction we were headed so we decided to go for it.

Once out on the ocean, we discovered that the seas had not settled overnight and were running somewhere between ten and twelve feet. Although they were headed in the same direction, we still took a long time getting back to Nassau. My plan was on returning to Nassau and checking out the house one more time. If, as I suspected, there was no one there, I was considering possibly going to St. Maarten.

Once back in Nassau, we headed for town and the telephones. Besides being a day overdue on getting back with Bruce’s father, I still hadn’t gotten through to Linda. By now she was probably fit to be tied.

The first call went through to Linda and this time she was home. As usual no need for an explanation was necessary. She was happy that I had called and that Tom and I were alright.

I avoided going into any details about our progress thus far in the islands. I just assured her that things were going well and that there was no danger involved in what Tom and I were doing. Before saying goodbye, I promised to call again soon but explained that finding telephones for overseas calls wasn’t like it is stateside.

Next I called Bruce’s father and again Bruce’s mother answered the phone. After she put Mr. Saxton on the phone, I explained to him that I was thinking about going to St. Maarten.

“Do you know where that is,” I asked him.

“I most certainly do,” he said in a somewhat bemused manner. “We have a home there.”

Shit, I thought to myself, it seems like Tom and I are the only ones that don’t’.

Bruce’s father wanted to know what St. Maarten had to do with our situation.

“Well, Tom and I have reason to believe that the people your son was involved with here also spend a lot of time there when not in Nassau.”

I went on to tell him about the incident at the house and our subsequent trip to Freeport.

“Are you sure these people are involved with Bruce?” he asked.

“Yes, both Steve’s sources here, as well as the neighbors, indicated that your son had been seen in the company of these people. At this point it’s our only lead and I believe that these people are now in St. Maarten.”

“Do you know any of their names?” he asked.

“Well, sir, I have the name of an André LaBlanc,” I said.

“André LaBlanc?” he interjected.

“Yes sir, have you heard of him?”

“Why, yes, he and Bruce literally grew up together there in Nassau during the summer months. His parents rented houses there for the summer and we had a house there for many years. André and Bruce were good friends.”

At that point, I didn’t know what to think. I told Bruce’s father my idea was to go south to St. Maarten and see what we could find there.

“What I would like to know, sir, is if you think the boat is capable of such a trip?”

“Oh, sure,” he said with unquestioning confidence. “That boat is more than adequate for such a passage.”

He explained that Bob had installed long range fuel tanks at Bruce’s request. He went on to say that Bruce had intentions of taking the boat down to their vacation home on the island of St. Maarten.

When I asked where St. Maarten was he informed me that it was part of the Leeward Islands and a few hundred miles north of the island of Martinique. He suggested that we get a map along with some recent charts of the waters there in that part of the ocean. When I questioned our abilities at being able to get the boat there Mr. Saxton reassured me that if we were able to find our way to and around the Bahamas that we would have no problem finding our way south.

“Trust the navigation computers and keep a close eye on any developing weather,” he advised. “Look,” he said, “think of it as a lot of short trips rather than an overwhelming 1000 mile trip. There are islands pretty much linked together for the most part that extend all the way down there. If you’re unsure just take it a little at a time. Use that nav system.”

Before hanging up, Bruce’s father suggested that if we weren’t sure about boating south we could always fly there. You mean if we chicken out, I thought to myself. I then assured him that by the following day we would know one way or the other.

“Piece of cake,” I said to Tom after getting off the phone with Bruce’s dad.

“What’s that?” he wanted to know.

“It’s a simple little boat ride.”

“Where to?” Tom asked.

“St. Maarten,” I said.

“Yeah, right!” he exclaimed sarcastically.

“What’s a matter? No balls?” I teased.

“You’re crazy,” Tom added.

“Yeah, but you knew that,” I told him. “Look,” I said, ”I don’t think we’ll find anything tomorrow over there at the house and I suspect that these people are most likely transferring drugs from South America on up through the islands. If that be the case, they probably work out of the island of St. Maarten as well as here in the Bahamas. If they’re not here then we will more than likely find them there. Besides, think of those French women!”

I could see that Tom was still not convinced and suggested that we head back to the boat. The next day I got up early and headed up topside. I was surprised to find Tom already up and about.

“Another nice day here in paradise,” I said. “Hey, you know the Virgin Islands are in the direction of St. Maarten,” I informed Tom.

Tom knew me better than anyone and knew well what I was attempting to do.

