DOUBLE TROUBLE AT SEA - Jacobsen

COPYRIGHT © 1999 Holger Jacobsen

[84,207 words or 210 pages of 400 words] 23 July 1997

“Tales, marvelous tales, of ships and seas and isles where good men rest.”

(The Adventures of Goodnight and Loving, Leslie Thomas)

“A modern adventure and a love story among the yachties who sail the oceans, always in need of a few dollars, always in some kind of trouble, sometimes in actual danger, and once in a while in paradise on earth.”

The dark blue hulls of the 35 foot cruising catamaran DOUBLE TROUBLE cut through the steel gray water of the River Elbe near Hamburg. Gripping the wheel stood a young German, Klaus Matthiessen, with sun-bleached dark-blond hair, hazelnut eyes, a slightly slumped back and spread legs. He thought that the gray skies, the fresh breeze, and the drizzle that came down from above promised to make the day truly awful. Nonetheless, he had set maximum sail and when he turned his head back to look at the wake, his big pale lips turned into a grin. Away at last. Away from arguments with his parents, from endless preparations to get the boat ready for the trip around the world, and away from cold weather. Unfortunately from Michaela, too. He had finally started his voyage around the world. With perfect conditions for a catamaran on a reach; the wind coming from the side. The humming stays, steel wires holding up the mast lengthwise, the feel of drizzle and spray on his face and hands, the smell and taste of salt in the air and the certainty of being alone at sea this very night made all the trouble before his departure worthwhile.

For the first day he would simply head down the river until he passed the island Scharhoern in the North Sea. Klaus was wearing a woolen sweater, covered by a very thin blue jacket to keep the wind out and the rain off. Even so, he was already starting to get wet - and cold - when he steered the catamaran towards the sea. Black and red ships passed him and the wake of the ships made him queasy. He turned the wooden laminated steering wheel and felt the boat responding. A vibration under his feet gave the feeling that the boat was anticipating the ocean and it felt almost like some great power wanting to finally break free. Until Scharhoern everything was very much like any practice sail, but the North Sea would be different. And the Atlantic was still a long way off.

When he had finally made it to the open sea on the second day, he immediately became seasick and he had to throw up over the side. He did remember to do it to leeward, at least. The black kitten Teufelchen - meaning “little devil” - was seasick too. He crawled around very slowly, if at all.

“Don’t worry little devilcat,” Klaus murmured, while stroking his black silky fur, “I’ve read that seasickness will usually only last for a few days and then we’ll both feel better and better every day.” Teufelchen didn’t even look up at him or lick his hand. He just curled up on a sheepskin that covered the main bunk right in the center.

“It’ll be worth it, just wait and see. Soon you’ll be eating flying fish and I’ll catch some bonito for you. When you see your first palm tree, then you’ll know what life can be like.”

Klaus had never forgotten his first palm tree. It was a date palm and it stood in southern Spain right next to the Mediterranean. He’d breathed in the air and he had known that he was born to live where palm trees lived. Where it was warm and where life was still full of surprise and promise. Above all, of promise. The idea of life in the tropics had merged with the idea of sailing and adventure, which he’d had in his head since he could read. That was what real life was about. He was determined to become a real modern-day advnturer, but to join that illustrious club, he first had to prove himself and sail around the world. Which he was about to do.

The wind blew cruel and sometimes spray flew over the boat while Klaus concentrated on staying out of the shipping lanes. Every time he looked at the chart, he had serious trouble focusing on the small print and wanted to throw up. He swore when he had to untangle the kitten which hung on his own blue little harness and safety line, but managed to entangle himself in such a way as to be completely immobile and then meowing pityingly. Klaus could have fallen asleep sitting up. But he had to stay awake and get out of the shipping lanes. He calculated that he had hitchhiked 73 hours from Madrid to his hometown north of Hamburg just that spring. He’d nodded off all the time then, sitting next to some poor driver who had undoubtedly expected some interesting talk.

“So, where are you going next then, Klaus?” the young Frenchman had asked.

“I’d like to sail around the world,” Klaus had answered, not knowing that his grandmother would make it all possible with her unexpected generosity.

Klaus couldn’t afford to nod off this time. The cushion on the bench dripped brackish water onto the teak cockpit grille and some of it found its way into his sea boots. He swore against the wind and against the waves, especially when he got some spray in his face or down his neck. Bastard weather from hell. Every time he felt sick, he could only bring up a few drops of sour smelling liquid and he thought that dying must be less horrible than prolonged seasickness. Maybe that's what they did to you in hell? Seasickness everlasting? How much better it would be to spend time with Michaela now. Loneliness stabbed him in the stomach. Her long brown curly hair, her smooth white skin, her mouth in a perpetual pout.

“You aren’t really going to do it,” she’d said. “You are not going to give up on your education at least, or are you?”

“I am not going to give up on anything,” he’d said. “I am just going to postpone it a little.”

“You can’t do that. Now is the time to study and get a degree. When you’ve finished your education, then you can take a break. There are simply too many people around who said that they will study later. And never did. Do you really want to be one of them?”

“I certainly don’t want to study and then work until I am ready for retirement and then die,” Klaus had answered.

He thought of that conversation as the turning point in their relationship. It had been steadily going downhill since then and now the only things that remained of Michaela were the black kitten and a host of painful memories.

It hadn’t only been Michaela who had been against the trip. Everybody seemed to think that he’d lost his mind. Everybody agreed that now was not the time. Especially his parents who had been against this trip from the very beginning. They had both worked hard all their lives to give their children the best of all possible environments in which to grow up. They weren’t rich, but they weren’t poor either, though they both had to be very careful with the little income of his father to pay all the bills.

“What are you trying to do, kill yourself?” his father had asked quietly.

“There are thousands of boats every year on trips like this,” Klaus had retorted.

“But they are not people like you,” his father had said. “They are experienced sailors, with a proper license, with years and years of practice and preparation. And they’ve already done their part in life, learned a trade, worked in their job, you know. They are not drop-outs, hippies, and good-for-nothings who are a burden on society and come begging when they don’t know how to continue.”

“I am not going to come begging. You can count on that.”

“What happens when you get sick?” his father had asked.

“I’ll manage.”

Which had ended the argument. His parents had been against every single trip he had ever undertaken. Klaus remembered well that time when he had come back from a six-week hike in the Hardangervidda mountain range in Norway. He had rested for two days and was off to Bordeaux for a wine tasting ceremony he had been invited to - and to meet the girl that had done the inviting. His father had been furious, but as Klaus had just turned eighteen, there wasn’t anything he could do to stop Klaus from going. The funny thing was that Klaus himself had no idea why he had this irresistible urge to zoom all across Europe from one place to the other. He often only stayed a single night at his destination. It always reminded him of a Taoist saying: “The Way is the Goal.” But there was nothing mystic about what he was doing. It was a simple fact that he enjoyed being on the move. But Klaus knew that his parents thought the idea of sailing around the world was a crazy one to start with, especially for Klaus with his two left hands and no mechanical talent whatsoever.

A violent stomach cramp brought him back to the here and now. Because of his misery he couldn’t smile anymore, and he knew that things were going to get a lot worse before he got used to the open seas, out of northern Europe and into warmer waters. The cat was sleeping most of the time now and he looked very weak, too. Klaus feared that Teufelchen might not make it and simply die in this misery. The deck glistened from the spray, while salt crystals accumulated in the sails. He really would have liked Robert around now.

He remembered when his first mate had said, "We need to have a talk."

"Don't tell me you're gonna chicken out now!" Klaus had said in instant alarm.

"I'm afraid that is exactly what I came here for today."

"You’re not serious. Why? You scared or something?"

"No, I'm not scared. It's something altogether different. When I told my parents that we were going to sail around the world together, they couldn’t take it. My father made it rather clear to me that he would hold me responsible for it, if I should go away and my mother worried herself to death.” Robert had shifted his huge body around uncomfortably and fell silent.

"That's terrible. But I mean, maybe they calm down after a while? You can't allow them to run your life for the rest of your days, you know!"

Robert hadn’t replied, but instead had gone looking for some cigarettes. “Got a lighter flying around somewhere?”

“Just like this? You’re gonna take off and you won’t even try to reason with them? My parents aren’t exactly thrilled either, you know.”

“Just leave it, man.”

“I don’t get it. Here you have the chance of a lifetime to do something really worthwhile and you’re just gonna let it go. This is fucked up, man.”

“I’m sorry. I’m heading home now.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry, too.”

He’d been sorry then and more than a little pissed off too, but it was nothing to what he felt now. He could really do with some help and some sleep and somebody to talk to. Teufelchen was okay, but he needed to talk with someone about Michaela.

At least the end of the shipping lanes was in sight and Klaus thought that he could furl the sails, switch on the lights and take a little nap while out there. He forced himself to eat a little double-baked bread, which lasted much longer than ordinary bread, and drank some black tea which he kept in a thermos. Evening was approaching fast and when it was finally getting dark Klaus switched on his navigation lights and the compass light. The black ball with the white markings swung like a pendulum against the white line indicating the boat’s heading.

To protect his night-vision Klaus looked away from the little red glow lighting the compass.

He found himself surrounded by lights, some of them remaining in the same position, others moving at an alarming speed, some white, some yellow, some red or green and even a few blue ones. How could anyone make sense out of this mess? Simply too many lights in different colors pierced the night. His hands were numb from the cold and pulling on the ropes all day. He felt for the deck, which was reassuringly rough because of the sand, which had been mixed into the paint to make an anti-skid surface.

He got out his kitchen timer and turned the dial to the right. If he made the interval too big, it would get too dangerous and if he made it too small, he would get no rest at all. Finally he decided on 15 minutes and kept dozing between the alarms.

He had planned on leaving his marine VHF radio on at channel 16, but too much chatter cluttered up the airwaves, so that it was pointless as a warning. He had to trust to the radar reflector in the mast and to his lights, green to starboard, red to port, and one white one on top of the mast.

He did not get out of his foul-weather gear or his safety harness, but sat in the cockpit looking out for ships. At eleven fifteen he saw lights coming closer off his port hull, and got out his binoculars. Two white ones, the one to the right lower than the one to the left. And then, to his dismay, he saw another green light. At least better than the two white ones atop each other and the red and green ones at equal distances to the side, he thought. At least the ship wasn’t coming directly at him, but it was still on a possible collision course.

He got the sheets ready, which were thick ropes in different colors, used for hauling the sails tight. They lay all soaking wet and tangled on the cockpit floor. And as his eyes hadn’t gotten fully used to the darkness, he had to feel for each one to make sure it was the one he thought it was. He groped about for the heavy winch handle and when he had found it, he put the cold metal under one of the cockpit cushions, so that it wouldn’t slip away. Then he turned the wheel all the way to the left. The stupid thing was that he couldn't see the sails. But he could hear and feel them. First the main fluttered and then the two sails in the front, the big genoa and the smaller staysail which was placed between the genoa and the mast. The main boom, which held the mainsail straight at the bottom, came over the other side with a crash and the two foresails quieted. Klaus let go of the jib sheet after a few more seconds and pulled the other side tight on the winch, which gave off a metallic screech. When he couldn’t haul in any more he got the winch handle and turned as fast as he could, first one way and then the other way in lower gear. Since he couldn’t see anything, he simply pulled the sail as tight as he could and then jumped back to the steering wheel to ease off a bit. He didn’t want to get the boat stalled. If he did that all hell would break loose with the sails banging around and with DOUBLE TROUBLE sitting like a duck in the water, unable to maneuver.

DOUBLE TROUBLE came about nicely and the lights swung from his port side over his bow on to his starboard side. Although they were still two white lights and a green, they were facing now his green light, which meant they were going roughly parallel. He kept an eye on those lights just in case and when they had finally disappeared into the night, he tacked once more to get on the correct course again.

The one leading to the English Channel and the open Atlantic.

What a pity that Michaela was not part of this. He missed her warm body and her smile. She had always liked horses and he liked her best when she was wearing her riding outfit, or when she came out of the stables, smelling of work, straw, and horse. He thought she’d love this as well, and maybe she would have, but she hadn’t allowed it a chance. Too bad.

“No, Klaus,” she’d said. “I am not going sailing and I am not going to wait for you, either. I am going to Berlin, and I am going to get my degree. I want to get on with my life. I am not a romantic dreamer. If you act like a mature, responsible person, then we should be able to find something that will suit both of us. I don’t care where we go. Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, whatever. But it’s got to be something real, something that will get us ahead in life, something that will get us a job when we are finished with studying,” she’d continued.

Klaus had had no doubts that she would get ahead with her life. But to give up his one chance of fulfilling a real dream? He’d decided that he would write to her and try to win her back when he’d done it. When he could prove that he wasn’t only a dreamer, but somebody who could successfully realize his dreams, too.

* * *

It was really cold now and he had to wear mittens although autumn had scarcely started. No sign of moon or stars, just overcast sky and the lights all around him. But he didn't really need the moon or the stars, not for a while anyway. He was off the coast of Holland now and had to head down towards Belgium and France in order go through the English Channel. Only when he had passed Brest in France and the island of Ouessant could he truly consider himself in the Atlantic. Then the Bay of Biscay, Cape Finisterre in Spain, all the way to the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco and Spanish Sahara in Africa.

He did get out his radio direction finder - the RDF - and used its compass to take a few bearings on several more prominent lights. He counted the seconds between the flashes with his stopwatch, then checked in the list of lights as to what light it could possibly be. He also got the auto-pilot to work and thought it most marvelous that it could steer DOUBLE TROUBLE completely by itself. If only the sun would come up soon.

* * *

The third day after leaving Hamburg announced itself with heavy fog instead of the hoped for sun. In no time at all he could hardly see the bow of his boat, let alone any lights or other ships. He heard heavy rhythmic noises though, drumming sometimes in the distance and sometimes alarmingly near. Ships seemed to be all over the place. He tried to calm himself by making himself some more tea, but he was only moderately successful. He couldn't be sure how near the ships actually were, as he knew that fog distorted sound and the ships may have only seemed very near.

The seasickness came back worse than before and Klaus had the feeling that it was triggered by his uncertainty and fear. But then why was the cat seasick, too? Maybe it picked up on his vibes?

“Hey, Teufelchen,” Klaus said, while holding a finger smeared with liver-pate in front of his mouth, “they say you gotta eat when you’re seasick, whether you feel like it or not. Come on, you little devil, it’ll make you feel better. I don’t feel like eating myself.”

Finally the kitten licked a little bit of the pate off his finger and when he found out that it tasted good, he became more vigorous and licked off a few more mouthfuls. Then he rolled up into a ball with the tail tucked under it and stared into space.

Klaus switched on the VHF radio again, but he couldn't make any sense out of the mish-mash of voices that came out of it. Besides, most of it was in Dutch and though it was somehow similar to German he could only guess as to its meaning. Damn this bloody fog. To hell with these high latitudes and the low temperatures, and to hell especially with the beastly weather.

He had never envisioned that just a little seasickness, a little cold, a little fog and a little fear could completely overwhelm him and make him want to go back into the harbor, sell the boat, and enroll in college as his parents wished and everybody expected. If things were so bad just off the coast of Holland, what would they be like on the Bay of Biscay? Or way out there on the Atlantic? The thought made him shudder. And it had all looked so easy when he had read about the men who sailed around the great capes. A little discomfort? So what? Some bad weather? Who cares? If he hadn’t felt so terrible he could have smiled about the nonchalance with which he had tossed all problems aside.

No way he could explain that things were simply different out here and took on a different order of importance. Or maybe he simply hadn’t found his sea-legs yet?

By late afternoon the fog finally lifted, to be replaced by gray skies and short, choppy waves. The white lines on his gray deck blurred and Klaus knew that it was high time for some real sleep. The deck was moving up and down, up and down, Klaus expecting the waves following each other just like the sun comes up every morning. Up and down, up and down, … Every time it went down, he experienced the sensation of a second, smaller fall, something trying to hurl the boat back to where it came from, but not quite succeeding.

A few seagulls were giving DOUBLE TROUBLE a cursory inspection, but when no food was forthcoming, they took off again. Teufelchen followed them with his eyes and made strange sounds of frustration when he couldn’t go after them.

Klaus saw the Dutch coast far away on port and on the other side the sea, all the way to England. He couldn’t smell anything because the beginnings of a cold blocked up his nose and his hands and feet had turned into slabs of cold meat. How could it be so cold out here? He could hear the slapping of the waves against the hulls as the boat moved through the water, the flapping of the sails, the banging of the halyards which were used for pulling up the sails against the golden aluminum mast and all those little creaks and groans that every boat on the move makes. Right now they didn’t have any meaning for him, but he hoped that one day he would be able to hear from the sounds, without any conscious effort at all, whether his boat was feeling happy or whether something should be changed.

Klaus sailed steadily west until he was at the height of Haarlem, then changed course to south-west. He went down below to mark the course change in the logbook, when he was suddenly thrown off balance. Klaus jumped out into the cockpit and was greeted by sails banging in the wind, sheets swishing through the air as if brandished by devils, and the boat stalled in the water. What the heck?

He uncoupled the auto-pilot, hauled the main over to the other side, and brought DOUBLE TROUBLE back on course again. What was wrong now? He reconnected the auto-pilot, but he wasn’t even back inside when he noticed that the bow was turning too much into the wind again. It was obvious that the machine didn’t do its work properly.

The auto-pilot had used so much power that it was sucking his batteries empty, and the solar panels couldn't keep up with the consumption in this cloudy weather. That meant he had to steer more than he had planned on and that again didn't allow him enough time to sleep. He'd stayed out of the shipping lanes all the time, but he still didn't trust the smaller vessels to stay in there and so he was forced to keep a constant lookout. And once he entered the channel properly, he would have no chance of sleep anymore. He had to get some sleep to be ready for the channel and the wise thing was to do it right now.

He changed course to get as far away from the shipping lanes as possible. He planned to furl the sails and have a good night's sleep before he attempted the channel. He took out the charts, the tidal atlas, and the sailing instructions to study the area he was in. After considering all the heavy traffic, the shoals and the tidal streams in the near vicinity, he decided that he couldn’t risk it.

He would have to keep taking naps of maybe half an hour at the wheel and if it got too cold out there, he would lie on the cabin floor with all his gear on. The only place where he could take a real sleep was right next to the coast and under anchor.

He stroked Teufelchen for a while and gave him some canned food for a change. He went into the galley and put a long-handled casserole on the stove. He caught it just as it started to move off the stove and onto the cabin floor, then secured it. That cooker was decidedly too slippery. When he was just trying to open the can of mushroom creme soup, a wave slammed into the boat and he had to brace himself. He managed to prevent the spill of anything out of the can, but was thrown against the door of the forward cabin and got the wind knocked out of him. He winced. Another bruise. He had already gotten bruised on both thighs when he collided with the built-in kitchen table next to the companionway. His body hurt all over. He looked at the soup coming to a boil and watched anxiously as the liquid came dangerously close to overflowing. When he finally sat down to eat his soup, he noticed that it had taken one hour to prepare this simple meal instead of the normal twenty minutes.

After he finished eating it was time to do the washing up. He filled the 20 inch stainless steel sink with sea-water, but it jumped out of the sink and messed up the galley floor. His soup bowls, cups, three large flat china plates glided around and he couldn’t find any place to put them anyway. He put the whole bunch of them all over the floor as the big rusty frying pan and the casserole - his most essential cooking utensils - sat on the two flame stove.

Only then he found out that it wasn’t so easy to move around amongst all the things he had put there. If he looked for spices, they were invariably stashed away in some remote corner of the pantry and in order to get there, he had to first remove the corn starch, the wheat flour, the sugar and the soy sauce, then crawl into the space the size of a small bookshelf, get whatever spice he was looking for, and then put it all back in place again. He couldn’t stow any more in his galley cupboard as that was already full up with coffee, tea, salt, lemon juice concentrate, chocolate powder and other food stuffs for everyday use.

Often he had to repeat the procedure, as he remembered wrongly or because things couldn’t be stowed away again. It had become night again and he decided to stay with some dry biscuits for the time being. After another look around, he took a short nap on the cabin floor carpet.

After what seemed like a few minutes he was rudely jolted awake by the blast of a horn and when he could finally see where the noise came from, he found a modern looking fishing boat next to him with all the working lights blinding him. Adrenaline coursed through his body and he felt almost unable to speak.

The Dutch flag was fluttering off a pole on its stern and antennas for VHF and radar sprouted all over the place. Though it was only about 12 meters long it looked like a real work-boat.

“Ahoy, mate. Everything all right with you? Do you need any assistance?” they shouted when they saw him coming out into the cockpit with his eyes blinking.

“Everything okay. No problem. And thanks for asking,” Klaus said, although he felt like asking for a lift to some place where life was a bit easier.

“If you have any trouble just check in with the VHF radio net on channel 16, then switch channels as they advise. We’d better be off now.”

“Sure. Thanks again. And good luck with your fishing.”

A few more awakenings like this and he’d look 35 years old instead of twenty.

He tested the VHF by checking into the radio-net and continued on towards the channel. He had only steered for three hours or so, when he caught himself standing at the stern after relieving himself. His right arm was crooked around one of the backstays, his feet were spread, the long line of his safety harness was still clipped to the traveler, and a shorter one to the stay he was holding on to. He had just been about to head back to the wheel, when a wave slammed into the port side of the boat, throwing him off balance.

With sudden, icy clarity he knew that he now was so tired that he couldn’t concentrate properly anymore. He was risking his own safety. Because it wasn’t necessary to go to the stern, as he had two heads down below. He hadn’t been thinking straight, reluctant to open the main hatch because he had given up on the cat-harness idea and simply kept the cat inside and the main hatch shut.

Earlier on he had looked at the compass without actually holding course, just dreaming and half nodding off. This was no good. He absolutely had to sleep or disaster was inevitable. He pointed the stern towards the Dutch coast to avoid the ships, furled the sails, and made sure that the oil lamp was burning bright in the mast. Down below, he set two alarms for an hour later and went to sleep on the couch in the sitting room, to be on deck faster if the need should arise.

* * *

He heard and felt the boat hitting something hard and knew immediately what had happened. Aground. The waves lifted and slammed him onto a bar and every time he was slammed down there might be something vital breaking. If he didn’t get the boat off the bar, the boat would break to pieces and he would be thrown in the icy water where he would face hypothermia. He would die for a stupid little mistake, having hardly begun his voyage.

The adrenaline pumping through his body worked within seconds. He jumped up and was out the main hatch, stepped on the cockpit seat and was on the roof, then clipped on the second line of his safety harness without any conscious thought.

The first shock gave way to heat as Klaus realized the full extent of the disaster. He couldn’t see any land around him anywhere, just more gray skies and gray sea, which meant that he had run aground upon a sandbar or shoal someplace off the Dutch coast. But in front of him there were breakers, white water, and he knew that white water was powerful enough to tear his boat apart into jagged splinters of fiberglass and broken wood. A sudden, all too real fear made Klaus shiver.

He threw aside the wooden covers over the outboard engines and banged his right hand into the bracket holding the center engine. Blood was streaming over his knuckles, turning pink as it hit the white lines on the deck, but Klaus ignored it. He pulled on the starter rope with all his might, then remembered that he had forgotten the choke in the hurry. He pushed in the black lever, pulled on the rope again and finally the outboard engine sprang to life. He jumped over to the starboard engine and could hardly pull the starter rope, as his hand was starting to hurt badly. He bit on his teeth and pulled two more times until this engine spluttered to life as well.

The outboards screamed as he revved them up, but the boat wouldn't move. It continued slamming onto the bar. The boat hit the ground and a shock went through the hulls, traveled upwards all the way up the mast and up his body as well. It sounded almost like heavy machinery trying to break apart concrete. He tried for a couple of minutes and then decided that something else had to be done. He unlashed the big fiberglass dinghy on the foredeck, threw it overboard, got the oars, oarlocks, the Danforth anchor and enough rope to try and winch the boat off the bar. He rowed until the boat was jerked back by the anchor rode, grabbed the heavy anchor, threw it overboard, and rowed back to DOUBLE TROUBLE. It was still raining slightly, while the wind became less, but Klaus didn't pay attention to any of these things while he fought for his boat.

He pulled in the slack, and the wet rope stung his hands, especially the right one. He put the rope on the winch and turned the handle first one and then the other way in low gear. His left hand pulling on the rope, his right hand on the winch, until the rope was so tight that all the water was pressed out of it and one could have walked on it. He had both engines running in reverse to help the winch as much as possible. Now he would have liked to have one of these expensive self-tailing winches. He could turn it. Just a tiny little bit, but he could at least turn the winch. After a while it became easier and easier, and he was just about to shout with joy, when he noticed that the boat didn't move. The anchor moved instead of the boat. He had to go over the whole procedure again - but this time with the heavier CQR plough-shaped anchor - taking care not to entangle his line in the props.

His arms hurt like hell now. Also, he had forgotten what the tide was like. Was it coming in or what? If no, it was pretty pointless to keep trying until it changed. But no time to find out now. He had to keep trying to get his boat of the bar before it was ground to pieces.

This time, again with the help of the engines, the boat did move. It still hit the bottom with every wave, but he could winch it out with every wave-crest that lifted the boat and after a lot of straining and swearing he finally got her off the bar. He left the muddy anchor on the deck and headed away from land, all the time trying to see if any other bars were lying in his way. This would never ever happen to him again, Klaus promised himself. Never mind what would happen to him, no way in hell would he lose his boat on some damn sandbar, rock or reef.

He took a look at the chart to find out where he was. He found a spot where he could anchor in peace near Schouwen and headed straight for it. It was madness to risk everything, just because of being in a hurry. When he arrived there, he lowered the CQR anchor and dug it in with both engines in full reverse. Then he went to sleep to be ready for the trip to Belgium and onwards.

Klaus woke up much refreshed, looked at the chart and realized that he had to go through the bottleneck called the Dover Straits next and then he had to sail another two days until he finally could reach the open Atlantic. Getting there seemed to be almost as difficult as finally crossing it, he thought. He unfurled the sails, checked into the channel radio-network via VHF, and got DOUBLE TROUBLE on the move again.

At all times of day or night he could see ferries and hydrofoils zooming across the water and he was very careful to stay out of their way. The weather stayed miserable all the time. Too much wind and bad visibility and cargo ships, ferries, fishing boats, or other ships.

Soon Klaus was alternately drinking coffee and taking little swigs out of the Tabasco bottle, but at the end of his seventh day at sea he finally got into the Atlantic. He knew that he would never sail again through the channel alone, or at least he would stop along the way to be well rested at all times. It was madness. He had become an automaton, just continuing because he was programmed that way and reacting to the environment instinctively. But he also knew that he had just passed the first real test of his seamanship and determination. Many experienced so called ‘yachtsmen’ had never made it that far. Finally he could get on with real ocean sailing. He wished that he could check in with Norddeich Radio to make a phone call back home, but as he had no marine SSB transmitter for long-distance communication, he had to be content with thinking of home. Of all the people he personally knew, he was the only one who had sailed his boat single-handedly from his home-port into the Atlantic. And he inwardly thanked his grandmother, who had made all of this possible through her generosity and, finally, her understanding.

“Why on earth do you want to go risking your life like that?” Oma had said, “It is a completely pointless exercise and I can’t allow myself to help you with this plan in any way whatsoever.”

“It is not crazy at all,” Klaus had replied, “Every year about 3,000 sailing yachts go on ocean-crossing voyages, many of them sail all the way around the world. It’s just that if an accident happens, it is blown out of all proportion by the media.”

“Never mind what you say, people die out there and they die for no good reason whatsoever.” Oma had said stubbornly.

“I don’t know what you mean by a good reason. I know that there aren’t any new continents to be discovered and all that stuff. But I also know that these oceans will not be around the way we know them now for much longer. People are destroying them….”

“Here you go again with your radical ideas,” Oma had accused him.

“I am not talking politics now, you know. I just want to see all the beauty there is to see before it’s too late. I want to see dolphins, flying fish, whales, and all the other creatures that are getting fewer and fewer all the time. This has been a big dream of mine for a long time, since I was a kid actually, and now I have the chance to make it come true, I should give it up?”

“I fail to see why you have to do it in such a dangerous fashion,” Oma had said.

“Because there is no other way to really see it. You can’t do it from a cruise-ship or from the shore. And even if you could, it would never be the same. And, another thing, I want to do something completely by myself. Something I can be really proud about. When I am your age, I want to have a talk with my grandchildren and tell them about the time their granddaddy went out on a little boat to have a good look at this whole planet of ours.”

She had remained skeptical at first. Thought of it as unnecessary risk and adolescent foolishness. Then, after a lot of arguing about the matter, she had changed her tone to say that it was maybe all right for some guys with a lot of sailing experience and knowledge of boats, it was still highly unsuitable for Klaus. He had explained to her how much it meant to him, had showed her pictures and impressed her with all the books he had read about sailing and circumnavigations. When she realized that he was going to do it anyway, sooner or later, her defenses had finally gone down. She had settled herself comfortably in a brown deer-leather armchair with a footstool, a cup of black coffee and some coconut macaroons by her side and grilled him for hours about practical questions concerning his trip. The smell of the coffee and the macaroons was in the air and Klaus regretted that he hadn’t helped himself to some of them as well.

“Let’s just assume, that you actually make the trip,” Oma had said, “How long would a trip around the world take?”

“If all is planned very well out in advance and if no unforeseen mishaps occur, it could be done in two years. If you miss the right season for sailing on, it would take three years.” Klaus had replied.

“Two to three years. That’s an awfully long time. And you would need more than just a little money to support yourself and keep the boat in good repair for that long. And pay all the other expenses that go along with it.” Oma still didn’t look convinced. “And who would be coming with you, anyway? I hope you are not planning to sail all alone?”

“I have a friend, Robert, who has been interested in sailing together with me since he heard about the trip. He’s been sailing since he went to school; they even have a sailing boat themselves.” Klaus didn’t tell her that that boat was little more than a dinghy with one single sail to make it move.

“And this Robert, he knows what he is doing?” Oma had asked.

“Sure. We went sailing in their boat together before and that’s the main reason why I told him about this idea. I knew he would like to come along.”

That conversation had been easy for Klaus, as he had thought about the circumnavigation for years. He took out maps with courses drawn on them, pilot charts and almanacs and told her more about Robert, who was going to be his first mate. Only it hadn’t quite worked out that way. It had, however, brought his grandmother around. Finally Klaus had said, ”You’ll be the first to receive a postcard, from either Tenerife or Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.” And she would be.

* * *

As soon as he was in the Atlantic he let the auto-pilot steer and went down below to get some rest. He had the chance now and he was not about to waste it. Teufelchen crawled up to him onto the sleeping bag and tried to get inside. Finally he curled up in the crook of his arm and Klaus drifted away into sleep.

Many hours later he woke up and noticed that the wind had become much less. It was all dark outside and he couldn't see a ship anywhere. He uncoupled the auto-pilot and switched it off, then experimented with a rubber hose to keep the boat on course. After a lot of fiddling around with the sails and the rubber he finally managed to get it to hold a more or less steady course. It was still zigzagging a bit, but now things were at an acceptable level. He had finally overcome his seasickness completely and he was very hungry. For the first time on this horrible trip he felt good.

He went down below to make himself a belated brunch, and the pancakes as well as the strong coffee tasted extra good. He felt confident that if he did his navigation right he should make it to the Canaries without further trouble.

The little kitten was jumping around everywhere, venturing all over the foredeck and Klaus was in a constant worry that he would fall off.

“Teufelchen,” he shouted, “Come here. If I see you one more time jumping onto that boom you’ll get locked up in the cabin again, good weather or no.” But when the little black devil came close, Klaus picked him up and put him on his lap.

“You foolish little kitten, you,” Klaus said, “What would I do if you fell overboard? Even if I did notice, how could I keep my eyes on you and tack at the same time? I’d never get you back on board.”

Teufelchen let himself fall on his side and when Klaus stroked him, he began to purr and licked Klaus’s hand. Then he pushed his hands away with his hind-feet and grabbed them with the front claws at the same time.

“Ouch, “ Klaus said, “Keep your bloody claws in when you want to play, you little rascal.” He then picked the kitten up and gave him some more delicacies to munch from. Every fifteen to twenty minutes he had to go outside and correct the course a little, but at the moment that didn't really bother him.

* * *

A few days later Klaus switched on his little Sony short-wave radio to listen to the BBC time-signal, news, and weather forecast. His watch was six seconds fast, which he duly noted in the log. The news contained the usual dismal stories of trouble everywhere in the world, and he eagerly waited for the weather forecast.

When he listened to it, he felt his stomach contract, muscles go tense, and his mouth go dry. Not only was there going to be no sun, but an actual storm was coming his way, with sea warnings in effect for the whole Bay of Biscay and beyond. Klaus took out his pilot books and went over to the chart table.

“Because of the relatively low depth, seas can become extremely rough even in force eight winds.” And a few lines down: “These violent storms occur especially in autumn and the seas generated by them can be very dangerous.” Klaus kept swallowing. His mouth was completely dry.

“Shit,” he whispered to Teufelchen. “Sweet Holy Jesus. This is going to be the mother of them all and the two of us will have to take care of it all by ourselves, what do you say to that, devilcat?”

Without even one look at the chart he knew immediately what he had to do. He went out to the cockpit and changed course. Away from land. He did not intend to join all the other boats who had tried to run for shelter there, only to be shattered on the rocks. The wind was blowing his blond hair into his eyes, so he put the hood of his blue anorak over his head. But now he couldn’t hear very well, which left him feeling out of touch with the elements when he most needed it. That wouldn’t do. He went down into the galley, got the scissors and went into the bathroom . He pulled the hair in the front straight and with a few cuts all the long hair in the front was gone. He had treasured it since he was seventeen, had had plenty of arguments about it with his parents and especially his father, and now he had to cut it off because of the weather. Too bad, but it would grow again.

He did not change the sails or even reduce the sail area, as he wanted maximum speed as long as he could head away from land. After DOUBLE TROUBLE was on its new course, Klaus walked the deck to check on the sheets and reefing lines. He straightened out the kinks and tightened the reefing lines in their drums, so that he could furl them in an instant. His eyes were moving all over the boat, looking for possible handholds and attachment points for his life-lines.

Behind the boat two strips of white foam, like railroad tracks, disappeared towards the horizon. With every wave the wind blew spray over the boat, so that Klaus had to duck and he had to wedge his mug of hot tea under the main halyard, so that the mug wouldn't fly away. Even so, it began to taste saltier and saltier. The most amazing thing was that he could still steer his boat easily, literally with one finger. Once in a while it smashed into a wave and the whole body of the boat would vibrate for a little while and Klaus wondered if the pounding would do any damage. But he decided that it was always the people that didn't make it, only rarely the boats they were on. Not to worry. Yet.

He did roll in the foresail a little, but more to see how difficult it was to do under pressure. Not a big problem. He could always turn into the wind if it became too heavy, but he wanted to avoid that because he knew that all hell would break loose if he turned the bow into the wind now. Just to be prudent he rolled in the genoa some more, which was the biggest sail out in the front and then the mainsail as well.

When he looked at the knot meter he almost couldn't believe his eyes. Where the maximum theoretical boat speed of a monohull of 35 feet should be around 6.5 knots, he achieved regularly ten knots on his catamaran, sometimes twelve and even fifteen. And that was only because the instrument couldn't show more than fifteen. When he surfed down a big wave, the needle stayed there for quite a while and Klaus felt like skiing down a steep slope in the Alps at full blast. He shuddered when he thought what would happen if he made a mistake on one of these surf-rides. Would the catamaran capsize? But then, it was so easy to steer, that he thought that he wouldn't make a mistake easily. The black kitten didn’t like the weather or the motions of the boat. He stayed inside now and didn’t move around very much.

The sky and the sea looked very different from the beginning of the trip now. Instead of short choppy waves a long ocean swell lifted his boat in a rhythm like breathing. Klaus could imagine that people got so used to it that they fell flat on their faces when they walked on solid land again. And the ugly grayness and low hanging clouds of a few days ago were replaced by a dark, hard, icy blue sky while brilliantly white clouds were moving swiftly across the horizon.

The sea and the sky seemed alive, although he still couldn’t see any birds or fish anywhere. The sea and the turbulent sky gave him that feeling and like never before he noticed the contrast between the cold chaos around him and his cozy boat. Where the North Sea had seemed small, hemmed in, and controlled by land, with its currents turned this way and that, he felt an incredible power here. Awesome, especially now with a storm coming up. And also, it was one of the few places remaining where the eye was not arrested by some man-made structure. Compared to the variety and color one found on land, it exuded monumental power that maybe only a very big mountain-range could equal.

After steering for a couple of hours he suddenly realized that he couldn't leave the wheel anymore. He was trapped right where he was, because he hadn't programmed the auto-pilot to deal with the much bigger waves and wind pressure and, anyway, the juice wouldn't last very long. He could take down the sails and pay out the sea anchor, but that would mean that he would stay in this dangerous corner longer than he had to anyway. And in this weather he couldn't trust his rubber hose to keep the boat on course; that would be too dangerous.

The wind was a steady force eight now with gusts to nine and the sea shone white all about him. Klaus kept the stern to the big following seas and made sure that the angle always stayed below 20 degrees. His shoulders ached from steering continuously and his feet seemed to have ceased to exist. He had a headache because of the tension and it didn’t look like it was going to get any better soon. Time had come to a standstill. Only one reality and it was the intersection of the when and the where and the why. He had never been anywhere else, he was here always, and he would remain here forever.

His hair was wet and salty, his eyes red and tired, the skin on his hands wrinkled like that of an old witch. He was glad that he was wearing woolen winter clothes and a windproof jacket, but he still felt colder and colder inside. If it didn't stop soon, he would have to heave-to, and eat some warm food or he'd run the risk of hypothermia. Also, he wondered how Teufelchen was doing inside, as he had had no time to change the cat litter or give him fresh food.

When his eyes fell on all the ropes coiling around in the cockpit, he had an idea. He reefed the sails further, so that only about one square meter of cloth remained, just enough to give the boat steering way. Then he got out the heavy warps normally used for securing the boat in a harbor and trailed them behind in loops. Now he could leave the boat again to the 'rubber-auto-pilot' as he had dubbed it.

He went inside and took off all his wet clothes. He carried them into the bathroom, toweled himself off and put on some dry clothes. How good it felt to be dry and warm again. The movement was still very abrupt and he had to hold on to things in order to avoid losing his balance. Also, inside it felt as if his seasickness was going to come back.

Teufelchen hadn’t come to any harm, but was sleeping contentedly on top of his sleeping bag. Klaus made himself some hot soup and when he drank it he looked at the chart. The feeling of seasickness worsened right away. He quickly lay down on the bunk in the center of the boat where he could look out of the long windows to the side. But he couldn’t see anything except for cold water crashing into his boat. He lay there for a long time, once in a while going out into the cockpit to check on things. The BBC had said that the weather wouldn’t get better any time soon. It seemed to take forever.

When the storm finally abated, Klaus felt like crawling into just any old hole to sleep or hibernate for the rest of his life. Because of the lack of sunlight and the frequent use of the electronic auto-pilot, his batteries were down. Not good. He would either have to rely on steering or on balancing the boat just so that it would hold course by itself, or he would have to get his batteries recharged. And it was still a long way to go to Las Palmas or Santa Cruz de Tenerife. If he changed course now, it would certainly mess up his plans of going to the Canaries non-stop. But weren’t plans just an ideal scenario, to be adapted to the concrete circumstances whenever it was necessary?

La Coruna had not been on the agenda, but the important thing was to get to the Canaries before it was too late in the year and in one piece. He did not want to go through the same experience as Jimmy Wharram with his two girls who had been stranded in Portugal for one whole winter. If he wanted to sail around the world, he had to get to the Canaries, but he had to have a functioning auto-pilot to do that.

La Coruna came into sight at lunch-time. Teufelchen had come out on deck again and looked towards the land, sniffing the air. Klaus was surprised at how far away the little cat could smell the land. He was obviously excited and longed to go ashore. The black whiskers were pointing forward and the pupils were as big as pennies, although it was bright daylight.

