Peyton had taken to riding his bike early each morning, pedaling all over the city and even venturing out on A1A, just to see what it would feel like. Now that he was acclimated to St. Augustine, Aunt Gert decided it was time for him to “embrace the Atlantic” and summoned Finn to teach him how to handle a boat in the ocean. They wouldn’t be taking the Madame, which wasn’t built for rough weather should any arise, but instead headed out in Finn’s fishing boat. He had walked Peyton through all the controls and then put him in the captain’s seat. Right now they were cruising through the familiar pass from the Matanzas to the Atlantic, but instead of steering toward Anastasia, Peyton would be going straight out to sea.
This morning, a stiff wind was blowing, making the water a little choppy. “Now the thing you want to remember,” Finn was saying, “is you gotta work with the sea. You’re an intruder as far as she’s concerned, so you gotta mind your manners and pay attention when she talks.”
Peyton grinned at him. “Sounds like a girl.”
“Ha! Just like. Only I always found the Atlantic more forgivin’ than any o’ my women, even in stormy weather. Okay, now look right there. The swells are gettin’ bigger an’ you gotta learn how to ride ’em. Keep the bow fairly low and aim for a slight angle as you go into it. You don’t want to hit a wave straight on ’cause that’s kinda like hittin’ a buildin’ head-on. On the other hand, you don’t want to get sideways in the trough, which can roll you. An’ remember—the rougher the seas, the slower you go. If it gets really bad, you might have to heave to and ride ’er out, but I don’t think we’ll be runnin’ into anything that bad today.”
Peyton followed Finn’s instructions and soon was riding the occasional big swell without any problem. When they were just beyond sight of the shore, Finn told him to shut off the engine and showed him how to drop the boat’s anchor. Then he pulled a beer and a Coke from an ice chest on deck and handed the Coke to Peyton.
“I’d say you made a fine showin’ for your first lesson,” he said. “You keep this up an’ you could take on ferryin’ jobs pretty soon.”
“What’s that, Finn?”
“Your rich leisure fishermen that live on the mainland will pay you to ferry their boats down to the Keys or wherever they mean to go for their trophies. Pays good.”
“Don’t you need some kind o’ license?”
“You do,” Finn said with a smile, “but that can be handled.”
“How long have you had your boat, Finn?”
“Longer’n any woman—’cept Gert, o’ course, but that’s different. Gert’s my best friend—best one I ever had, man or woman.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a girl for a friend—not a really close one like you and Aunt Gert.”
Finn took a long drink from the bottle in his hand. “Well, it ain’t easy at first. Both o’ you gotta agree there ain’t gonna be any wooin’ to it. An’ you both gotta mean it, else one o’ you’s gonna be jealous all the time. But if you both arrive at the same conclusion, why, a woman can make a fine friend. They listen different from men. Plus they smell better and they can cook!”
“I knew you had an angle,” Peyton said with a grin.
“Ha! Always do.” Finn took a quick sip of his beer. “How much you know about readin’ the weather?”
Peyton ran the icy Coke bottle across his forehead to cool off. “Well . . . I know a ring around the moon means rain’s comin’. So do mares’ tails and a buttermilk sky. I know the barometric pressure drops before a tornado or a hurricane. And if it thunders in February, it’ll frost in April.”
Finn nodded. “Red sky at mornin’?”
“Sailor, take warnin’,” Peyton answered.
“You know about the full moons—their names an’ their meanin’s?”
“Just the Flower Moon that Aunt Gert told me about.”
“Well, there’s an even better one comin’ up in June—the Strawberry Moon. That’s how the Indians knew it was time to gather the wild berries. An old sailor I used to run with always said it’s good luck for the Strawberry Moon to rise on your journey.”
“I’ll try to remember that.”
“Peyton, the thing about livin’ on the sea—or by it—is you gotta pay attention to what’s happenin’ around you. Did the air all of a sudden get cool? Did the wind all of a sudden get still? Is the water white-cappin’? It all matters, my friend—’specially for anybody thinkin’ o’ puttin’ hisself at the mercy o’ the elements, if you know what I mean.”
Peyton looked up at the sky and back at Finn. “Would you teach me everything you know, Finn—or at least everything I need to know?”
Finn slapped him on the back. “I’ll getcha ready, alright. Today was just the beginnin’.”