HE COULDN’T HAVE asked for more perfect weather. Not a cloud in the dark blue sky. Just uncountable stars reflected in the water. But best of all was the wind. In just a few hours, it had shifted 180 degrees and was now coming out of the south-east at a speed of thirteen miles an hour, resulting in a perfect broad reach up through the sound and on towards Gothenburg.
Frank Käpp hadn’t even had to start the engine to leave Humlebæk harbour. He’d just undone the bow mooring lines and pulled the boat out by the anchor rope. Then he’d been able to hoist the mainsail and silently glide out through the inlet.
They were in no hurry, quite the opposite. That was what their around-the-world adventure was all about. Shedding their obligations and letting wind and weather determine the speed of their progress. That’s why he’d set an easterly course towards Glumslöv on the Swedish side. Once they passed Ven, he was going to turn north, ease the genoa and set the autopilot on a straight course through the bottleneck between Helsingborg and Helsingør.
This was exactly what he’d longed for and dreamed of during his final years in the office. Being one with the wind and feeling the salt on his face, surrounded by infinity. It was magical. That was the best word for it. Magical.
Unlike during the day, there were almost no other boats out. Other than a few freight ships, he could only see one green side light, close to the water on the port side. He couldn’t see a masthead light, however, which meant it must be some kind of motorboat less than twenty-three feet in height.
It was hard to make out at this kind of distance, but it was possible they were on a collision course. He reached for his binoculars and was just about to have a look when Vincent came out of the cabin in his pyjamas.
‘Hi, Vincent. Time for bed?’
‘Yes, but Dad… Mum said I should ask you if I can sleep with you tonight.’
It was so like Klara to force him to be the bad guy. They’d talked about this a thousand times. ‘No, Vincent, I don’t think so.’ If they gave in to the nagging now, he’d be sleeping between them for the rest of the journey.
‘But, Dad, please—’
‘Vincent, listen to me. You spent the last two nights in the aft cabin, and it was fine, right?’
‘Yes, but we were docked then. Now we’re at sea.’
‘You might as well get used to it. We’re going to be sailing at night a lot over the coming months.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Okay, look, you asked, and the answer was no.’ Frank peered into the night, looking for the lantern, but he could no longer see it. No green side light and no white stern light.
‘Frank, do you have to be so rigid?’ Klara popped her head out of the cabin next to Vincent. ‘Is it really such a big deal if he sleeps with us?’
‘I’m not being rigid.’ He raised the binoculars and scanned the port side but saw nothing even close to the green lantern that had been there just minutes before.
‘I think you are. Especially given as how you’re the one who insisted we travel tonight, when we could just as easily have left tomorrow after breakfast.’
‘The whole point was to do a proper night sail before we leave Sweden. Like we agreed. And yet the two of you have refused every time, and this is our last chance. After Gothenburg, we’re off to Oslo.’ He did another sweep with the binoculars. But there was no boat to be seen, on either side of them, and that was odd, to say the least. It couldn’t have disappeared.
‘And what’s so terrible about that? What does it matter if we take things slowly?’
‘Okay, seriously. What’s the problem here?’ Frank turned to Vincent. ‘I can tell you’re exhausted. Just go to bed. I promise, you’re going to be asleep in seconds. And then when you wake up, the sun will be shining and we’ll be in Bohuslän, on our way into Lilla Bommen, from which we can practically walk to Liseberg.’
‘The problem, since you ask, is that you’re forcing him to sleep in the aft cabin,’ Klara said.
‘Okay, Vincent, can you tell me why you don’t want to sleep there?’
‘It’s scary. Last night I had a nightmare about a monster that came in and killed me.’
‘A monster?’
Vincent nodded. ‘It was super scary.’
Frank turned to Klara. ‘If you ask me, that has nothing to do with sleeping in the aft cabin. It’s all those computer games you’re playing. Look around.’ He made a sweeping gesture. ‘There’s water all around us and soon we’ll be out on the open sea. What kind of monster could get you here? I’ve heard of the Loch Ness Monster, but the Kattegat Monster, that’s a first.’
‘Frank, I don’t think this is the time to be glib.’
‘No, I’m sorry, my bad.’ He went over to Vincent and hugged him. ‘I’m sorry, buddy. Look, it’s just that Daddy has put a lot of time and effort into making the aft cabin cosy and nice for you and it actually makes me a bit sad when you don’t want to be in it.’
‘But I think it’s great. I really do. It’s just a bit scary.’
‘How about this?’ Klara suggested. ‘Vincent, I’ll go with you to the aft cabin and I promise I’ll stay with you until you’re sound asleep.’
Vincent pondered that and finally shrugged. ‘Okay. But you have to promise to stay a really long time.’
‘Of course. Come on.’ Klara took Vincent by the hand and led him through the cockpit and then the two of them disappeared into the aft cabin.
Frank turned on the radar, both the old one, whose green light swept round and round in a circle, and the new digital one. But the boat, or whatever it was he’d seen, didn’t show up on either screen.
It could have been a rubber dinghy. They sometimes escaped the radar’s notice. But who would go out in a rubber dinghy in the middle of the night? And with no navigational lights. No, he must have been mistaken. That was the only reasonable explanation. That it had just been some other light reflected in the waves.
Yes, that had to be it.
It had to be.