He would have to stay down below, though, as Klaus was not sure what the regulations were for animals on board. Probably some godawful quarantine that would cost a fortune as well. Best not to let the cat run around and attract attention. So Teufelchen was locked up inside. When he got into the harbor, he found a "Real Club Nautico" where he picked up an empty mooring. He paid 800 Pesetas for the mooring for three days, did all the paperwork, gave his battery for charging, and went to sleep.

How very nice it was to be in a safe harbor, with showers only a few steps away, and even a restaurant with a bar. When Klaus saw the prices for things his enthusiasm turned into alarm. He stood in front of a big red and white battery, exactly what he had had in mind, and looked at the price tag. It said 31,000 Pesetas - almost 520 Marks. That’s enough money to go sailing for at least half a month, Klaus thought. If I start spending money like this, I might as well put up a “For sale” sign on the boat right away. He turned his back on all the gleaming hardware and walked out of the ship chandler’s.

He went back to the yacht club and asked around for old car batteries. Finally he ended up in the same shed where his battery was being charged. It was full of batteries, and when he asked the mechanic if he had any second-hand ones for sale, the old Spaniard just pointed to a wall.

“They won’t last very long,” he warned Klaus.

“A few weeks will do.”

“Why don’t you buy a couple of good new ones?”

“Too expensive.”

“I can give you these for 1200 Pesetas each.”

“Three for 3,000.”

“But that won’t include the charging.”

“Come on, man. Just plug them in overnight and I’ll take those three, fully charged, for 3000 Pesetas.”

“Done.”

The batteries meant additional weight, which would slow him down and make the boat more awkward to maneuver, but when he had put all the heavy batteries into the two lockers in the cockpit, he felt much better.

The whole weekend he went around and in the end he had altogether five car batteries. They were all fully charged and he figured that he would simply use them one after the other and recharge them as best as he could. He would get a wind generator in the Canaries, that was for sure. Together with the two solar panels it should provide enough electricity to run the auto-pilot at all times.

He was not going to try to sail across the Atlantic without a properly working auto-pilot, no way. Monday he spent buying fresh food and doing more paperwork to leave the place, paid again and then jumped into the water to check the hull where he had gone aground. He saw only a few minor scratches, but while he inspected the rest to the boat, he noticed a few tiny blisters that he couldn’t remember seeing before. And the Snowgoose was a fiberglass boat. He hoped that he was wrong and those blisters didn’t mean what he thought they meant. If they were really caused by osmosis, he would be in a lot of trouble. He decided that he would have them checked by a professional boat-builder in the Canaries and worry about them there. Then he went to bed early so as to start as soon as possible on Tuesday.

He left the "Real Club Nautico" in first daylight and in the evening he was off Cabo Finisterre. Huge waves threw the stern of DOUBLE TROUBLE first to port and then to starboard, and the auto-pilot took too long to correct for the effect of the waves - and when the boat finally was on the right course, he kept on correcting. Klaus got out the SHARP manual. He put it on the floor, held it down with his left knee and kept punching buttons in sequence with his right hand until the tiny control unit was reprogrammed.

The next day brought heavy weather, wind force eight to nine again and huge seas. He only had little triangles the size of ordinary towels left of the sail and even with that the boat was doing maximum speed again. He was much less frightened this time, but unfortunately his seasickness had returned after the brief stay in La Coruna. Same with Teufelchen. At least this time he knew that it wasn't going to last forever, but it still didn't make it any more pleasant.

When the storm had blown itself out, the weather became warm and pleasant. Although the sun shone now and thereby helped to recharge the batteries, the first one was flat after only four days and Klaus thanked his foresight in buying a whole bunch of them. He switched to the next one. He even caught some fish, which looked like a snapper and he baked it in his oven. Together with Spanish red wine it tasted delicious. Teufelchen was purring at his loudest when Klaus gave him some parts of the fish that he didn’t want to eat. The only problem was that the cat stank of fish for hours afterwards, as he licked himself very carefully after the meal. In the daytime Klaus took out his Cassens & Plath sextant and shot the sun, then figured out his position according to the H.O. 249 tables and the nautical almanac. That didn't work. He then figured the noon latitude, which worked fine. After reading some more about the matter he figured that the noon longitude would be the next step and that one worked out fine as well. Together with the RDF he felt that he had a pretty good idea where he was and he figured that everything was okay anyway as long as he couldn't see any land anywhere around him.

Now he finally got the weather that he had always hoped for. Although it was still way too cold for his liking, the sun was shining and in the daytime he was warm enough. Blue skies and the steely blue of the sea had changed to a sparkling marine blue, with white crests here and there that shimmered in the sun. A slight gray haze hung above the horizon, just enough to obscure a ship that would otherwise have been visible.

His feet and especially his hands were developing calluses from walking on the anti-skid deck and constantly pulling on the sheets. It didn’t hurt, but made him feel more like a man who is working for what he wants and it was a good feeling. Once in a while he saw a bird flying around, and he was sure plenty of fish swam in the water under his hulls, so that he almost wished for a calm. But he knew that calms would come soon enough. Now was the time of swift sailing and good weather and he was more than grateful for it. In the daytime he left brilliant white tracks behind, that were streaking towards a milky horizon, which would turn red in the evening. The water rushed along his hulls as if alive and at night there was the milky-way overhead, partly obscured by small clouds that rushed across the firmament. Just after sunset and just before sunrise he could see several satellites zooming along. If only he could have shown them to Michaela. He envisioned her lying on the foredeck with him, looking up into the sky and pointing out stars, planets and satellites. Like that time when they had gone into the forest in an autumn gale and embraced a big tree together. They could feel it moving and vibrating, and they knew that it was alive. “It’s beautiful,” she had said. “Very,” had been his answer.

Teufelchen was getting really adept at moving around on a boat. He used to sway with the waves before each jump and almost always landed perfectly on his black paws. It was a pleasure watching the little devil doing his mischief and it was even nicer when he came over to him to get stroked. He always purred loudly and if he wanted something he started to meow.

Klaus steered as much as he could handle and worked on his navigation. He cooked his meals and ate and did the dishes and slept. Again he experienced the rhythm of the ocean and the peace that accompanied it. He had gotten used to the boat's movements and didn't bump his head anymore when he stepped through the main hatch.

The best part of every day was the sunset, which he celebrated with a “sundowner”, a drink to fit the mood of the day and always a different one. His favorite one was a bit troublesome to make, but the more rewarding afterwards. He got out his glass cocktail shaker and filled it with ice from his gas fridge, added gin, juice of a lemon, the yolk of an egg, two teaspoons of sugar and a bit of his precious grenadine syrup, then shook the whole thing for a couple of minutes, poured it into an iced glass and filled it up with equally precious soda water. The ice-cold drink contrasted perfectly with the warm air and the peace of the boat as it moved across the sea as he had envisioned it for years.

He then took it out to the foredeck or sometimes just into the cockpit, there to look at the colors of the sunset and the play of the clouds high up in the sky. It never looked the same twice and it was magnificent every time. Somehow it didn’t even feel like the same planet that he had inhabited before. Everything was so far away and what his eyes saw was so ethereal that he could only compare it to dreams, fairy tales, or ancient myths that he had read about when he was still a little boy.

By the time he had finished his drink, the sun was usually below the horizon and the first planets began to shine in the sky. Time to practice with the sextant and then to cook dinner.

Before he had been so busy coping with the various disasters that he'd hardly had time to feel lonely. But now he very much wanted somebody to talk to. Preferably a girl that loved him and would sail with him until the end of the world. Like Michaela. Only that Michaela thought that real life wasn’t like that. For her real life meant a career, a job, an apartment or a house. The more he thought about it, the more Klaus felt that they were growing further and further apart with every minute he spent at sea.

He also spent a lot of time writing in his diary. He kept it apart from the logbook, where he only recorded facts, observations and things that had a direct relation to the boat or the voyage. In his diary he wrote about his feelings, thoughts, plans - basically everything that came into his mind that wasn't covered by the logbook. Especially the antics of Teufelchen. And when he didn’t write in his diary, he wrote letters.

He had never felt loneliness as keen as this before and he wondered why that was. Maybe it was the physical distance to the next human being somewhere on a ship beyond the horizon, he didn't know. He had never missed his friends so much and he was surprised by an attack of homesickness and the strength of the feeling. If only he had Michaela to sail with him and to talk to.

Suddenly he had an idea. He could use the VHF radio and scan for somebody who could relay the conversation to the public telephone network. He could phone reversed charges or have the call billed to his home number and at least he could say hello and that all was well with him.

He was lucky. One of the first stations he called told him that a reversed charges call, a “cobro revertido”, was not a problem. After only a few minutes, he could hear the ring on the other side.

“Klaus? Where are you?” he could hear Michaela say.

“At sea. On my way to the Canary Islands. I am talking via VHF radio, so I can either listen or speak, but not both at the same time. How are you?” Klaus said.

It felt so good hearing her voice.

“Very well, actually, how about you? How are things going?”

“Fine, fine, just very lonely out here. I can’t tell you how much I miss you.”

“Don’t start that again,” Michaela said, her tone changing. “In fact I am glad you called. I am going to move in with another guy soon. We met at university and we have pretty much the same ideas about everything.”

“Oh,” Klaus said, “Congratulations.” And he thought, so soon. So very soon. I am not even down to my first real stop and she’s together with another guy.

“I’d better ring off now, this must cost a fortune,” he told Michaela.

“Yeah, sure. Send me a postcard, when you’ve arrived, will you? And take care,” she said as she rung off.

Well, Klaus thought. I guess I should have expected something like that. Only I didn’t. He was surprised at how cool he seemed to be about it. It was as if he was detached from his feelings, only his head in charge, analyzing things. He switched off the VHF radio, and hung the microphone back on the wall. Then he went in search of Teufelchen. He found him lying on his bed, and when he began to stroke the black fur, Teufelchen opened his mouth in a big yawn. The whiskers pointed forward and soon he started purring.

Klaus could feel the raspy tongue on the back of his hand and thought that at least Teufelchen seemed content to be with him.

“You little bugger seem to be quite happy here,” Klaus said. “But I bet you would be equally happy somewhere else, as long as there was plenty of food around and occasionally someone to play with you and stroke your fur.”

Teufelchen stopped licking him and looked at Klaus. The pupils were large and black, while the irises formed small green-yellow bands. Klaus played with the soft black ears and felt a sudden surge of affection for his only companion. Teufelchen likes me, he thought. Unconditionally and expecting no more than a bit of food and water, a clean litter box and once in a while a bit of attention. He didn’t want Klaus to do certain things or refrain from doing them. Teufelchen never criticized or blamed him, unless Klaus forgot to take care of his basic needs. How much nicer and how much less complicated than people cats are, Klaus thought. Then he went out again to take a shot with the sextant.

Finally, his observations put him close enough to the Canaries that he began looking out for Mount Teide, the big volcano on Tenerife. He mistook many clouds for mountains, but in the end one cloud didn't move away or simply disappeared into thin air and he knew that he had found his first island in the ocean.

* * *

When Klaus sailed into the Darsena Pesquera in Tenerife he was a very different man from the one who had left Germany only three weeks ago. He was dog tired, bruised, and he hadn’t eaten anything much but canned food, muesli and crackers since he’d left Hamburg. He fully understood that sailing around the world would take all the determination, strength, and resources he could muster. As well as luck. It was one thing to know things intellectually from books, movies, the TV, and from what other people told you. It was quite another to feel his body jerked up and down, smashed into walls and corners, to feel wet or at least damp all day and all night; to know that you couldn’t just turn around in your bed but that you had to get up and go out there into the rain and the cold and half tear your arms out while pulling on some stiff sheet that cut into your hands. One thing was the head and only the head. And the other was the whole being. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, and emotions. The feeling of being here now.

Klaus had learned how to handle his boat, how to repair broken equipment on his own, and how to deal with complete loneliness. And he also was one of the few who had managed their escape. For that’s as he saw it. Here was a place advertised by travel agents all over Europe, the posters showing date-palms, agaves, cactus, and above all pristine beaches. He couldn’t see any of this, though.

It was pitch black which was no wonder as it was past midnight, but he hadn't expected to come in that late. He swore under his breath to keep his rising panic in check. He knew very well that it was a bad idea to sail into an unknown harbor at night but he knew equally well that another night out there would be murderous. Especially since he hadn't slept much the last three nights. Who would have thought that the last few miles would turn into another nightmare of sleepless unending nights and the terror of cargo ships or fishing trawlers trying to run him down? The harbor was fairly full, not one mooring to be seen. At the very end he saw some sailing boats, to the right some big ships and to the left quite a few medium size trawlers. Nowhere to moor his boat easily.

Fortunately he had very little wind, which was certainly better than a lot or none at all. No wind at all would have been perfect if he could have relied on his engines, but they had developed the unhealthy habit of quitting all the time, preferably in the midst of a maneuver in tight quarters like these. He sailed back and forth and finally decided to go alongside a smallish fishing trawler, that apparently had lain there for years. The white paint was peeling off and falling into the black oily water, while the unmistakable smell of diesel, rotting fish and wet rope assailed his nostrils. One good thing about this harbor was the multitude of bright white lights, which were near the refrigeration buildings and still provided light here on the other side.

He knew that as soon as he stepped on dry land, replacement parts had to be found, money had to be made, work on the boat had to be done. He started both 25 horsepower Suzuki outboard engines, which made a hell of a racket in the quiet harbor and let them idle for the time being while he jumped forward to free the jammed roller-reefing of the oversize genoa. Back into the cockpit to pull on the reefing line, until all the sail was rolled in. By this time he had drifted perilously close to one of the ships and had to engage his engines to get away from the monster. When he had accomplished that, he put them into idle again, to roll up the mainsail. This was very small on his boat and presented no problems at all. When both sails were in, he felt a lot better, but he wasn't finished yet. He figured he could roll in the last one, the staysail, before he had to motor away again. When he rolled it in, it jammed as well. Only, this time, he couldn't free the reefing line. It had become stuck between the drum and the stay, and it was damaging the drum in the process. Oh, hell. He jumped back to the engine and got into the middle of the harbor again. Also, the wind had picked this moment for gaining strength, or was that just his imagination? Probably not. He pulled the whole sail down, threw some loops of sheet around it and tied it down where it was. Then back to the cockpit. The trouble was that he couldn't handle the engine controls from where the steering wheel was, so that he had to jump back and forth. He slowly came closer to the boat he had selected, and put both machines into reverse and low speed.

Even though the engines didn't quit this time, Klaus couldn't avoid scraping his rubbing strake off at the trawlers side and putting deep scratches into the dark blue gelcoat of DOUBLE TROUBLE. Sailing on the ocean was easy, maneuvering in harbor not. He jumped around like a maniac, tied ropes in all kinds of unseamanly ways everywhere, until he was satisfied that he wouldn't just drift off while being ashore or asleep.

The yellow flag, signaling his intention to see the port officials, had been flying since he first made out Mount Teide and the Canary Islands. He doubted that anybody would show up real soon, though. Seemed that the Spaniards were pretty easy-going about where boats came from or went to, so he decided to have a little look around.

Teufelchen had been smelling the land the whole day and was very much interested in exploring this interesting new place too. But Klaus feared that he would never see him again, so he locked him up inside. Although he could hear him meowing loudly, he pretended that he was hard of hearing and turned the key in the padlock.

With a bit of luck he'd even be able to get a beer someplace. He wouldn't mind getting absolutely obliterated, if only in order to forget all the work and trouble that awaited him and fall into a dreamless sleep, free of anxiety, loneliness and pain. He wouldn't mind that at all.

He'd run out of beer days ago and was extremely thirsty. He climbed up to the concrete pier and brushed off his pants. Always get dirty in harbors, he thought.

He almost ran into a big piece of machinery that somebody had put onto the pier because it felt strange to walk on solid land again. He expected a wave to come and prepared for it - only the wave never came. He also found that the stench seemed even worse up there than down at the water. It seemed to come out of some big black holes that were spaced at regular intervals along the wall. When he tried to look down one of them he couldn’t see anything at all. He felt the rough concrete edge as far as he could and he thought he heard the sound of water at the bottom. Wouldn’t do to drown in one of them holes after having come here all the way, Klaus thought. He walked past the big ships and came to the end.

He turned left and now came to an area where several little yachts were tied up. On a few of them he saw lights and from a particularly small one he heard voices and laughter. "Hola." he shouted.

A curly head appeared out of the cockpit. A big smiling mouth and a lone golden earring was all that Klaus could make out in the poor light.

"You look like you could use a drink,” said golden earring.

"Wouldn’t mind one at all, thanks," Klaus answered.

“Well, let’s see what we can find. Some Spanish tinto okay with you?”

“Anything. Anything at all will be just fine.”

After Klaus had come aboard the little sloop and went back into the cockpit, the guy introduced himself as Thierry, another guy as Henri, and an Asian girl called Su-yi. Klaus couldn’t take his eyes off her. She had shoulder-length straight black hair with a brown sheen to it, small wrists and hands, and she was wearing a thin sleeveless white blouse of the lightest cotton. Almost transparent.

She also smiled all the time. She was short - and Klaus liked small women. He wondered where she came from and how she had got here. Her name sounded Chinese. Anyway, he'd soon find out. He was offered some Spanish red wine, picked up the glass with the dark red liquid and toasted towards the three of them.

The French-looking guy called Henri next to her was just slightly taller than Su-yi and he had a rather shy, scholarly look about him. He wore John Lennon glasses and Klaus had the feeling that he would be much more comfortable in a cozy armchair by the fire, reading a book by Joseph Conrad or Sommerset Maugham.

Here the diesel and fish smells of the rest of the harbor mingled with the smell of wood, tobacco and wine to create an almost pleasant mixture. From the cabin came the sounds of Renault and "Dans son petit magazin..." Klaus felt at home right away. The wine was warm and rather rough, but to Klaus it tasted better than the best Bordeaux he had ever had.

Su-yi looked at the ruggedly handsome blond man who had appeared out of nowhere and now proceeded to drink all their wine. She thought that after a haircut, a shower, and a change of clothes he would look quite presentable. He apparently liked to laugh a lot, as little wrinkles were beginning to form around his eyes and she was always attracted to men who went out there alone anyway. Unlike her father, who had never done anything with his life at all except make it miserable for her mother as well as the children. He was a weakling beyond description and expected her to marry another weakling just like himself, working in an office, preferably with an MBA and his own small trading company. One day there would be a big showdown, when he would finally realize that his cute little daughter had absolutely no intention of doing as he wished.

She noticed that Klaus was looking at her all the time, and when she looked back into his eyes, he didn’t look away. She smiled. Things were exactly as they should be. Su-yi was well aware of her beauty and she thought that it would be a good idea to wear something especially stunning in the next few days.

She’d had about enough of the guy on whose boat she had crewed to get to the Canaries. He didn't have the guts to really make a go of this sailing adventure anyway. At first she had thought that here finally was a man to her tastes, cool and tough, about to sail around the world, while still leaving her all the freedom that she desired and needed. That's the way it had looked to her when she had first stepped on his tiny yacht, but after only a short while she had found an immature young man who couldn't make any decisions and who always relied on his parents to bail him out of trouble if it ever should arise. But she did like sailing. It was so beautiful out there. The colors of the sea and the sky, especially early in the morning or during sunset; the sounds the boat made while parting the waters and the wind singing in the rigging. And sometimes fish and dolphins came by or little birds. What she really wanted to do, was soak up all these images and then sit down quietly in some beautiful place to paint.

"Looked like you had some excitement on your catamaran there," Thierry remarked. His golden earring sparkled in the sparse light and he looked as if he belonged into another century where pirates roamed the seas and Spanish doubloons were what they were after.

"Normal operating procedure," Klaus replied.

"Funny way of parking," Henri said.

"And who drove our bow into the concrete pier when we arrived here?" Su-yi asked.

"Touch é. "

“I just want to replenish my cash, get the boat ready and sail to the Caribbean. Don’t intend to stay more than a little while,” Klaus said.

“You just got here and you are already talking of leaving,” Su-yi teased him.

“Temptation is too great if I stay too long,” Klaus replied.

Su-yi just smiled at him while playing with a blue piece of enameled china, which hung around her neck on a leather string.

Klaus couldn't quite figure out what was going on here and he didn't plan to find out right now. So he changed the topic and found out that they all needed to make some cash. He had difficulty focusing on the conversation, because he was much more interested in Su-yi. He just couldn’t stop staring at her twirling that necklace with her small fingers. And without a blink she looked back at him. He thought that the others were aware of it too, but he couldn't look away.

Asian women had always seemed most desirable to him, but he had never had the chance of getting to know one. He realized that his behavior was out of line and his thoughts even more so, but he could do nothing about it, especially as he caught a little whiff of her perfume which symbolized the whole mysterious East for him. It created an immediate sense of deja vu, of a romantic experience that was almost painful to remember in its intensity.

They talked about the chances of making money in the Canaries. Apparently the prospects were less than good. Klaus inquired whether they knew somebody who knew about boat-building around here and they told him that they’d introduce him to the man the next day.

The next morning Klaus woke up with a start because the familiar movement of the boat was missing. He'd had a nice erotic dream featuring Su-yi and him on some tropical island beach under frangipani trees. The sun was up and warm already and he could hear the sounds of fishing trawlers and people working on the docks. The cat still wanted to go out, and this time Klaus could understand him even better, but he locked him up again. “Poor Teufelchen,” he said, “But we don’t want you to get in trouble with the quarantine guys and we also don’t want you to simply disappear in this harbor here.”

The fishing boats were painted in bright colors, mostly red, but some were green or blue, with yellow stripes. He saw a big tuna, perhaps two meters long, being hoisted on one of the little cranes on the dock. It was a magnificent fish and Klaus felt a little sad that it had to give up its life only to end up in some can, little appreciated by the people who opened it. The eyes were big, black and clear and the body was perfectly streamlined, the shape of a hunter. The fishermen on the boats were mostly clad in blue while in the distance he could see mountains, and between the harbor some wasteland, desert-like and covered with cactus and other thorny plants. Not exactly the most beautiful place he had ever seen, but possessed of a rough charm. He longed to explore the land, but he knew that he had to wait until the more pressing problems had been solved.

So he locked up the DOUBLE TROUBLE and walked back to the other boat.

"Ready to go downtown, then?" asked Su-yi. She was standing on the roof of the cabin doing some exercises. She explained that these were not the ordinary slow-motion style T'ai Chi Ch'uan ones, but the fast version, also known as "pushing hands". Klaus looked on fascinated. Su-yi was wearing a sleeveless short blouse again, this time with an open vest over it, and very short pants. Jesus, Klaus thought. She was also skillfully made up, just to accentuate her eyes, eyebrows and lips.

"Yeah. The Commandancia was just around and I am free to go where I please."

They took a bus into town and headed to a bar up the hill on the south side of Santa Cruz . A real hole it was. A proper sailor's bar. All the walls were painted with pictures of pirates and very old sailing ships, sexy loose women, parrots and treasure chests. It looked as if the owner had done it himself. There was a checkered square in the middle for dancing and on the side were little bamboo booths where one could talk in relative privacy. No South American rhythms here, but heavy duty rock coming from eight corners of the room. Klaus could imagine gunfighters and mercenaries meeting in the place to plan the next job or inquire where the necessary hardware was best to be got. Klaus wondered if there really had been pools of blood on the floor as the paintings on the walls seemed to suggest. It smelled of stale cigarette smoke, spilled beer, and sweat.

“The owner is some kind of shady character and all, in fact I don’t really like him, but he seems to know a lot about boats. Or so Thierry and Henri told me,” Su-yi said.

"Hey Alberto," she shouted into the semi-darkness. "Klaus just arrived from Germany last night. Say 'Hello.'" And into the light came a short man, with brown curly hair and an intense gaze.

"Welcome to the LA GRANADINA," he said. "Sailed or flew?"

"Klaus sailed a catamaran down from Germany," Su-yi said.

“Cat? What kind?”

“Snowgoose. Why, you know cats?” Klaus asked.

“Sure. Did a bit of racing on some French multihulls. Very fast, very nice, but very fragile. What can I do for you, anyway?” Alberto said.

“Got blisters under the waterline. Hopefully not osmosis.”

“Ouch. That sounds bad. Want me to have a look?”

“Sure, but - when do you have time?” Klaus asked.

“Let’s go right now. I better tell you though, that it probably is what you think it is. Not many other reasons for blisters there, you know.”

They all had a “naranha fresca”, freshly squeezed orange juice, as the day was hot and then Alberto and Klaus drove back to the harbor to check out the boat, while Su-yi stayed downtown.

“How did you get onto a racer?” Klaus asked in the car.

“Always been interested in boats. Did my first serious trip when I was a teenager. Used to have my own boat then.”

“Not any more?” Klaus asked.

“No need,” Alberto laughed. “Now other people beg me to sail their boats and even pay me for it. Quite handsomely, I should add.”

“Where do you sail?”

“Oh, wherever. As long as they pay for the tickets and stuff.” Alberto shrugged.

“No, I mean before.”

“Before I came here? On my own boat you mean? I started in Asia, but later on in Africa. My favorite one was South Africa.”

“Cape of Good Hope?” asked Klaus.

“Yeah, that too,” said Alberto, but didn’t seem to want to add to it.

Klaus didn’t know whether to believe Alberto or not, so he just looked away and said nothing. Alberto stopped talking, too.

“There she is,” Klaus said.

“Roller furling everywhere. You’re not worried that it’ll jam when the weather gets really bad?”

“Nope. Works fine.”

“Until you are in trouble, “ Alberto said grinning.

Alberto didn’t bother with the neoprene suit, just slipped into his swimming trunks, put on mask, fins, and snorkel and jumped into the dirty harbor. He was only in the water for a few minutes, then climbed back onto the boat over the stern.

“Bad,” he said.

“You’re sure?”

“Osmosis for sure. And the blisters are spread over a big area. It hasn’t progressed very far yet, but it will. Was the boat on dry land until recently?”

“Yeah, how do you know?”

“Just a feeling. You know what you have to do now?”

“Not really. I guess, the gelcoat has to come off, it has to be dried and re-painted.”

“It’s got to be sandblasted before you can properly dry it. And it needs special equipment. How’s your money situation?”

“Just enough to get by. How long until the damage gets much worse?”

“Oh, it’ll go slow, but steady. The best bet is to take it out of the water and take care of it right now. You see, every water molecule that gets into the polyester now will accelerate the process. I’d consider taking it out of the water as soon as possible.”

“How much will all this cost,” Klaus asked anxiously.

“Let’s go and find out. I know a few guys around here. They should be able to tell us,” Alberto said while making for a boat yard on the other end of the harbor.

The news was not good. Klaus would have to pay to get his boat taken in and out of the water, pay for the storage in the boat yard, pay the workers who were going to do the work and on top of that he wasn’t even allowed to do any substantial work by himself. Taken all together, it was more than his purse could bear.

“Isn’t there a more reasonable solution?” he asked Alberto later over a beer.

“Not in Santa Cruz. But you could go down south, or over to one of the other islands and try there. That’s all that I can think of.”

“What about that old ramp at the end of the harbor? I could get the boat out there and do most of the work myself.”

“It was originally for the smaller fishing trawlers, but it hasn’t been used for years. And I don’t know if it is wide enough to get your cat onto the sled. But you can try and talk to the fishermen and see what they have to say.”

“Could you come along and translate?”

“I’d like to, but I should really get back now. Tell you what. I’ll ask around with the people I know and let you know tomorrow. Gotta run now.”

After Alberto had gone, Klaus decided that it was best not to waste any time and went to talk to the fishermen. He walked around the harbor and came to the pier where all the colorful trawlers were moored. Big old tractor tires lined the concrete pier and the trawlers all showed signs of heavy use. Green and red hulls, blue and green decks, yellow and white stripes - it was colors everywhere, which contrasted nicely with the dark water, as well as with the red dry mountains in the background, and with the azure blue sky up above, one or two small white clouds floating in it.

A trawler sat up on dry land and Klaus saw some guys doing some work on it. He walked over and had a look. He noticed plenty of space to put a few more over there and he thought that it would be a perfect place to get his DOUBLE TROUBLE fixed. If only the port authorities allowed it and nobody robbed him blind when he had his boat on dry land.

Klaus turned around and walked into the tiny bar, where Cuban Conga music blared out of an ancient stereo system. It was a small dark room, no stools or tables. The floor was littered with cigarette butts, empty cigarette packs, paper-cups, and mud. Fishermen, dock workers, and their friends lined the bar, drinking draft beer out of tiny glasses, some having sweet coffee or drinks that Klaus had never seen before. The bartender was young and had long curly dark hair.

Klaus pointed to the tap and asked for a cerveza. It came immediately and it was dirt cheap. The sailor next to him pointed to the bartender and said “football” with a strong Spanish accent. Klaus smiled and pointed to the tap, indicating that he wished to buy the guy a beer. The guy’s eyes lit up and within minutes Klaus was surrounded by a whole group of fishermen and dock-workers who guzzled beer like fish water and insisted on buying some for him as well. But the conversation remained at a very basic level. Klaus was talking with gestures, drawing things on the bar and everybody was laughing. But it sure enough melted the ice. And Klaus figured that sooner or later somebody would show up who had worked on a freighter and therefore spoke some English.

He was not disappointed. After less than an hour, a guy walked in and the others grabbed him right away to introduce him to Klaus. Finally he could talk to the men. His name was Pepe and he was about fifty years old. He wasn’t on a ship anymore, but working as the harbormaster’s assistant. Klaus explained his problem to him and he said that Klaus might as well forget about the ramp. It would take way too much work to get that old contraption working again.

“How about a crane?” Klaus asked then.

“Crane could work. But I can’t give you permission to put your boat on land here. Have to ask the boss.”

“I see. Say, don’t you make a tour of the harbor every now and then?”

“Sure do. Why?”

“Maybe next time you do, you could introduce him to me?”

“Sure man. No problem. He’s pretty curious anyway. I’m sure he would like to check out your funny boat.”

“Good. Does he like a good drop to drink.”

“Does he now?” Pepe laughed. “He’s a real piss-head if there ever was one.”

“Even better. I could invite you two aboard for a drink and then we could have a little chat. That sound okay to you?”

“No worries. We’ll be there tomorrow.”

“Like, what is his favorite drink?”

“Scotch. Good scotch. And he likes his coffee so sweet that the spoon stays upright.”

Klaus got the Scotch right there at the bar, then said his good-byes to Pepe and his friends. He got back to DOUBLE TROUBLE, played with Teufelchen for a bit, ate some bread and went to bed.

The next morning Alberto was the first to come by. He told Klaus that nobody had come up with a better solution and he advised Klaus to sail down to Los Christianos to get his boat out of the water there. Klaus surprised him with the news that he might be able to do things right here in Darsena Pesquera.

“How did you fiddle that?” he asked.

“Still fiddling,” Klaus said. “Actually I could do with some help when the Capitano del Puerto is coming by later on.”

“He’s coming here?”

“Yeah, met his assistant last night and he told me that they would show up this morning.”

“For a guy who has just arrived and doesn’t speak any Spanish you move pretty fast,” Alberto said.

“Just luck,” Klaus shrugged.

When the harbormaster and Pepe showed up, Klaus invited them onboard, introduced Alberto and soon they were all in the cabin talking about boats and the sea. It turned out that the harbormaster had gone to school with the former harbormaster who again was a friend of Alberto's. The harbormaster spoke a very rough English, with swear words thrown in at least twice per sentence.

After the coffee Klaus whipped out the whiskey and a couple of glasses later he got down to business. Alberto looked at him admiringly. The harbormaster was happy to oblige with his permission to his amigo. Pepe winked and after Klaus had urged them to take the remainder of the whiskey with them, everything was clear for taking DOUBLE TROUBLE out of the water.

“You’re pretty smooth,” Alberto said to him.

“Have you looked at the place? You could put several ships there and there’d still be space to spare. My only worry is that I won’t be able to leave the boat alone there,” Klaus said.

“That’s true. But I’m sure you’ll find something for that as well.”

“We’ll see. Now what about you? Shall we go someplace to have lunch?”

“Excellent idea,” Alberto said.

“You drive, you decide on the restaurant and food and I pay. Agreed?”

“Suits me fine.”

When Alberto had deposited him at Darsena Pesquera, Klaus changed the water in little Teufelchen’s bowl and put out some more dry food into the other. But the “little devil” was not interested. Too hot. He lay on the galley-floor with his mouth wide open and breathing in shallow quick gasps. Klaus stroked the shiny black fur, which smelled of sunshine and said, ”Too bad you can’t take off your fur-coat in this heat. Poor Teufelchen, I wish I could let you out, but I am sure that would not be a good idea.” Teufelchen didn’t even look at him.

Then Klaus went in search of Su-yi. Maybe after the siesta they could go downtown or to the village together. He looked towards the little boat, where he had met her yesterday evening. The line of white sailing boats at the end of the harbor contrasted sharply with the garishly painted fishing boats to the left of them. And the harbor as a whole contrasted very much to the barren landscape in which it was located. As he walked towards the end, Klaus could feel the rough concrete pier through the thin soles of his tennis shoes. He had to be careful because already blisters were beginning to form on his left heel. All of a sudden he had to walk all over the place. Just like he’d gotten raw hands when he had first had started to pull on the sheets. Now his hands were hardened, with calluses protecting them against the rope.

His jeans and T-shirt were soaked with sweat by the time he arrived at the little boat. When he called out, Su-yi waved to him from the cockpit and he came aboard. She had her hair done up on her head with a piece of leather and one wooden chopstick holding it in place. Klaus longed to pull it out and let the hair fall over her shoulders.

It took less than a minute to persuade her and they took the old bus from San Andres into Santa Cruz. Klaus and Su-yi went down to the post office and Klaus was now the proud owner of a big bundle of shabby pesetas, which weren't worth all that much. Su-yi pointed out various useful shops and places, while at the same time trying to find out more about Klaus. He was just as interested in her and in the place she had come from, Taiwan. Every time their eyes met, they looked at each other for a moment and every time the moment seemed to get a little bit longer. And always it was Klaus who looked away first.

"Why did you sail down here alone? Don't like company?" Su-yi asked.

"Couldn't find anybody trustworthy. But tell me about yourself."

"Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. Studied art in France. Traveled to Spain by train. I had never planned to be on a boat, but then in Gibraltar I met Henri and now I am here. Turned out I like boats and I hope that I can go all the way to Tahiti. That would be nice." Su-yi said.

"That your and Henri's plan? To go to Tahiti?"

"Right now he's out of money and while he thinks of going back to France, I don't really want to do that. So, if I find another boat, I'll sail on, and if I don't and he still wants me on board, then I sail with him later on."

"So you two are not exactly an item, then?" he asked as innocently as he could manage.

"Oh, no." Su-yi laughed, putting her long black hair behind her ears. "I do my share of the work and if I pay my part of the bills, but that is about it. We’re more like good friends, that’s all."

“And Taiwan? Do you want to go back there soon? What’s it like over there? I bet it’s a real tropical paradise.”

“It’s funny that you should say that. Seems like all you Europeans are of the same opinion. Most of the people here ask me if I come from Bangkok.”

“Thailand, Taiwan. It’s probably all the same to them. Far East, far away, sounds similar. No tropical island paradise then?”

“Not really, no. But we’ve got high mountains that are very beautiful and the east coast is spectacular, too. It is a very lovely island, but it doesn’t have much in common with your ideal South Seas isle. More like the steaming jungles of Cambodia or Laos. Anyway, I don’t think I am going to go back there soon. One day, sure, but first I want to see the world and do something while I have the chance. What about you anyway? You’re not going to go back to Germany to study and all that?” Su-yi said while touching him lightly on the arm. Klaus felt his heartbeat speeding up. How could his body react so strongly to a simple touch? And should he touch her back or would she interpret that as taking advantage of her, while she meant nothing by it?

“Me? Not now, no. But after I complete my trip, sure. Now I just want to go sailing, to the Caribbean, then Panama Canal, South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Cape of Good Hope and back to Germany. That’ll take about two years anyway. And after Germany, who knows? Is it easy to find jobs in Taiwan?”

“Very easy. We don’t have any unemployment or things like that, but most of the jobs don’t pay very well. More and more foreigners are coming to Taiwan to work there, students and travelers too. Do you want to come and visit me there on your way back?” Su-yi looked at him and this time it was Klaus who touched her on the arm.

“Is this an official invitation? I wouldn’t mind that at all. If you are serious about it, that is.”

Su-yi looked at him and thought that he already looked better than last night. And so far he hadn’t displayed any of the machismo and swagger that she couldn’t stand. A bit young and na ïv e, perhaps, but full of hope and enthusiasm. And not tied up, either. Su-yi was sure that she would see more of him in the near future. And maybe past that, if all went well.

When Klaus and Su-yi got tired of walking through the city they went back to the harbor.

"Wanna have a look at DOUBLE TROUBLE? It's just over there."

"DOUBLE TROUBLE. I hope that the name won't prove unlucky. I have never been on a catamaran before. Aren't you worried that it will turn over one day and you can't right it again?"

"Aren't you worried to hole a monohull and she'll sink under you like a stone?" Klaus retorted with a grin. "Several decades ago guys didn't know how to design and build multihulls, let alone sail them. They were using all the concepts they had learned with monohulls and you just can't do that. They are as different to the traditional yacht, as a helicopter is to a plane. Sure, you don't wanna turn them over. But that happens mostly to racing boats and to people who are plain stupid."

"And you are not one of those stupid people, I believe," Su-yi said laughing.

"They don't sink, have a lot of space, sail on the level, they sail faster. Everybody with half a brain can see that they are the boats of the future," Klaus said.

"Wow." Su-yi said when they got there. "How many meters?"

Klaus was pleased that his boat impressed her. He had hoped, with a fair amount of confidence, that she would like it. "Almost 11 meters," he said. "But wait till you see inside. And beware of Teufelchen, my little black kitten."

"Isn’t it unlucky to have a black cat on a boat? This is a real party-boat, that's for sure," she said. "Can I have a look inside now? Wow. What is this? It looks like an apartment, not like a boat. Living room, dining room, amazing."

"And three cabins and a complete bathroom with shower and a real galley and a study," completed Klaus.

"This is a palace. How did you get this boat?" Su-yi asked incredulously.

"Well, my grandmother gave me some money and then, these boats are not that popular in Germany. Built in England. Also, she is about fourteen years old, would you believe it?"

"No, I wouldn't. I can see she isn’t new, but she sure doesn't look that old. Does the cat bite or scratch, by the way?"

“No, just likes to play. The previous owners had DOUBLE TROUBLE all re-done a little while before they sold her. They even lived aboard with their daughter and dog for a while.”

"Incredible. All this space on a boat. Klaus, you are crazy to sail alone, with this much space." Su-yi bent down to stroke the kitten, and Teufelchen walked all around her, sniffing here and there, and finally agreed gracefully to let himself be stroked by this woman with the outlandish smell he had never encountered before.

Su-yi looked around and what she detected apart from the possibilities of the boat itself were the unmistakable signs of a man living alone. It wasn’t that Klaus’s things were all over the place or of the general disorder inside. There was something missing. Nowhere could she detect anything that made the boat more beautiful or more home-like. No beautiful curtains or tablecloths, no vases with flowers, nothing like that at all. Everything she saw was functional and simple. Su-yi thought that it would only take very little effort to transform the boat into a very cozy floating home indeed. A few pieces of cloth, a bit of paint, and a little imagination was all that was needed. Su-yi almost felt as if her fingers were itching to transform the boat.

"Sailing alone is crazy," Klaus said, "I know that. I hope to find a nice girl that would like to sail with me. In fact, I am looking for one right now." He searched for her eyes, but she was looking what Teufelchen was doing.

"No male crew for you? Why is that?"

"Too much trouble. I don't believe you can avoid trouble when you are on a little boat - even a catamaran. And I get along better with girls, that's all."