“Why, you miss Ava?” he asked, knowing well that I only mentioned it to entice him into agreeing to the trip south.

“No, I was actually thinking of you,” I kidded. “Isn’t St. Thomas where the girls mentioned going next?” I asked.

“Well, they mentioned the U.S. Virgin Islands,” he said. “Something about either St. Thomas or St. John.”

“We could stop there on the way down and you could see Evonne again.”

“Well, you can stop trying,” Tom advised me. “I’ve already decided I’d go.”

“Great!” I exclaimed. “So let’s get headed over the bridge and see what the future holds for us.”

As expected the house was as still as we had left it. There was no indication that anyone had returned since we had been there a couple of days earlier.

“Well, it looks like Caribbean waters for us,” I said to Tom as we got back into the cab for the ride to the marina.

“Let’s do it,” he replied.

Once back at the marina we stopped at the office and, along with the most recent charts for the waters we expected to be traveling through, we inquired about any suggestions anyone there might have for us.

We were advised to do as Mr. Saxton had suggested and that was to follow the chain of islands south. This would keep us in close proximity to some form of land if the sudden need to be off the ocean should arise. After talking with a few different people who had made the trip a few times, both Tom and I felt better about our undertaking the venture. We then made arrangements to have the boat’s fuel and water tanks topped off.

It was around noon by the time we got everything prepared and we were anxious to get going. We decided that we would do all our traveling during the daylight hours which meant that the trip south was going to take us more than a few days.

We figured that by nightfall we could reach the Turks and Caicos Islands if we could be on the ocean shortly after the noon hour. The winds were still blowing out of the northwest as they had been for the past week and we found that to be in our favor once we reached the open ocean.

The seas had subsided since our return from Freeport and with the wind headed in the same direction we were, the boat was able to take advantage of the sea conditions. In no time at all we were far out on the ocean skimming along at about sixty-five miles an hour towards the unknown.

I found myself praying that the navigation system wouldn’t let us down. I didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of relying on something I knew very little about to guide us to some place I’d never been. It was one of those times when you just had to have faith. More than once I thought of something going wrong and me never having the chance to spend more of that money that waited for me back in West Palm.

Unlike the boat ride to and from Freeport when the sea conditions demanded our full and undivided attention, this ride gave both Tom and me plenty of time for thought. It seemed that since we first met Steve in Bimini, we had had little time to think of anything other than our mission here in these islands. That afternoon the sun was hung in an unrestricted blue sky, the temperature was about perfect and I was day dreaming again.

Despite having to rely on our navigation system, I still occasionally found myself plotting our progress on the charts. Tom and I each took turns at the wheel as the afternoon wound down. The sun was making fast tracks towards the horizon when it became obvious to us that reaching Grand Caicos wasn’t going to be by the light of day. With that in mind, we faced our first dilemma.

Knowing well that most of these islands were surrounded by coral reefs that could rip a boat apart in a matter of minutes if not negotiated properly, I started thinking of possible alternatives. We had already deviated from our original plan of following the islands south when we cut a course that was more direct to the Caicos from Nassau. Instead of following Andros Island south, I had figured on saving some time with the more direct route.

“What do we do if we don’t make it by night fall?” Tom wanted to know.

“Well, we can always follow somebody else in,” I suggested knowing that the probability of that happening was pretty slim.

“Yeah, like we even know where the harbor is,” Tom snapped back.

“Hey, no problem,” I said with a tone of knowing what we would do.

The fact was I wasn’t sure of what our alternatives would be when we got there. As I throttled up on the power, the boat surged forward towards Grand Turk and the Caicos and an uncertain night time landfall.

The sun set and, before our world turned to black, I took notice to the moon coming up on the opposite horizon. The gods of nature are with us, I thought to myself. I wasn’t sure just how the light of the moon was going to help us but I sure felt better about it being in the sky that night.

My fear of running aground grew more intense the farther south we went. I reasoned that the lights of Haiti or the Dominican Republic would surely give us advance warning but the chain of islands just to their north had me concerned as many or most were uninhabited and low in the water. With that thought I slowed the boat to a crawl as our satellite navigation system showed us now about 20 miles north of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

We were motoring slowly in the direction we needed to go when we started to see the lights of other boats all headed towards one point of the island and reasoned that it must be the harbor we needed to be going to for fuel. As we got closer, it became evident that it was and we tucked in behind a large motor yacht that was headed that way.