"I am sure you will not be sailing alone much longer. I, for one, wouldn't mind sailing across the pond on a luxury liner like this." And with that she smiled prettily at Klaus. "Take me for a sail one of these days?"

"Of course. In fact, I'd have invited you anyway - only you asked me first," and Klaus laughed with embarrassment.

"I'm looking forward to that."

It was time to go to the bar again to meet Pepe and the fishermen. Su-yi took off and Klaus drank a few cervezas with the fishermen, waiting for Pepe. He came in, with a red face and he figured that there wasn’t much left of the whiskey by now.

“My boss loves you, man.” Pepe said. “He thinks it’s really cool what you’re doing. He told me for about an hour how dangerous he thinks it is to sail across the open sea on a catamaran. Have to agree with him on that, too.”

“So everything’s cool. Now I’ve got to find a crane and some guy with sandblasting equipment and stuff. These friends of yours might know someone, don’t you think?”

“Sure do. It’s already being taken care of. Tomorrow, if you want.”

“Wow. That’s fast. I owe you a few drinks there.”

“No worries. I kind of agree with my boss, you know. I wish I had done something like you are doing when I was younger. Just take a boat and go. Too late now. Wife and kids, you know. Steady job. Although, I must admit that I had a pretty good time working on the ships. It’s changing, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s them damn containers. You spend about six hours in port and that’s it. Cheaper, more efficient, and all that, but it sure as hell takes the fun out of it.”

“Six hours. Whoa. I spent two weeks in port in Leningrad last year. Couldn’t load the cargo because everybody there was drunk. The captain was raging, since he was also the owner of the ship, but there was nothing he could do about it. It was excellent.”

“You worked on a ship before? I thought you just got out of school?”

“Only in my summer vacation. Testwise, you know. And it got me into the USSR, too.”

“Well, that’s one place I can do without. What cargo?”

“Grain over there, and wood on the trip back. Say, what should I do about theft? Hire somebody to look after the boat or what?”

“That’s a problem, yes. Even if you do hire a guy. See, many of the guys here aren’t making all that much cash. And they’re in and out of jobs all the time. Some of them are real alcoholics and completely fucked up. It’s always been a problem. You just gotta be extra careful.”

Before going back to DOUBLE TROUBLE, Klaus phoned Alberto to ask about the sandblasting crew. Alberto told him that they’d be ready any time he wanted them. Klaus said tomorrow afternoon, but that he would phone back before then in any case.

On the way back Klaus ran into Su-yi again. She was sitting on the concrete pier and throwing stones into the oily water. No smiles this time.

"Had an argument with Henri," she said, "He’s just such a pain at times."

“Come back to DOUBLE TROUBLE until you’ve calmed down?” Klaus offered.

“Sounds like a good idea. Let’s gia.”

“Let’s what?” Klaus asked.

“Let’s go,” Su-yi said, “It’s Taiwanese.”

They lit a candle on the dining room table and talked about their respective future plans for a while. They both wanted to sail and they both wanted to see the Caribbean. Finally Klaus said, “If you want you can stay here tonight. Plenty enough space anyway.”

“I’d like that, thanks.”

"Where do you want to sleep? Here in the middle is the most space, and then you have the choice of either the forward or the port aft cabin. Or you can crawl in here with me, although that's rather crowded." He tried to sound as confident as possible, but he couldn't help feeling his pulse speeding up and his voice getting slightly scratchy.

"I'll take the port aft cabin, if you don't mind," Su-yi answered. “And I’ll lock the door, so that your little black devil won’t wake me up in the middle of the night.”

“He’ll sleep with me, anyway. Probably right on my face.” Klaus thought that it was too bad that Su-yi had taken the other cabin and he also felt a little guilty. Sure, Michaela had told him good-bye, but wasn’t he a bit hasty himself now? He’d barely arrived and now he was asking a girl to jump into bed with him.

Su-yi took off everything but the blouse and her slip. A cabin all to yourself, she marveled. She looked out the little rectangular porthole over the harbor and saw that there was still light on Henri’s boat. Well, that was his problem. She fumbled for the light switch and then lay down in the semi-darkness staring up at the ceiling thinking about Klaus. She wondered if he would come and knock on the cabin door. And she wasn’t sure whether she liked the idea or not. He seemed okay, but she had no intention to sail with somebody who only wanted that thing. She’d talked enough with other yachtie girls to know that all too often that was the deal. Fortunately there were many many boats with only one man aboard who longed for a female crew. Her first impression was that she could get along fine with Klaus.

The next morning they got up very early, as Klaus had to prepare the boat for the crane. He padlocked all the lockers outside and stowed everything away, so that it wouldn’t fly all over the place. Su-yi took off, the crane came and before it was lunch-time DOUBLE TROUBLE sat high and dry on solid land, just as she had sat in Hamburg. She was not too far from the bar, and Klaus could keep an eye on her, when he was leaning against the wall. Teufelchen was locked inside again, but Klaus figured that he would have a hard time getting down to the ground anyway. The fishermen came around, knocked on the hulls and one of them presented Klaus with a ladder to make it easier to get in and out. Klaus asked Pepe to thank them and also to help him to keep an eye on DOUBLE TROUBLE.

“They said that you won’t have to worry. They’ll make sure that nobody comes close to your boat. Still, don’t tempt people. Put away things that are valuable and don’t let useful items lie around on the deck. Claro?”

“Claro. I guess I better get on the phone about that sandblasting outfit. Don’t want to waste any time.”

Alberto said that he’d be coming with the guys and they were there less than two hours later. Klaus was surprised. So far he’d thought that he would be in manana-land and that everything would take forever to get done. Now it looked as if they were all trying to set a record. They looked at the boat and debated whether they needed to bring their own power or whether they could use the power at the harbor and they debated how to best set up the tent around the hull to first catch all the dirt and later to dry the hull.

Klaus had paid a lot of money for the crane, but when he heard what he had to pay for the sandblasting and drying, his heart sank. He’d be able to afford it, but there wouldn’t be much left after these guys were finished. And this was in spite of the fact that they allowed him to work as much as he wanted himself. So it was with seriously dampened spirits that Klaus hired his crew.

Alberto invited Klaus to LA GRANADINA to lift his spirits. He showed him pictures of his exploits and Klaus was fascinated by all the places Alberto had been to and even more by his boats.

“How did you make enough cash to by boats like that?” he asked.

“Not exactly legally, you know.”

“How so?”

“Ran some hash from Morocco. Sold it in Spain. Sometimes Holland. But that was a while ago. It was good, but it got too hot.”

“You’re joking. Just one time or on a regular basis?”

“Many times. Piece of cake. But after a while things get suspicious. Can’t just sail in and out of the same harbors again and again. It was a good thing while it lasted, though.”

“You’re nuts. All because you wanted a bigger boat?”

“Why not? How else you gonna make enough cash for a real machine? I wanted to race in the big races, but in the end I got disgusted.”

“How come?”

“They’re crazy, man. There’s tons of paper-work, and then you have to prove your qualifications, and everybody shows up with a support staff, and high-tech galore, helicopters and all that shit. That’s not what I had in mind. I like it the old-fashioned way. You get your boat ready and then you sail as best as you can and if something goes bust, you have to fix it or come up with a solution yourself. Not by asking a specialist mechanic on the short-wave.”

“Times change.”

“Screw that. But it isn’t only that. It’s the boats, too. They are so thin that they flex every time a wave hits them. If something goes really wrong, they might fall apart just like that. They are specially built for just one race and after that they are sold cheap. It’s just a different mentality.”

“So, what did you do instead?”

“Didn’t do any races at all. Just screwed around on my own.”

“Like what?”

“Indian Ocean, the gulf, African coast.”

“Gotta tell me more about that one of these days.”

The next ten days were a nightmare of work. There was dust everywhere and his whole body was itching like hell. Often Klaus had to leave in order to get something from downtown, but the fishermen and the people working at the bar didn’t let him down. They watched like hawks over his boat and didn’t let anybody touch it. Alberto, Pepe, and Su-yi came by almost every day. Klaus and Teufelchen moved for a few days onto another Spanish boat, because DOUBLE TROUBLE was truly not inhabitable. After the blasting it was cleaned, then dried and when the readings were all right, the new gelcoat was applied. It was a very professional job and when it was finally finished it looked better than new. Klaus paid everybody, had his boat put back into the water and moved back in. Now he was really broke.

He had talked with both Pepe and Alberto about the chances to make some money here, but they both said that while he could find a job here, it wouldn’t pay very well. And they also told him that it wouldn’t look any better on the other side of the Atlantic. He envied Su-yi who got a regular check from home. It wasn’t much, but just enough to be able to keep traveling. He would have to get some money together or his trip was finished before it had really started. Maybe try what Alberto had done? He would have to ask him about that in more detail.

The next morning Klaus went to the GRANADINA to talk to Alberto about the possibility of doing a little smuggling trip to better his finances. He had barely started when Alberto pointed to a little room at the end of the hallway.

"Let’s go there, Klaus. Wanna introduce you to a friend of mine."

Klaus carefully carried his beer with his left hand and walked into a smoke-filled room where a tanned, short, muscular guy with wavy dark blonde hair sat producing more smoke then your proverbial chimney. Alberto introduced Gaston then said to Klaus, "Interested in going to Brazil? Gaston lives there and he can tell you plenty stuff about the place if you wanna go there."

"Thanks, yes. We were talking about Brazil, sure, but I haven't decided yet, where I'll be sailing after here anyway. Brazil sounds definitely inviting, though."

"Been living there for years now, and let me tell you, there ain't no better place on this planet," Gaston said. He looked it, too. The only thing missing was a big fat black Brazilian cigar in his mouth. At the same time he was smiling humorously and Klaus thought that here was a guy who made friends easily.

"I went there with absolutely empty pockets, and mind you, it is a poor country, at least the north, but now I am doing okay. Hard work and all that, but at least it's worth all the trouble. Most beautiful beaches in the world, most beautiful girls, too, excellent music, very good food and so on. The Amazon, the jungle, gold, wildlife, and all that. If you ever sail to Belem, you must look me up. You won't regret it, that's for sure."

"Sounds more than interesting. I'll definitely put it on my list of desirable destinations," Klaus said.

"How about coming with me on a little trip, Klaus," said Alberto. "I've got to drive down the coast a bit. See a man. You can have a better look on the island and I like the company anyway. How about it?"

“Right on.”

“Let's get a move on. Gaston, put everything on my tab, okay? See you later for dinner? Usual spot?"

Gaston agreed and they were out of the bar. It was very hot in the van and it didn’t have any air-conditioning. So they opened the windows as far as they would go. Alberto didn’t drive as crazily as he had feared, for which Klaus was extremely grateful. In fifteen minutes they were out of Santa Cruz. It looked like a desert. Brown dust, red dust, black boulders, dried up vegetation. Above the sky was a beautiful blue, with only a few clouds in it. Plenty of hot wind, and it seemed to come straight from the great desert in Africa. Maybe it did. Klaus felt exhilarated. If southern Europe reminded one of spring, then this place was almost summer. And he dearly loved summer. No wonder with a five-month long, miserable winter.

"How did you end up here, Alberto? Came as a tourist and stayed, or what?"

"Tourist. Not bloody likely. No, I had to temporarily disappear and washed up here. Then I realized that this is a very nice place indeed and that it makes a damn good home-base. I don't have a real home anyway. My father was with the French foreign legion and so I was born in what was then French Indochina. Later he was sent to North Africa and so my mother and I went there, as well. He was a Croat, by the way. One day he simply disappeared. We don't know if he was killed on a mission, or simply ran away, or what. Maybe he is still alive; I actually think he is. Anyway, so my mother and I went to France, to where she comes from. I stayed there for a while, didn't really like it anyway, and now I've been here for a while. I like it here. And I especially like the Canarios. I get along very well with them. Satisfy your curiosity?"

"Roused it, more like," Klaus said, intrigued. "Sounds very interesting. French Foreign Legion. They still exist?"

Alberto gave a laugh. "If it weren't for the legion, there'd be much worse trouble in Africa," he said. "They are there right now, engaged in peace- keeping exercises. And who do you think guards the European space rocket, the Ariane? Foreign Legion. They have a training camp near Marseilles. But then I don't like to be bossed around by one moronic French officer after another. That's the trouble, you see? They don't allow anybody into the higher ranks but the French. And although I am half French I have to say that But what about radar and the the French are a bunch of idiots."

"Yeah. Sure. Not for me, that stuff, either. I wouldn't like being bossed around, be it by French, German, American, English or whatever. When I was still in high school, I used to think that there truly was 'No future.' No future worth living, that is. You learn your trade and then you start to work, and it's not fun, and you get married, and you have kids, and a mortgage, and you turn into a part of a huge machine. Your beautiful wife has turned into a harridan, and your children are selfish spoiled brats. And at work, intrigue and ass-licking and monotony pure. And the assholes get the prizes and you get the shit. And that continues until you go into retirement and die or until you get fired and things get even worse. What a nightmare. I almost wanted to kill myself and at one time I seriously got into religion to get out of that vicious circle. But then I realized that I was only deluding myself." Klaus said.

"Yeah, all fucking bullshit. I am glad to be here, doing what I am doing. You are going to find out firsthand. This little trip here is my real business. This is how the real money is made. Lots of it and tax free. And if you are interested, there might be some of it for you. You help me and I help you is my business rule. But you'll see. You'll get a better picture and then you know that it's all just a piece of cake anyway."

Klaus felt slightly uncomfortable, as he had a pretty clear hunch what that business entailed. So here he was, putting himself at risk, and all for nothing. Not his idea of fun. Not fair, even. But he knew that it was pointless to complain right now. After all, he didn't really feel like walking all the way home. Or hitchhiking, for that matter.

They finally arrived in a little village near the sea. It looked like a fishing village, but the houses were too neat and well kept for a fishing village. Beautiful gardens with manicured lawns and well cared for rosebushes and every house looked as if it had been painted the week before. It looked like a more humble version of a Californian artists' village. Must be owned by some rich Europeans who come here for vacation, Klaus thought.

They drove up to one of the houses and went to the door. Before they could even ring the bell, the door was opened by a short blonde girl. "You got the stuff?" she said.

"You got the cash?" Alberto countered.

"What's this joker doing here?" she said, looking nervous.

"He works for me. Calm down."

"OK, let's have a look at the stuff first."

"And I’d like a look at the cash."

Klaus thought the scene was out of a bad movie. So amateurish, he thought. This is crazy. I shouldn't be here. But of course, he didn't leave. He fought his paranoia and figured that he didn’t need to be worried about anything. Alberto went to the van and got a couple of big cheap plastic carry-on bags. He walked back into the house. Klaus half expected the sound of a police loudspeaker, telling them to freeze. Or else. But nothing happened.

The blonde girl went into one of the rooms and came back with a bundle of money in her hands. Not pesetas. American dollars. Lots of them. Now Klaus understood what Alberto had been talking about. He could have gone sailing for many months with the cash the blonde held in her hands. No more looking for work, no more nothing. Drink what you want, and as much as you want, different kind of cheeses on the table, and getting the boat fixed instead of getting seriously pissed off trying to do it yourself. One could even go into a marina, once in a while. One could do anything, in fact. Fly home, if one felt like it. Those pieces of paper the blonde still held in her hands opened a whole new dimension to life.

Alberto put the bags on the floor. The blonde opened them up and took out a dark brown bar, resembling chocolate. She smelled it and broke it in half. She took more bars and did the same. She took a lighter and started burning the edges of one of the bars. Immediately a sweet aromatic smell filled the room. Then she proceeded to weigh all of the stuff with a scale she had brought along for the purpose.

"Cool," she said. "We'll need more of the stuff. Can you arrange it?"

"No problemo," Alberto said. "How much?"

"How much can you handle?"

"All you can pay for."

"What about the price?"

"Same price. No haggling. That has no dignity."

She smiled at that. "All right. We’ll get back to you. And, next time you bring someone along, please tell us first, okay?"

"No worries," he said.

And that was it. They walked back to the van, got in, and simply drove back the way they had come. Klaus thought all that money must be burning in Alberto's pockets, but Alberto gave no sign of discomfort.

"That is a lot of money." Klaus said at last.

"That?" Alberto snorted derisively. "That is but one minor deal. Nothing. Several times that amount could be yours if you want to work for me regularly. You have the boat. And you think about it. That's why you came along today. You make the trip, I arrange all the details. You deliver the stuff to me and I'll give you the cash. It is your chance, because I need a courier and I need one right now."

"What happens if I get caught?"

"You won't get caught. Nobody ever gets caught around here. At least nobody who works with me."

"But, if?"

"Even if, it's only hash. Nothing to it. You'd get a fine, period. Only, after that you couldn't work for me anymore. As I said, it never happened here, but I have given the matter thought anyway. I always do. With all things. That's why they work."

"For when do you need a courier?"

"Fairly soon. You heard what the woman said. I don't like sitting on lots of stuff. Much easier to go get it when people want it. And when they have the cash."

"And where would you like me to go? I mean, it's Morocco, right?"

"Right. Why? What's wrong with Morocco?"

"Pirates, that is. Especially down south, there's supposed to be plenty of them. Friend of mine even lost his car on dry land. He was driving around, came to a roadblock, guys with guns made him get out and drove off. Just like that."

Alberto hooted with laughter. "They did, huh? Good on them. What's that asshole driving around in places where he shouldn't be? Serves him right, in my opinion. Anyway, those guys you call 'pirates' are my business partners. It would be very much against their own interests to do anything stupid to you. Capis?"

Klaus understood alright, but he didn't like it. Dealing with pirates? That sounded even more dangerous and stupid than smuggling. On the other hand it really didn't make sense to sever your own business relationships. But who knew what kind of stuff did make sense to those crazy people over there? He would have to think very seriously about this proposition, very seriously indeed.

"Anyway," Alberto said, "how about we go someplace and have dinner with Gaston and then I bring you back to the Darsena? I am pretty hungry, how about you?"

"I could use a bite, too. Mind, if we go by my boat first, feed the cat and look for Su-yi?" Klaus asked.

"Sure, we can go there first," Alberto replied.

When they arrived at the Darsena Pesquera, Klaus could see light in his boat. Nice development. He got out of the car and onto the trawler DOUBLE TROUBLE was tied up to. "Hi. Su-yi." he shouted. "Wanna have dinner with Alberto and company?"

"Just wait one minute."

Amazingly it was really only little more than a minute before Su-yi climbed onto the trawler. She also gave him a little kiss or three rather, French style greeting. Klaus thought that he could well get used to that.

They had an excellent meal, after which Alberto drove them back to DOUBLE TROUBLE and excused himself.

“How about a drink?” Klaus asked Su-yi.

“Sounds like a good idea. Something cool, suited to a subtropical evening like this.”

“How about a simple gin with bitter lemon? Some ice cubes, finish?”

“That would do nicely, thanks,” Su-yi said. “I don’t much care for that Alberto and as for Gaston, he is really strange.”

“How come?” Klaus asked. “What’s he done?”

“Nothing. It’s just the way he looks at me and the way he talks. And Alberto is so cold and calculating, I don’t know, but I just don’t trust the man.”

“So far he’s helped me a lot and been very generous, too.”

“Never mind me. It’s just a feeling anyway,” Su-yi said.

They carried their drinks to the foredeck and while Su-yi was staring straight up at the night sky, Klaus was looking around at the Darsena Pesquera. It was all quiet again. Quiet and peaceful at night and full of activity in the day. And of heat. Now it was cool, almost a little too cool for him.

Su-yi was sitting cross-legged on the rough anti-skid foredeck, and after a few minutes Klaus leaned back and put his head on her legs. All movement ceased. He looked straight up at her face, which was framed by her long flowing hair. All he could make out in the gloom was a very small nose and long eyelashes. Cute eyebrows. And very quiet. Klaus reached up to brush her hair out of her face and Su-yi closed her eyes. Now wouldn't that be cool if it worked out between the two of us, Klaus thought. That's what I always dreamed of. A nice girl, sailing the oceans with me. Maybe we can find a little island and live there. Away from everybody else and all the madness of city-life.

He could hear the fenders creaking when a tiny wave pressed his boat against the trawler and he thought he heard a cricket on the concrete pier as well. He picked up his glass and smelled the gin and bitter lemon, took a sip and felt the bubbles in his mouth. And he felt Su-yi’s hand as she played with his hair in turn. It was as if they had an unspoken agreement. Touching the hair was fine, the skin was off limits for the time being. They didn’t talk very much, but there was no need to anyway.

Su-yi felt the drink warm her stomach and she also felt her body going deliciously loose. She was a bit sleepy and Klaus’s hair in her hands felt like rough silk, before it was processed to make the smooth cloth that everybody knew and admired. She remembered the silk worms she had kept when she was in fourth grade. It was the teacher’s idea that the kids should see how silk was made from the very beginning. Later she had talked about the ancient silk road, of all the work involved, but also about the wealth gained. Su-yi hoped that Klaus wouldn’t need too much work and as for wealth, she didn’t expect any. What she did expect, though, was a move on his part. And this time she knew what her response would be.

Later, when they were both in their cabins, they said "Good night" and then all became quiet.

Suddenly Klaus said, "Su-yi?"

"Yes?"

"If you want, you can come over here."

“I want to.”

Su-yi came into his cabin without making light, and in the darkness Klaus could see that she was only wearing her T-shirt and a tiny slip. Without a word she crawled under the opened sleeping bag and snuggled up to Klaus. She put her head to his shoulder and shut her eyes. Klaus held her tight, stroked her shoulder, and stared at the ceiling. His right hand went down her arm and around her deliciously slender waist, where it continued to stroke the smooth skin. It was warm and dry, but his hand was cool.

Su-yi felt waves of pleasure going up her spine, a growing excitement and looseness all over her body. She wouldn’t mind if this moment lasted forever, while she was impatient at the same time.

Klaus turned around and looked at her, brushed a strand of hair away and kissed her on the forehead. Then on the mouth. It opened in response and his tongue slipped in between the sensuous lips, the small hard teeth, to be greeted by another tongue, warm and welcoming. It tasted sweet and altogether pleasant. His hand moved up from the waist, always on the smooth skin. He could feel the lower rib bones and then the small firm breasts with the tiny nipples erect. He squeezed the left one between thumb and index finger and Su-yi began to moan softly.

Klaus stopped. He pulled the white T-shirt over her head and the slip down her perfectly shaped legs. He kissed the nipple he had been squeezing. Su-yi enjoyed the caresses with closed eyes. Klaus let his tongue play with the nipples that now felt cold and even harder than before. He started kissing her belly and the inside of her legs, then spread them apart and lifted them up. He wet his fingers and stroked her between her legs, repeated it again and again, until Su-yi was completely wet between her legs and he could enter her.

Su-yi moaned again and kept her eyes closed. Klaus went fully inside and cupped her buttocks with both hands now to press himself even deeper inside her. Slowly at first and then faster and faster he thrust, until both of them were breathing hard and a sheen of perspiration coated their intermingled bodies. Su-yi was saying, “Oui, oui” in rhythm, when suddenly Klaus let out a very deep breath, pressed against her, shuddered once and slowed down, until they both lay motionless.

“That was wonderful,” Klaus said after a while.

“Yes, it was. Beautiful,” Su-yi said and not much more was said until the next day.

Klaus was determined to ask Su-yi whether she wanted to sail across the Atlantic with him. And he had to talk about the Alberto-thing with her, too. He felt very much inclined to give it a try. It was so much more exciting than painting rooms and serving drinks to tourists. Most of the time he'd actually be out there sailing and getting paid handsomely for it. He liked the idea of using the boat to earn the money to maintain it. And it wasn’t as if he was engaged in doing anybody harm. Hash wasn’t a hard drug, but a harmless recreational one. That the government had made it illegal was a pity and a complication, but certainly no reason to refrain from growing, smoking, selling, or smuggling it. No, he could make the trip with a clean conscience, but he would have to be careful not to get into trouble with the law.

The only hitch seemed to be Morocco. He didn't know what would happen there and whether Alberto's contacts were as trustworthy as he claimed. He'd have to see Alberto and ask him about the details.

So he went to LA GRANADINA and, sure enough, he found Alberto there. He was standing behind the bar, polishing glasses and drinking beer.

"Did you think about my little suggestion?" he said.

"Well, yeah, I wanted to ask you some more questions about that."

"I may decide not to answer all of them," Alberto said.

"Let's see how far it goes."

Alberto still seemed to be absorbed in his plans and show not too much interest, but Klaus went ahead anyway.

"How exactly am I gonna get the stuff on board in Morocco?"

"Let's take a walk," Alberto said abruptly.

"Huh?"

"I need something. Let's go.”

As they were walking down the road, Klaus said, "What was that all about?"

"No business talks in the bar. Another rule. People know that they can find me there, so does the local version of the DEA and the police. Hence - no business is discussed there. Got that?"

“Sure.”

"I have been in this business for a long time, a very long time, and I know the rules of the game. So. Now to your question. If you look at a map, you'll see that we are here more or less directly off the border of Morocco and Spanish Sahara. It is a very good spot for the business. Unfortunately it has been too good. Every bloody incompetent moron has tried to smuggle in and out of the area, including guns and other hardware, so patrols have been stepped up and operations have become too hot for comfort. Therefore I have decided to leave this fertile area to the morons and go to a less fertile but much more secure area farther north. Still with me?"

"Sure, go on," Klaus said, intrigued. It sounded all very interesting and romantic, at least while walking the tree-lined shady streets of Santa Cruz, and he was very curious to hear more of it.

"Also, I have a good friend in Marrakech, an old buddy from the legion, and he kind of helps me on the Moroccan side of things. So, not only for safety, but also for his being able to help me more effectively, I have put my new center of operations on the Moroccan side close to Essaouira or Mogador. It is a small town and if something is going on that shouldn't be going on, he will spot it and call everything off. Comprende?"

When Klaus nodded, Alberto continued. "Now, if all goes according to plan, you won't even have to set foot on Moroccan soil, but pick up the stuff from another boat, which comes out there to meet you. Not a fishing trawler, but a really small one. You pick up the load, and come back here without clearing in or out in any god damn place and nobody will be the wiser. But if that doesn't work out for some reason you just go into the harbor like any other yachtie. I'll get you the necessary papers before you go, just as a precaution. How does that sound?"

"Sounds very good. But what about radar and the coast guard or navy? Both in Morocco and here on the islands?"

"They don't give a shit. They sit on their fat asses in the Commandancia, talk about the good old days of Generalissimo Franco and do fuck all. On top of that, every single one of them can be bought. If it happens, I'll put it down to operating expenses." The last he said with a wolfish grin, rubbing his dark three-day-beard.

"Morocco is a different proposition, though. They are equally corrupt over there, probably more so, but they can't be trusted. Actually, I don't understand the buggers at all. But there you go. Not my business, but my buddy's. He'll be in Essaouira all the time, until you get back here. You probably won't meet him, but he will watch over you. Very good man. Absolutely. But, as I said before, you shouldn't even need to go ashore. Unnecessary risk. Now, what is your answer?"

"Well, I haven't made up my mind yet, but it’s a very good possibility...."

"I can't wait forever, you realize that?" Alberto interrupted him.

"It's my butt and I need to know exactly what is going on or we might as well just stop talking." Klaus said, annoyed.

"Cool it, man. It’s just that things need organizing. Can’t just waltz in there like that, you know. I need advance notice to set things up. So, better tell me as soon as possible.”

And with that Alberto changed direction back towards the bar.

"Now, another thing. What is the payment actually like? So far you've been rather vague on the matter."

"Oh, yeah." Alberto laughed. "The most important part, right? Well, it's standard. All the couriers get the same per trip. No bargaining. Take it or leave it. How does US$ 5,000 for one trip strike you?"

"Not too bad."

Actually, he'd probably have to cut down on the restaurants and pubs to make 5,000 last five months. But there'd be other jobs. The other side of the Atlantic beckoned and the sooner he got there, the better.

When Klaus came back to DOUBLE TROUBLE, Su-yi was lying on the cockpit couch and reading a book. Teufelchen was rolled up into a black ball. It was amazing how many hours of sleep that cat needed. Su-yi didn’t offer him any timid French kisses this time. This time he got the real thing and what was even better, was that Su-yi had prepared some dinner, which needed just a few finishing touches. Soon they were inside, munching away, and drinking some Spanish red wine with it. After some preliminary talk about his and her day, Klaus came straight to the point.

"Would you go sailing with me across the Atlantic?" Klaus said.

"I had hoped you would say something like that." Su-yi replied, giving him a long low look from under half closed eyes. Her hair shimmered brown and her black eyes had that brown sheen, too.

“Great,” Klaus said, “I’m sure we’ll make a perfect team.” He took her small brown hand into his bigger and lighter one and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"There’s another thing, " he hesitated. "I am thinking of doing a little smuggling before that.”

Now it was her turn to hesitate. "Exactly what kind of smuggling do you have in mind?"

"Well, I am thinking of doing a trip to Morocco and back here to better our finances."

Su-yi liked the "our" in Klaus's last utterance. "Do you think that’s very wise?” she asked. “I mean, people do get caught and get into all kinds of trouble.”

“Were you searched when you came into a harbor? Ever?” Klaus asked.

“No, but that doesn’t say anything. They might know who to search and who is just a harmless tourist. And they probably have dogs, don’t they?” Su-yi insisted. “And, anyway, I don’t much care for Morocco. But don’t let me be the one from stopping you. If you are planning on coming back here, I need not go, right?”

“Sure,“ Klaus said. “Anyway, it wouldn’t be smart to go with two people when one alone can handle things. And, in any case, I haven’t made up my mind yet. It’s just, if you were very much against it, then I could just forget about it. Though I really do need some money.”

“I’ve got some cash,” Su-yi offered.

“No way. You pay your part of the food and stuff, that’s okay, but I am not going to sponge off you,” Klaus said. "I'll think about it. Another thing. Since we are at it, I better tell you that I am falling completely in love with you. I hope ... " and Klaus faltered again. "I hope very much that we can stay together for a long time. If you think we can't, please tell me now and then there's not much harm done."

"Well, I can't very well look into the future," she said. "But, yes, I hope so, too. Don't worry about that now, okay?" She smiled at him and this time it was her who reached for his hand. “It’s just that where I come from you get shot for this kind of thing,” she said.

“You get shot for smuggling a bit of grass?” Klaus asked, shocked.

“Yeah, and that’s why I feel strange about this kind of thing, but I do realize that things might be different here,” Su-yi said.

Su-yi had been around plenty of foreigners who thought nothing of smoking either marihuana or hashish every day, but she still felt uncomfortable. At home everybody had told her that marihuana was a dangerous drug leading the person using it to increase his amount over time and then graduate to harder and more deadly drugs. Then there was also the fact that almost the whole of the Chinese population had been addicted to opium not that long ago. And that opium had also been brought in by foreigners who had assured everybody that it was harmless and actually good for people. No, it was best to stay away from drugs and while she wouldn’t stop anyone from taking them she was not going to take them herself.

The time to leave the Canaries was November or thereabouts and then celebrate Christmas on the other side. That's how it normally went, anyway. Klaus didn't really want to stay here for a whole year, although that was exactly what many sailors without money ended up doing. Some stayed even longer.

"I have to make a decision right now," he informed Su-yi while wiping his plate clean with some white bread. "And I think that I will do the trip, just once. I really urgently need the cash."

So, Klaus walked over to the little bar in Darsena Pesquera and phoned Alberto to tell him that he would do the trip. Alberto seemed neither pleased nor surprised, but took this information as if he had expected nothing else.

Klaus thought that it was best to get the boat ready for smuggling right away. But first for a trip to the ships chandlers. As usual, it was very hot but it didn't bother Klaus. He liked walking all over the city. Some streets were very narrow, winding up and down amongst old red or yellow brick houses. Often he passed trees and parks, and ivy was growing everywhere.

Inside the hardware store it looked nothing like what he had expected. They still had wooden blocks there and the rope looked positively ancient. Everything was rough and more fit for a fishing boat than for a yacht. Many fittings were made out of iron instead of stainless steel. Those things were cheap, but he didn't dare buy the stuff. He got the clerk to understand that he wanted 'inoxidable' and the guy finally understood. He took Klaus to another room and here he found what he was looking for. When he saw the prices, though, he gulped. For a handful of gear like Norseman terminals and shackles, he'd have to give all the money he had left. That wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all. Klaus decided to go to another shop and compare prices before spending all his precious cash.

When, after a long walk, he got to another shop, he found the situation the same. He bought nothing again and decided to look for Alberto to ask him about things in more detail. Back in the bar he found Alberto nursing his inevitable beer.

“Are they crazy here at the chandlers? Is there no cheaper way to get some gear for the boat?" Klaus asked.

“Ah, so you noticed that too, have you? Well. Not much we can do. These guys here only use the cheap fishing boat stuff and so the imported gear is costly.”

“Damn. If this continues the way it does, I’ll never get out of here. I’m almost out of cash the way it is.”

“Sorry about that. But that’s sailing for you. The only thing you really need is a suitcase full of money.”

The next few days Klaus was busy working on his boat. He made a special compartment under his bed, by cutting away the wood support, hollowing it out and varnishing it, then putting it back in place. If need be, he could even fiberglass over it to make it completely air and odor-tight, but he wasn’t going to do that now. Here he would put his cash and anything else that he didn’t want to be found. The idea came from a book he had once read, where the guys smuggling guns and hand grenades had them fiberglassed in, but could still get at them real quick with an ax if need be.

Klaus also went to the street market in downtown Santa Cruz in order to get some expensive-looking fake watches. He intended to leave one of them out in the open for corrupt customs officials to pocket, so that the guy would be in a hurry to get off the boat. On top of that, Klaus bought a few cartons of tax-free Marlboros, which were intended for “trading”. Finally he stocked up on equally tax-free liquor and figured that he was prepared for all eventualities as far as officialdom was concerned. As well as possible, anyway.

Su-yi was sometimes on DOUBLE TROUBLE and sometimes not, but work was progressing slowly in any case. One of the reasons was that Klaus constantly got distracted by visitors and Teufelchen needed some of his attention as well. Klaus had organized a second-hand wind generator and had a stand for it welded. He had to drill plenty of holes into his nice boat and felt miserable with every new one. He went downtown to get some neoprene to isolate the stand and it took him days just to find the tube that was going to become the pole for the wind charger. He had to drill more holes to put in some stays for the machine and had to get some more gear to set it all up properly. He knew the "ferreterias" pretty well by now. Then he had to redo the wiring inside, because all the cables were either in the wrong place or rotten. Finally his wind generator was operable and it was with great satisfaction that he heard the whir of its six blades. He got a real big battery and then he ran out of money. Alberto loaned him some which was going to be deducted from his fee for running the hash.

Klaus was actually getting impatient to get going. He got into his dinghy and scraped of the barnacles and filth that had accumulated along the waterline, in spite of the remnants of antifouling paint the previous owners had put on the bottom. All the time he was happy, and most of that happiness was due to the fact that he spent every night with Su-yi. They had sex all the time and Klaus still couldn't get enough.

Since she couldn’t help much with the work on the boat, Su-yi would take walks, go to the beach or up into the mountains. Sometimes she painted or drew and sometimes she took photographs. Klaus thought the pictures were quite good, and he told her so. The picture that he liked best, was one of Teufelchen rolled up and looking straight at the observer. It was a drawing made with charcoal in just a couple of minutes, but somehow it caught the essence of the cat, especially with that trusting puzzled look he had. One could see that the cat hadn’t decided yet whether to get up and investigate whatever it was that puzzled him or whether to forget about it and go to sleep once more.

Su-yi was happy, too. Life with Klaus was peaceful, he didn’t put any pressure on her and was delighted with everything she did. Sometimes she helped a little with the painting or other easy tasks and she cooked for them every day. But the best thing was that she had time to paint. She never got tired of the cactus, or of the view of Mount Teide in the distance, the old Canario women at the plaza in San Andres, the elegant young city women in Santa Cruz, or the beach in Los Terresitas. And Darsena Pesquera itself offered motives enough for years of intensive painting.

When she wasn’t doing chores or looking at things with a painter’s eye, she liked to go food shopping. Because of the tourists she could get almost anything she desired. She didn’t buy too much, because cash was low, but she bought a wide variety and made lists of things to buy for when they finally set out to cross the Atlantic. She already had a collection of cooking books and she added to it, for she figured that there wouldn’t be all that much to do once they left the island. She would make sure that they would have excellent food at least.

Then the day came when Alberto told Klaus that he should get ready to pick up the stuff. Su-yi went to stay on a friend’s boat and she took Teufelchen with her. Alberto came on board and gave Klaus a VHF set, which looked like any other one. Only it didn't operate on the marine frequencies and Klaus was supposed to listen on it as soon as he got close to Essaouira. People could still listen in, so Alberto told him to use the boat name "Caramba" and "guests" when talking to his friend "Marc". Marc would be calling him and he could also call Marc on a designated frequency. Then Alberto gave him a photocopy of a marine chart, which showed Essaouira and the Atlantic ocean right in front of it. A red “x” had been marked on the chart and Alberto told Klaus to meet his friend Marc there exactly two and a half hours after the time they agreed on via the VHF. It reminded him of “Treasure Island” and if Klaus hadn’t been so nervous, he would have thought that all this was most romantic.

"That should be enough precautions from our end. Marc will probably not be in the boat coming to meet you, so you just take on the stuff and come straight back here. When you are here, give me a call. Any questions?"

"I don't have to give them any money or something?"

"It would probably entice our Moroccan friends to be a bit more enterprising than would be good for us. No, the cash goes there on a different route and you don't have to concern yourself with that at all. Anything else?"

"Not really, no. I'd better get going then. Cheers."

"Cheers. And - good luck."

With rubbery legs Klaus got his boat out of the harbor and got seasick right away. So far, everything went as usual. Except for the seasickness and the accompanying tiredness the trip to Essaouira was uneventful. The sky was blue with a few white clouds sprinkled here and there, the wind was steady and so was the sea. Klaus set his alarm clock to once an hour. There was no real need to check for ships every ten minutes when he was out of the shipping lanes and not yet near the coast. He was very tired, but he knew that other ships were much more dangerous than storms, reefs or giant waves. He saw a few lights at night but no ships came close by, so that he didn't need to get worried. Once he saw some dolphins playing in front of DOUBLE TROUBLE and he wished that Su-yi were around to see. But she was in Santa Cruz, probably partying with some other yachties. He missed her. And he was worried that this feeling would get much stronger over time and that she might leave him when she got tired of him. She had told him that she didn't believe in fixed relationships and while he could agree with her in principle it was quite a different matter if he thought about the direct consequences. He wanted her to be with him and her concept of freedom implied that she leave him one day. He didn’t like that idea at all.

When he came within fifty miles of the coast, he switched on the little VHF, that Alberto had given him, but except for static he couldn’t hear anything. It was to be expected, but nonetheless he turned up the volume to full blast and then turned the squelch down so that it just stopped the noise. If anybody called now, he'd hear it sure enough. But nobody called him, even when he came quite close to the coast.

Tentatively he called for "Marc". Nothing happened. He wasn't sure what to do now, whether to go closer to Essaouira, or to head back or what, so he simply took down all sails, paid out a big parachute type sea-anchor and waited. He'd never used the sea anchor before and had always thought that it was way too big and expensive. Now he was glad that he had bought the biggest one available, because it just managed to hold DOUBLE TROUBLE's bow into the waves. It was less comfortable than sailing, because every time a wave tried to take the boat away, the sea anchor held it back with a sharp jerk. Then he put some heavy anchor chain at the end of the rope, making it longer and adding a kind of spring to it. That worked rather well and he could sit down and drink his tea in peace. He drank tremendous quantities of lemon tea and periodically called "Marc".

After many hours he finally got a reply. It was crystal clear and so loud that Klaus had to turn the volume down right away. "You already there?" Astonished. "Yeah. I been waiting here for half a day. How about the guests? They ready?"

"We can't make it, sorry."

Klaus got a hollow feeling in his stomach. He just knew that something had to go wrong. Given half a chance, it always did. He thought briefly about turning around without doing the pickup, but realized that he had played the game too far to simply sail back to Tenerife now. He signed off and got under way again.

He made the harbor without further mishap, but got very annoyed with the port officials who were insistently asking for baksheesh. As they refused to clear him in, he didn't have much choice. He didn't like the way things were going at all. First he sat around on the boat for a while and when nobody came near him, he decided to investigate the town.

He had only gone a few hundred meters, when a battered black Mercedes slowed down next to him and a long-haired hippie sent greetings from "Marc" and invited him into the car. Inside were two more hippies and the whole interior was filled with smoke. Hash all right. They offered him a massive joint and he took a couple of tiny tokes, then passed it on. It was potent, too. They drove out of the city and Klaus was getting worried. Not much was said, but it looked as if the whole crowd of them was bombed out of their brains and Klaus wondered if one of them was "Marc".

Real desert spread out all around the car and the driver had decided to try out a few spins in the sand. The others didn't like that much and so they got out of the car, while he was swerving around crazily. Klaus walked away from the others and suddenly he was startled to look up and saw a huge camel towering above him. He felt that it was almost as tall as an elephant. On top of it sat a Bedouin- or Tuareg-like Arab with only his eyes visible. Those didn’t look too friendly. He also carried a gun on his back. Klaus’s heart sank further. Another one followed and then another. Klaus knew that he was completely at their mercy, that the hippies would not come to his help and were no match for these guys anyway.

Klaus was wondering if the car would ever show up again and what madness would happen next, when one of the Moroccans took him aside and told him in clear but heavily accented English, that they would get the stuff on board this very night and that he was to leave right after that. It was good that nobody accept the amused Moroccan could see his face when he said this and after that little encounter Klaus thought that things weren't as unprofessional as they seemed. The Mercedes showed up again, all piled in and headed back straight to town. The hippies stayed in a big colonial style hotel and asked him to come inside, but Klaus just had a quick look.

The inner yard was completely empty and most of the rooms were on the second floor. A walkway on every floor allowed a view at the court yard and it needed almost no imagination at all to envision oneself right in the middle of the Arabian desert, where bandits might come by any night to rob the caravans that were passing through. Old men sitting on the bare ground were drinking their peppermint tea and smoking pipes with crude black tobacco. A few donkeys were tied up inside the courtyard and Klaus wondered whether they would wake up the people sleeping here with their braying. He was offered a few delicious oranges and Klaus thought that they were the best he had ever had. It was getting dark and he wanted to get aboard and so said his good-byes.

He had just walked a couple of blocks when he thought he heard the sound of swishing garments and running feet behind him. Either barefoot or wearing soft-soled shoes. He tried to turn around, but before he could see what was going on, he felt something heavy and solid hit his shoulder and while he was thrown to the ground, he felt hot burning pain where he had first been hit.

Sand got into his eyes and the only thing he could see were several robed figures crowding all around him. Rough, callused hands searched his body and when they found only a wallet with almost nothing inside, they started beating him. One guy picked him up, muttered something in Arabic or French which Klaus didn’t understand and when he didn’t answer he got hit right in the face. He tasted blood and felt one of his eyes swell shut. And pain. Pain everywhere. Klaus managed to croak, “Arretez. Sil vous plait arretez.” And surprised Klaus felt tears streaming down his face. “Stop. Please just stop. I give you everything you want,” he said in English. More tears and more blood.

They only answer he got was more unintelligible curses in whatever language these guys were using. They threw him to the ground and kicked him with their feet and although they weren’t wearing any boots it hurt like hell.

Then all of a sudden, they were gone. Klaus lay sobbing in the dirt, spit out some blood and sand and felt for his tooth and lips. He got up and started limping towards his boat. He brushed off his clothes and his mind raced through the encounter. What was this? Just a regular mugging or had this anything to do with the deal? And why had they beaten him up so badly? Just because of disappointment when they found he carried nothing of value on him?

Back on board he realized that he had been quite mad to leave the boat unattended, as somebody had tried to open one of the hatches and in the process he had scratched the fiberglass badly. But the burglar hadn't gotten inside, so that the damage was only a warning for him. It would soon be repaired and he knew now that it was unwise to leave the boat unattended in places like Essaouira. This place was dangerous. Better to get out of here real quick and never come back, either.

He didn't have long to wait in the dark before a little boat was rowed alongside. Inside the boat were some Moroccans, still clad like true sons of the desert and holding something that looked suspiciously like rifles in their hands. Klaus got pretty nervous when he saw that, but when they got closer they put the guns or whatever they were away.

They heaved big black plastic sacks on board. Klaus wanted to open one but they motioned him to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. No sign of Alberto's friend on the boat, but that wasn't Klaus's problem. He opened the forward hatch, where he usually stored the sails and dropped some of the bags in there. They were very heavy and when all the space was used up, he put some more in his rope locker on the starboard side. He covered them with sails and rope and was fairly confident that a cursory inspection would reveal only sails and rope. While he was busy stowing the stuff the Moroccans had already cast off and were heading back the way they had come. Not more than a couple of words had been exchanged during the whole exercise.

The next morning he headed straight for the harbormasters office and thought that he would simply have to sign some papers to be on his way. However, the officials had a nasty surprise in store for him. The customs officer took one look at Klaus and frowned. He was a fat guy with a worn-out khaki uniform and curly greasy black hair, and he decided to accompany Klaus onto his boat to make sure that everything was in order.

On the boat he proceeded to crawl all over the place and even lift the floorboards. Klaus was sure, that the guy knew that something fishy was going on and if he continued he would find what he was looking for. He got very nervous, which was not lost on the police officer. The officer began to smile more frequently, all the time making basic conversation with Klaus and urging him to tell him where he had hidden the “contrabande”. He opened the slide door under the galley sink and saw a carton of cigarettes.

“Ahhh. You did not declare these,” he said to Klaus, while putting the carton under his arm.

“They are for my own personal use,“ Klaus protested.

“That doesn’t matter. You have to declare everything and if you fail to do so, it will be confiscated and you will have to pay a fine.”

“You want me to declare every single item on the boat then?”

“Right.”

“You know very well that I don’t have any spare cash for this nonsense.”

All this time the customs official was walking all over the boat, opening drawers at random and even checking the bilge. Klaus was getting genuinely worried now, although the guy was poking in the wrong places. But he was too persistent and Klaus worried whether he knew something that he shouldn’t.

This situation had suddenly become so unbearably hot that he would have given almost anything to avoid further trouble. So he didn't say anything and just swallowed when the customs officer simply pocketed the watch without bothering to conceal it at all and grinned straight into Klaus’s face. He was told that everything seemed to be in order after all, got his papers stamped and was free to go as if nothing had happened.

Klaus also wasted no time, motored out of the harbor, got the sails up and after only a few minutes he was on his way, counting the meters that lay between him and Moroccan soil. That had been a close one. The 5,000 certainly weren’t as easily earned as he had first thought. He calmed down only slowly and looked back over the stern again and again to make sure that nobody was following him on his way back to Tenerife. What would Su-yi say when she saw him like this? He felt ready to fall into a bed and stay there for the next three days, or until his body stopped hurting everywhere. And he decided that he would not talk about it. He had never felt so humiliated in his life, begging the hoods to lay off, actually crying in front of them. Klaus was even more disgusted with himself than he was angry with his attackers. Some hero he made. A tiny little beating and he lay whimpering on the ground. He wouldn’t do that again. Come what may, he would not beg for mercy if he ever got into a situation like that again. It was one thing to do foolish things, but it was quite another to become a total coward. Next time he would fight back and take his hits like a man.

After he'd got out of sight of land, he soon fell into the powerful rhythm of the sea again and except for the pain all seemed fair. The wind was on the nose and he had to crash into the waves all the time which slowed him down quite a bit. Spray was flying over the boat every time he smashed into a bigger wave and he felt battered. His upper left front tooth was still loose and his lower ribs were burning whenever he got thrown against something. All his muscles seemed to be sore and he had a pain in his lower back that mad him wince every time he had to either get up or sit down. He figured that in a week it would all be okay again, but that thought didn’t help him very much just then.

He tried to cheer himself up. Soon, he'd have money aplenty and then he would get going and sail across the Atlantic with Su-yi. It was all worth it, after all. But it was also crazy. Adrenaline was flowing through his veins and Klaus thought that one could easily get into serious trouble with this life-style. It was “macho”, it provided all the madness of outlaw-life and it afforded more money than most other jobs, but it was just plain crazy. One day one would get caught. And one would have to pay. If caught in a rough place like Turkey or Morocco, nobody could know how far the payment would go. No, it was not wise to do this kind of thing again. To prove oneself against the sea and the elements in general was clean and pure. Dealing with corruption and all kinds of crooks wasn’t.

He stood and looked ahead into the blackness and was glad that he didn’t see anything. No lights meant no ships. And that told him that all was clear for now. He only hoped that the weather stayed the way it was, because when the winds got any heavier, he'd have to do something about the sails. Christ, it hurt everywhere. He went down below and lay down on the floor, still in his bad weather gear and still strapped into the safety harness. This was becoming a habit, and not exactly a pleasant one.

He'd just dosed off to sleep, when he was jolted wide awake by a resounding crash and the banging of the sails outside. The waves were hitting the boat broadside and in a flash Klaus was outside.

That blasted auto-pilot again, he thought. He disconnected it, because otherwise it would have been futile to try and bring the boat back on course. He pulled on all sheets, which were brought back into the cockpit and belayed them, and then he did the same to the reefing lines. Every time he pulled on something he felt hot pain in his left shoulder, ribs, and back. The sails looked like wooden boards. Now he turned the rudder in the wrong direction and slowly the cat began to sail - backwards. But this was exactly what Klaus had intended, because he knew that he could get it back on course this way and then resume sailing normally. When he was underway again, he used some very sturdy lengths of rubber hose to belay the steering wheel. It still had some play, but not too much. Now he had to investigate what was wrong with the auto pilot this time.

Soon enough Klaus found the reason. Even with the wind generator and with the new batteries he was out of power again. Oh sweet Jesus, thought Klaus. This stupid machine is giving me one headache after another. Now I have to steer all the rest of the way again. And that with cracked ribs or whatever it is.

His good mood from earlier on quickly evaporated. Steering dog-tired in a dark and cold night was just not one of his favorite activities. And in the condition he was in it ranked amongst the lower levels of hell. But he couldn’t do anything about it and he thought that Alberto had perhaps been right in suggesting a mechanical wind-vane as a backup for his auto-pilot. In fact, he would think about that. Also, he needed more battery power. After a bit of serious thinking he had come to the conclusion that the wind generator was producing enough juice, but that he had no place to store it. He would get one more additional battery and he would get the biggest one he could find. It was totally crazy anyway to go sailing when one could sit in a nice bar and drink beer and when one was tired one could go to bed anytime without worry. And live with Su-yi. He was jumping around and drinking Tabasco and coffee, but he was still tired. So very tired. What was that English saying? That ones who went sailing for pleasure went to hell for a pastime? He started to chuckle, but stopped right away, because his body didn’t like it. Still too much pain.

Finally the sun rose and immediately he felt better, although his eyes hurt and were all red. Gotta make it to the harbor, and then I can sleep, he thought. But then a different idea occurred to him. The wind generator had been charging the batteries all night and now the solar panels would add their part. They were high-efficiency ones made in California and they should be able to keep that stupid auto-pilot going.

He was right. He switched off the alarm and crawled into his cabin, figuring that nobody would run him over in broad daylight. When he woke up many hours later he felt much better again. Even the pain in his shoulder and ribs had lessened a bit. He grabbed a bite to eat and then went back to the steering wheel to give the batteries a chance to recharge yet again. Better steer right away, he cautioned himself.

In this fashion he made it back to Tenerife and when he had tied up DOUBLE TROUBLE he went to phone Alberto. After he’d done that he went back to sleep. God, was he tired. He wanted to sleep for a couple of days at least, he thought. He crawled into his cabin and fell asleep instantly. He woke up when Alberto came and picked up the stuff and fell into a deeper untroubled sleep when the stuff was off his boat. He didn't wake up when Su-yi came back with Teufelchen and crept in bed beside him, but he did put an arm around her and his face took on a more relaxed note after she had come. Even in his sleep he could feel her presence and it made him feel better right away. Su-yi just lay there, staring at him. She didn't kiss him and she didn't smile. She just looked at him. She had missed him while he wasn’t there and that bothered her. She turned around and went to sleep herself.

When he woke up he thought that he had been pretty lucky. He figured that he had used up his luck now and decided that he was not going to try something similar again. Ever. Sooner or later things were going to go wrong. Klaus couldn’t tell why, he just knew it. Also, Su-yi got pretty angry when he had told her the whole story and had accused him of not taking care of himself. She’d walked off by herself, still in a huff and when he had wanted to accompany her she had insisted that she preferred to be alone for a while.

Su-yi didn’t go very far. She strolled for a while along the pier and then climbed over the wall to the seaward side, where big granite rocks had been piled up to protect the concrete pier in a storm. She found a yellowish boulder that was relatively level and sat down, looking towards the sea. Although the breeze coming from the ocean was rather fresh, the stones were pleasantly warm. Su-yi put her arms around her legs and hugged them close to herself. The stone was hard and she knew that she couldn’t sit here for a long time.

The water stretched out dark blue, almost gray, and towards the horizon she could see a few small local fishing boats and freighters coming in to deliver their cargo to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It wasn’t anything worth a picture, but it sure was nice sitting by the sea and listening to the sounds it made upon the rocks and smell the iodine and seaweed swimming at the surface. She felt that she would never get tired of looking at the water moving in and out, every little wave looking different from the one before.

Men are so stupid, she thought. Walking in dark alleys at night in a place like Morocco. Every child knew that that was a bad idea. Served Klaus right that he’d been beaten up, maybe that would make him more careful next time. And what did she care, anyway? Klaus could do what he wanted as far as she was concerned. Just as Klaus had, she wondered whether the attempted mugging had anything to do with the hash or whether it was just a coincidence. Why was this guy getting under her skin anyway? It wasn’t as if he was the first or even the second one. He was two years younger than she, just out of school, so why did she get worried when he wasn’t there and angry when he’d told her about the danger he’d been in?

Su-yi figured that she actually had no reason to be angry with Klaus, but she would still take a long stroll and try to walk it off. Somehow reason and emotions didn’t have very much to do with each other; whoever had said that had hit the nail on the head.

Alberto came by the boat the next day and paid Klaus US$ 5,000 in cash on the spot.

"I don't suppose you want to do another one of those?" he asked.

"Mustn't tempt fate too far," Klaus said grimacing.

"Well, if you do change your mind....," Alberto said. “What happened to your eye anyway? You in pain?”

“Some guys jumped me in Essaoira,” Klaus replied.

“You’re joking. Like how?” Alberto asked.

Klaus told him the story and Alberto’s face grew more and more serious.

“Damn,” he muttered, “What the heck is going on there? That little town used to be one of the nicest quiet places you could imagine. This doesn’t sound good, not good at all. I’d better talk to my buddy right away. Need to find out what is going on over there.”

“Yeah, well, anyway. Count me out. As our friend Miles Smeeton wrote: ‘Once is enough.’” He’d been talking about Cape Horn and he didn’t take his own advice. But Klaus would.

Klaus put the money into the hidden compartment in his cabin, where he was pretty sure that it wouldn't be found by an intruder. The next few days he went to various chandlers and hardware stores, bought another massive truck battery and generally got his boat ready. He also bought a spear-gun. Dark blue, with a black handle, about a meter long, with the arrow sticking out another half meter. It had two brown lengths of rubber, which gave it enough power to hunt even big fish. Klaus was looking forward to fishing in pristine waters, amongst coral reefs, and then to a barbecue on the beach. But the spear-gun had other uses as well. He could use it to shoot the big fish he sure was going to catch with his four fishing lines and in an emergency it would provide enough fish to survive. Klaus had read plenty of accounts of shipwrecked people. They were all very glad that they had had a spear-gun around. And if some people wanted to get nasty with him, he could even use it for self-defense.

At the Darsena Pesquera, Klaus picked up a board of solid wood, about three centimeters thick and propped it up in front of him ten meters away. He pulled one of the rubbers back all the way and let it slip into the groove of the arrow. He found out that he couldn’t hold it very well and that aiming was even more difficult. He shot the gleaming stainless steel arrow towards the board and was surprised that it stuck in the wood. He pulled on the nylon string, which he noticed was too short. He couldn’t pull it out. When he walked over to the board, he saw to his surprise that the arrow had gone all the way through the wood. No wonder he couldn’t pull it out. And that was with only one rubber?

He got it out and repeated the procedure with two rubbers. This time the board was blown into two halves as if someone had taken an ax to split it lengthwise.

Klaus eyed the spear-gun thoughtfully and figured that he would have to be extremely careful when handling it. It would puncture the hull of his boat easily and Klaus shuddered to think what it would do to a human body. But it would be excellent for fishing. When he went to the other side of the harbor wall and into the cool and clear ocean waters, he was disappointed. There were plenty of rocks, tiny colorful fish and sea anemones, but nothing even remotely big enough for his frying pan. He’d have to try somewhere else.

He took Su-yi out for a sail - her first time on a multihull. Su-yi started to put everything away while Klaus looked on with a smile.

“I hate to interrupt you,” he said, “But this isn’t really necessary.”

“Yes, I know, all you men are alike. And then as soon as we are out of the harbor and the first few swells hit the boat everything goes flying and who then has to clean up the mess? Certainly not the skipper as he is too busy sailing and having fun.”

Su-yi was quite excited when the cat finally got under way. It was so huge. It wasn’t much longer than Henri’s boat but it was so wide that it felt several times as big. She went forward and sat down on the foredeck leaning against the windows. She saw the harbor entrance approaching and when DOUBLE TROUBLE turned to port and into the choppy waves it didn’t roll sideways like Henri’s boat, but kind of jumped back and forth, up and down, like a hobbyhorse - but only a little bit. When they came out of the wind-shadow of the island and unfurled the sails completely, the catamaran leaped into action with a suddenness that startled Su-yi, but as Klaus seemed to be completely calm about it she relaxed again. She looked for something to hold on to, and since she couldn’t find anything she cautiously made her way back to the cockpit.

It was easy moving on the boat, so much easier than on Henri’s tiny one. She had so much more space and she wasn’t in constant danger of sliding all over the deck and end up in the sea. She looked at Klaus who grinned at her. “Wanna steer for a little bit while I get us a drink?” he asked.

“Sure. Although I better warn you that I have never steered anything with a wheel before.”

“Never mind, you’ll soon get the feel for it,” Klaus said and disappeared in the cabin.

It felt strange to steer with a wheel instead of a helm. Like doing something once removed, not directly. Su-yi looked at the cheap Plastimo compass and at the wheel and pictured two interlocked cogs turning first one way and then the other. She caught herself turning the wheel in the wrong direction a few times and thought that she’d better wait with changing directions or ‘tacking’ until Klaus came out again. The white sails with the blue stripe protecting them against sunlight when they were completely furled looked almost new and reminded her of wings of a giant seagull ready to fly across the ocean. A particularly proud seagull this seemed.

Klaus showed up again with two mugs full of lemon tea, which he simply put on the roof of the cabin in front of

Su-yi and the steering wheel.

“I don’t think it’s wise to put them there,“ Su-yi started.

His body pressed close to hers as he took her small hands into his. He breathed into her hair by her neck until she giggled.

“Stop that,” Su-yi said, “And leave out the lectures, too. I’ll find things out for myself.”

“Wanna find out about changing course on a cruising cat?” Klaus asked with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

“Sure, why not,“ Su-yi replied.

“Go right ahead. I’ll just sit down here and keep my trap shut, then.”

Su-yi turned the wheel all the way to starboard and the boat turned into the wind. She jumped to the sheets and after they had stopped fluttering she hauled them tight and turned the wheel back a bit to get on the right course again. To her chagrin she found out that the boat wouldn’t move, but just sat there and wallowed in the middle of nowhere with the sails fluttering and flapping.

That stupid Klaus, Su-yi thought. He just wanted to show me up. No way am I going to ask him to help now. She waited until the boat had turned roughly into the right direction and then instead of going with the bow through the wind as one would normally tack, she went with the stern through the wind or gybed to get onto the right course again. The second time, she went into the tack with all the speed and precision she could muster, backed the sail, and brought it over to the other side only when the boat was well and truly on its way. This worked much better. It seemed that the boat sailed fine, even reasonably high on the wind, and Su-yi figured that tacking would work much better after some practice.

“I’m impressed,” Klaus said when they were sailing comfortably once again. “Seems there is no need for lectures. You picked that up much faster than me, that’s for sure.”

How can you be angry with a guy like that, Su-yi thought. Maybe he noticed that I didn’t like the way he was trying to show me things. When she grabbed for her tea she picked it up and drank a sip until she realized that it hadn’t moved at all during all this nonsense. On her previous trips everything had immediately gone flying if it hadn’t been bolted down, clamped down, or lashed down.

“My turn to be impressed,” she said to Klaus while pointing to the mug. “This should make life at sea quite a lot easier I imagine.”

“Dunno,” Klaus said, “To tell the truth I have no idea what it is like to sail on a big monohull. I never really tried, but one day I will.”

“So far, I’d rather stay with catamarans,” Su-yi said.

The next day they went straight onto the beach in San Andres to clean the bottom of barnacles. The police came to shoo him off, but didn't succeed because the tide was out. They threatened to impound his boat and he brought out two big anchors to the back and winched the cat back into deeper water to sail back to the Darsena, more or less ready for the big sail across the Atlantic.

Alberto asked him again, whether he wanted to do another trip, but Klaus refused. Klaus had gotten the idea of Brazil firmly planted in his mind and another yachtie had given him copies of all the charts he needed to go up the Rio Para to Belem. Klaus doubted that he would ever see the Canaries again, but it wasn't altogether impossible. He had invited his new friend and mentor Alberto to spend a vacation on DOUBLE TROUBLE and Alberto had promised him to visit in Brazil.

DOUBLE TROUBLE finally crept out of the Darsena Pesquera for the last time. Klaus headed for Los Christianos first and both he and Su-yi got seasick. It took them one whole day to go down there and they anchored in the bay next to many other boats. In the evening Su-yi noticed that they were drifting away and with much swearing and panic they managed to avoid hitting other boats or going on the rocks, after which they had a very nervous night because they feared the same thing might happen again while they were sleeping.

The next morning Klaus went ashore to get some last minute supplies. Everywhere he saw hotels, bars and little stands selling knickknacks that tourists like to bring home from their vacations. No tree-lined streets here, just sand, rocks and a lot of dust. It all looked very modern and Spanish and Klaus guessed that a lot of money was being earned here, most of which was probably leaving this island for Spain.

Los Christianos was above all a tourist spot and supplies were hard to get. Klaus did stock up on fresh vegetables and other food, though. He did not go to immigration or customs, didn't clear out in any way, but when he was back on board, he simply pulled up his anchors, waved good-bye and left the Canaries slowly behind.

As soon as they were out to sea, the wind picked up in strength, so that they had to roll in the sails partially. They knew about this jet stream effect amongst the isles, but it still didn't make it any more comfortable so soon out of harbor. Su-yi was completely out with seasickness, Teufelchen too. Klaus didn't fare very much better, especially when he had to go down below to look at the charts or tables. He almost couldn't read the small print in his H.O.249 tables, which he needed for navigation. He didn't have a marine satellite navigation system or satnav, just a good Cassens and Plath sextant and a cheap plastic backup, in case he damaged or lost the other one. His radio was a basic Japanese all band receiver, which he used to tune to the BBC time signal. Again, he had a backup. Then he had two quartz watches and a quartz alarm clock, a REEDS nautical almanac of the year and copies of charts. That was all. The yachtsmen from the prestigious clubs with their captain’s caps and their golden stripes would have called him crazy. But Klaus knew that almost all real yachties didn't have much more than he did. And if they could make do, so would he. If old Captain Joshua Slocum could be believed, he had only an alarm clock where one of the hands was missing.

Every time he looked into a book, a chart, or a table he became nauseous and very tired. And when he stood on deck, with the heavy sextant in front of his eye, his arms got cramped and when he plotted the sights he could see that they were pretty much useless. Nothing resembled a straight line there. Su-yi lay in her sleeping bag in the cockpit and all conversation was reduced to a minimum. They forced themselves to eat, but it was the most basic diet, because neither of them could stand in the galley and cook something appetizing. It just wasn't possible. Teufelchen wasn’t feeling too well either. He just sat motionless in one place or other. In addition to the seasickness he suffered from diarrhea and Klaus really hated it when he had to clean up after the little black kitten.

After three days they got used to the motions of the boat and when Su-yi finally managed to cook a decent meal, their smiles came back to their faces.

"We must be totally crazy to go through all this," Klaus commented.

"Yeah, I felt like dying there, but now I am pretty much okay again. Only yesterday I said to myself what an utter fool I am to go out on the ocean and I swore that I would never ever go sailing again," Su-yi said.

"I know exactly what you mean."

It helped that the sun shone warmly so that it was almost impossible to walk on the gray deck. Some flying fish made panicky flights to escape the predators under the surface and once in a while some porpoises played under the bow of DOUBLE TROUBLE as well.

Klaus got out his fishing tackle, four big shiny metal lures that lay heavy in his hand. Each was equipped with a meter of steel wire and a swivel, so that it wouldn’t mess up the lines too badly. He tied them to a hundred meters of one millimeter nylon fishing line, threw them overboard one by one and then hooked the end of the line to a sturdy rubber loop. Even with the rubber to take the first shock out of it, he would lose a big fish if he didn’t get the speed out of the boat right away. And at night he had to take in the lines again, for otherwise the really big fish would break the lines. They never did that in the daytime.

Again the sea took on a different aspect to what Klaus had known before. Instead of warm it became hot. Blue skies, dark-blue sea, and all Klaus and Su-yi desired was a bit of shade. They didn’t dare to sit in the sun anymore, except for a few minutes and even then only with a shirt or blouse on. Often now they would haul up a bucket of sea-water and pour it over their heads. They longed to go swimming in the ocean, but they knew that it was way too dangerous. There was no way a swimmer could keep up with a moving boat and a man-over-board maneuver was difficult at the best of times. The wind didn’t seem to be strong, coming mostly from behind, so that the motion of the boat and the motion of the wind were in the same direction.

And things began to show up on deck. First it was tiny flying fish that probably had escaped from a Dorado - also called Mahi Mahi and one of the most delicious fish to be found in the ocean - only to end up on the decks of DOUBLE TROUBLE. Then it was small squid that they found in the mornings, mostly dried and some of them secreting a thick blue-black ink that stained the decks. Teufelchen loved those. Every morning it would be his first exercise to walk all over the deck and look for little bits of tasty food that miraculously appeared there overnight. He licked his little mouth for half an hour after he had eaten one of those delicacies.

Sometimes they could see the flying fish gliding above the water, for amazing distances and they seemed to be able to steer their flights. They usually showed up in schools of perhaps fifty or a hundred fish. And when they saw a few Dorado or Mahi Mahi zooming along at high speed, just below the surface in pursuit of the elusive flying fish, they were very glad that they had made it through all the misery and trouble in the beginning to have a look at things that most people will never see in their whole lives.

It was beautiful. Life took on a different dimension out there, with all the cares and worries of land-life slowly dissolving into the sea. Why worry about a career or a mortgage or inflation or anything, when always there would be the sea, unchanging, peaceful and life-sustaining? What need, indeed, was there to go back to land and get entangled in all the worries again? DOUBLE TROUBLE carried enough food for six months and water could always be replenished by rain, for sooner or later it would rain again. Of course, they were aware that this kind of thinking was altogether unrealistic, but it didn’t make it any less attractive. On the contrary. Why not continue the dream, maybe onto some island someplace in the South Pacific where nobody would come or care about what they were doing.

Klaus told Su-yi of Tonga, and that about one hundred uninhabited islands awaited them there alone. There must be many more uninhabited islands all over the South Seas and who was to deny them living there, at least for a while? Su-yi was more practical then Klaus, but even she was intrigued with the notion of living in some tropical paradise, eating what the land had to offer, planting things in a little garden. Going out on the reef to collect clams, crabs and octopus. Spearing fish and diving in the lagoon for food? She would leave the more grisly details to Klaus, but it wouldn’t be a bad life after all.

Klaus mentioned Tom Neale, the New Zealander who had lived alone on just such an island in the middle of nowhere. He had built a house and a garden on Suvorov, raised chickens and even built a wharf. He had a little boat to move about the lagoon and his diet was very much limited to what he could find and grow there, but he didn’t have any of the worries that were the everyday talk of millions and millions of people all over the cities of the world. No, Klaus knew that it was only a dream, but it was a very nice dream nonetheless.

While Su-yi had always liked cooking good food, she now developed a passion for it. She would spend hours thinking about how to best prepare a meal with the things on hand and one of her favorite pastimes was leafing through one of the various cookbooks. Not only did they have fresh bread in the morning, but cakes and pastries as well, luxurious lunches and sumptuous dinners of three or four courses. Many of the dishes Klaus had never eaten before in his life; some being Chinese, some French, some Mexican and many others. Klaus had never dreamed that there could be such a variety of Chinese food alone, and he was grateful that Su-yi had bought all the necessary but very strange ingredients for her dishes. She had water chestnuts, dried Chinese mushrooms and fungus which she made into a Szechuan dish called “Yuxiang Rousi”; spicy and time consuming to make, but well worth the effort. When Klaus caught a fish with white meat, she took the fillets and put them into her steamer, just added a little salt and a few slices of ginger to be transformed into a dish that was delightful in its simplicity and exquisite taste. They both agreed that they had perhaps the best food and drink of all the boats on the Atlantic, professional chefs or no.

“You could open a Chinese restaurant anywhere,” Klaus said by way of praise.

“No, thank you very much,” Su-yi answered, “Can you imagine how much work that would be? A good Chinese restaurant has several cooks for different kinds of food, and apart from the cooking you have to buy all the ingredients, clean and cut the vegetables, do the dishes, lay out and wait at the tables, and so on. Many Chinese people do that and in the end they may be successful, but they work for years and years, both night and day, before they see any reward. Thanks, but no thanks.”

“I hadn’t thought of it this way,” Klaus said, astonished. “Couldn’t you start small and then when business picks up hire a few people to help you do the work?”

“Have you ever gone to a Chinese restaurant that offers only a couple of dishes? You wouldn’t survive that way, you have to have a reasonable assortment or people will come once and never again. And what’s more, they would tell other people about it and your business would die before it ever had a chance to grow.”

“Ah, well, thanks be to God that I have the chance to eat all this wonderful food anyway,” Klaus concluded, which made Su-yi smile.

Often Klaus would sit in the cockpit with a book in his hands and Teufelchen on his lap, but instead of reading he was daydreaming. He looked up and he looked far, he saw things of the real world and he saw things that perhaps were yet to come, but most of all he enjoyed the peace that was given him and he was grateful. Grateful to his remarkable grandmother, to the times that allowed him to come here, and to Su-yi for being out here with him. He could understand why Bernard Moitessier had donated all the income of his book “The long route” to the organization “Friends of the Earth”, dedicated to the preservation of nature and wildlife. He caught a glimpse of why the extraordinary sailor had continued sailing around the world, after he had won the first solo non-stop yacht race around the world. He had forfeited the prize and the money, to keep his peace. And Klaus thought it sad, that people in coming generations were not going to be able to see all this. There wouldn’t be any dolphins, tuna, whales, or coral reefs . Maybe he, too, should become an active member of the fight for the preservation of beauty on this blue planet? It was well worth thinking about and he had all the time in the world to come to a good decision.

Su-yi showed Klaus how to bake bread and delighted him with the Chinese dishes she prepared every evening. They shared the watches at night, six hours each, and both of them took turns of taking little naps in the daytime. Teufelchen had the most perfect time of all. Most of the time he would spend with whoever was sleeping, but when he was in “active mode”, he would play with the other out in the cockpit, on the deck or crawl around inside the boat.

By the time they reached the Cape Verde Islands, the seasickness they had suffered from in the beginning was a distant memory and they were truly enjoying the trip. They had a scare amongst the islands, because the wind died and the current was pushing them towards shore. The engines wouldn't start, and Klaus had to hang more or less upside down and work on the engines. They were way too heavy for him to get on deck and work there. Finally he got one of them going, but by that time the wind was returning anyway and they got away from the islands. The whole ordeal had lasted from sunrise to sunset.

Every morning they had an early breakfast, which was usually followed by some work on the boat. At lunch-time they had a little meal and in the afternoon, they read books, slept, or prepared dinner. That meal was always sumptuous and they were glad that they had brought copious quantities of red wine. On the other hand, beer was at a premium. They continuously poured salt water over their heads and while Klaus was very happy with the state of affairs, Su-yi would have preferred a daily shower with fresh water, which Klaus strictly vetoed.

Klaus got to learn a lot about Chinese ways of thinking and sometimes these discussions became arguments. But Su-yi had been with Europeans a long time now and Klaus was genuinely interested in things Chinese, so the arguments didn't last long. Klaus thought it would be most interesting to learn Chinese characters one day and visit Taiwan, Hong Kong, or China to see what it was like.

The nights were special, too. Although they did put on some clothes as it got later it was never really cold anymore. Often the watches became long sessions where either Klaus or Su-yi lay comfortably on some cushions on a bench in the cockpit, looking up into the sky. Millions and millions of stars shone out of the night sky and often they could see shooting stars and even meteors. They learned the names of some of the stars and they sounded like out of long forgotten fairy tales of distant lands and times. Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Rigil Kent, Antares and many more. Klaus and Su-yi learned to recognize the planets and they got a feel for the time according to the moon and the celestial bodies. It was not all play, but also part of the art of navigation, which gave the most immediate and accurate results with star-sights. Those could only be taken when the horizon and the stars were both visible at the same time. And since twilight lasted only for a very short time it paid to learn the names of the constellations and the stars, in order not to waste any precious time. Here in the Atlantic navigation was easy, so that a ten-year-old child could do the calculations, but things were very different in the Pacific with its many small islands and currents and reefs lying about everywhere.

Klaus was ambitious and wanted to learn everything about astro-navigation, including all the more esoteric aspects of dealing with the moon, but he always found time to just relax and enjoy the nights. When they weren’t looking at the sky, they were often found looking at the sea, especially when phosphorescence turned the water into a magic whirlpool. It was like a whole universe all over again, only this time under and all around them, with stars and galaxies twinkling in the depths below them. Sometimes a big fish would fly amongst them and it was as if a shimmering alien from outer space had come to play with their boat.

When they hit a wave, all these sparkling drops of silver would fly up in the sky and over the foredeck, and then extinguish themselves in a second or less to fall back into the sea where they had come from. And if they got tired of that as well, they had brought along many books. Most of them were secondhand paperbacks and back on land they would most certainly have considered them trash. But here they just added to the total relaxation, that they had never achieved on dry land. Always a phone nearby, or friends come over for a chat and every vacation is marred by the date set for its end, by a plane schedule or worse. And some of the books were unexpected gems, that fit in perfectly with their state of mind, though they were not necessarily talking about the sea at all. It could be about a garden or fields or a forest or again about mountains, desert, the jungle or the cold north, but always exuding the feeling of majesty or the power of nature and the planet they were on.

The wind stopped and didn’t start up again. The waves became smaller and smaller, DOUBLE TROUBLE moved slower and slower, until it stopped to move altogether and the sails flapped listlessly with the gentle rocking of the boat. Klaus looked over the side and saw barnacles and goose-barnacles covering the waterline. He got out his snorkel, mask, fins, and a spatula, tied himself to a long rope and asked Su-yi to keep a lookout while he was cleaning the bottom. It wouldn’t do to be taken unawares by one of the big deep water sharks that roamed the oceans.

When he jumped into the water and all the bubbles he had caused had risen to the surface, he experienced a moment of vertigo. The water was so very deep and so clear that he felt that he was flying. Far down in the depths he could see big fish swimming with slow graceful movements, no energy wasted there. He looked around in every direction and though he felt that he could see for miles, he couldn’t see anything.

“It is so clear,” he shouted to Su-yi who scanned the waters anxiously, “And so blue. It’s the nicest blue I have ever seen.” With that he dived under again. He looked at the bottom of his boat and with the two little keels it reminded him of a giant fish that hung inverted upon the surface. Where the boat rose and fell back into the water, little silvery bubbles flowed in eddies and in his ears Klaus could hear a hum and a clicking that he couldn’t place at first. When he looked at the barnacles and the long bodies of the goose barnacles with their little arms groping through the water filtering it and gathering food, he figured that they were probably responsible for the sounds.

He started scraping them away and when he saw them gliding into the depths, he suddenly noticed a fish going after them that had hidden somewhere near the bow of the boat. With surprise he saw that it was a remora-fish, its sucking plate on the top of the head oval. The fish was well camouflaged, but in all the clear blue ocean-water it didn’t help him one bit.

I wonder where we picked him up, Klaus thought. We must have had some big visitors without noticing, for the fish was more than a foot long and Klaus imagined that its host must have been correspondingly big to accommodate him.

After he had seen the fish he worked more quickly and scanned the waters more often. Every time he went for a breath of air, he looked at Su-yi who seemed to want him out of the water as quickly as possible.

The remora fish continued to swim after the debris that Klaus scraped off his boat and while it circled and eyed Klaus, it kept its distance.

When all the work was finished Klaus left the water almost reluctantly. He wouldn’t often have a chance to see something like this again and though it was a bit scary down there, it was also very beautiful in its own eerie way. He told Su-yi about the “suck-fish” and they fed it bread crumbs until it didn’t want to eat any more. Slowly the wind picked up again and they resumed sailing towards the South American coast, still a long way off.

This peaceful idyll came to an abrupt end as they hit the doldrums. First the wind became erratic, to be replaced by thunderstorms and cold showers, sometimes no wind at all and sometimes waterspouts in the distance. They had to get up at all times in the middle of the night, to shift sails, and in the daytime the heat was intense, with the sky the same leaden color as the water. Everything was damp and covered with salt, they became irritable and they lost their appetite. All within just a few days.

Klaus was especially disappointed. Where all should have been perfect with a beautiful girl, a good boat and an ocean all to themselves they found themselves in a bad mood, quarreling and depressed, tired and dirty. Never mind the romantic dreams he had entertained of making love under the stars. If he was honest with himself, he couldn't even blame Su-yi for not being interested at all, because what they both really needed was more sleep and better weather.

One evening they were sitting in the cockpit, both without clothes on and looking forward to a relatively calm night. They were near the equator, and the food now was simpler, because all the good ingredients had been used up already.

Suddenly a thunderstorm hit them with such force, that Klaus feared for the mast. Without putting on his raingear or anything, he ran forward and screamed for Su-yi to help him get the two genoas down. The aluminum whisker pole was banging against the mast and they were both shivering to get the sail under control and they were afraid because of the fury of the storm.

While Klaus was still struggling with the sail, the aluminum pole banged him on the head and when he went to feel for the bump his hands came away covered in blood. But he couldn’t afford to stop now, so he just ignored it and kept working until the sail was under control. It seemed like hours until all the work was done and when Klaus got back into the cockpit, he lay down on the floor. Su-yi got hold of some sea water and washed his head where the pole hat cut his skin. Klaus winced when the salt got into the wound. Su-yi looked very pale, they were both very cold and on top of that they found Su-yi's cabin drenched in water.

“I don’t think I can stand this much longer,” Su-yi said.

“Welcome to the doldrums. Sailors have complained about the weather here for centuries. At least we are lucky these days and won’t be stuck here for months on end. But I’m beginning to understand why people are going straight for the Caribbean instead of having a look at Brazil first,” Klaus replied.

“Any idea how much longer this is going to last?”

“According to the pilot charts, we should be almost through,” Klaus said.

They both had enough of the Doldrums then and only hoped to be on dry land, preferably in a Brazilian bar, with a cold beer or a red wine in front of them, listening to live music and, even more important, no worries about the boat and their own lives. Enough was enough.