 I figured his draft was great enough to ensure us having no problems hitting anything if we just stayed behind him. All went well and we were able to get into the harbor and secure a place to tie up overnight and refuel the boat. The next morning we were up and gone just as the sun was making its presence on the horizon.

The Virgin Islands lay another 400 miles to our southeast and we were feeling a lot more comfortable now about our abilities to get us and the boat there. The weather was again good and the seas pretty calm. We saw sailboats motoring due to the lack of wind but this boat loved it and sliced through the ocean with ease.

During the trip south my thoughts kept coming back to how Bruce’s dad had mentioned André and his son being friends. I was trying to figure André’s part in all this. I was wondering if he and Bruce were still friends or what, exactly, was their relationship? I knew what name was on the passport I found in the drawer and assumed it must have been André or his associates who had beat up on Steve and me at the house. Now I found myself not knowing what André’s part in all this was.

Before leaving Nassau, Ava and Evonne had mentioned to Tom that their ship was heading south to the Virgin Islands before going even further south through the Lesser and Greater Antilles. I thought it would be nice to give them a surprise visit if we could, by chance, find them when we stopped at St. Thomas. We still had to get there so, after checking our course and boat systems, we settled in for the next part of this excursion south.

All day the weather was great and the boat without an issue. We chose to run just a little further south and for most of the day Haiti and then the Dominican Republic, were within sight in the far distance to the south. By late afternoon we we’re passing Puerto Rico and it was time to anticipate our arrival into the Virgin Islands. The first of the U.S. Virgin Islands was St. Thomas.

As we approached from the northwest, we could see some large cruise ships anchored in the bay on the southwest side of the island. I figured we could make our way past them on our way into the harbor.

As we got closer you could see that there were six large cruise ships in the bay and all were busy running their launches back and forth from the ship to the island with their passengers. The harbor was a bustle of activity at the many piers which accommodated the thousands of people getting on and off the launches from the cruise ships.

Wow, I thought, this place is crazy! It was way more commotion than I had anticipated and I decided that we needed to go further into the harbor where there was less congestion and places where smaller boats like ours could find a place to dock. We made our way through the busy waters and eventually found a marina which had many boats like ours tied up to its many slips.

First we motored to the fuel dock and refilled our now near empty fuel tanks. The price of the fuel was about twenty five per cent higher than it had been in the Bahamas and near fifty per cent higher that it had been back in Florida.

It was a good thing this was an all-expenses paid venture for us. You had to have a lot of money to afford this type of lifestyle, I thought. And even with the money Tom and I had waiting for us back in West Palm, it wouldn’t take long to exhaust that amount living like this.

After topping off the fuel, the dock attendant told us where we could tie up the boat and where we could clear customs. With the boat safely tied up and our passports stamped, we headed for a restaurant recommended to us by the marina’s owner for a cooked meal. Neither Tom nor I were much at preparing any kind of food and for the most part it was sandwiches with either some deli slices or the good old ‘PB and J’ sandwich.

The restaurant was within walking distance of the marina. We made our way down the busy sidewalks till we found the place and went in and sat down in a booth which looked like it was the last one available. The walls were brightly painted with island scenes depicting life here through the past centuries – from old, tall sailing ships right through to the cruise ships of today. The pictures of the cruise ships on the wall prompted me to ask Tom the name of the ship Ava and Evonne were on.

“Damn, I don’t know,” he said.

Back in Nassau there were only two of the large cruise ships at the dock. Here in St. Thomas, as we made our way into the harbor, were a half dozen, all of them looking pretty much the same and each carrying at least a thousand passengers.

“That’s like 6,000 people,” I said. “The chances of finding two girls amongst all that are slim to none.”

I was feeling kind of anxious to get to St. Maarten. I was also feeling a little guilty about having some new found feelings toward Ava. After all, I was truly emotionally involved with Linda and I didn’t really want to tempt that fate.

“Besides, they said Virgin Islands. They could be on another ship at one of the other islands and maybe not on any of these in the harbor.”

I could see that Tom was a little disappointed but we both agreed that it would probably be a waste of time to look for the girls. We were on a mission and that mission was a high paying one. In agreement we finished our meal and headed back to the marina.

It was still before noon and we figured we would get back to the boat and get started south toward St. Maarten. After another stop at the customs office we informed the dock attendant that instead of spending the night we had decided to head south. We had already paid for the night but the hundred dollars was no big deal. Time was, and we needed to be in St. Maarten trying to find Bruce.