Only it wasn't. The next morning, in perfectly normal weather, they suddenly heard a loud bang, following which the second genoa glided into the water, only to get caught right under the boat. It took them more than an hour to get the sail free again, by which time it was full of blue antifouling and had several tears in it. Nor could they put it up again.

Something on the top of the mast had broken and they didn't have another spare halyard on which to hoist the second foresail. They were all in use. Either they would have to continue much slower with only one foresail or Klaus would have to go up into the mast to fix whatever was broken.

Klaus got out his homemade bosun's chair and took down all the sails. Then he rigged two halyards to the bosun's chair and told Su-yi exactly how to handle the winch. He was scared and wished nothing more than to put the thing off, but he went up anyway.

He could feel the hardness of the chair he was sitting in and the ropes cutting into his flesh made him want to shift. No way. He was too heavy and he needed his hands to hold on. The yellow aluminum mast in front of his eyes looked old, corroded, with the holes made for lights and fixtures suppurating like wounds. His arms began to ache, because the fear made him hold onto the mast much too tight. Don’t look down, for God’s sake, Klaus thought.

But of course he did. He couldn’t avoid it. He was just at the first pair of spreaders now and already the boat looked small under him, with Su-yi at the winch even smaller.

“Slow down a bit,” he called down, his voice hoarse with fear and exertion. “I’ve got to get around the crosstree without tangling the halyards or banging myself to pieces here.”

“I can’t hear you!” came her answer.

Klaus repeated at the top of his lungs.

When he had gotten above the spreaders he moved up again in little jerks. The mast was swinging wilder up here and Klaus had to sometimes hold on tight as best as he could, while at the other end of the arc he was pressed into the mast so that it hurt. And his muscles were beginning to lock up. He was too scared.

He gnashed his teeth and grimaced. Everything tasted of salt and fear. And something metallic. He passed the little light in the mast and could almost reach the top. Couldn’t look down now. That would lock up his muscles for sure. And, though he hadn’t felt anything for quite a while, he could feel his ribs hurting again where they had beaten and kicked him in Essaoira.

“Hold it,” he shouted down. The rope stopped jerking. Shaking, he took another shackle from his harness and clipped it to the mast-top. It was a triangular platform with holes and loops in it, so that it could accommodate all the blocks, the VHF antenna, the lights and the instruments it held.

Klaus took the little pair of pliers that hung on a thin rope and wanted to shackle the block with the halyard to the mast. But he couldn’t do that with one hand. And he couldn’t let go with both hands because of the mad swinging of the mast. “Damn. Goddamn. Damn, damn, damn,” he shouted. Sweat was streaming down his face and into his eyes, where it stung. The sound of the wind was in his ears or maybe it was the sound of his own blood.

Carefully he looked at the waves. When a big one had gone past and it looked as if there weren’t any other big ones coming, he let go with the other hand and quickly tightened the shackle, before the mad swinging could slam him into the mast. His heart beat so fast and hard, that he thought something must go wrong with his body any time now.

The pliers slipped from his hand and banged into the mast, but he could pick them up again by the rope. For one crazy moment he clung to the mast, his muscles all but frozen and in panic he thought that he would never make it down again. “Stay calm,” he said to himself, ”everything cool and relaxed. You are completely calm and relaxed.” While he was saying this to himself, he thought, that it was all a horrible lie, but he kept talking anyway. And it did work.

“You can let me down again, but slowly,” he shouted down at Su-yi.

He couldn’t make out her reply. “Say again,” he screamed.

“Just a moment. I have to take care of the lines.” Su-yi shouted back.

Su-yi was just as scared. She had to work hard on the winch and she was afraid that the ropes would cross over and then stop moving. She was even more afraid that she let them slip. Fortunately Klaus had insisted that he would have two halyards that would be hoisted in turn. If one slipped or broke, he wouldn’t fall all the way, but only for a short distance until the second halyard checked the fall. Su-yi carefully belayed the halyards on cleats situated right behind the winches, not with the neat-looking locking turn, but with a few normal turns and then a couple of round turns around the whole cleat. Klaus was of the opinion that locking turns were for so-called ‘yachtsmen’ only, more for show than anything else, and so Su-yi used only his method now, although she wasn’t quite sure whether they would hold up to heavy loads or not.

Now that he was up there, and she literally held his life in her hands, she thought about what would happen if she made a mistake right now. In her mind’s eye she saw him falling down, to hit the deck hard, and then she saw a dying mass of broken bones and she surprised herself by getting wet eyes. That wasn't like her. Before that she would have thought about what would happen to her in case she was stranded without a skipper and whether she would be able to bring the boat in. And now she worried about this guy up there. She was even more confused now that she realized that she actually cared about this man; cared about him so much that the thought of an accident made her cry.

She was suddenly angry at herself. This was not supposed to happen. Only stupid and sentimental people fell in love and allowed themselves to be encumbered by it and finally got so tied up in it, that they were imprisoned. And if they weren’t sailing she would have no reason to fear and all would be under control. It was time to stop all this adventure business and get back on dry safe land. Once she was there, her head would clear up, she’d be her old cool self again. Then she could think and decide what to do.

When Klaus finally came down very relieved and with the rush of adrenaline in his bloodstream incessantly talking, Su-yi only answered in monosyllabic utterances and soon excused herself. Klaus had no idea what was going on, but then he usually didn't. He was too glad anyway that he wasn’t up there anymore.

Only when this state of affairs persisted, he grew alarmed and asked himself what he had done wrong. When he could not contain himself any longer he said, “Could you please tell me what I have done wrong? I haven’t a clue.”

“It not what you have done, it’s what we are doing. It’s too dangerous.”

“But nothing really happened on this trip,” Klaus retorted.

“It could have. That whisker pole hitting you over the head. Could have been a lot worse. You up there in the mast. If something does go wrong...,” Su-yi said.

“So far everything went okay, didn’t it?”

“That’s only because we have been lucky. One day we won’t be. You’ll be seriously wounded and there won’t be a doctor around and you’ll die.”

“Come on,” Klaus said.

“No, I mean it. Simply too many things that can go wrong. Who knows what will happen next? I wish you’d just....”

“It’s just been a long trip, that’s all. Soon we’ll be in Belem and we’ll have a rest there and explore the jungle and do all kinds of stuff. You’ll see. You’ll feel better then.”

“No, Klaus. I am so....worried. You could fall overboard. Or Teufelchen. I often have nightmares about that. I dream that I wake up and that you are gone. I walk all over the boat and I shout and no answer. It’s horrible. I wish you could sell the boat in Belem and we could do something less dangerous,” Su-yi said quietly.

“Sell DOUBLE TROUBLE? But we hardly started. Don’t you want to see the Caribbean any more? Or Tahiti?”

“We could fly there.”

“It’s not the same. We’d be nothing but tourists, then. And all the interesting places we couldn’t go to. We would have given up, before we had really started. I know that recently it has been a bit heavy. But it is our first passage and considering that, I think we aren’t doing so badly. Let’s just sail into Belem and then take a rest. Take a rest from the boat as well. It’ll be okay, don’t worry. It would be too bad if we have to give up just like that, don’t you think?” Klaus asked.

But Su-yi was not convinced. She did not want an argument, but she thought that in Belem would come a time of decision-making for her. If she really wanted to stay with Klaus she would have to go on sailing, and if she really didn’t want to go sailing anymore, she would have to give up Klaus. Unless she could persuade him to sell the boat. She looked for Teufelchen and found him sleeping on the fridge. She picked him up and took him with her to the couch in the living room. He looked a bit confused, but didn’t try to run away. She was sure that he actually loved her and it made her happy to stroke his fur and hear him purring in response.

Klaus could feel that things were going badly for them and tried to make it up by being especially considerate and attentive, all of which was not lost on Su-yi. She loved him for it, but she also thought sadly that it had nothing to do with the real problem. She wasn’t even sure what the real problem was. She didn’t want a ‘relationship’, but it had already happened. She was involved. And as much as she liked the idea of sailing and the romance of it; the realities were too harsh and the consequences of a mistake too deadly. Sailing around the world? Two - or even three - whole years of this anxiety, fear, and nightmare? She didn’t think that she could take that much anyway.

One night something hit the port-side of the boat. Since all was black, they couldn't see what it was, but where Su-yi's cabin had been leaking a little bit before, it now became uninhabitable. Sea water was leaking in where the previous owners had put a top onto the cabin to make it possible to stand up in it. Klaus immediately offered his own cabin and went to the forward cabin, which was very roomy and had a head in it, but was also very noisy.

Su-yi settled into his cabin and when she arranged her things there, she found his diary. She was about to call out to him, when suddenly she changed her mind and instead locked the cabin door. She knew that she had no right to read in this book, but she couldn't resist. She thought she knew what he felt, but she couldn't be sure and anyway, what harm would be done if she read his diary?

What she found was a series of love letters. He had written to her every single day of the trip, about everything he felt towards her and his hope for the future. He told all his secrets and all his fears, and above all he asked her again and again if she would like to stay with him.

In spite of herself Su-yi was very moved. She could tell that he was sincere and that he truly loved her, and she knew that he would be very much the perfect mate for her. Only it couldn't be. She didn’t want to die on a little sailing boat in the middle of one ocean or the other. And she could not allow herself to be attached to anyone, ever, the way it happened to her mother, and her sisters and pretty much every woman in Taiwan.

The guys showed up with flowers, presents, and sweet talk for a few months or a year. Finally there would be a wedding and then kids and then the boring, thankless job of housewife and mother. The guys would still buy flowers and presents, would still sweet talk - but now it would be for the mistress, younger, more beautiful, more interesting, and free. The guy would pretend business and he wouldn't be interested in having sex with his wife. The wife was there to raise the kids and as a respectable companion at company dinners and otherwise she was supposed to leave him alone. He could change mistresses whenever he wanted to and he perceived it as his inborn right to do so.

But woe to the wife that had a lover and was found out. She would get divorced real quick and she would lose the children in the process and if she wasn't real sharp, she would end up without kids, money, or a job.

Su-yi was determined not to fall into this trap. Because no matter how good it looked in the beginning, no matter how nice the guy seemed to be, it was always the same story in the end. Pain and misery for the woman. Su-yi was furious that she had gotten herself into such a double dilemma. She wanted off the boat and she did not want any permanent attachments - and at the same time she did want to be together with Klaus. Her feelings were playing tricks on her and it would take all the effort of her cool head to correct things.

After more than one month on the ocean Teufelchen got restless and walked around on the foredeck. He always looked ahead and sniffed, but he couldn’t have smelled the land, as the wind was coming from the other direction. They picked him up and put him back into the cockpit, but he was not to be denied. Somehow he seemed to know that a mysterious continent awaited them, with jungles and caimans, jaguars, boa constrictors and all kinds of other most interesting things.

The coast of Brazil finally came into sight. The water wasn't the dark sapphire blue that it had been, but turned into an opaque green, then a muddy yellow-green when they came closer to shore. Klaus and Su-yi had to watch out now, as ships and many small fishing boats became more frequent. They looked about for lighthouses and other landmarks and finally found a few of them. In the entrance to the Rio Para the going became painfully slow. When the tide was against them, DOUBLE TROUBLE almost came to a standstill. Finally Klaus simply threw the anchor over the side to wait for a change in the tide. Teufelchen was excited, walking all over the deck, sharpening his claws, looking and sniffing at the jungle. Klaus breathed the rich earthy smell, with a hint of decay. For five weeks they had only seen, heard, smelled, and tasted the sea, and now his eyes were assaulted by a variety of jungle-greens, and he could hardly breathe for all the odors and humidity he suddenly had to deal with.

The foliage next to the river was incredibly dense. Right next to the water mangroves poked their roots into the mud and Klaus had read that they were the best possible protection in really bad weather. You tried to get your boat as far inside the mangrove belt as possible and then tied it down at all sides. Even a hurricane couldn’t harm you there.

Sometimes little islands in the Rio Para split the currents and they reminded Klaus of the island that Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn had claimed, only in a more tropical version. If it weren’t for all the bugs and spiders, these islands would have been most interesting little resorts. Klaus was determined to check out one of them as soon as they had been to Belem and cleared in.

It took Klaus and Su-yi three whole days from the ocean to Belem. All the time, they had their VHF radio switched to channel 16 and heard the pilots on the big ships talking in Portuguese. When they asked for information, nobody answered them, until finally a guy working for a ship’s chandler told them that most of the local pilots didn't speak any English.

In the distance they saw a bizarre zigzag which they couldn't identify. It turned out to be a skyline which resembled that of Manhattan, completely out of place after 35 days of ocean and then jungle. And it was big. Much bigger than they had anticipated. They motored around the peninsula and found the "Iate Clube do Para" at the other side. Only very few sailing boats had made it up the river, but a number of power boats with big engines lay moored in front of the yacht club.

The current was extreme, sometimes up to five knots and they had to maneuver DOUBLE TROUBLE with both engines at full thrust until they had their anchors down. The anchor chain was stretched rigid and Klaus figured that it would stay that way until the tide changed. When they rowed ashore to clear in, they had to row with all their might to make any progress at all against the current. Klaus had to rest on the floating dock for a few minutes to catch his breath when he had finally made it.

On the left of the dock a big swimming pool invited members to a dip and to the right several bars and restaurants spread out along the waterline. Heavily armed guards stood at the entrance of the Iate Clube de Para.

"I wonder what these people are doing here," Su-yi said uneasily.

"We'll probably find out soon enough."

The receptionist told them that an immigration officer would meet them here presently and that they were guests of the club for as long as they stayed. "We like people here who sail across an ocean to have a look at our country. Also, it makes life at the club more interesting for the members."

After the immigration official had stamped their passports and given them clearance, Klaus and Su-yi went to the bar at the swimming pool and had a couple of cold "Antarctica" beers. Thus fortified they went out to explore the city. When they left the club they were told that they were under no circumstances allowed to bring guests into the club and that they could take either a taxi or a bus to the city center. But they went walking instead.

The streets were covered in red dust and the city looked like one massive slum. Many people walked about busily, some playing soccer on the street, some did their food-shopping and suddenly two teenagers jumped up in front of them gesticulating wildly and threatening them with crude home-made knives. They were jabbering away in Portuguese and of cause neither Klaus nor Su-yi could understand a word they were saying. The only thing that was perfectly clear was that they were being mugged. In broad daylight in the middle of a crowded street. People were passing them by and while a few of them glanced in their directions, most of them just shuffled by without seeming to notice. Klaus was considering whether he should run or attack, as he had his passport and most of his money on him in a leather pouch under his T-shirt. He couldn’t very well deal with two attackers at the same time, though. And he couldn’t run away from Su-yi either. One of the muggers advanced on him and while he held the knife in one hand he ripped off Klaus’s watch with the other. The boy quickly retreated, picked the watch out of the dust in the road and ran off with it. Klaus noticed that the same thing had happened to Su-yi. Now one of the people who had pretended not to notice anything came over to them and said, “Bad boys, bad boys,” and pointed to the little alleys that disappeared in the slums on both sides of the road.

"Jesus. Those little hoodlums were maybe thirteen years old by the looks of it," Klaus said.

"Maybe we should have listened to those guards and have taken a taxi," Su-yi replied.

"You weren't exactly keen on a taxi, either, as I remember it," Klaus replied hotly.

"Ah, anyway, never mind. It's only the watches and they weren't expensive ones. But I guess we do have to be more careful from now on,” Su-yi said.

"Damn right you are. I'm gonna take myself the biggest wrench I can find and tie it to my wrist. And if one of them little bastards is gonna try that nonsense again, he's gonna get hit with it for medicine." He didn't believe he would, but it felt good talking tough.

“As long as it’s only the watches,” Su-yi said calmly.

“I’ll be better prepared next time,” Klaus answered.

When they arrived downtown almost an hour later, it looked totally different. Skyscrapers sprang up amongst big tropical trees that provided most welcome shade. Police were very much in evidence. Klaus saw a few foreigners walking in the streets and most of them looked like travelers, with backpacks and worn out clothes. A few parks looked inviting and live music was being played in small street cafes. It felt so good to be on land again, with people and green vegetation. If you wanted something you just went into any shop to buy it and Klaus and Su-yi were almost overwhelmed with new sights, interesting food and music.

In spite of the mugging, Klaus felt in high spirits for having made it all the way from Germany to Brazil and he could sense that Su-yi was just as elated as he was. He felt like one of the greatest sailors ever and that this was what it was all about. He and Su-yi walked down the streets holding hands and the awkwardness which had existed between them for quite a while was gone, at least for now. At the Hilton Klaus got all the information he wanted and the only thing that marred his good mood was the look the doorman gave him. Then he realized that he looked worse than any of the characters he had seen out on the streets.. Crumpled up and not too clean. Klaus and Su-yi got a bus back to the yacht club and this time they didn't have any problems.

When DOUBLE TROUBLE had come in, Su-yi had noticed a French aluminum yacht flying a Brittany flag and another very big and beautiful one, which had reminded her of a coat of arms. She’d pointed it out to Klaus. Two guys and two tanned girls had been lounging on deck and on the way back to DOUBLE TROUBLE Klaus steered the dinghy by that boat to invite them on board for a drink.

Yvon and Pascal had been sailing on the Brazilian coast for a year already. Their boat was a racing boat and it had two retractable keels, which made river travel easy for them. They had met the girls only a few days before in a bar here in Belem and planned to sail with them as far as the next island, Marajo, where one of the girls had grown up.

"I thought you couldn't take guests into the club," Su-yi said.

"You can do anything you want here, provided you pay some cash or you have the right friends. We do pay cash and we do have the right friends," Yvon said grinning.

Klaus could see that Su-yi didn't much care for this line of thinking but said nothing.

"But anyway, let's get off the boring boats and go downtown." Pascal said.

"We know just the spots for some serious fun."

Klaus was immediately persuaded, but Su-yi wasn't that interested. On the other hand she didn't want to be trapped on the boat with no dinghy to get ashore and so she reluctantly agreed to go downtown once more.

First, Yvon and Pascal took them to a good restaurant to have dinner. Then they took Klaus & Su-yi to the "Saint Germain", a little bar that one of their friends was running here. He was French, too. The girls had taken off after dinner and planned to meet them again at the night club where they had first met. Klaus was talking non-stop, pointing at pictures, plants, people and flashing back to moments on the Atlantic crossing and drinking beer after beer. He reveled in the presence of people and realized that he had missed them more than he had thought at first.

“You’ve been doing this for how long?” he yelled at Yvon.

“One year, almost. Soon we gotta leave, otherwise there’ll be trouble with the visas and customs. But maybe we’ll come back. Pascal here would like to stay forever,“ Yvon said.

“What do you do about money? All this going out and stuff must cost a fortune,” Klaus said.

“So what? You wanna always sit on your boat and see nothing of the country?”

“No, but I am trying to save as much as I can, because otherwise I’ll never make it,” Klaus replied.

“What for? You take the money you have and you use it to get the best that you can get. And then, when it’s gone, you get some more.”

“Yeah, but how do you get some more? Seems like this is the most difficult part of the whole boat-life. Every harbor everybody is looking for jobs and mostly you can’t find any and if you can, the pay is so lousy that it isn’t worth working for.”

“Well, that’s where you are making the big mistake. You gotta keep enough money in your pocket to fly back to where the good jobs are and to take care of the boat while you are away. And then, when you come back, you can go for another year or so. Easy,” Yvon said. “Let’s just have fun and let’s keep the worries out of it. Tonight anyway. Let’s go to another place. I bet you’ve never seen anything like it. Pascal, let’s make a move.”

At the "La Pinha" night club Klaus couldn't quite believe what he saw. It was huge, and it didn't have any walls, but was surrounded by vegetation, and every few meters naked girls danced most suggestively on little round tables.

"Quite a crazy place, isn't it?" Klaus said to Su-yi. His eyes were shining and he was in excellent spirits.

"Yeah, I guess you like all these girls around, don't you?" she replied, not in a good mood at all. Klaus realized that what she wanted was to be back on the boat, pick up a book and read, or simply look at the river and the jungle in this crazy country they had come to from so far. She probably wanted peace and quiet and not all this mad jumping around and drinking in search of some elusive kicks or other.

Yvon and Pascal were screaming in Klaus's ear and so he lost track of what was happening with Su-yi. The beauty of the dancing girls as well as the feline grace of their movements surprised him. He had never dreamed that there were places like the La Pinha in a comparatively unknown hick place like Belem.

"Were your girl-friends dancing here?" he asked Yvon.

"No, no, no. The dancers are professionals. If you want to go with them you have to pay. A lot. You know how much they get paid here per night?"

"Hundred?"

"Five dollars US. For the whole night. Not exactly enough to support a family. So,..."

"Jesus. Why don't they go somewhere else to work? Where they get more money? These girls could make a fortune in Europe."

"Because they got no choice. How would they go? How to buy a ticket on

US$ 5.00 per night and how to pay for an expensive hotel in Europe? Besides, most of them only speak Portuguese. Just doesn't work. Actually, if you wanna know more you should ask him," and he pointed to a man who was talking to Su-yi, who still didn't look too happy.

In spite of all the excitement and alcohol a “red alert” light came on in Klaus’s brain. He suddenly realized that things had gone very wrong this evening as far as Su-yi and he were concerned. He walked over there, to put his arm around her, but she gave him a warning look.

But Yvon took the matter out of his hand. "Pascal told me that you are interested in our little dancing-girl here," he said jokingly. "Let me introduce you." Without awaiting Klaus's answer he dragged him along to one of the little dancing tables and asked the girl to step down. She complied and stood in front of Klaus without a stitch on, smiling at him. Klaus turned around to look for Su-yi, but he couldn't see her.

Abruptly he left the astonished beauty and went towards the door. He was just in time to see Su-yi outside and ran towards her.

“Su-yi, where are you going?”

“Just getting some fresh air. Didn’t you like that girl?”

“Not really. Su-yi, what do you think? Time to head back?”

“I thought you would never ask. Let’s go back right now.”

The next morning Klaus felt absolutely miserable; poisoned in fact. Almost worse than seasickness, he thought. At least he hadn't gotten into a fight with Su-yi last night and he hadn't done anything really stupid. Still, he had the feeling that there would be trouble. He started to do a bit of cleaning, but he felt so terrible that every movement was in slow-motion.

A couple of hours later Yvon and Pascal came over and asked them to go downtown with them. Klaus and Su-yi had to buy fresh vegetables, eggs, bread and other food and Klaus was glad that Yvon and Pascal could show him and

Su-yi around. When they came past an arms dealer Klaus looked into the window, amazed at all the stuff you could buy here. He saw powerful revolvers, pistols, rifles, shotguns, crossbows - and a catapult. Exactly the kind he had been looking for. Ever since he’d read how Bernard Moitessier had shot little messages up onto the bridge of passing freighters, he had wanted to buy one for similar occasions. It had an armrest so that it was easier on the wrist, and it used the same kind of rubber which he had on his spear-gun. Easy to replace. He went in and bought it right away. With it came a bag of ominous looking steel balls. They looked really deadly.

They went to the main post office to pick up their mail and to his surprise Klaus found a letter from Alberto. It wasn't very long or anything, but in it Alberto asked Klaus to phone him collect, as he had decided that he really would come out to visit them.

Klaus got on the wire right away. When he got Alberto on the line he said, "Just got your letter. When are you thinking of coming?"

"I could be there in a few days. Sound good?” Alberto asked.

Su-yi wasn't too thrilled when she heard that Alberto was really going to join them. “I thought we would have a nice quiet time here in Brazil,” she said. “When that Alberto shows up there’ll be lots of drinking and more madness all around.”

“What the heck has Alberto done to you that you dislike him so much?” Klaus asked, exasperated. “He just wants to fly over for a little vacation, while we have all the time we need for ourselves.”

“I don’t trust him. I told you a million times. He scares me. Something evil. Don’t ask me how, but I can feel it. I wish you would listen to me and stay away from that drug dealer. And anyway, we just got here and I was looking forward to exploring this place with you for a few months and don’t hang around with people like Alberto.”

“A few months?” Klaus asked alarmed. “You know we can’t do that. If we hang around too long we won’t make it to the Pacific in time. The cyclone season there starts in December and lasts all the way until April. And we still have to sail up to the Caribbean, then cross it, go through the Panama Canal, sail to the Galapagos Islands, before we can even think of the South Seas. We just can’t stay here that long.”

“You said that we would take a break here. We just got here and you already changed your mind. That’s not fair.” Su-yi said quietly.

“Of course we can have a break. Just not that long. It isn’t my fault, I didn’t make the weather,” Klaus said.

“This is really nonsense,” Su-yi said fuming. “What fun is it to sail around the world, or anywhere for that matter, if you can’t have the time to look at the place? You are nothing but a slave to your boat. What’s the point? It isn’t as if it’s all that much fun to live in that little cramped space with nothing to do for days and weeks.”

Klaus was stunned. Was that how she felt? That it was boring? He had never figured that the trip had been an ordeal for her. A little rough and tiring at times, yes, but all in all a beautiful experience. Something that nobody could take away, something worthwhile. He just looked at Su-yi and stopped talking.

Su-yi knew that she had said something that she would have unsaid if she could have. She didn't really want things to happen this way, but she could also not take it back without showing him her weakness. That her emotions were held captive by him and anyway, he would not believe her when she tried to deny what she had just said. For it was an ugly little truth. She just didn't like it as much any more as she had when she first started out on a sailing yacht. She did not like to admit it to herself, but it had simply lost most of its attractions. But Klaus hadn't, oh no. And that was even worse.

Klaus went back into the telephone office and phoned Alberto once more. He told him that he would phone him back in a few days. Su-yi decided that she needed some time by herself, and went back alone to relax by the swimming pool at the Iate Clube do Para.

When Klaus got back to DOUBLE TROUBLE, he couldn’t get Su-yi out of his mind. To distract himself he got out his maps and was amazed at the size of the area the Amazon got its water from. He had only studied nautical charts of the coast before and completely ignored the interior. When he realized that the Amazon actually started just about 200 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean and then went all the way across the South American continent, he was dumbfounded. And Manaos, which he had thought just a few miles upstream was almost smack in the middle of the continent. This was truly the mother of all rivers here. Teufelchen rubbed his head against Klaus, purring loudly and biting him softly to remind him that he was being neglected. Now why can't Su-yi love me like this here black cat does, he thought.

When the bar had closed and all the people had left, Su-yi walked down to the floating dock and once there she realized that the dinghy was gone. She didn't feel like disturbing the tropical night with a lot of shouting. So she walked back to the swimming pool, sat in the chair and looked across the water. She could barely make out the mangroves on the other side and above her she could see the southern cross in the sky. Why did it have to lie on its side? It looked more like a kite than a cross to her, but then, she wasn't Christian either.

She was thinking about Klaus and the future, too. He had been the best companion she had ever had - in spite of his cursing and quick temper. Nobody ever had given her the feeling that she mattered, that joys were there to be shared, and above all, she could feel that he was trying very hard to make life pleasurable for her. She knew that she was not only a "huaping", a beautiful vase for him, to be used and to be paraded. It was really too bad that he was so crazy about this sailing thing. It was cool to go sailing for a vacation, for a few months, but as a lifestyle? It was just too uncomfortable, with never enough fresh water for a decent shower, way too much physical work, and always the fear that something would go drastically wrong. Like waking up one night to find that Klaus had fallen overboard in spite of all the precautions. Su-yi hated to admit it even to herself, but she realized that she was nor really fitted for this kind of life. It wasn't her.

She thought that it would probably be quite a while until she found somebody with whom she could get along as well as with Klaus. What to do? Best to wait and see what happened, she decided.

Finally Yvon and Pascal showed up with their girls and brought Su-yi back to her boat. She crawled in beside Klaus and held him in her arms and she hoped that everything would work out all right between them. Teufelchen sat right on top of her licking his black fur and purring. It would be nice to be a cat, Su-yi thought.

The next morning Klaus prepared pancakes and strong coffee. Su-yi sat down at the table and didn't look at him. Klaus said to her, "I'm sorry, Su-yi. I didn't realize that the trip was so bad for you. I thought about things a lot, since yesterday. I phoned Alberto and put him on hold. And I checked out all kinds of information. I think we can stay here a month, if you really want. I mean, I much rather have you a happy woman again than stubbornly stick to a plan that I made a long time ago. I mean it, really. I'll try to do things so that you will enjoy them too, because anything else is just stupid." After he had said his piece, he reached for her hand and when he felt her fingers stoking his, he knew that things would be alright with them.

"I'm sorry too," Su-yi began. "I don't know what got into me. It's the sailing, yes, but it isn't only that. A little while ago my life was all under control, if a bit boring, and now everything is happening so fast. If my parents found out about this, I'd be kicked out of the family. And when I started this trip, I thought it would be just that. A voyage. With a beginning and an end. With something that would enrich my life, with experiences and scenery that I could carry inside me. I hadn't thought of making it my lifestyle and I still don't like the idea. So I got nasty and said things that I shouldn't have. Let's just take it easy for a couple of days and then we talk some more, okay?"

"Okay. " Klaus said, "But what about Alberto? I invited him when we were still in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. I can't just call him and say that I've changed my mind. That would hardly be fair."

"I still think it would be better if you just forgot about him. There's something evil about him, though I can't tell you exactly what it is. Hopefully I am wrong."

The day Alberto arrived, Klaus got into a taxi and sped through the afternoon rain to pick him up. The roads were steaming, as they were doing every day. According to some people, businessmen fixed their appointments for "before the rain" or "after the rain". It sure was one of the hottest and most humid places Klaus had ever been to and he wondered what Alberto would say after the rather dry and comparatively cool climate of the Canaries.

Alberto showed no sign of discomfort when Klaus finally spotted him. He was beaming with enthusiasm, Klaus thought. What was there to be enthusiastic about

in this weather? Klaus felt hot and uncomfortable with sweat pouring off him.

At the yacht club, they handed Alberto's luggage to the guy running the bar inside, gave him a big tip, and went straight to the swimming pool. A big crowd of Brazilians and yachties lounged around the bar out there, with a lot of noise and splashing in the pool and with a lot of drinks flowing. Klaus figured that he had about enough of all the madness and that he hadn't come to Brazil to hang out in clubs with the rich. But it certainly had its moments.

"We should sail over to the other side one day, there's an excellent restaurant over there." Klaus said. "Maybe we can get the French yachties to go, too. They're pretty cool."

"How about DOUBLE TROUBLE? Done any work on her yet or are you all too busy partying?" Alberto asked.

"She's still fine, no problems. I wanna do a major overhaul on her later on. I've been told Margarita Island in Venezuela is best for buying things. And Cumana for having work on the boat done. Said to be inexpensive as well as good quality craftsmanship there. No worries, we can go for a sail anytime."

When Yvon and Pascal finally showed up, they did so without their girls. Good, Klaus thought. He didn't much care for them, and he had made absolutely no effort to get to know them. They both handed them a business card which just gave their names and as a profession "adventurers".

It was decided that they would all sail across to the restaurant to the other side tomorrow. Klaus had gotten the port aft cabin watertight again by fiber-glassing over the top of it, and offered it to Alberto. "You gotta tell me if it's leaking. If it is, you can have the port cabin, but I think it should be OK now."

"Looks fine, man, no trouble."

Most of the time Klaus and Su-yi stayed in the bigger starboard forward cabin, but sometimes, when she wanted to be alone, Su-yi slept in Klaus's old starboard aft cabin. Strangely enough it had never leaked as bad as hers although the previous owners had added a top there as well.

Yvon and Pascal had invited them for dinner and after a few preliminary drinks they rowed over to be greeted with the "aperos" lined up already. Klaus thought that he would most likely die of liver cirrhosis and not in a cyclone or on a coral-reef as his parents feared. He'd have to be careful not to end up like some of the yachties, sitting in one harbor or other, just guzzling beer and dreaming of sailing.

The real surprise of the evening was the excellent French wine the two adventurers served. Especially Alberto couldn't hide his astonishment.

"Originally we bought one thousand bottles before we left France. But then we found out that we couldn't put them all onboard, so we still have hundreds sitting in the cellar of Yvon's parents waiting for our return. Not too many left here now, and in any case I haven't counted them."

When they sailed over to the other side the next day, Yvon and Pascal taught Klaus docking "Brittany style". They rammed the rotting wooden pier at pretty much full speed, tied a line carelessly around a tree and were off their boat before Klaus had even gotten the anchor ready on his.

Later Klaus asked, "Do you always dock this way?"

Both Pascal and Yvon laughed. "Didn't we tell you what our jobs are?"

"No, at least I can't remember. Why, you wreckers or something?"

This they thought even funnier than the original question.

"Wreckers." Yvon shouted and could hardly stand, he was laughing that hard.

"You are talking to two first officers of the French merchant navy."

"You are first officers? On a cargo ship? Wait, wait, wait. You are way too young for that. Or are you talking about very small ships or what? What are you talking about?"

When Pascal and Yvon had calmed down a bit, they told Klaus that they weren't too young to be first officers at all and that they were indeed piloting very big cargo ships all over the place. They had lined up a job for the near future that would allow them to work on and off. Same job, six months Yvon and six months Pascal. Also, Yvon was going to study for the harbormaster exam and Pascal had an alternative job lined up in Thailand, just in case he didn't like the first one. They had been in the business for more than ten years and by now they had a pretty clear picture of what a boat could take and what not. Their real love was sailing and having adventures, though. When Klaus told them of Alberto's exploits, they wanted to hear everything in minute detail.

"They're pretty good guys, those two," Alberto said when they were once more on DOUBLE TROUBLE.

"Yeah, I like them a lot. But their adventures are more concerned with girls and night-life than with the sea, I can't help feeling."

"Everybody to his own desires," Alberto replied.

"You're probably right. I want to ask you something about the boat here. I have noticed in several places that the wood was first varnished and then laminated. How can that work?"

"You're joking."

"No, look for yourself." Klaus took Alberto into his own cabin and showed him a spot next to his bed, where the fiberglass had come away from the wood.

"I'll be damned," Alberto said. "Have you seen other places where it is like this?"

"Well, yeah. I first found out about this when I investigated the leak in your cabin. This is not the original design of the SNOWGOOSE, you know. It was modified by the previous owners to give standing headroom in the two aft cabins. Only now it is leaking as soon as there's more than a little spray hitting the aft cabins."

"It can't work. These days you use epoxy instead of polyester, because it penetrates the wood and so it gives a better bond. Polyester doesn't do that as well and it certainly can't do it if the wood is varnished or painted first. No wonder you have problems."

"Damn. That's exactly what I feared. So, basically, I have to remove the tops, clean all the surfaces and then fiberglass it in place again?"

"If you want to get a proper bond, yes," Alberto told him seriously.

"Somehow this boat is always work. And I am not exactly a boat-builder."

"Let me poke around some more, and I'll tell you later on whether I think it is really necessary to redo the whole thing, OK?"

"Sure. Thanks."

When Klaus was gone ashore to pick up Su-yi, Alberto went back into Klaus's cabin to look at the place once more. There was no doubt that it had been varnished before being glassed. He picked up the mattress to check other areas and found one place, that wasn't varnished at all. Curious, he let his hands move over the smooth surface and he noticed the minutest amount of play. He did it again got the same result. He looked at it more closely and tried to move it into different directions. When he pushed it backwards, it slid open. And under there Alberto saw a little clear plastic bag and in the plastic bag he saw money. It must be the money that he had given Klaus in Santa Cruz, Alberto thought. He looked at it for a while, thinking, and then he moved the wooden panel back into place. After he'd put the cabin back in order exactly as it had been before, he repeated the process in his cabin and found that everywhere he looked the wood had first been varnished and then glassed. He would have to give Klaus the bad news that the only way to repair the boat properly, was to redo the whole thing, just as Klaus had anticipated.

When he told Klaus later that day, Klaus was subdued, because he felt that he couldn't afford to spend all his money on the boat again. He also couldn't do it himself, because the job was too big and he didn't know anything about boat-building. He talked to Yvon and Pascal about it, but they couldn't help him there, either. Their yacht was made of aluminum and while they had a great deal of knowledge about that, they didn’t have a clue about fiberglass or wood.

It didn't look good and Klaus couldn't believe that he had to do a major job again so soon after the other one had been finished. Would this continue all the time now? And what would be next? Maybe the engines or the rig? There were simply too many things that could go bust and Klaus knew well enough that a sailor ignored these signs at his own peril. The problem would have to be fixed, whether he liked the idea or not.

The next few days Klaus spent a lot of time alone, thinking about how best to fix the problem. Su-yi went for long walks in the city and stayed out of his way, while Alberto spent a lot of time in Yvon and Pascal's company as well as taking trips downtown alone. Finally Klaus came up with a solution. He made some colorful posters in which he advertised that he was willing to teach English, German, French or navigation and that he was also looking for painting jobs both on boats and ashore.

Soon other yachties talked to him, but although some of them would have like to hire him, they all didn't have enough cash themselves to do so. But Klaus had already thought of that, too.

"I'd like you to teach my son, but I don't have all that much cash," a Swiss yachtie said.

"Well, do you know anything about boat-building?" he asked

"Sure. Built my own boat myself and although it seemed to take forever, I think she turned out pretty good. If I do say so myself."

"What do you think about helping me about doing a job on my boat and I teach your son?"

"Sounds good to me. Tell me about the job."

Klaus did so and when he was finished he asked the other guy if he knew of any other people who could help doing the job. He got a few names and went off to talk to those guys too and see if they could exchange some services. In the end he found quite a few people willing to help, some didn't even ask for any help in return.

"That's the way we do it amongst yachties," they said. "We help you and next time you help us. Otherwise our lifestyle wouldn't be possible at all."

Klaus liked the idea and when he got his crew together, the work proceeded at a steady pace and before he knew it, DOUBLE TROUBLE was properly fixed and Klaus had made a lot of new friends. He had also taught a number of them some navigation successfully, although he was not quite that successful with the son of the Swiss yachtie he had first talked to. But he had tried his best.

When DOUBLE TROUBLE was shipshape one more, Klaus let it be known that he wanted to thank all the people who had helped him with a big party on his boat. They could bring as many friends as they wished and he would provide as much food and drinks as he could.

Alberto, Su-yi and Klaus went shopping and Su-yi prepared all kinds of snacks that she was sure people had never tasted before. Soon all the yachties were going to sail in different directions, maybe never to see each other again. Klaus asked some of his new friends to help him in the preparations and in the cleaning up later. Yvon, Pascal, and Alberto invited plenty of beautiful girls from all over the city, several yachties were busy cooking and baking, Alberto went out of his way to procure the widest variety of the best drinks and Klaus and Su-yi cleaned up DOUBLE TROUBE like never before.

Finally the party could begin and it was a wild one from the start. On the roof stood a big boom box, some people danced on the foredeck, others sat in the cockpit. Talk, laughter, drinking, screaming and smoking were everywhere. Except for beer, wine, Cashasa, rum and other liquor, some people smoked grass and some were taking cocaine. Klaus didn't like that, but he decided not to spoil the mood of the party and kept his mouth shut. Yvon got drunk and fell overboard, to be rescued with a lot of shouting and hullabaloo. He evidently liked the attention, because he jumped overboard once more, only this time he didn't come to the surface again. People were just starting to get worried, when he crept aboard over the stern covered in mud. He had dived to the bottom and covered himself in the stuff. Amidst howls and screams he chased some girls around who did their best to escape the muddy monster.

Some of the girls disappeared quietly with some yachties only to show up an hour later again. Alberto poured drinks into every empty glass he could find and when he saw somebody without a glass in his or her hand, he made sure that they got a full one right away. He was joking with the girls, many of whom he had invited and Klaus was talking to some yachties about boats and sailing. Su-yi stayed reasonably sober, just had a little wine and asked herself what on earth she was doing. She still hadn't come to a decision about the future.

The next morning the boat looked ready for the junkyard. Mud everywhere, food scraps, wine stains and spilled beer. Also, Klaus had a massive hangover and when he looked at the mess, he went straight back into his cabin and fell onto his bunk again. Trouble was that he couldn't sleep. It was too hot and it would take an hour or so until the acetaminophen would take effect.

So he got up again and started cleaning. Su-yi and Alberto got up as well, grunting and sighing. Klaus went out onto the deck to pour a bucket of water over his head. He stood there all dripping on the deck, his eyes red with burst blood vessels, trying to get his head together. For the next few hours they worked steadily to clean up the mess the party had left behind. Finally they took a break and sat down at the table, because a cool wind came through the hatch overhead. Under the cockpit awning it was still too hot, as it didn't offer enough protection against the sun.

"What's the plan when we are finished here?" Alberto asked.

"I better go downtown to get some cash changed, spent absolutely everything yesterday."

"Ah, okay, I'll come with you, if you don't mind. I wanna see if I can return my ticket."

"You what?"

"Talked with Yvon and Pascal. I'll sail with them until Kourou."

"You could sail with us," Klaus offered.

"Ah, no. I don't wanna disturb your honeymoon here," Alberto said with a look at Su-yi.

"Honeymoon? Ah, right. Just wait till I get my stuff."

When Klaus came back out of his cabin, his face was ashen. "Su-yi. Did you take our cash and put it somewhere else?"

"No. I didn't touch it at all. What's wrong?"

"My money's gone," he said. "It's all gone. Somebody took all the cash and I don't have a single cent left." And he stared at Alberto with wide open eyes.

"Bullshit." Alberto said. "You just didn't look right. Where is the cash anyway? Go, look again."

Klaus did and proceeded to take his whole cabin apart, but the awful truth remained. Somebody had found the secret compartment and had taken all the money. It could have been anybody. There had been at least 35 people down in the boat the night before and any single one of them might have done it. Klaus was so shocked that he just sat down and looked around in a daze. His brain refused to even consider the implications. Thousands of miles from home, across an ocean, with a boat that always needed maintenance, without any money at all.

"What am I gonna do?" he said again and again, more to himself than to Alberto or Su-yi.

"Don't worry. We'll find your money," Alberto said.

"How? Simply too many people came to the party and how can you prove it anyway? Almost all the yachties carry US dollars and of course I didn't write down the numbers or anything."

"We'll try anyway. In the meantime I still have got my money left, so stop worrying and get ready to go, OK?"

"What a mess," Klaus said.

When they told Yvon about the lost money he promised that he would do his best to keep his eyes open, but he also agreed with Klaus that their chances weren't very good. If one of the girls had taken the cash, it would undoubtedly be in the hands of her family now, never to be seen again. And if it was with the yachties it was gone as well. The only thing that might offer a bit of hope was the banks or the big hotels. If somebody suddenly changed a lot of money there..... But the police were so corrupt and unhelpful that there wasn't much chance in that direction either.

Klaus felt absolutely miserable when he considered his options. Asking his parents for money was out, because that would prove them right in that he was a never-do-well and couldn't even support himself. And he couldn't ask anybody else for money. Besides, that would only delay the problem. Work in Belem? Sounded like a ridiculous idea, with the extremely low wages in poverty-stricken Amazonia. And what could he do anyway that a Brazilian worker couldn't do? Perhaps sell some things? He could sell some books and some clothes - all the rest he would need if he wanted to continue sailing. So that didn't look good, either.

The next few days he talked with Yvon and Pascal about things that he could do and they advised him to look for work in French Guiana or smuggle something to the Caribbean. They weren't thinking of drugs, but of little gold nuggets found in streams in the jungle the people here called "pipits", or anything else that he could get cheaply in Brazil. They forgot that he didn't have any money to buy the stuff with in the first place. Also, when he inquired about the jobs to be had in French Guiana, he found out that they were looking for expert welders, whose welds would stand up to X-ray inspection and other specialized jobs that were needed at the European Space Agency or at Arianespace. He had absolutely nothing to offer in that field.

Klaus even considered doing charter work with DOUBLE TROUBLE, but he was warned that he would risk the loss of his boat if the authorities found out that he did charter without a costly license. And the competition was sure to alert the authorities should he be stupid enough to try something like that.

Su-yi didn't have much money either and she also had other problems. She still didn't want to become even more entangled with Klaus, but it seemed that fate had other designs. "Yuan Fen" it was called. Maybe the old man under the moon had already tied the red ribbon to both of them. She had never taken these old Chinese beliefs very seriously, but she was wise enough to understand that some things happened against which a mere human was completely powerless. On the other hand, it was written nowhere that one had to acquiesce to the gods or that it would lead to eternal happiness if one did. Since one couldn't know what was going on for sure, one might as well go one as if the whole thing was all fairy tales. Still, it gave one food for thought.

"Maybe we should just sail on," Klaus said to Su-yi in the evening.

"Just leave?" Su-yi said. "Without a single cruzeiro in our pockets?"

"Why not? We still have some food left. Only the basics, and it will make for a pretty monotonous diet, but it won't kill us. And rainwater is for free anyway. We sail up north until we get to Kourou and see if we can find some work there. At least my French is a lot better than my Portuguese."

"If you think we have better chances there, then let's go."

Su-yi felt kind of relieved that the decision had been taken out of her hands. Leaving Klaus was one thing, but leaving him when he most needed her was not an option she cared to consider. French Guiana was just around the corner anyway, and if she wanted to leave him she could do it just as well over there.

Klaus figured that it was about time his luck changed or he would never be able to complete his trip around the world. He would get a job in Kourou. Anything. They left together with Yvon, Pascal, and Alberto, but they were soon out of sight and out of radio distance.

This time Klaus and Su-yi found it much easier to sail, since the tide wasn't helped by the current and so progress was much faster as well. The problem was that quite a few small fishing boats anchored with the crew sleeping and without any lights at all as well. If they had known that people did things like this around here, they wouldn't have sailed up the river so peacefully when they came in the first time. Fortunately they hadn't smashed into any of these, but they weren't too keen on hitting one now. It was pitch black and they couldn't see anything except for the gloom of Belem on the other side of the river and the occasional lighthouse.

Now they really regretted not having a satellite navigation system. It would have been so easy to simply take the coordinates and then look at the red or green dials in the SatNav. The EGRET of Pascal and Yvon had one of these, but DOUBLE TROUBLE was without one because of the high cost.

They had been going for a couple of hours, when suddenly a black shape loomed ahead of them, near, too near. Su-yi turned the wheel immediately to starboard, but DOUBLE TROUBLE's port hull still scraped along the side of the small fishing trawler anchored in the river. Klaus let fly all the sheets, but it was too late. A sickening ugly crunch filled their ears while their noses were filled with the smell of polyester. A light came on in the trawler and Klaus had started the engines in seconds. The port side looked even worse than before and one of the stanchions had been torn out of the deck and hung limply by the lifelines.

To his surprise Klaus noticed that the other boat stayed alongside and that they were drifting downstream together. The impact must have snapped the anchor line and perhaps the two boats were entangled so that they couldn’t drift apart.

Nothing at all could be seen on the trawler - except for some pretty rough looking guys who were making jokes in Portuguese and when they realized that a beautiful Chinese girl represented half of the crew of DOUBLE TROUBLE , their laughter became more raucous. Klaus and Su-yi were only too aware that they could do nothing against these guys, if they decided to do something stupid and so they were extremely nervous during the palaver that followed the accident. Klaus looked around for some weapon of defense, should things go dramatically wrong, but the only thing he could think of was the emergency signal gun with the flares right next to the companionway. He took the gun out and checked it. Red, green and white flares had been packed with it and he selected a red one. He put it into the signal gun and put the gun into Su-yi's hand. She looked at Klaus in astonishment.

The signal gun wouldn't make holes into anything, but the flare should burn even in water and it should scare pretty much anybody it was fired at. He felt much safer now, although he was only too aware that they had but one shot and quite a few guys threatening them. Then he dug out the catapult he had bought in Belem. He distributed the steel balls in his pockets and put the catapult in front of him where he could reach it right away. Probably best to shoot at their windows to let them know there was something deadly flying around the sky.

Klaus hated being so weak and thought that he should buy a real gun at the first opportunity. He had never wanted one back home in Germany, but here in South America things were different. Yachties had been robbed, mugged, and even killed on several occasions, although the main area of danger seemed to be in Colombia. In Belem he could have gone into any arms dealer's shop and simply buy what he deemed necessary right there. Thinking of buying guns? Life was changing him and he wasn't sure that he liked the way this change was going.

The fishermen on the other hand looked like they had a whole arsenal on board and Klaus wouldn't have been surprised to find out that they moonlighted as pirates at times. Only he hadn't heard any rumors of pirates in Brazil.

When one of the fisherman made a move to come over to DOUBLE TROUBLE, Klaus grabbed the gun from Su-yi, pointed it at the guys chest and shouted "No." The fishermen's eyes turned big, and they fell to mumbling amongst each other, while Klaus stood there pointing the gun at the guy who had apparently now changed his mind and retreated into the crowd. Su-yi had gone into the cabin, ready to call for help on VHF channel 16.

The fishermen shouted something in Portuguese, but Klaus couldn't understand them anyway, so he just went over to the controls and revved up the engine. More angry shouting from the trawler. With one hand Klaus turned the wheel, until it wouldn't turn any further and inched DOUBLE TROUBLE away from the trawler. With relief he noticed the absence of any more sounds of distraction. Still, he’d have to check on the damage as soon as it was light.

After only a few meters the trawler had disappeared in the blackness and only a point of light still showed where the nasty scene had taken place. Both he and

Su-yi were very glad when the whole thing was finally over and they could sail on towards the open seas.

Klaus and Su-yi took turns watching and sailed steadily towards the ocean. When they had reached the open sea, they turned to starboard. Everything slowed down and they lost their tension as soon as they had gotten over the initial sea-sickness and got into the rhythm of things again. And Klaus was once more busy repairing his boat. It felt like a constant chore to him. A never-ending story, he thought gloomily. Fortunately there was no structural damage, but DOUBLE TROUBLE looked distinctly battered now.

As they were still near the shore, the water was as muddy as before and it would get even worse, because they had to pass the Amazon and they had been warned that it was even worse there with floating trees and other debris that came down that mighty river. Klaus thought it too bad that he had to sail simply past, but then he thought that it was probably very much like the Rio Para. Also, he wanted to get out of Brazil and away from land and all the sordid business it represented.

Instead of following the coast to the NNW, Klaus sailed straight out to sea. The idea was to find the line where the green coastal waters met the blue ones of the open ocean and then follow this line until it was time to head inshore again.

"Why do you want to do it that way?" Su-yi asked him.

"Fishing. There should be more than enough fish for us and we can dry some or use the pressure cooker to preserve it in glass jars. Just one Dorado would easily feed us for a week."

"Do you want to eat fish every day?"

"It saves money. And I've been told that French Guiana is the most expensive place in South America. But don't worry. As soon as I have a job, things will look better again."

"I sure hope so. I like fish very much, but for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Not really my favorite diet," Su-yi said while grimacing.

"We still have plenty of rice, flour, and noodles. As well as sauces and spices en masse. We'll be fine, don't worry," Klaus calmed her.

"Ah, all right. It's just that recently everything that can go wrong does go wrong."

"Sure. Murphy's law. But our boat's still floating and we're still alive. Isn't that something?" Klaus asked her.

Su-yi didn't bother to reply.

After the scare in the night Klaus thought that it was high time to prepare better for similar meetings in the future. He was a peace-loving guy alright, but it seemed just plain stupid to run into these guys here all unprepared. Klaus dug the catapult out once more and then thought about something that he could use for practicing with. He didn't want to waste the balls it came with. They reminded him of something. Ball bearings. He had a spare one for the wind generator and those steel balls should make excellent bullets. He got to work right away, and less than half an hour later he had a handful of steel bullets that should shatter windows without a problem. He wiped them clean and they glittered in the light. They would also do serious damage if he actually ever had to use them. Then Klaus took out his toolbox and emptied all the nuts that he could find into a bowl. Next he went into the kitchen to pick up the garbage and especially items that would float. Su-yi looked at him as if he had gone crazy. Teufelchen wanted to investigate the plastic bags and play.

He put the garbage, the catapult, and the nuts in front of him and concentrated on what he was going to do. He knew he only had a chance if he acted almost as if in a trance. Zen and the art of the catapult, he thought. He blew up a brown paper bag, folded it as tight as he could and threw it over board. Without hurry, he picked up the catapult, put a nut in it, and aimed at the bag. He let it float, until it was almost out of range. All his awareness was centered on the bag and on the nut. He imagined the way the nut had to travel through the air in order to hit the bag. He felt the tension in his arm producing warmth, the balancing movements which his whole body had to make, the rhythm of the waves, and he knew where the bag was going to be by the time the nut had traveled over there. The nut would hit. He let go.

He didn't hit it, but he missed it by just a few centimeters. Not bad. But not good enough, either. He kept shooting at floating garbage, and the result was about one third hits. After a few shots he practiced the motion of picking up the pre-loaded catapult and do it all in one motion. He knew he wouldn't have much time to do it and surprise was essential. The hit-rate dropped. Damn. He ran out of nuts.

He took out a metal saw and cut off pieces from a bolt. Continued practicing. The hit rate went up again. But his arms got sore. Time for a break. He pre-loaded the catapult with a steel ball and kept the other ones ready in his pocket.

He sat next to the wheel and steered with one hand, while holding a book in the other. His hair had become even more blond from the sun and it contrasted nicely with his tanned skin. Su-yi had turned so dark that many people in Brazil had taken her for an Indian, especially as she was so short. She lay on the longer cockpit bench and when Klaus looked at her, he thought that he had never seen a more beautiful woman in real life.

He let the auto-pilot do the work and walked over to her. He sat down and tenderly let his hands move across the warm skin of her back. He bent over her head and kissed her ear. And whispered, "I love you."

"Really?" Su-yi said sleepily. "Then why don't you carry me inside and prove it?"

Klaus picked her up and carried her inside.

Later on they sat in the cockpit again. The sun was already fairly close to the horizon and had lost most of its glare. It would be dark in a very short time, so quick that it was hard to believe.

"I don't think I'd like to just go sailing on and on, what's the point?" Su-yi said, swirling the Tattuzinho-Caipirinha in her glass.

"To sail around the world," Klaus said.

"What for?" Su-yi asked again.

"It's been my dream for a long time. To start at one point and circle the whole planet just relying on myself, to see as much of the globe as is possible on the way, and to come back to the point where I started the trip. I have barely begun."

"But you have already proved that you can do it. You sailed across an ocean and every other one will just be a repetition of this one," said Su-yi, while looking straight at him.

"Not so. Every ocean is different and there are all kinds of different countries and people on the way. And I want to sail around it. I want to be able to take an ordinary globe into both my hands and look at the different places and remember the scenery there and the people I have talked to. Not just from watching TV and reading books. I want to go there myself, in person," Klaus said. He was aware of the fact that he was getting irritated again and he wanted to avoid getting angry. Especially now. Why spoil such a beautiful evening?

Su-yi took another sip of her sundowner and said, "Sure, but why does it have to be on a sailing boat? What was that saying? The most expensive way to get somewhere most slowly and uncomfortably?"

"How can you really get a sense of the place if you just fly there and get thrown out of a jumbo jet? Let's say you fly to India. One day in Hamburg, next day New Delhi. The most profound experience you are going to have is one of culture shock. Interesting, too, but only once. Whereas, if you made your way slowly over there, let's say by magic bus from Amsterdam, through Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, you'd really get a feel for the place."

"Ah, I don't know. I am getting pretty tired of all the disasters and emergencies. It all sounded very romantic in the beginning, but at the moment I only see discomfort, fatigue, anxiety, and danger. And the boat costs too much money. With all those dollars you spend on the boat, you could travel around the world in luxury," Su-yi said. She sounded tired to Klaus and when she leaned her head against him, he put his arm around her. He said, "But I don't want luxury. I want an intense experience, not something cushioned by all that money and technology can provide."

"Why not? Why not see the world in comfort and without constant fear and hassle? I think all the people dreaming about sailing should be here with us for a while and then they would see what the reality is like. Quite different from their romantic dreams."

"And even then some would want to sail on. Though I give you that, not too many," Klaus said.

Klaus had steered DOUBLE TROUBLE steadily away from the coast and when he finally spotted the line he had been looking for, he changed the course to follow it. He now got two additional fishing lines ready, polished the lures he was going to use and slowly let them sink into the depths. He reeled off more than a hundred meters of 1mm nylon fishing line, then buffered the end with a big rubber band, usually reserved for fastening loads onto the roofs of cars. That way a big fish wouldn't break the line that easily.

When all four lines were trailing nicely behind, he went back to the steering wheel. Instead of looking forward to where he was sailing, he looked backward and at the tracks DOUBLE TROUBLE left behind. He kept them always right on the dividing line between the waters and only occasionally looked forward to see if anything came up in front of his bows. He didn't even need to think consciously of the wind and the sails anymore, it had become second nature.

He had been doing this for less than two hours, when there was a jerk on the outermost line on port and Klaus immediately jumped up to release all sheets and halyards. The boat was still moving and Klaus feared to lose the fish because the line might break. Sometimes it came to the surface and then again it dove deep or swerved to the side. When the boat was wallowing in the water, Klaus reeled in the line carefully, sometimes let it reel out again, when his senses told him that the line might break any time. He hadn't yet figured out what kind of fish it was, but he hoped for a Dorado. There simply was no other fish comparable to its delicacy.

When he had played the fish closer to the boat, he saw that it was a big golden mackerel. Also not bad. And big enough for several meals. When the fish was exhausted and swam alongside without too much show of resistance, Klaus knew that the most difficult part was yet to come. He got the homemade gaff ready and slowly maneuvered it under the fish. With a sudden jerk he got the mackerel in the gills and then he could safely lift it on deck, where he proceeded to fillet it right away.

The unusable remains of the fish went overboard and Klaus went back to sailing. The fillets he gave to Su-yi, who was glad enough that she didn't have to do any of the butchering herself. Until the evening Klaus had caught nine big fish and DOUBLE TROUBLE smelled more like a trawler than anything else. The pressure cooker was releasing steam all the time and Klaus had cut fish to strips, then strung them up to dry them in the sun and the wind. There would be plenty of fish to eat in the next few days or even weeks and he hoped that he would be able to sell the fresh ones to a good restaurant in Kourou.

The days passed swiftly with sailing, fishing, and the processing of the fish. Su-yi said that she couldn't stand fish anymore and even Klaus thought it was too much of a good thing. But he couldn't afford to waste anything. The day before they were supposed to make landfall at Isles de Salut or Devil's Island, Klaus spotted a green fishing net in the water. Something was caught in it and Klaus thought that he would find a dying dolphin in it, but when he sailed closer, he noticed to his surprise that it was a turtle.

He got out his boat-hook, and was almost yanked overboard when he tried to lift it onboard. That was not the way. He tacked and held the sheets ready in one hand, then let everything fly, so that the boat made almost no way when he got alongside again. He held on grimly, although he felt that his arms were being pulled out and when there was no way in the boat any more he and Su-yi pulled on the net together to lift it onboard. They were lucky that it was only a relatively small turtle, because otherwise they could have managed it only with the help of a winch, but after a lot of straining and many swearwords from Klaus they finally got the turtle on board.

It looked even more exhausted then they were, and the net was so tight around its neck, that Klaus couldn't just pull it off. Also he had to be very careful, not to get too close to the parrot-like beak, which could have easily taken off a finger or two.

"Excellent turtle soup." Su-yi exclaimed with glee.

"No. We can't do that. Don't you know that these are endangered species? We gotta free it and then put it back into the water."

"You didn't have these sentimental feelings when butchering all those fish," Su-yi objected.

"Well, yeah, I know. I'd like to eat turtle steak myself, but we can't just kill it because we are hungry and broke. Few enough left and I'd never forgive myself. Also, for some strange reason I feel more for this turtle than for the fish. Don't ask me why."

Su-yi was not pleased to forego such a delicacy, but she did help Klaus to untangle and cut the net away from the turtle. It still had surprising strength and when the last bit of rope was cut away it moved quickly towards the side of the boat and then into the sea. It dove away immediately and they didn't see it again.

Klaus was touched and sad at the same time. He thought of all the driftnets killing dolphins, whales, turtles and all the fish in the oceans. Of the tuna almost disappearing from the seas and the manatees killed by speedboats every year. What were people doing? How could they be so blind that they didn't even notice that they were destroying they very world they were living in? He'd read books where sailors spoke of hundreds of dolphins playing around their boats. Now it was just a handful. He knew it was just as bad or even worse on land, but out here it was so tangible that it drove tears to his eyes. He loved the sea and the life that lived on or near it and he felt very intensely that things were changing that were completely irreversible. His children and grandchildren would not be able to see the same things that he was seeing now. Klaus could think of plenty reasons to fight for. But wasn’t irreversible damage to the planet the most important thing of all? Everything else might be put right again one day, but when the dolphins or turtles were gone nobody could put them back into the ocean.

It was with a profound sense of loss that he continued sailing. He steered all the time and looked at the sea, the wind blowing his blond hair around and when evening came, he noticed a satellite zooming across the sky at high speed. That was the other side of the coin. It was most amazing and interesting to see and think about the fact that it was people who had put that artificial satellite up there into space. Perhaps one day there would be people living in orbit on a permanent basis. Or maybe the moon or even the planets. Would they uglify space, the moon, and the planets just as they had uglified everything down here? Or would they learn the lesson and try to maintain a balance, taking care to preserve natural beauty and maybe one day even restore earth to what it once had been? Klaus felt that nobody could be sure at the moment, but he thought that there would have to be quite a drastic change before people would finally see what they were doing and stop destroying everything they came in contact with.

When Klaus looked around the next day, he saw a turtle again. He shouted for

Su-yi to come and have a look. She joined him on the foredeck and Klaus pointed out where he had seen it. While they were looking the turtle resurfaced. Then another and yet another. The big turtles moved slowly and yet gracefully, controlling their huge bodies gracefully with their unwieldy flippers. They did not stay at the surface for long, but when they went down others appeared in their place. They tried to count them, but it proved impossible. Klaus wondered why so many of them showed up in the same place and had a look at the charts in case they were near a shoal, but the charts didn't show anything.

Su-yi shouted with glee every time she spotted a head breaking the surface. Klaus smiled and couldn't decide whether he liked the turtles or Su-yi's obvious enthusiasm best. When the turtles had gone and DOUBLE TROUBLE was alone on the sea again, Su-yi told him that she would paint the turtles. She had the picture all ready in her mind, with a catamaran in the foreground, with herself lying down on the foredeck gazing at the sea, where turtles were swimming in crystal clear water and small waves. The boat would be at anchor with a little red buoy showing where the anchor was hidden. The anchorage lay in a bay of an island, and the island would be rocky and covered with tropical jungle. Coconuts and banana trees would be seen in the distance, but towards the left the bay would open up towards the ocean.

* * *

Over night the wind changed. First it went altogether away, but after a few hours it came back from the north, so that they were forced to tack hard on the wind to make progress in the direction they wanted to go. The deck was covered with spray, and every time the boat crashed into a wave Klaus had to duck to avoid getting drenched. It was a miserable way of sailing and he envied Su-yi who had had a relatively calm first watch. He had to do sailing maneuvers every hour or so, and in between he sat at the dining room table with a kerosene lamp, trying to read. That wasn't exactly easy with all the abrupt movements of the boat and finally he gave it up.

He steered from then on and found wild exhilaration in the wind, the water and the sounds of the wind humming in the rigging. He was alive. Every time he licked his lips they tasted salty, and his ears burned with cold although he was just north of the equator. The skin on his hands was wet and wrinkled and his hands were getting tired from holding the wheel for such a long time. The blackness of night was slowly giving way to a pale predawn and he thought that they were probably not going to make it to the islands as planned. Also, with all the clouds up there, he couldn't really check as he wasn't able to take any sights just now. He thought about the current. Was it going to get stronger or weaker in these unusual conditions? He would have to check that later on.

His thoughts were wandering towards breakfast and then a nap, when he suddenly heard Su-yi come out of the interior. Her eyes were very big and she seemed to have difficulties speaking. Klaus looked at her in alarm.

"What is it?"

"We are sinking."

With one leap Klaus jumped from the wheel to the main hatch and looked inside. There was water everywhere inside the boat. And he saw that it was almost knee-deep. As fast as he could he tacked into the wind, furled all the sails and then grabbed a bucket to bail the water out as fast as he could.

I have to find where the water is coming in, he thought. If I don't find the hole, no point in bailing. But I can't see anything if it is all covered by water. Su-yi followed his example and both of them bailed for about two hours. The water was all gone, and there seemed to be no new inflow. Everything was wet, though and Klaus simply had to find the reason for the leak. He checked the toilet and all the other sea-cocks. Nothing. They were all in perfect working order. He looked in the bilges, but everything looked normal. And something was strange, anyway. Why were they hulls dry and the nacelle in the middle swamped? It didn't make any sense.

Klaus couldn't find anything, but he decided that he had to do something about it right away. After looking at the chart, he unfurled the sails and sailed straight towards land. DOUBLE TROUBLE now had the wind on her starboard hull, almost exactly at right angles to where she wanted to go. She sped along the waves almost on the verge of surfing, but as the waves came from the side and not behind, she never reached that critical point. Su-yi looked inside, trying to see where the water was coming in, but there wasn't any water coming in now. Klaus concentrated on the sailing.

Before evening they were in shallow waters. The echo-sounder told them that the coast couldn't be far, and soon enough they saw it in the distance. Klaus sailed as close as he dared and then found a space to drop his anchor. He then crawled all over the boat and he still couldn't find the place where the water had come in. He took a cloth and wiped the sides of the nacelle dry, then let his hands move along the dry surface.

That did it. As soon he came to the front-end of the dining room, his hands came off the walls covered with water. That was very strange, as the bow was completely above the waterline. Under the dining table Klaus had a look and felt at the same time with his hands. That's when he noticed that there were fine cracks between hull and bulkhead. That's where the water came from. But how could water come from there? There was only a gas locker out there.

Klaus walked out on deck and as soon as he was there, he knew what had been going on. He had been right. There shouldn't be any water there, as the whole thing was above the water-line. Except when he was sailing against the wind, there was plenty of water on the foredeck. Normally that would drain away over the sides and though the anchor locker, the drain-hole being above the waterline, too. But with the delamination at the bulkhead the water could instead seep into the interior. It wasn't much at any given time, but it was a steady flow. As long as they kept an eye on it, things were under control. Not dangerous, merely uncomfortable. But Klaus wondered what other surprises his boat had in store for him. And if there was delamination even at the bulkheads, wouldn't there be delamination simply everywhere?

It was with heavy thoughts that Klaus lit the kerosene lamp which he pulled up into the mast. He wanted a good night's sleep after all the excitement and work. He sensed that Su-yi was now even more against continuing the trip then just one day ago. How could she trust a boat that kept developing unforeseen problems all the time? So he didn't say very much, but just held her in his arms for a while.

The next morning the wind had gone back to the south and even before he had eaten breakfast Klaus got DOUBLE TROUBLE under way again. The sky had cleared up, too, but Su-yi's mood had not. Klaus tried to joke about the luxury they would permit themselves once they were in Kourou and he had a job, but Su-yi was not in the mood for jokes. So, Klaus poured himself one more cup of tea and went outside to do some steering. He figured that either a few weeks rest in Kourou would restore her spirits or there would be a serious talk soon. He fervently hoped that it would be the first. He didn't know what he was going to do if Su-yi decided to quit.

He set the course away from the dangerous land again and expected to see Devil's Island around lunch time. The current would sweep him past the islands if he didn't take care and the skies were still too overcast to take a shot at the sun. So he looked ahead strenuously, trying to find the telltale signs of land ahead. Normally he would have looked for a cloud formation above the islands, but with the weather being the way it was, it didn't make much sense.

He envied the old Polynesians, who could tell where they were by looking at the waves that were thrown back of some distant shore or even by feeling the currents next to their giant catamarans.

When Klaus looked back he saw something in the water. At first he thought that his wind-generator had gone overboard, but then re realized that he was looking at something blue. And something blue meant that it was part of the boat.

He looked around and when he found out what it was, he felt as if somebody had hit him in the stomach. One of the rudders had dropped off. He thrust a quick look inside and noticed with relief that there wasn't any water in the boat. After he'd furled all the sails again, he grabbed the stainless-steel steering wire and tried to pull the rudder back in. The wire threatened to cut his hands and he had to put on some heavy duty working gloves. It was still way to heavy.

Su-yi had lashed the wheel down and Klaus got a rope ready, which he first tied to the rudder and then took onto the big jib-winch. Then he tied some fenders that were supposed to act as rollers to the stern and with Su-yi guiding the heavy rudder and Klaus working on the winch, they finally got it back on board. Why had it fallen off? And was the other rudder going to follow suit soon? Klaus felt that things were getting out of hand, even though he was trying his best to be a good sailor and do everything a prudent sailor should be doing. But who could cope with a boat that literally disintegrated under one's feet? This just couldn't go on as it had been going.

Only when they were under way again, did Klaus notice that Su-yi was staring straight ahead, her mouth in a grim line. She looked as if she had just received a shock, and when Klaus went down below and got her a cup of hot tea, she didn't even accept it. He put the mug down next to her. Without looking at him, she said, "If we didn't happen to have two rudders, we'd have been in serious trouble. And we still might be if the other rudder decides to suddenly let go as well. This is just crazy. Our luck has run out and you know it. We must stop this trip or something terrible will happen. Can't you feel it? It is not our destiny to sail this boat around the world. I think it is certain suicide to take this coffin any further. I am off this boat in Kourou. I plan to live a long life."

Klaus swallowed. But he thought it better to say nothing at the moment and let Kourou and land take care of these feelings. He'd be busy enough finding out what had happened to the boat and then repairing the damage. And who knew what he would find? Maybe Su-yi was right and there was something seriously wrong with the boat. Something he wouldn't be able to fix or even have fixed. As if he didn't have problems enough. First osmosis. That had eaten up his cash. When he had replaced that and successfully carried it through a mugging, there was the renovation of the tops on the aft cabins, all his money got stolen, and now he had serious delamination as well as a rudder that had fallen off. What on earth was going on? He had never even heard of another sailor with a comparable amount of misfortune. Sure, one or two bad things happened to most sailors sooner or later, many had lost a mast, holed the boat or even lost it on a reef. Well, at least he still had his boat and it didn't sit high and dry on top of a rock or coral-reef. He remembered that Su-yi had once told him about Sai Wong - that wise man who took everything philosophically, never being sure whether a thing was good or bad until the very end of the story. Maybe all the troubles now were good for something, but he was damned if he know what for.

So it was with seriously dampened spirits and once more a boat in need of repairs that they limped into the Kourou river. The current was as strong as it had been in Belem and it took a while for DOUBLE TROUBLE to make its way up to the wharf where most of the other yachts were anchored. Klaus looked for the EGRET and when he had found it, he anchored not far behind her. He put the heavy dinghy into the water and deployed the second anchor dead astern on a bridle, then lined up his boat so that it was exactly in the middle between the two anchors and lined up with the current as well. He was wet, tired, and covered in mud when he had finished doing the job, but there was still plenty of more work to be done.

He got out the coverings for the sails to protect them against UV radiation and then cleared up the deck. Finally he got a few bucketfuls of muddy brackish water to wash the deck. Su-yi had been busy, too. She had put away all the clothes that were flying around the interior, put the foul weather gear into the wet locker, and generally got the inside shipshape again. Then she went into the galley to make a quick meal as well as a pot of tea.

The meal revived Klaus somewhat. But he was itching to go ashore, find his friends and find some cold beer someplace.

"Feel like going ashore and look for Yvon and Pascal?" he asked Su-yi.

"Without clearing in?"

"We'll clear in tomorrow. It doesn't look like anybody is gonna come here anyway. Or would you rather take a rest now and see Kourou tomorrow?"

"No, let's go. I can't wait to stand on dry land again," Su-yi said.

When Klaus rowed to the little landing he saw in the distance, he had to row just as hard as he had to in Belem. And there were so many dinghies tied up that he almost couldn't find a place for his one. He squeezed it in somehow and scrambled up onto the floating dock. It was a rickety affair, quite unlike the one in Belem. Some of the planks were loose and some were missing altogether. Klaus shuddered when he thought about what it would be like to walk back to the dinghy at night, probably after more then a couple of beers.

They stepped onto land and found themselves next to a round building that looked quite nice from a distance, and then revealed itself as a fish market. The smell was overpowering and everywhere there were fish scales and pieces of ice used for keeping the fish from rotting. The buildings around them looked derelict and Klaus felt like he had just landed in Africa instead of French Guiana. Everybody he saw was black, but when they walked up the little road that he presumed was going downtown, they saw a lot of Chinese shops and restaurants as well. Su-yi's face lit up.

It was in front of one of those shops that they spotted a group of yachties, among whom were Alberto, Yvon, and Pascal. Immediately there was a lot of shouting and Pascal went into the shop to come out with a six-pack of Kronenbourg Beer. There was a lot to tell. Alberto agreed to have a look at DOUBLE TROUBLE the next day and everybody told them not to worry about clearing in. Su-yi went into the shop and started chatting with the Chinese owners, who had originally come from Guangdong Province of China only a short time ago. They didn't speak much French and their Mandarin was a little rusty, but as Su-yi spoke no Cantonese at all, it was the only common language they had. Su-yi was surprised that they had been allowed out of China with comparatively little trouble, but they assured her that things were changing very much indeed. They told Su-yi that there were many Chinese in all of the French colonies and that there were plenty of peoples from former French Indochina as well.

Klaus borrowed some money and both Klaus and Su-yi started to relax a bit. When Klaus inquired about the chances of finding work, he was reassured that things would work out as long as he kept trying to find a job. Arianespace was always looking for people and there were so many industries directly or indirectly related to it, that one could even obtain residency easily if one wanted to stay for a longer time.

Alberto invited everybody for a dinner at the Chinese restaurant which was out front on the main street, and after a delicious Chinese dinner they all went back to the dock. They found their dinghies high and dry, as the tide was out. Pascal was just about to jump into the muck and pull the dinghies out of there, when Klaus told him to wait and see what he was going to do. He untied the dinghy and took one oar, which he stuck deep into the mud just at the stern of his dinghy. Then he pulled the oar towards him and levered the dinghy forward over the mud. He repeated the process for a while and soon he was floating in shallow waters.

"Now where did you learn that trick?" Pascal asked him with admiration in his voice.

"North sea. Mud flats everywhere and it is often so cold that you don't feel like getting completely wet. But you've got to have sturdy oars, otherwise they go bust."

They continued their celebration on the EGRET and everybody was amazed that DOUBLE TROUBLE had developed serious problems again. They'd start looking at the problem early in the morning, after Klaus had set Su-yi ashore, who had made arrangements to go to the market with her new Chinese friends. She was in a much better mood now and Klaus thought that after a while here in Kourou she would see things in a different light and hopefully continue sailing with him.

Just after it got light Klaus was up again, although the effects of the partying had not yet worn off. He prepared some pancakes and made some extra-strong coffee for the occasion. The breakfast was steaming on the table when Su-yi joined him and after he had dropped her off he rowed over to pick up the gang.

Alberto and Yvon checked out what they could, but they couldn't tell Klaus anything he didn't already know. When they sat in the cockpit nursing their coffee, Klaus asked about the ground near to shore and they told him that there was a sandy patch where he could have a look at what was wrong with the rudder. As he needed high tide to get to that spot and there was still plenty of time, Klaus proceeded to clear out Su-yi's old cabin so that he could get to the place where the rudder was hung. He took out a lot of Styrofoam, but when he got to the bottom, he hit solid fiberglass and he couldn't take that away without the risk of holing the hull.

Klaus decided that he needed to check in and look for a job as well, so he persuaded everybody to move ashore. Su-yi hadn't come back yet, but Klaus figured that she would find them if they waited for her at the Chinese store. He went to immigration, completed the formalities and then waited in front of the shop for the other yachties to appear. Towards the end of the day, they began to trickle in. Klaus walked around, talked a bit here and a bit there, and very soon he had a pretty clear picture of who was doing what in Kourou. He let it be known that he was looking for work urgently and when he got to talk to an older couple from England, they told him that they might have a job for him in a big hotel. They were both working there and they needed someone to help them. But they couldn't make the decisions, so they asked him to come with them the next day to apply for the job in person.

Su-yi came back and talked with glowing eyes about all the places she had been to and how nice her new Chinese friends had been to her. She had an enormous amount of fruit and fresh vegetables, and several cans of soy bean milk, which she guarded better then a female tiger her little cubs.

The next day Klaus went to the hotel and got the job right away. Breakfast and lunch were included, which suited him very well, as things in Kourou were the most expensive he had ever seen. He was to paint all the rooms in the hotel and as there were hundreds of them, he was assured of a steady job for some time to come. Although it was a boring job, Klaus didn't mind. He had plenty of things in his head and when he came home in the evening, he just talked a little bit with

Su-yi or some of the other yachties, fed Teufelchen, and went to bed before midnight.

Teufelchen was just as excited as Klaus and Su-yi. He had grown quite a bit, and didn't look like a kitten any more. But he was still very active and in "play mode" most of the time. He chased pieces of Styrofoam all over the boat and again and again he went on deck to look at the land.

Su-yi met many women on the other boats and spent almost all their time with them. They often helped each other and many of them were doing various handicrafts and then sold their things at the market. And as there was always work to do on the boats, but no particular hurry, she found this life much more to her liking than the actual sailing.

On the weekends Klaus worked on DOUBLE TROUBLE. Another yachtie made two fittings to hold the rudders securely in place and when that was done, Klaus got hold of some epoxy and fiber-glass and relaminated the places where delamination was taking place. They went out for a few sails to Devil's Island where Papillon was said to have spent his years in the murderous jungle prison. The ruins were still there and when Klaus and Su-yi looked at the cells where humans had been kept like animals only a relatively short time ago.

The islands themselves were beautiful, with turtles swimming amongst them, big Merou swimming in the depths, palm fringed beaches and nice walks. Klaus thought that Su-yi had shown almost magical imagination when she had told him of the picture she was going to paint. It all fitted, except that the anchorage was open towards the mainland and not towards the ocean. It was a prime spot and even amongst the yachties who were accustomed to little islands, nice beaches and good diving grounds it was agreed that the little islands had a lot to offer. Many of them took their boats out here on the weekends to relax and recover from the hard work they did in Kourou. Friendships began, grew and many yachties decided to sail on together or to meet again on some island in the Caribbean or even in the Pacific. They met boats that never sailed into Kourou at all, but came up from Brazil, stayed for a few days on the enchanted islands and then moved on, following the wind that would carry them around the world. Other boats came from South Africa, via St. Helena, Ascension, Fernando de Noronha, or even directly. It was one of those spots where the true blue-water sailors met and it had not yet become overrun and spoilt like so many other places on the trade wind route.

Klaus's friends from the hotel brought roasted duck, pate, Bordeaux, Moet et Chandon, and other delicacies. They thought it most thrilling to go sailing around on a catamaran and one or two dreamed of getting a boat for themselves one of these days.

It was on one of these trips that Klaus took his speargun and jumped over the side to see if he could catch a fish for dinner. The water wasn't exactly very clear, but it was way better than back in Kourou, where he couldn't see anything at all. Klaus couldn't see any of the sharks that were infesting these waters according to Papillon. He'd keep a close lookout, though. He was investigating a big coral-covered boulder not too far from DOUBLE TROUBLE when he saw a huge black shape coming towards him. Klaus had the urge to swim straight back up towards the surface and get onto his boat. But he realized that he could never outswim this monster whatever it was. When it was just a meter or so in front of him it suddenly changed color into white and then disappeared against the silvery background of the surface.

Klaus's heart beat crazily and his lungs were about to burst. Hastily he swam up to the surface. He gulped a few mouthfuls of air and calmed down again. It must have been a big ray, he thought. Maybe a manta ray? He didn't know if these existed around here, as he had only seen smaller brown stingrays in the river. The fishermen often caught them and most of the time they threw them away. Klaus had always wanted to cut off the tail of one of those as a souvenir. So far, he hadn't gotten around to it.

When he had calmed down a bit, he went down again. At first he couldn't see anything except rocks, but suddenly he realized that one of the rocks was moving. It was huge fish, Klaus had no idea what kind. It's mouth was disproportionately big, and it looked as if he would just have to open its mouth when something swam by to suck the victim right into it. Maybe it was a Merou? Or a jew-fish? A grouper? Whatever it was, Klaus was determined that it would end up in his galley. Before he went up to breathe once more, he carefully remembered the arrangement of boulders so that he would find it again when he came down. Everything looked so similar down there, kind of reddish brown and the boulders almost all of the same size, so that it was just too easy to lose orientation. Klaus struggled to get the second rubber onto the groove in the arrow. Finally he managed it.

When he came down again, he saw the big fish right away. Slowly and carefully he approached it from the other side, with the biggest boulder screening him from sight. When the fish came into his view on the other side, it was at arm's length and Klaus squeezed the trigger of his speargun.

When all the bubbles had cleared and he could see things once more, Klaus saw to his astonishment that the fish was gone. The only thing he saw was the arrow of his speargun with the tip completely ruined where it had hit a rock. That definitely needs some more practice, Klaus thought. And next time I better make sure to hit the fish and not some stupid rock. This could become quite an expensive way to get fish for dinner, too, with the arrows costing as much as they do here.

When he came up and told his tale of all that had happened below the surface that day, he found his friends little interested in his story. The Maitre d’h ôt el sat with a glass of home-made "Alembic" apple brandy in the cockpit and looked at Klaus and Su-yi.

"Don't you ever get tired of the little space and all the inconvenience on the boat?" he asked.

"You should see some of the other boats. Those are small. This here is a floating palace," Klaus answered.

"I wouldn't like to try living on something even smaller. But there's a reason for my question. At the hotel we have several bungalows and houses set aside for the staff. And one of these houses is becoming available now. If you want, you can move into that place. It is quite a nice one, not far from the beach and still not far from the shops and stuff."

"Wow. That would be great." Su-yi said immediately.

Klaus just sat there, and finally said that he would have to think about it.

That evening Su-yi asked him what he had against the place and when he told her that he was thinking of leaving pretty soon, it was her who remained quiet for a while. Finally she said, "Well, I guess I hoped against hope. I hoped you would like it here and give up this crazy plan of sailing around the world. But I guess there's not much chance of that or is there?"

"But why should I give it up? DOUBLE TROUBLE is in better shape then ever and the Caribbean is just around the corner. Don't you want to go and see what that is like? Steel-bands and Calypso, Planter's Punch and sugar cane everywhere?"

"Sure. If we fly there, no problem. I just think that we have used up our share of luck. I think you should sell of the boat and I wouldn't mind staying here for a while and fly for a week or so to Martinique or Guadeloupe."

"No more sailing for you?"

"I love you and I want to be together with you, but I have no intention of dying."

"But we aren't dying. We were never even close to it," Klaus said desperately.

"Oh, but we were. What do you do when your boat is sinking? And what would we have done if the other rudder had fallen off as well? It's just crazy and you are so stubborn and don't want to face reality. This is no game we are playing. People can actually die out there and you treat it as if it were a Sunday picnic. Why do you want to risk what you have already achieved? It's enough, don't you see that?"

"No, it is not enough and it can't be enough, until I have sailed around the world. Everything else is simply failure. Nobody ever said that sailing around the world was going to be easy or all fun and games. You pay with a certain amount of discomfort and anxiety for something that only few people do. You experience things much more deeply and profoundly than they ever will. And I most certainly don't underestimate the dangers. Why do you think I always work on the boat? And why do I insist on a harness at all times? Of course something could go wrong one of these days, but things can go equally wrong when you drive a car, go swimming, or take a plane trip. You can't insure yourself against all risks and if you try to do that, you will end up with a life so completely bland and meaningless that it is hardly worth living."

"But our life here is neither bland nor meaningless. We are right at the edge of the Amazon delta and one of the most interesting jungles anywhere on this planet," Su-yi said.

"Very true, but if you wanted to really go into the jungle and try to experience it as we have experienced the sea, it would be much more dangerous than the ocean."

"Why not just stay here for a year or two and sometimes go into the jungle or up the river and spend some time in a nice cabana and sometimes we sail to the islands, have barbecues on the beach and sleep in hammocks?" Su-yi asked.

"But that is exactly the danger. You settle down and get comfortable and before you know it, you have given up on your dreams," Klaus said.

"But life here is good. Are you a masochist, that you are looking for a lifestyle that will ensure all these things that every normal person would try to avoid?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I don't enjoy the troubles either, but I know that it is not very realistic to expect to do something like sailing around the world without running into some kind of troubles sooner or later. The idea is to overcome them and still have a good time."

"I am having a good time here in Kourou," Su-yi told Klaus.

"I'm not," Klaus said.

"You're not? Why is that?" Su-yi asked with genuine surprise.

"I don't like places where I am not welcome. And the Guianese certainly don't want anybody here except themselves. Why, they don't even like the guys from Surinam or Guyana or Africa. I don't really blame them, though. All the other colonies have become independent, and no matter by what name they call it here, it is still essentially a colony. All the people we come in contact with are white and from Europe. It makes me uncomfortable. I want to go somewhere where people smile when I say 'Hi' to them - not stare right through me."

"Well, I don't think I want to continue sailing. Not this time," Su-yi said and Klaus was well aware of the finality of her decision.

She had found a job with a Chinese family from Guangdong Province who ran both a shop and a restaurant with a bar. The money wasn't too good, but she got her food there, it was not heavy work and it was fun to talk to them. Much better than staying on the boat all day, waiting for Klaus to come back from the hotel.

* * *

For the next few days Klaus painted rooms the hotel and didn't talk much to anyone. There was too much to think about. It certainly looked as if he either had to give up sailing around the world or Su-yi. He could tell that she didn't like to force him into this situation either, and that the dilemma was as real for her as it was for him.

He would have gladly given up anything else for Su-yi, but he knew very well that he would never forgive himself if he didn't at least try to realize his dream. He was not at his wit's end yet and he might very well make it if he continued the way he had before. At the same time he knew that he would be extremely unhappy when Su-yi really split. And she would be, too. He saw no way out of this one.

He spent little time with the other yachties and even with Yvon, Pascal and Alberto. One evening when Alberto came back from the village, he saw Klaus at the Chinese shop and invited him for a beer. Klaus twisted the green bottle open, took a big gulp and looked questioningly at Alberto.

"Whatever happened to your bar?"

"Oh, somebody is taking care of that for me. No worries."

"Then what's going on, anyway? You aren't quite the same guy you used to be, do you know that?" Klaus said to Alberto.

"That bad, huh? It's just that I have a lot in my head and ... Let's get away from here, too many people around."

When they were sitting on DOUBLE TROUBLE, Klaus resumed his earlier probing. "Well, out with it. What is it?"

"It's just that I don't quite know how to start."

"Come on. We're friends, remember. You out of cash or something?"

"My cash is all tied up, in a business venture," Alberto said with his eyes avoiding Klaus. "And it is with that business, that I could do with some help."

"Well, what is it?" Klaus asked.

"Similar to before, just a bit of smuggling. I got the intro to a big deal here," Alberto started.

"You want to run grass? Here? But it grows all over the islands. There's no point in it."

"It isn't grass," Alberto said quietly.

"You're joking. You're doing coke now? I don't believe it."

"The profit margin is the best I have ever seen."

"Profit margin. Are you out of your mind, Alberto? What the fuck are you doing getting into some shit like that?" Klaus said, his voice rising.

"It's the same as before."

"It's not the bloody same. It fucks people up real bad, man. How can you even contemplate touching that shit?"

"It's not as if it were heroin or morphine, it's just nose candy is all."

"Are you playing stupid or do you think I am? Don't you remember the little blond Breton guy? The one who had to sell his boat, because he blew all the money on coke? And you are telling me that it's just 'nose candy'. I can't believe what I am hearing." Klaus was getting upset.

"There will always be people who fuck themselves up, some can take it and some can't. What has that got to do with me? I am not forcing it on anybody. People are responsible for themselves - definitely not me for them."

"You are responsible for your actions. And if you push coke, you are directly responsible for some poor guy like our Breton friend who can't handle it. And you wanted me to do a run for you? You must be out of your mind. I wish I had never heard what you have just said. Don't you have any feelings at all for the people who would eventually get hooked on the stuff that you supply?" Klaus asked.

"Ah, total bullshit. If I don't get it there, somebody else will. Have you never thought about basic economics? Remember the American prohibition? It doesn't work. The people who want it will get it, no matter what I - or you -do. Get a grip, man," Alberto said.

"You get a grip yourself. You talk like a Nazi. Somebody else will. Nothing is your fault, eh? I'll tell you something. Don't ever mention something like that again, or I'll make sure that everybody knows exactly what you are up to."

"Look who is talking," Alberto sneered. "You had quite different opinions when you needed some quick cash last time."

"Not at all. Hash is okay and coke is not. It's as simple as that. And now get lost, before I forget myself. You can pick up your stuff tomorrow and after that I don't want to see you here anymore."

Alberto stood up and came very close to Klaus. In a quiet voice he said, "You whisper one word of this to anybody and you will regret it. Right now I remember that you were a friend once, but I won't when I hear of that. I have many competent friends. Accidents happen. Perhaps to your chick, too."

Klaus couldn't believe what he was hearing. He looked at Alberto's broad figure, as Alberto left DOUBLE TROUBLE and rowed ashore in Pascal's little wooden dinghy. What was wrong with this place? First Su-yi got completely flustered and never wanted to go sailing again and now Alberto had all of a sudden turned into a complete asshole.

He looked out over the river. Strong current, brown waters, swirling fast along green mangroves on the one side and mudflats on the other. If he rowed across now, it would only take him half an hour and he would be in the real jungle of jaguars and howler monkeys, anacondas and peccaris, agoutis and bird eating spiders. It was vast, beautiful, full of potential and really dangerous. And somehow it screwed people up even past its reach. Klaus was determined that he would not be one of them. He would continue to make some cash and he would continue to work on DOUBLE TROUBLE.

It was raining. Not the usual kind of rain where you could use an umbrella and walk pretty much dry all over the city, but of the kind where even a big umbrella was of no use. Klaus's leather shoes were totally soaked, as were his pants almost all the way up to his crotch. Still he clutched the umbrella, because it offered a little protection. Klaus had just come off work and had already walked all the way from the hotel to the outskirts of town.

Soon he would have to turn left towards the fish market, the wharf, then get his dinghy ready and row back to his boat. He was late, because he had hoped that the rain would abate somewhat, and so had had a couple of beers at the hotel with Jean-Yves the chief chef and Walter, the barman. That about the rain stopping had apparently been wishful thinking.

Suddenly a black girl ran towards him. When she spotted his umbrella she came closer. Klaus held it out for her. Immediately she put her arm around Klaus, which sent something like an electric shock through him. She was very young and beautiful, probably a mix of Indian and Black, or perhaps Saramacan. She spoke to him in heavily accented English. "Wanna come with me?"

"I don't understand," Klaus replied.

"Don't understand? Don't understand 'fuck'?" she asked him.

Now Klaus understood only too well. "Why you want to do that?" he asked, "You could have anything you wanted with the way you look."

She just snorted, but didn't say anything.

"You got a problem? You want to come to my boat until the rain has stopped?" Klaus tried again.

Again she looked at him with her big black brown eyes, but didn't speak.

"Is there any way I can help you?" Klaus asked.

"You come fuck, you give me money," she said.

"No, I don't think so. But if there is anything else I can do, just tell me," Klaus said.

Suddenly she leaned towards him and kissed him. On his neck. A very wet and sensual kiss. Klaus could feel her teeth against his neck and her mouth sucking in his flesh. It all happened so quick, that she had already disentangled herself, before Klaus could react. Something clattered to the street and a sweet cloying smell of cheap perfume enveloped Klaus. The girl looked at him one last time, said "You stupid," with a smile and ran off.

Maybe I am, thought Klaus. He felt for his neck where she had kissed him and his hand came away with more of the perfume smell. Why on earth had she been walking around with a perfume bottle in this weather, he thought. Why on earth be out in this weather in the first place? He figured that she was probably an addict and needed money in a real hurry to pay her man. Or that there was another kind of emergency. He felt a little guilty that he hadn't simply given her a little cash. She probably needed it much more than he did. Again he felt for the spot where she had kissed him. That had been some kiss. But he had to wash that stinking perfume away as soon as possible.

When he came to the fishing market, he put his head under one of the taps and tried to rinse it off. No luck. He smelled like a brothel, was half drunk, and wet all over. He really did look like a boat bum now. Time to get out of here. Time for the hurricane season to stop so that he could sail up north and get out of this everlasting rain. There could be hurricanes any time, but most of them occurred from late May until early December, which meant that he had at least another month to wait, before it was safe to sail north. Besides, there was a very heavy ground swell all along the coast in the rainy season. It was no problem once you were a few miles offshore, but here he was stuck in the river like a rat in a trap. Even the big ferry that did runs to the Isles de Salut had been in trouble for several times.

At least the tide was in. When he looked for his blue fiberglass dinghy, he couldn't see it at first. That could only mean one of two things. Su-yi or someone else had taken it or it had again filled with rainwater and sunk to the ground. Klaus felt along the pole where he always chained the dinghy. Sure enough. He could feel the chain going down.

He pulled on it with both hands and soon he saw his dinghy coming up. It was covered in mud and full of water. Not that again, Klaus thought. He'd already gone through the ordeal in the morning. Only then it had been even worse, because of the millions of sandflies swarming about him, biting, stinging and annoying him like so many flying devils. The only time he could prevent sinking the dinghy in heavy rains was when he parked it between the hulls, but then it would often bang around down there to make sleep impossible. He bailed and wiped and sweated. By now he was as dirty and wet as the dinghy when he had first pulled it up. Really time to get out of here. This was not fun anymore. This was the pits. His mood had gone below zero when he finally reached DOUBLE TROUBLE.

When Su-yi saw him come in, she noticed his wet dirty clothes right away. "Put those wet clothes into the wet-locker, okay? Don't want to mess up the whole boat," she said.

"Sure," Klaus replied and took everything off, then toweled himself dry before slipping into a new T-shirt. Su-yi came to put her arms around him for a hug, when she suddenly wrinkled her nose and her looked at his neck.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice tight.

"Ah, nothing," Klaus replied, "Bloody dinghy was at the bottom again. Stupid design."

"Anything else?" Su-yi asked, "Or did you have to work overtime?"

"No. Just had a few beers at the bar, hoping to avoid the rain," Klaus replied.

"And why do you smell of perfume? And have a kiss mark on your neck?"

Su-yi asked, her voice growing colder by the minute.

"Ah, that, " Klaus said, "Funny thing. There was this hooker, I think Guyanese, who came up to me when I was walking home. She was all over me, trying to get some business."

"And you gave her some business," Su-yi said.

"Don't be ridiculous," Klaus said, getting pissed off. This surely was a fucked up day. First the usual daily grind and rain and shit, then a crazed hooker attacking him in the street and now an argument with Su-yi. Just bloody perfect.

"I am not ridiculous. You are if you expect me to believe you," Su-yi said in her most menacing tone.

"Oh, fuck this now," Klaus shouted, losing his temper, "I work all day and then get totally wet and muddy, and when I come home I get shouted at. Lay off, will you!"

"Right," Su-yi said. "If you have nothing else to say, I'm out of here."

She turned around, tears in her eyes, grabbed her yellow raincoat and made for the door. He wanted to shout 'Wait!' anyway, but he was too pissed off with all the things that were going on at the moment and just walked down into the galley. Damn fucking bastard everything, he muttered to himself.

Su-yi didn't come back all night. Klaus was dead tired, but he couldn't fall asleep. It was not like Su-yi to stay angry that long. Had something happened to her? Or was she staying with her Chinese friends? Klaus's anger had long since evaporated and he couldn't even remember any more just why he had been so pissed off. This place was getting to him. He tried to sleep, but a thousand thoughts flew through his head. He needed the dinghy to be at the hotel at eight, he wanted to tell Su-yi that there really had been nothing. Did she really think that he would go with a hooker? Just like that? She couldn't, surely?

After a very uncomfortable night with almost no sleep, Klaus got up while it was still dark outside. Su-yi hadn't come back and neither had the dinghy. Klaus would either have to wait until one of the other yachties rowed ashore and hail him for a lift, or he would have to swim ashore. Or he could try to get someone on the VHF radio. Just before the sun came up, the sandflies appeared all at once. No way to stay out there. Klaus went back inside and looked out the window. No tiny portholes on his boat. After a little while he saw somebody get into his dinghy. It was the French guy who worked in construction, Nicola.

Klaus jumped out again and shouted at him, moving his arms to attract attention above the din of the outboard. Nicola saw him and changed course. "What happened to your dinghy?" he asked in French.

"Ashore," Klaus said, "Thanks for the ride, Nicola."

"Sure, man. How's the Hotel des Roches?"

"Cool job and excellent food. But I'll be leaving next opportunity," Klaus replied.

"Aren't we all?" Nicola said, smiling.

When Klaus walked past the Chinese shop of Su-yi's friends, it was still closed. He figured that he couldn't very well wake them up to ask about Su-yi, and besides, he didn't want to come late to the hotel. Not only would his boss be pissed off, but he would also miss breakfast and have to go until lunchtime without a bite to eat.

At work he tried to phone the shop several times, but every time it was the old father who picked up the phone and he spoke nothing but Cantonese. That was strange, too, because usually the young wife of the shopkeeper answered it, or sometimes Su-yi herself.

He hitched a ride downtown when he was finished working and went straight to the shop. When he asked to see her, the young woman told him that Su-yi didn't want to see him. When Klaus insisted that there had been a misunderstanding, the woman fixed him with a hard smile and said that that would be for Su-yi to decide.

"You mean she is just gonna stay here and I can't even talk to her? Not even on the phone?" Klaus asked.

"That's right. She already put all her belongings in a little spare room we have and we are quite glad to have her here. Besides, she likes it much better here than on a boat."

Klaus couldn't believe his ears. She had moved all her stuff? What the heck was going on?

"Look, I really need to talk to her urgently. This is really all getting too crazy," he tried again.

"I'm sorry. There is nothing I can do for you. And now I have work to do. Excuse me, please." With that she went back behind her cash register, the conversation obviously at an end.

Klaus stared at her for a while and then walked out. He didn't even buy himself a drink, but went straight back to DOUBLE TROUBLE. The woman had been right. All of Su-yi's stuff was gone. Teufelchen walked all around him, rubbing himself on Klaus's legs, as if he too knew that there was something wrong.

Meanwhile Su-yi was working quietly in the warehouse. She hadn't had much of a night either, and at the same time she didn't know whether she was angry or sad. How could he do that, she thought again and again. How could he do that to me? She didn't doubt for one minute that he had gone with a girl after work. Her father had done it often enough and her mother had never even dared to ask about it. But she had thought that Klaus was different, that he really did care about her feelings and not only about her body.

She took out boxes mechanically, taking out big jars of mayonnaise, putting them into a shelf and then shredding the cardboard. When she tore it up it gave a satisfying ripping sound, and when her hands started to hurt from the repetitious work, she welcomed that too. When the family ate dinner, she pleaded no appetite and simply continued to work. In her mind she could hear the old man saying that this all came from children not listening to their parents and living together with foreign devils. Never mind not being properly married at all. She didn't need any of that. Not now, anyway.

What was she going to do now? Go back to Paris? Or even back to Taipei? She didn't feel like going to either place. But she couldn't very well stay here, either, wasting her life away with one meaningless job after another. Why had he done that? Tears came to her eyes again, as they had done so often since her meeting with Klaus. She knew that they had their problems and differences, especially concerning their future lifestyle. But she also knew that they had had a very good time together and she had even begun to think in terms of what would happen if.... If she would decide to stay with this man, like, really for a long time. Somehow the idea had lost its terrifying aspects, became an almost desirable one even, only to be shattered by treachery of the vilest kind.

In a way, she was glad. Maybe this episode had been just in time. Before she made the big mistake of committing herself to Klaus for good. She had finished with the mayonnaise and was starting when her friend Yi-mei came in. "I used to like your Klaus," Yi-mei started.

"So did I," Su-yi said. "However, this just proves that I am not much a judge of people, doesn't it?"

"Are you really sure that things happened the way you told me? I mean, before you send the man to hell, you'd better be sure you are not making a mistake, if you know what I mean," Yi-mei continued, bolder now. She spoke Mandarin with a strong Cantonese accent, something that used to amuse Su-yi secretly.

"Come on! Another woman's smell, cheap perfume, kissing marks on his neck, his being late and stinking of beer. What do you think can have happened there?" Su-yi said, her temper rising again.

"I don't know, but I can't quite believe that he really did something that stupid. After all you told me about him, I mean."

"Yi-mei, I can't either. I can't for the life of me figure it out and I know men never ever admit to anything but lie through their teeth and usually they get away with it, too. I don't know but I can't think of any explanation that makes sense," Su-yi told her friend.

"Well, I can't either. Sorry. Do you want to eat a bit now?" Yi-mei asked, subdued.

"Thanks, but no. I'm not really hungry. Maybe later," Su-yi answered.

She continued her work and didn't stop until she was so exhausted that she could barely keep her eyes open. Then she went straight to bed.

Klaus sat with a few candles at the main table of DOUBLE TROUBLE and wrote a letter. If Su-yi didn't want to see him, maybe she would read this letter at least. He started with an apology for his bad temper and then described in minute detail what had happened from the moment he got off work until the moment he met Su-yi. Then he told her that he truly loved her and that he felt extremely miserable that this stupid thing had happened to them, but that it was no reason why it should ruin their future together.

He took a gulp of the red wine, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was so hot that he was afraid that some of the sweat would drip on the letter and ruin it. His wrist hurt from all the writing, but he knew that the letter was probably his last chance. If things stayed like this for much longer, the damage would become permanent and irreversible. Towards the end he even told her that he was considering to stay on land with her if that was so important to her and asked her only to talk to him.

By the time he was finished, he was also pretty drunk. He got pissed off with Teufelchen, because he liked to sit exactly on the letter and when Klaus shooed him away, it was only a couple of minutes before the black cat sat on it again. Then again, he stroked him under the chin and when Teufelchen started to purr, he felt tears sting his eyes again. What was wrong with him? Crying wouldn't help at all. Just self-pity and nothing else. But as if that thought had triggered something inside, the tears now came faster and a strange sound came from his throat.

Teufelchen stared at him in alarm. Klaus had just time to rescue the letter, when the last dam broke. He put his head in his hands and cried like a little child. He didn't think anything and he wasn't aware of anything. Just a very deep and very real sense of loss.

The next day he went to the shop again and when he was as unsuccessful in meeting Su-yi as before, he gave the letter to Yi-mei, who promised him to deliver it. At the same time she looked away from him, which made Klaus feel even more hopeless than before.

As soon as Klaus was gone, Yi-mei gave the letter to Su-yi. Su-yi ripped it open and read as far as the apology. With a face contorted by anger, she crumpled it into a ball without having read any further and threw it away. She did not say one word to Yi-mei, but turned around and went back to her work.

Yi-mei said to her back, "I am going to keep that letter for you, just in case you change your mind."

"I don't want to read his lies. You can do with that letter whatever you want," Su-yi said, slamming boxes into empty spaces on the shelf. Su-yi could hear a rustle and then the sound of the softly closing door when Yi-mei left.

After a few more days Klaus realized that there was not much point in trying to see Su-yi. The only thing he could hope for now, was a chance meeting in the street. But Su-yi knew his routines and he was not too hopeful that she would allow herself to be in a place where they would bump into each other. After work he would hang out by the shop, having a beer with one of the other yachties, but when she didn't show up, he grew more and more quiet.

He had just decided to go back on board after the next beer, when two men and a young woman showed up that he had never seen before. Patou, Dudu, and Fanfan had arrived on one of the tiniest boats in the whole harbor. An eight-meter wooden sloop which had sailed out of the Mediterranean, then on to the Canaries and now to Cayenne and Kourou in search of work. Klaus got on with the three of them immediately. They were roughly of the same age, shared the same outlook on life, and had more or less the same goals. After a couple of beers, they invited him back aboard their little boat ALLURE. Klaus rowed over to DOUBLE TROUBLE first, fed Teufelchen and changed the sand in his box, then grabbed a bottle of red to bring as a present.

It was the most perfect example of a hippie yacht he had ever seen. Everything was made of wood and the walls were decorated with thin cotton sheets that had come from India. No electricity whatsoever, all candles and oil lamps. The stove was a Primus kerosene stove and it was so crowded that the four of them had to huddle very close together to fit into the tiny salon at all. Below the table the little mongrel dog Speedy had to find some space between all the feet.

"Where do you all sleep?" Klaus asked after he had seen how little space there was. The forecabin was filled with sails, which left only the two couches and the floor.

"It's not really a problem," Patou answered, shaking his long black curls.

"We sleep wherever we can find some space. It's not a good system, but it's a system."

"But how do you do your navigation or anything at all for that matter?" Klaus wanted to know.

"You don't need all that much space," Dudu protested, "I always do the navigation sitting right here, with a wooden board in my lap."

"And I can cook French fries with the cooker between my feet," Fanfan threw in.

"I haven't even tried that in my kitchen, which is truly luxurious compared to yours," Klaus answered.

"Fries are our main food," Patou said, "And rice, lots of rice. But now let's open that wine of yours."

"And let's have something to smoke. You roll, Klaus," Fanfan said.

All the wine and the smoke on top made Klaus very sleepy. Drunk, stoned, and extremely sleepy. He felt that the only thing he wanted to do, was to lie down someplace in order to drift off into sleep. Fanfan shook him gently. "Let's have a look at your boat," she said.

"What, now?" Klaus answered.

"Sure, let's go," Fanfan insisted.

Only when he was in the dinghy, or the “annexe” as Fanfan called it, did Klaus realize that Patou and Dudu were not going to come with them. He felt mildly surprised, but was too busy to concentrate on the rowing while Fanfan kept up a friendly chatter all the way to the DOUBLE TROUBLE.

As soon as they were there, Fanfan held the dinghy steady while Klaus climbed aboard and tied it up. Fanfan came on board like a big cat, sure of herself. She looked all around and congratulated him on his boat, then they went inside. "Have you got any more wine?" she asked.

"Sure," Klaus said although more wine was the farthest from his mind.

Klaus was about to switch on the electric light when Fanfan stopped him. "No, let's light a candle," she said, "More romantique."

When they sat next to each other in the cabin, Fanfan put her little hand around his neck and pulled his head towards her. Klaus pulled it away and looked into her face. Fanfan only smiled at him, then pulled him closer again.

She then proceeded to unbutton his shirt and when she had that done all the way, she kissed his nipples. Her tongue was twirling around them and it created a sensation altogether new for Klaus. He didn't feel sleepy any more. The smoke somehow altered all sensations he felt, and though he still felt that everything around him was not of the real world, it was at least a very pleasurable dream world he inhabited at the moment.

Before he noticed it, Fanfan had opened up his pants and reached inside. She played with him a little then and finally bent over him while Klaus reached into her brown curly hair.

To Klaus it seemed as if they were making love the whole night. It was one very long dream of pleasure, interspersed with short moments of resting, then to start again and rise to new intensity. He didn't know if it was still dark or already daylight when the final resting period changed from rest into sleep.

When he woke up again, it was to the feel of her hand gently stroking him there where he liked it best. He was big again and as soon as Fanfan realized that he was awake, she took him in her soft sensuous mouth again for a few delicious minutes, then sat on top of him and guided him inside. It was the best awakening Klaus could remember in a long time.

With a start he realized that he was doing exactly that which Su-yi had accused him of doing. How could he face her now that her accusations had come true? It was all messed up beyond repair anyway. So he put these gloomy thoughts out of his mind resolutely.

Turning to Fanfan Klaus said, "What about Patou and Dudu?"

"What about them?" Fanfan asked.

"Aren't you together with one of them?"

"I am together with nobody," Fanfan said, "But sometimes we make love and sometimes I make love with other men. What's more, they are on my boat, at my invitation."

"Oh," was all that Klaus could manage in his surprise.

"I like men and I like sex even better," Fanfan continued, "And men like me, too. So why should I have only one man?"

"Don't they get jealous?" Klaus asked.

"If they do, they must go," Fanfan said. "Like Patou says, 'It's a good system.' But now maybe we should have breakfast, no?"

Klaus busied himself with the breakfast, while looking at Fanfan, who played with Teufelchen without a stitch on. She had a magnificent body, deeply tanned with full round breasts and a few freckles here and there. Her curly hair hung below her shoulders and it looked like the curls were contemplating turning into dreadlocks in the not too distant future. Fanfan was laughing and giggling all the time she played hide and seek with the cat, until Klaus had the breakfast ready.

"You are one crazy woman," Klaus said to her while he took the little Italian coffee maker off the gas ring.

"Not crazy. I just love life. You only live once and life's too short not to have fun. I'll have all the fun I can handle while my life lasts. I am like a candle. I burn bright, I give a lot of light, and I may burn pretty fast. But I like it that way," Fanfan told him.

"What are you going to do now, after Kourou, I mean?"

"Probably go to Brazil. At least for the Carnival," Fanfan said.

"No thoughts of the South Seas?" Klaus asked.

"Maybe later. First Brazil and the Caribbean. There is so much to see. I think you have to give things time or you'll lose most of the pleasure."

"Unfortunately I don't have any more time now. I've got to go to work," Klaus said.

"Bring me back to ALLURE?" Fanfan asked.

When Klaus came off work that evening, everybody seemed to know what he had been up to the night before. There were smirks and knowing smiles on the other yachties' faces when he came to the shop for his customary sundowner beer. And if it was all over town, somebody sure was going to tell Su-yi all about it. But she had probably washed her hands off him entirely.

* * *

Su-yi had, in fact heard about the fact that a young French woman had spent the night with Klaus. That just about proves it, she thought. I am gone just a few days and he is with another woman. While protesting his undying love for me. But he's all history now.

But it was strange that she couldn't get her mind off Klaus and she felt alternatively jealous and angry and also wanted to scratch that woman's eyes out. What was even stranger, was that she still caught herself crying while working in the warehouse. For a fleeting moment she even thought, if maybe Klaus really hadn't had anything with that hooker and that this affair with the French woman was all her fault, because she had overreacted. Soon, though, she got a grip on herself and resolved more than ever to banish Klaus from her mind. She had allowed him to get under her skin more than any other man before him and her present misery showed her that she had made a big mistake. She would not allow herself to get into this kind of situation again. When Klaus tried to see her once more, she would give him a piece of her mind that would leave no doubts whatsoever about their relationship from then on.

When Klaus rowed back to DOUBLE TROUBLE, he saw to his surprise that the ALLURE was nowhere to be seen. Either the French hippies had moved their boat to the bay called Guatemala or they had left altogether. So be it, Klaus thought. He looked through the stack of paperback books he had traded with another yachtie and selected one he hadn't read before. Most of them were pretty bad, but still better than no books in English at all and once in a while he actually found a real treasure amongst the trash and added it to his collection.

He had three kinds of books on board. First there were the books concerned with sailing. Some were narratives, some were books on seamanship, some where tables or lists of information a sailor needs concerning prevailing winds, tides, lighthouses, radio beacons, pilots, handbooks and numerous volumes on navigation. Then there were the books he considered good books, to stay with him, never to be traded again and lent only to good and trusty friends. The third category were books solely of entertainment value.

Sometimes he didn't even finish these, because the writing was so horrible that it was impossible to read on. Most of them, though, he read just to pass the time, to escape, and to forget everything around him. He liked to have a drink nearby, sit down someplace comfortable and if possible have Teufelchen on his lap at the same time. Usually it was one of his main pleasures and he had never read so many books of that kind as he had since he started the boat trip. Perhaps he had so many external stimuli that he didn't need the ones that books normally provided for him. It was a simple pleasure, but it didn't seem to work any more.

More often than not, he had just read a few pages, when his eyes filled with tears and he couldn't read on any more. Every little romance, almost every encounter between a man and a woman reminded him of Su-yi and what had been, could have been. It got worse than that. He read about flowers and thought how nice it would be to pick that flower and hand it to Su-yi to make her smile. Then the tears would start. Sometimes he caught himself and then he read on for a few more pages, but sometimes the tears and his grief would overpower him and he had to put the book away. He thought that all this was completely ridiculous and he didn't really want to feel all this self-pity, but there seemed to be nothing that he could do.

What could he do? Su-yi wouldn't see him in the first place and now with the night with Fanfan behind him, he didn't even know what to say anymore. Su-yi had been right and he was wrong, but he still loved her with all the love he could muster. Which apparently was not enough.

He wiped away the tears with the back of his hand and looked around him. He had allowed chaos to spread all over the boat, and not only chaos, but an accumulation of dirt and dust as well. He put the book away and got up. I have to get a grip on myself, he thought. I am going to clean up this mess first and tomorrow I'll try to go and see Su-yi again. And I will keep doing that until she will see me and until I have told her everything about everything. I will do it again and again, and I don't care if it makes me look the ridiculous fool I am, but sooner or later she simply must see that I am serious and that she is everything I care about.

When he asked for her at the shop where she was working, he was surprised to be told to wait for a minute.

When Su-yi actually came out from the back, his heart beat fast because he was painfully aware that this might be his last chance to set things right.

"Su-yi," he began but she cut him short.

"I have only come out to tell you that you needn't bother to come out here any more. This is over, do you understand? I don't want to see you anymore and I don't want you to come here bothering people anymore. Especially not after the whole village is talking about you and your new French girl-friend."

"She isn't my girl-friend; let me explain," Klaus said but again Su-yi cut him short.

"I don't want your explanations. I want you to go. Haven't I made myself clear?" Su-yi said and walked back into the shop. "Don't force me to ask my Chinese friends to make sure that you don't bother me again," she said as a parting shot.

What Klaus didn't know was that as soon as Su-yi was back in the warehouse, she began to sob uncontrollably and kicked at huge cardboard boxes that were stacked along the wall. It took a long time for her to calm down again and even when the crying had stopped, Su-yi couldn't get rid of the hollow feeling that told her that all was not well even now. Time, she consoled herself, time can heal everything. I sure hope so.

Klaus rowed back to DOUBLE TROUBLE and looked at his domain, which was in the best shape it had been in for many weeks. What's the use, he thought. It is all so pointless now. He still hadn't finished the book about the middle-aged man who left his wife only to find himself in all kinds of incredible adventures when all he had wanted to do was to get to the nearest city. And all he had wanted to do was to sail, perhaps to find his peace somewhere along the way. Klaus seemed further away from that than ever. It looked as if it was almost impossible. Maybe it existed only in books anyway, and not in real life. The evidence pointed that way.

After the final encounter with Su-yi the only people Klaus had close contact with were Yvon, Pascal and he even talked to Alberto again. They invited him to dinner and bought him drinks. Alberto was especially nice to him and never mentioned his plans anymore, though Klaus knew that it was highly unlikely that he had given up. He thought that whatever one might say about Alberto, he was a man more of action than of words. And Alberto was at home here. With all the "Cepi Blancs" from the French Foreign Legion around, Alberto was like a fish swimming in water. Like Che Guevara amongst the peasants in rural Cuba. Or, more likely, like a piranha in the Amazon river.

One time Alberto invited Klaus to the favorite hangout of the legionnaires. The decor reminded Klaus of Alberto's bar LA GRANADIENNE in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, but it was almost as big as the LA PINHA in Belem. And this time it wasn't Spanish or Portuguese Klaus could hear all around him, but French, of which he had a much better grasp. The group of legionnaires was clearly comprised of two groups. The rough and rowdy guys with tattoos proceeding to get roaring drunk on one of their few nights out and the quiet officers who often remained standing and were surveying the scene with a cool and critical eye. Alberto steered him to one of those. The man was rather short and wore a strange black beard which hung like an extension of a mustache on his cheeks - only that he didn't have a mustache at all. He was an expert of survival in extreme conditions and was usually called upon to help or rescue people that came to grief in the Amazon jungle. It wasn't much of a conversation, though, because the guy took one look at Klaus and then talked to Alberto.

The next afternoon Klaus went by the Chinese shop as usual, when suddenly

Yi-mei came out and motioned him to come inside. "What is it," Klaus asked her.

"The flics came by yesterday evening. They saw Su-yi working in the magazin and when they asked about her papers, found out that she doesn't have a work permit," Yi-mei told him.

"And now what?" Klaus asked her.

"They gave her 72 hours to get out of the country or they'll put her in jail."

"They what? How on earth is she going to do that?" Klaus asked incredulously.

"She phoned Minerve Guyane and some other airlines this morning, but they are all fully booked. For weeks to come. Then she asked around if any boats are leaving, but of course they aren't and now she is checking out Oiapoque and Saint Laurent de Maroni to see if she could get into either Brazil or Surinam."

"Is there anything I can do to help her?" Klaus asked. "I'll do whatever is necessary, you know that."

"Well, she doesn't have much money. And I don't think that she can get out overland at this time of the year anyway. It's all one big swamp there now, you know. The so-called roads have disappeared and I just don't think she'll find a way to manage this in three days time." Yi-mei said, while looking at him.

"She here now?" Klaus asked.

"Yep, by the phone. Come this way," Yi-mei said while guiding Klaus towards the family kitchen.

Su-yi sat in the kitchen and she looked terrible. Her hair was all greasy, she looked thinner and more pale than before and under her eyes were black smudges, probably from lack of sleep. The white of her yes was spattered with pink, as if she had been crying for hours. All of this Klaus took in at a glance.

It was as if a hand squeezed his heart. Before she could say anything, he said, "I came to see if I could help you. Don't be angry with Yi-mei, she means well. I am not going to bother you, I just want to see if I can do anything to help you, OK?"

"Some help you are. Well, I have to be out of here in less than three days. No flights, no boats, and the borders are effectively closed. And I forgot; no cash. You can visit me in jail is about all I can think of," Su-yi said.

"Have you told them? I mean, do they know that you have tried, but that it just isn't possible in three days?" Klaus asked her.

"They don't care. I somehow get the feeling that they knew that right away. That they want me to end up in jail. Maybe as a negative example."

"I can't believe that. This is not some fascist military regime we are talking about. There must be a way," Klaus said.

Yi-mei broke into the conversation, "Su-yi is right. They don't care and they have done similar things to many other Chinese friends around here. She must leave or they will come and get her."

"Well, than there is only one thing I can suggest, though I know that is not one of the greatest ideas ever," Klaus began. "My boat is ready to go and though the weather is not exactly perfect, we should have no trouble going up the coast. As soon as it turns bad, we simply go right back in and then we don't have to worry about visas and stuff anyway, because a ship at sea has the right to seek shelter. That's international law."

"You're right. I don't like it. But I don't have much choice, do I?" Su-yi said. "And I do appreciate the offer. As long as you understand that you are just helping me out and deliver me to the next harbor, I'll be truly grateful."

Klaus felt sad, when he heard the coldness in her voice, but he would help her anyway. Wasn't that what it was all about? Help each other, be nice and kind to each other? Now was his chance of helping and of being kind and he was not going to waste it, either. No matter what happened later on.

"I've got to talk to my boss right away. Quit, collect my cash and get some provisions. And, Su-yi?" Klaus said while walking towards the phone.

"Yes," she said.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of everything."

"If you say so," she said and there was no trouble detecting the skepticism in her voice.

The next two days were a flurry of activity. Klaus enlisted the help of Alberto, Yvon and Pascal, to get the boat truly ready while Su-yi did her part with the help of her Chinese friends. She was in charge of provisioning, water, and fuel.

The men checked the newly laminated bulkheads for a proper bond and all the standing and running rigging for any signs of crystallization. They went over all the sails, greased everything made of metal rather more than necessary, and Klaus even climbed up the mast again to look if everything was alright up there. It was a good thing that he did, because when he was up there he noticed that one of the blocks was broken. It would have come apart completely in just a matter of days. He fit a new one and came back down very relieved.

Yvon was looking at him, when he reached the deck. "Do you really want to do this?" he asked Klaus.

"Do I have any other choice?" Klaus asked in return.

"You are risking your boat and maybe even your life, are you aware of that?" Yvon said.

"Well, should I just let Su-yi go to jail and do nothing?" Klaus said.

"I don't know. Does she know what the entrance to the river is like at this time of the year? And is she aware that the hurricane season up north is not over yet?"

"I told her all that right away," said Klaus, "And I also told her that the chances of running into a hurricane this late in the season are very slim. Moreover, we'll be going up the coast, so that we can run for shelter at the first sign of trouble. It isn't all that crazy, you know."

"It's still a pretty big risk. And I do think you are underestimating our little Kourou river here. I went through on the ferry one time. That is one mother of a bore we have there, let me tell you. But it's your boat, not mine," he said, sounding slightly pissed off with Klaus.

Klaus gave him his full attention. "I know, Yvon," he said softly. "But do you know that helping Su-yi to get the hell out of here may well be my only chance of getting her back?"

"More's the pity. If you really care about her so much, you shouldn't even allow her to go with you on this trip. She would be much safer in jail than on a boat. And on a catamaran to boot." Yvon said, still not mollified.

"That again," Klaus said. "Never mind that. She is terrified of jail, Yvon. I don't know what it is, but she thinks there's rape and torture waiting for her for sure and rats and all that kind of stuff. I don't know whether it's Taiwan or Devil's Island or what that put her in that state of mind. She's told me that she would rather take her chances on a raft than risk prison here."

"Oh, well. There's nothing more I can say then, or is there? To stop you from this mad endeavor?" Yvon said, finally losing the harsh edge his voice had carried all the time. "Let me show you a few things on the charts then, since I can't stop you anyway." And both went inside where Yvon gave him tips for more than an hour.

Su-yi spent all her cash on food. Things were expensive, even when she bought from her Chinese friends at cost. She felt miserable leaving the place she had grown to like a lot. And she had very mixed feelings about sailing with Klaus again. It sure was very nice of him to help her out like this, especially since the rainy season wasn't yet over here and further north the hurricane season wasn't either. But it would also be very painful to be so near to him, after what he had done. Well, she had no choice and maybe she could persuade him to sail into Paramaribo in Surinam in spite of the unrest there. Georgetown in Guyana didn't look so good, while Port of Spain on Trinidad was okay and Bridgetown on Barbados would be perfect. It all depended on the weather.

Alberto, Yvon, and Pascal all gave presents to Klaus and Su-yi and they promised to stay in touch via VHF radio as long as possible. Fortunately the weather cleared a bit when Klaus and Su-yi finally set sail. There was a fresh wind, but with the sun shining, it didn't look quite as forbidding as usual. The deck was cluttered with two anchors, muddy chain and ropes, which had to be cleared away, before they hit the open sea.

They made their way slowly down the river, past the big bay called Guatemala, with the farms surrounding it on one side and the primeval jungle on the other. Past all the other boats that would wait here until it was time to sail to the Caribbean, past the big hotel on the left where Klaus had worked. The buoys were deployed red-right-returning, which meant that they had to keep the red ones to port now. Klaus stayed scrupulously in the middle between the red and the green, for Yvon had told him that it was his best bet to stay in the deepest possible water. Both outboard engines were running and when they passed the light on port they could see something resembling surf ahead of them and a big bay to the right. Yvon had told Klaus that it wasn't really surf, but massive rollers standing in the same place, particularly bad when the tide was running out. That's why they had timed it so that they were motoring against the tide, although it meant slow going at full throttle, until they were truly out at sea.

Klaus looked up at the blue sky and was surprised to see a few white clouds moving across it at very high speed. Better furl the sails a bit, he thought.

Su-yi took the wheel and Klaus pulled on the reefing lines, to reduce all sails by about one third. He got on the VHF and told Yvon that they were approaching the bore now and that he would call him again in another half hour or so. He relieved Su-yi of the wheel and checked the distance to the buoys on either side. Everything was exactly as he wanted it.

When the first wave lifted the bows, Klaus almost lost his balance. It was so sudden. Then the bows crashed down into the trough, the screws came out of the water screaming and the second wave threw a massive amount of brown-green water over the foredeck. It went all the way up to the main windows and Klaus could hardly believe his eyes. Then the bows were lifted again and the water cascaded off the sides. A part of it came all the way to the back and some of it even found its way into the cockpit.

Suddenly Klaus was afraid. This was too heavy. His boat was not built for stresses like this. He didn't get any further than that, because they shipped another load of water just then, with the cavitation causing that awful noise again and he shouted to Su-yi to check inside to see whether any of it had gotten in. Su-yi went below to check and shut the main hatch behind her. To his surprise Klaus noticed that he was wet. He had no idea when that had happened.

He wanted to reduce speed to protect the engines, but he couldn't afford to do it because the waves might break the boat apart. It felt almost like being aground, the waves having such a force behind them that Klaus was not surprised at all that they could damage big steel ships. But maybe that was the difference. DOUBLE TROUBLE was light and buoyant, offering only minimal resistance, where a boat of heavier displacement would take the full force of the blow.

Su-yi came out again and told him that Teufelchen made a very strange sound.

"I think he is very afraid," she said. "He's never made that sound before. It sounds horrible."

"Todesangst?" Klaus asked, "Fear of Death?"

Just then a particularly nasty wave slammed at the boat from the bottom and through the resounding crash Klaus could hear something break. He looked around in alarm. The rudders were okay, and so was the wind generator. As well as the mast and the sails. He couldn't find out what it was and he had to concentrate on the steering.

When the next wave hit he heard the crack again. And before he could localize where it came from the genoa started banging like crazy and the sheet threatened to beat anything to a pulp that was in the way.

"Quick," Klaus screamed at Su-yi, "Take the wheel."

He ran to the reefing lines and pulled on the one for the genoa as fast as he could. He furled it in another third when the line jammed. He tried to work it loose by pulling in alternate directions, but it was hopeless. He looked forward in fear. He couldn't go there. That would be suicide. But he had to do something. The waves still crashed over the boat and Klaus felt like he had spent an hour in this hell already. If he didn't do something about that sail immediately, it would rip and then he would have to turn back.

He took the end of the sheet of the winch and put it on a halyard winch closer forward and more amidships. He tightened it until drops of water sprang off the sheet. The din stopped. Su-yi was still steering and Klaus saw that she had gotten as wet as he was. He had never even seen a wave drenching them. Klaus went back to the wheel.

When DOUBLE TROUBLE had made its way through the surf, Klaus asked Su-yi to steer and went forward to look at the genoa. The block had come off, because the shackle holding it had broken. Easy to replace. He couldn't find any other damage, so he quickly fixed the genoa and then worked on the trim. Soon the sail stood perfectly again, drawing the boat forward with all its power.

"We are pretty lucky with the weather," Su-yi said to Klaus.

"Yeah, I'm surprised myself. I hope it stays that way a little longer."

"With our luck," was all that Su-yi said.

"Su-yi, I'd like to talk to you about what really happened," Klaus started.

"Oh no! Not that again. I told you, I am grateful that you help me but that is all it is. There can't be anything between us anymore. Especially not after you did it again just a few days later and the whole of Kourou was talking about it. Do you deny it? Do you?"

"No, I don't," Klaus said, "I just want you to listen to my side of the story for one time, is that too much to ask?"

"It's a waste of time. I am not interested, don't you get it? I will not change my mind, no matter what you say. But if it keeps you from bothering me in the future with this stuff, go right ahead," Su-yi replied.

"First of all, don't get angry and let me finish the whole story, OK?"

"Better hurry up," Su-yi said with ice in her voice.

"The French woman did stay with me, yes, but I had nothing at all with that hooker. Really, I swear with all my heart. And I didn't want to have anything with Fanfan either, except that you were gone and I was drunk and stoned and lonely and she just made it happen. I don't want to blame her or anything, but what I guess I want to say is that I always intended to be faithful and I would have been faithful if you hadn't just left me."

"Even if you really didn't have anything with that hooker-woman, which I don't believe for one minute," Su-yi replied hotly, "Why did you have to jump in bed with the very first woman that came along, huh? Please tell me that, OK?"

"I don't know, I can't tell you, I just want to tell you that you are the only one I really care about and when you left me everything seemed to just fall to pieces and life just didn't seem to be worth living anymore. I would do everything and anything if only I could make you see how much I love you and care about you."

"That's exactly the kind of love, I need," Su-yi said with tears springing into her eyes, "The first man in my life that I really trust and respect, the very first one I even considered staying with for more than a short while and what happens? As soon as we go ashore he is running after the bargirls and when that is not enough he goes with hookers and lets the whole place see what is going on and laugh about me..." Su-yi couldn't continue anymore; the sobs were coming hard and fast.

"I'm so sorry," Klaus said. "I'm really so sorry."

Klaus wanted to take her in his arms, but he thought that she might get angry with him if he tried. Why did it have to be like this? It was obvious that they liked and needed each other and here they were torturing each other instead of giving support. He went down below to make some tea instead. He also opened a pack of hard crackers, grabbed a packet of tissues and brought the whole lot back up again. Su-yi took the tissues off him and Klaus went to steer.

"You're being sorry doesn't help one tiny little bit," Su-yi said after she had calmed down a bit. "You should have thought about that before all of this and not now. You have no idea how bad you hurt me and nothing you say now can make that hurt go away. For the sake of argument, let's say that I believe that you had nothing to do with that hooker, that still leaves that Fanfan-woman. It's too late now, don't you see that?" And with that she started crying hard again.

Klaus looked back towards the surf and the land, then forwards where the Isles du Salut loomed in the distance slightly to starboard. He figured that they would pass the islands in less than a couple of hours and that their silhouettes would be gone from view completely before the sun went down. He hoped that all their troubles would stay behind them, just like Kourou, so that they could start afresh somewhere else. Trinidad, Barbados, Cumana or wherever.

He sat down on a cockpit bench across from Su-yi and sipped on his tea. Teufelchen came out from the inside, carefully looking about him, as if afraid that suddenly all hell would break loose again. He went over to Su-yi, rubbed against her legs and when she began stroking him, began purring. He jumped on her lap and settled down there.

"I guess I can't get up any more now," Su-yi said after a long silence.

"Guess not," Klaus said, "But then you don't have to. We don't really have to do anything until we are past the islands. Then I'll change course to head further out again. Too shallow to sail close to land. And the charts here get dated so quickly. Do you feel seasick at all?"

"No. Strange. And I thought I'd never set foot on a boat again," Su-yi said. "It isn't so bad when things don't go wrong. But it's only a question of time until some terrible thing happens again."

Klaus nodded. But while the sum of the whole was negative for Su-yi, it was still positive for Klaus. So far. It was simply that the bad things were much worse and the good things were so much better on a boat. Everything was more extreme.

"Do you really want to go to Paramaribo or do you think it is better to sail straight to the Caribbean if the weather allows?" he asked her after a while.

"Might as well sail to a nice little island, since we are out here anyway, or what do you think?" Su-yi said.

"Up to you. I can take you wherever you want. The French islands are probably out, huh?" Klaus asked.

"I don't think so. It's not as if I had smuggled drugs or killed somebody. They're probably glad that I'm gone after all. But there is Grenada and Bequia and Barbados and all kinds of islands. And Trinidad. I don't really care. To tell the truth, I don't really know what I want to do now. I don't feel like going back to Paris and I don't feel like going home to Taipei, but apart from that I have no idea," Su-yi said while looking away from him.

Klaus hesitated for a second, before he answered her. "I could sell the boat, you know. To be with you. If you'll have me," he said.

"It's a bit late for that, don't you think?" Su-yi asked, but at least she was looking him in the eye as she said it. "You shouldn't have fooled around with that - that woman."

"I didn't," Klaus said quietly.

"So you say," Su-yi said, just as quietly.

"What can I do to make you believe me?" Klaus asked desperately.

"Nothing," Su-yi said, "It's all over now."

"I love you," Klaus said, "I really do. Can't you feel that?"

"Let's just concentrate on the sailing, okay? Sailing and sleeping and eating and reading. Okay?" Su-yi asked him while searching for his eyes again.

"Okay," Klaus said at last, feeling defeated.

In late afternoon, the Isles des Salut disappeared from sight and Klaus changed the course to sail straight away from land. He knew that he would still be carried north by the powerful north-west setting current. He wanted to be well enough offshore to avoid the reefs and debris floating around near the coast, but not so far that he couldn't run for shelter in case of sudden bad weather. Normally he would have gone offshore for about a hundred miles and stay there. But with the hurricane season not officially over, he figured that fifty miles would be enough.

When he came down below, he couldn't believe what he saw. Alberto was sitting on the couch in the middle of the boat, looking straight at him.

"What the fuck?" Klaus began.

"Relax," Alberto said. "I'll explain. I had no other choice."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Klaus said angrily.

The door to the aft starboard cabin opened, Su-yi looked out and slammed the door shut again.

"I can see your woman is as pleased to see an old friend as you are," Alberto said.

"You better explain what is going on," Klaus said, still standing up. "This isn't funny." With that Klaus went to talk to Su-yi and persuaded her to listen to what Alberto had to say. She didn't say a word, but at least she came out of the cabin and stood in the galley, where she could hear everything.

"So, what did you have in mind with this little surprise?" Klaus asked Alberto.

"One of my buddies in Kourou," said Alberto, "Told me that the flics were going to pick me up. I couldn't make any other arrangements in a hurry and decided to try my luck with you. I know it's not exactly the coolest thing to do, but would you have stayed around to find out, especially with my background?"

"I guess not," Klaus said, "But why didn't you just go across the border? You would have had all the help from your Kepi Blank buddies."

"It's one thing to go into the jungle and it's another to do so in the rainy season. I am not suicidal. Plus, I can steer, go my watches and cook to do my share of the trip. You'd just have to slip me ashore quietly someplace, before you clear in. Is that too much to ask?"

"Yes. It is. You could have asked instead of stowing away and it would have been a totally different matter." Klaus said.

"Come on now! You wouldn't have taken me and you know it." Alberto said angrily.

"I know of no such thing," Klaus said. "When have I ever failed to help someone who needed it? I'm not that kind of guy. Actually, I don't know what to say. To pull a stunt like this is just too much."

"What the hell is wrong with you all of a sudden? I needed to get out there real quick and hiding here seemed the best way out. It's just a lift, for god's sake. It isn't as if I risked your boat or something," Alberto said.

"How do I know? If they find out that you left on my boat there may be all kinds of trouble. They might even impound the boat. That even enter your head or you just don't give a shit?" Klaus asked Alberto. Su-yi was still standing in the kitchen, but her face had changed from angry to thoughtful.

"I had no other choice for chrissakes. I told you before, I went to the Canaries for a reason. Seems like I should have stayed there. I just didn't think that the buggers had something on me here on the other side of the Atlantic. Come on, man, I am not asking you to do anything dangerous or anything." Alberto said.

"Where did you hide anyway?" Klaus asked.

"On the bunk in the forward cabin, behind the drums with food and stuff," Alberto replied easily.

"I guess I don't have much of a choice," Klaus said. "I am not going back in, that's for sure. But you'll just have to take your chances wherever we are going. I am not going out of the way for you. I told Su-yi that I would bring her to wherever she wanted to go and that's the way it's going to be." Klaus said.

"Fine man, I'm not asking for any more. Everything's cool, man."

No, it's not, Klaus thought. You may well have screwed up my last chance to get Su-yi back and I know it doesn't bother you one bit. He looked at Su-yi and wiped his face. Su-yi went past him and stepped outside.

When Klaus joined her there a little while later he said, "I'm sorry. This is not exactly how I envisioned this trip."

"I guess not," she said, "But don't you see? Always something happens, every single time we set sail. And stop saying you're sorry."

Su-yi took a quick look to see whether Alberto was still in the kitchen. "Also, I don't believe him. He may have told us part of the story, but certainly not the whole thing. There is something strange going on, believe me. Whatever the thing between us, I don't trust this man and we better find out what is going on."

"What do you mean?" Klaus asked.

"I don't know. He may have needed to get away in a hurry, but there's more to it. Maybe he did something really nasty in Kourou? Or he is doing something really nasty right now?"

When Su-yi had finished, Klaus thought of Alberto's plan to run cocaine in a big way. He swallowed and then told Su-yi about it. That's all we need, he thought. Maybe his trouble wasn't even with the flics or the narcs. Maybe it was the supplier or a rival, or the guys who put up the cash. With cocaine anything was possible. And here they were right in the middle of something that smelled ugly. Very ugly indeed.

Overhead the stars and planets were twinkling, the moon shining on the sea, with a very few small clouds moving past the moon. Sometimes they were obscuring the moon and then a dark shadow fell over the sea, but it always lasted less than a minute. It needs quite a lot of wind up there to make the clouds move that fast, Klaus thought. Down at sea level the wind was still only a fresh breeze, but Klaus thought that he would reduce sail anyway before his watch was over. Better to move a bit slower and have uninterrupted sleep than to have to come out after a couple hours of sleep and do it then.

Then he remembered that they were now three people, so that the watches were getting shorter for each of them. Instead of six hours on and six hours off, they could now switch to a system of four hours on and eight hours off. Whether he would ever get into the rhythm of that remained to be seen. At least Alberto was an experienced sailor, one of the best. Su-yi and Alberto were down below, and even the reflection of the light on the Iles des Salut had disappeared behind them.

Suddenly Klaus heard the dolphins. They mad a characteristic sound, a little bit like a mixture of the sound of air escaping from a balloon and of mice up in the attic. Only much more modulated and gentle. He unhooked the short safety line and went forward, where he clipped himself in again. Normally he wouldn't have done that at night, but everything was under control now. Although he had only the stars and the moon to see by, Klaus could count at least three different dolphins in front of DOUBLE TROUBLE. Sometimes they surged forward, then they fell back, then they zigzagged on his bow waves. Still they were making their sounds, as if talking to each other. Klaus noticed that they were always going from the starboard bow to the port bow, then fell behind a little, only to show up again on the starboard bow. Their chirping seemed to grow louder and more insistent, so that Klaus got the feeling as if they were trying to tell him something. He looked around, but everything seemed safe all around him. He couldn't see any lights in any direction, nor any line squalls or other unpleasant surprises either. Still, the dolphins started to make him nervous. He'd never seen them like this. Usually they played around a bit, tried to get a good look at him or at Su-yi and when they got bored they took off, just as suddenly as they had come.

These dolphins stayed. Klaus went back towards the stern, then looked into the cabin. He couldn't see the barometer from there, because of the darkness and stepped inside. That wasn't it either. It stood at 1012 mb, well within the tropical range between 1010 and 1020 mb. Nothing to worry about there. Since he was down below anyway, Klaus figured he might just as well do the log book. He wrote down time, log, speed, course, wind, sea state, barometric pressure, temperature, and what sails he was carrying. All normal, nothing with a particular tendency in any direction and still there was this feeling as if something was brewing.

Klaus went outside again and figured that he was being overly paranoid. Perhaps because of the wrong season of the year and the story with Alberto. It had all been a bit much lately, especially the split with Su-yi. When Klaus thought of her, his mind went blank. What would he do if he couldn't win her back on this trip? And how could he concentrate on winning her back while Alberto was around all the time. He could have happily strangled him.

Klaus was just debating whether he should make a cup of tea or call it a day, when he saw Alberto coming out into the cockpit. Alberto looked up at the sky and around, then disappeared inside again. Klaus could hear him tapping on the barometer and his earlier unease returned. So Alberto felt something as well.

"Ready to take over?" Klaus asked him when he reappeared in the cockpit.

"Sure. Anything special?" Alberto asked.

"Wind's picking up a tiny bit, that's all. A school of dolphins showed up and stayed for a while."

"I'll take over then. Shall I wake you up later or do you prefer your alarm?" Alberto asked.

"Wake me up, please. Notice anything special or why did you check the barometer?" Klaus asked.

"Just routine. Gets to be second nature," Alberto answered and Klaus thought that he could see him grinning in the sparse light. It was good to have someone experienced on board, Klaus thought. Maybe he could learn a bit from Sai Wong, the philosophical man Su-yi had told him about. Sai Wong never said that anything was good or bad, because he could never be sure of the final consequences.

Down below Klaus was surprised to find Su-yi traipsing around as well, apparently looking for Teufelchen. But she couldn't get the cat down from its favorite place on the fridge.

"You couldn't sleep?" he asked her.

"That cabin is still not fully watertight. I woke up because I got wet," Su-yi said grumpily.

"Oh, sorry. You can have my cabin if you want," Klaus said immediately.

"We can both go there - if you behave yourself." Su-yi said.

"You sure?" Klaus asked.

"I never figured you for a rapist, never mind what else," Su-yi said.

Once in the tiny cabin, Su-yi realized that Alberto was sitting just outside the little porthole looking into the cockpit. She pointed it out to Klaus, who shrugged, shut it, and drew the curtain. Su-yi felt frustrated. She had wanted to talk to Klaus about Alberto, but she couldn't do that now for fear of being overheard. Now Klaus would draw completely false conclusions. Why was everything always so difficult? Now she was stuck in this tiny cabin and in a few hours it would be her watch. Su-yi resolutely turned to the wall and shut her eyes.

Klaus stared at the ceiling and hardly dared to move. He did not want to bother Su-yi and sleep was impossible for him anyway. She was so close to him that he could feel her body heat and he thought that he could hear her breathing in spite of the racket the boat made. He longed to caress her, to bury his nose in her hair and breathe her scent, but he didn't even turn his head to get a better look at her. Peripheral vision was better than nothing after all. That she was here on DOUBLE TROUBLE was a gift in itself. What on earth could he do to win her back? With that thought in mind he slowly drifted into fitful sleep.

When he woke up hours later the bunk beside him was empty. He looked into the cockpit and saw Su-yi sitting in the cockpit looking at the stern. She had a serious expression on her face and a mug in her hand. Klaus helped himself to some lukewarm tea and joined her.

"You can take a break now if you want," he said to her.

"I'm okay," she said, "Did you get any sleep at all?"

"Sure. Why?" Klaus asked.

"I noticed you tossing and turning. Sorry I robbed your sleep." She said it without looking at him.

"That's okay," Klaus said tiredly, "That's the least of my problems."

"I think we should search the boat. Secretly," Su-yi said to him. "I have the feeling our friend may have hidden something on the boat, only he hasn't told us about it. What do you think?" She did look at him expectantly. Klaus thought that she was looking at him more and more often again.

"You really think so?" Klaus asked Su-yi.

"Do you want to risk it? With that line of business he is in?" Su-yi asked him.

"I just can't believe he would do something like that."

"Better safe than sorry, right?" Su-yi said.

"I guess you're right," Klaus said.

* * *

The weather stayed as good as it had been over the next few days, but Klaus noticed that Alberto still checked the barometer all the time. That was routine? Klaus had his doubts about it, but since the weather stayed nice, he wasn't as worried as he had first been. Maybe, just for once, they were actually going to be lucky and the weather would stay nice. Finding Alberto on board was already bad enough and perhaps they had already fulfilled their quota of bad luck.

Su-yi was rearranging all their provisions, while Klaus cleaned out all the deck lockers and threw lots of stuff away. It was amazing how much junk had collected in the short time since he had last cleaned up. They tried to search the boat when Alberto was sleeping, but they couldn't hide it from him altogether. He didn't seem fazed at all, but spent a lot of time in the kitchen, baking bread, preparing dinner and thinking up all kinds of little treats. Either Alberto had hidden the stuff so well that he had nothing to worry about or they were simply overly paranoid. And the food Alberto prepared was excellent.

Alberto also tried to get Su-yi's cabin watertight again. But he couldn't work very well, with all the salt spray flying about and so Su-yi stayed in Klaus's cabin. Klaus was getting really exhausted from lack of sleep. He welcomed Su-yi's proximity, but at the same time it was a subtle torture the like of he had never experienced before. He desired her so much and at the same time he knew that if he made one wrong move, he might have spoilt things for good.

When he woke up next to her, he had to turn away from her, it was just too painful. At night she covered herself with a red and yellow pareo, which often slipped from her body altogether, exposing her small brown breasts with their hard nipples and her black pubic hair which stood straight up.

Su-yi didn't fare much better. Klaus's tossing and turning kept her awake as well, although she tried her best not to let him notice. She was confused by erotic dreams in which Klaus played a prominent part and by the reaction of her body, when they accidentally brushed against each other. Once, when he'd been sleeping, she had longed to just hold him tight and snuggle up to him like they had done before they had come to Kourou. At the same time she felt that she couldn't allow herself to start again with Klaus. Hadn't he proven himself to be just like other men? If he'd done it once, he'd do it again. It was only a matter of time. And every time she came to that conclusion, her desire cooled off completely and she lay there staring against the wall until she fell asleep.

The next morning Klaus looked at the barometer and noticed that it had fallen to 1010 mb. That was the lowest limit he had ever reached in the tropics and if it went below that, it meant the weather was almost certainly going to be bad. He wrote it in his logbook and then listened to the weather forecast for the region. Nothing unusual there. When Alberto came out of his cabin, he asked him, "Have you ever actually experienced a tropical storm at sea?"

"No, and I don't care to either. Any particular reason why you are asking?"

"Barometer is down to 1010 and they hurricane season is not really finished yet," Klaus told him.

"1010? That's pretty low. But nothing serious yet. What did the radio say?" Alberto asked.

"Nothing at all. But maybe we should listen to the forecasts for the local fishermen and get a bit closer to the coast?"

"I don't think that's called for, but if it makes you happier," Alberto replied.

"Just in case," Klaus answered. "Thing is, we are off a strip of land where there is no shelter at all for the next hundred miles or more. After Georgetown there's nothing until Morawhanna. And if the weather really does get bad, we'll be in a real hurry to make it at all. Not that I want to put in there if I can avoid it at all."

"Yeah, too close to the border. There are always nasty things going on near the borders in South America." Alberto told him.

Klaus changed course slightly, so that they would hug the coast a little closer. If he'd been in the Bay of Biscay, he'd have done the opposite. But he figured that he had no chance at all to survive a full blown hurricane out at sea, no matter how well prepared he was. Although there had been one or two cases.

Su-yi picked up the carpet in the kitchen, which covered the rectangular hole above the bilge. And when she didn't see her glass bottles and jars carefully stacked to prevent them smashing into each other, but a mass of plastic bags, contained within even bigger clear plastic bags, she knew she had made the discovery she had been dreading. She was just about to cover it all up again, when the door to the forward cabin opened up and Alberto stared at her. He shook his head slowly and went back into his cabin.

Su-yi finished putting things back and went into the cockpit to tell Klaus.

"I found it. And he saw me." Su-yi whispered to him.

When Alberto came out into the cockpit a little later, Klaus looked at him and said, "Are you totally crazy? I told you exactly what I thought about these things and you just ignore me altogether. You don't give a shit about me, do you?"

"Calm down, man," Alberto said. "I told you before, I had no other choice. I had to go, comprende? It's not as if I had planned this."

"I will not risk it. That stuff goes overboard right now," Klaus said.

"Come on. You are overreacting. You know the value of that stuff? That could make all three of us rich, if we just got it into the right hands." Alberto said, slowly going towards the main hatch. Su-yi was sitting on the starboard side of the cockpit, slowly shaking her head.

"No," said Klaus. "The stuff goes overboard right now. I don't give a shit about the money. I will not have it, come what may." He started forward to grab the cocaine and throw it overboard.

"Fucking fool," Alberto muttered and suddenly a little gun was in his hand.

Klaus's eyes widened in shock. Su-yi just sat there, shaking her head.

"Okay," Klaus managed to say. "What do you want me to do now?"

"Just be fucking sensible for a minute and don't go crazy, then nobody will get hurt," Alberto said. "I have all my cash riding on this little venture and if I had my choice I wouldn't be here. I've got serious trouble. I need to convert the coke to cash because without cash you can't run. There is no other way and you've got to help me whether you like it or not."

"Just put that piece away and I will do what you want." Klaus said.

Alberto just laughed.

" I mean it," said Klaus, "It is one thing to risk trouble with the government and quite another to risk your life. I am not going to do anything. Just put that thing away before something goes wrong."

"No way," Alberto said. "Too late for that now."

"You should have listened to me," Su-yi said, looking at Klaus.

Yeah, I should have, thought Klaus. You have no idea how right you are. He's not going to let us go after this.

He remembered the attack in Essaouira and how he had sworn to never again grovel in front of someone who threatened to beat him up. Only this time he was being threatened with a gun. He would have to be very careful about what he did to oppose Alberto. Nonetheless, he would find a way. He was not going to risk his boat and his freedom, leave alone the chance to win back Su-yi, just so that Alberto could make a lot of money. Sooner or later Alberto would slip up. He had to sleep, too, didn't he? And then the stuff would go overboard. And hopefully the gun as well.

"What do you want me to do?" Klaus asked Alberto again.

"We'll sail straight to the Caribbean. And we keep an eye on the weather," Alberto said. He pointed the little revolver towards Su-yi. "And if you don't want anything nasty to happen to her, you better don't try any funny tricks."

"I won't," Klaus said, his mind racing.

From then on, the gun was never far from Alberto. It was a small chrome-plated .38 and someone had replaced the original handle with one made of mother of pearl. The chrome was peeling off in places, probably because of the salty air. The main impression it gave was one of being well used. Conversation on the boat dropped to a whisper, except when Alberto made his wishes known.

We've got to throw the stuff overboard, Klaus thought. If we get rid of it, we'll be safe. Maybe when he's asleep and I can get it out without making a noise and then throw it all overboard before he notices. And then, maybe, Alberto would come to his senses. Klaus shook his head. Too many 'maybes'. What would happen if Alberto did something really crazy in his first rage? Perhaps they should just steer as close as possible to land and then try to escape? Better to run away, then to get shot. Would Alberto really shoot? He had to assume that he would. Klaus felt a headache creeping up the base of his neck into the back of his skull. What on earth was he going to do?

He walked towards the barometer and what he saw there, made him feel almost more frightened than Alberto with his gun. The gold-plated needle stood at

1009 mb. And it should never be below 1010 mb in the tropics, all books agreed on that. Never, unless there was a hurricane approaching. And at the same time the sky was as clear as ever.

"Alberto, we've got a problem," he said as he came up.

"What's new," Alberto replied.

"The barometer is at 1009 mb," Klaus said, "Do you know what that means?"

"That you doctored the barometer?" Alberto asked.

"Don't be ridiculous," Klaus said, flaring up. "How would I do that?"

"By removing the seal and turning the little screw under it, perhaps?" Alberto said with an unpleasant smile on his face.

"Well, you better check for yourself," Klaus said. "Since you don't believe anything I am saying."

"It doesn't matter anyway," Alberto said. "We are not going ashore and that's that."

"Are you really completely out of your mind?" Klaus asked incredulously.

"I just told you that there is a hurricane coming and you talk some bullshit like that. You want to die?"

"I want to get to the Caribbean," Alberto said. "For fuck's sake, I just want a lift to any godforsaken island far away from Kourou and that's all. And I am certainly not going ashore here, come what may."

"I know. If you don't believe me, we'll listen to the weather forecasts. You understand Spanish; maybe Venezuela is gonna bring something." Klaus said, while starting down below.

"You weren't listening, were you?" Alberto said. "I said that it doesn't matter. We can't stop here. Nowhere here. Surinam, Guyana, Venezuela, Columbia, it doesn't matter. We've got to make it to the islands, because believe me, the guys on the coast are a lot worse than bad weather."

He's gone mental, Klaus thought. He talks as if a hurricane were a little thundershower or a rainstorm. And he must know that we don't have a chance if it really should come our direction.

"You're gonna kill us all," he said to Alberto.

Su-yi came out of her cabin and looked at Klaus. "I'm sorry," she said. "If it hadn't been for me, we wouldn't be here now."

"You have no idea how sorry I am," Klaus said to her. "Maybe you were right after all. Our luck is used up and everything I start leads to disaster. If we make it through this one, I'll sell the boat."

Su-yi looked at him, blew up her cheeks and turned around.

Klaus got out his little Japanese transistor radio and turned the dials, until he got clear reception in Spanish. The short wave signal faded in and out, but it was good enough to understand. Except that his Spanish was still as bad as it had been in the Canaries.

"You can at least listen to it and tell me what they say," he said to Alberto.

"Sure," was all Alberto said.

When the on-the-hour-news came around, both Klaus and Alberto listened with utmost concentration. But Klaus didn't even know what the word for hurricane was in Spanish. He cursed himself. He'd seen it somewhere in one of his nautical books, all the important terms in five or six languages. But he couldn't go looking for that now. Instead he watched Alberto. He looked older, he noticed, shrunken. Maybe it was only his imagination, but the wrinkles seemed to have become deeper and the red in his eyes was definitely not imagination. If he didn't know any better, Klaus would have thought that Alberto had been smoking pot. And Alberto's muscles, the whole body, seemed tense. He was leaning against the main bulkhead, both elbows propped against deck, but he had lost his cool confidence he had exuded before.

"Well, what do they say?" Klaus asked when the news were over.

"No hurricane," Alberto said.

"But?"

"A tropical depression. Nothing to worry about. We'll just reduce sail if necessary and anyway, there's plenty of sea-room." Alberto said, switching the radio off.

"A tropical depression. Which could just decide to turn into a tropical storm or even a hurricane any minute. All it needs is to stay for a while above water of at least 26.5 centigrade. Care to measure the water-temperature?" Klaus asked Alberto, "I bet it's warmer than that."

Alberto turned at him in surprise. "Where do you get those numbers from?" he asked.

"It's in one of the books on weather. You know that I read a lot. Alberto, this is not play anymore. We need to look for shelter, in the mangroves of the Orinoco if necessary, but we can't stay out here. We will die out here if the hurricane hits."

"No," Alberto said. "We'll go for the islands. It's not a hurricane, not even a tropical storm, but merely a depression. We have plenty of sea-room and the current is in our favor, too. And now I need to take a rest. Don't change course or do something stupid, I'll notice right away."

Sure you'll notice, Klaus thought. But by then it'll be too late. He went down below as well and found himself staring at Teufelchen, who sat on the fridge. His tail was twitching, and he stared back with his eyes only half-open. When Klaus stroked him behind the head, he started to purr softly, then got up and yawned. He licked his mouth and then his paws. Teufelchen wouldn't sit quiet and go back to sleep as usual. Klaus figured that he could probably feel that something was wrong, either with the people on the boat or with the weather. Probably both, Klaus decided.

He was sure that Su-yi's plan of getting rid of the cocaine was the best thing they could do. When he had a look around, he saw to his surprise that there was a freighter about five miles away. The ship was moving fast and would be gone in less than half an hour. Klaus thought of the VHF, but then decided against using it. Alberto would hear. He couldn't alter course without him noticing, either. No way to use his precious catapult to get a message on board. Klaus decided to write one anyway.

In it he explained that they had been hijacked by an armed dangerous man and asked for help. Klaus figured that the ship could then call the nearest authorities on the radio. The rest was up to them. He put the note into a little box for film, got out the catapult and the little bag of steel balls and put it all in the paint locker in the cockpit. If he could get near the ship, he'd be able to pass the message. It was at least worth trying.

He thought of altering the course only a little so that theirs would intersect with the one from the ship, but he realized that the ship was simply too fast. No way they could get there in time. But if there was one ship, there were perhaps more. Klaus figured that it was on the way to Port of Spain.

When he saw it disappearing behind the horizon, his hope sank. Soon it would be night and then he couldn't dare to steer close to a ship, even should one appear. And what about the weather? The wind was still strong, but not too strong and visibility was good. Klaus checked the barometer and saw that it had fallen to 1008mb. Not good. Klaus sighed and walked all over deck checking for possible problems. The blocks were all well greased, the ropes weren't frayed or chafing, and the screws on the Norseman terminals were taped up. Everywhere he looked, the boat was shipshape. Becoming a sailor at last, he thought wryly. Like, when the trip is pretty much over.

An idea began to form in his mind. Nothing fancy, but perhaps doable. Make some really spicy food, crunch up some sleeping pills and put them in Alberto's portion? Would that really work? Or would the taste tell Alberto right away that something fishy was going on? He couldn't think. There was Alberto and there was the hurricane and there was Su-yi. What was the right way out of all this? Throw the stuff overboard, drug Alberto, call for help, what?

Might as well prepare for everything, Klaus thought. He went down below, carefully trying to avoid noise and went for the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. At least here he could shut the door and spend some time undisturbed without arousing undue attention. He found some sleeping pills, put them in a plastic bag and crunched them with the hammer he had thoughtfully brought along. Then he put the white powder into another film box. It didn't smell of anything much, and when Klaus put his fingertip into the powder and licked it off, it didn't give off more than a little taste. That could work, Klaus thought. As long as Alberto didn't suspect anything, they could put him asleep, take his gun and tie him up. Throw the coke overboard and sail for shelter as soon as possible. This was definitely better than the idea of calling for help and Alberto still with his gun. Much safer. Of course, if it didn't work out, things wouldn't look so good.

"Su-yi," Klaus asked her when he came into the cabin, "Do you still remember that spicy chicken dish, you made last time?"

"Gongbao Jiding, of course, why?" Su-yi asked.

"Can you make that again? Or don't we have the necessary stuff on board?"

"Can do. I didn't know you liked it that much," Su-yi said.

"And after you've made it, can you slip this into Alberto's portion?" Klaus said handing her the black film-box.

"You want me to poison him? Are you crazy, too?" Su-yi asked.

"Just put him asleep, that's all," Klaus looked at her seriously. "There is a hurricane coming and if we don't seek shelter we are not going to make it. We have to do something, no matter how crazy it may seem. Everything is better than certain death." Klaus wanted to grab hold of her hand, but stopped in mid-air. "Can I count on you?" he asked Su-yi.

"I'll put it into his food, no problem. All of it?" Su-yi asked.

"Yes. We'd better be sure that he really is asleep, before we try and take that gun away from him." Klaus said.

Su-yi went into the kitchen and started preparing dinner, while Klaus gave Teufelchen a bit of dry cat food and a pail of fresh water.

He told Alberto that it was his watch, then took a much needed nap. Su-yi felt Alberto's eyes on her as he passed her in the narrow galley. She looked for the ingredients for the food and she could feel goose bumps on her arms. Alberto went out and Su-yi breathed a sigh of relief. For a few seconds she had thought that Alberto was going to try something funny with her. What could she do with him holding a gun? Even without the gun, neither she nor Klaus were a match for Alberto. How on earth could things have gone this wrong? Su-yi could see no particular point where she had gone really very wrong, just a series of small decisions that brought her smack into the middle of where she was now.

In one pot she cooked some white rice and when it was sitting on a low flame she cut some dried red peppers into sections and cleaned out the seeds. She cut the chicken into cubes, then marinated it in a mixture of soy sauce, corn starch, dried green onion, minced ginger, and water. While it was still soaking, she put the big metal frying pan on the gas stove and poured some oil into it. After a few minutes she flicked a drop of water into the oil and when she heard it sizzling, she turned the fire to low. She didn't want the oil too hot, where it would disintegrate and start to smoke. That would smell bad, taste worse and be certainly very bad for her health. As if she needed to worry about that right now, she thought. She dipped the chicken cubes into the hot oil and lifted them out again immediately, then let them drain of excess oil. When she threw in the red peppers, she fried them until she noticed the fragrant pepper smell and added the chicken again. Finally she mixed in a little sugar, some wine, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, corn starch, garlic and a few peanuts. She'd turned off the fire, but just when she took the pan off the stove altogether, she noticed that the red peppers had turned black. Too bad, she thought, the oil was too hot again. She always had difficulties with that and she wondered if she would ever get it right. Her mother could do it perfectly and when she thought that she might never see her again, she suddenly felt tears sting her eyes. That wasn't from the cooking, she thought. If I get out of this, I'll phone her and tell her that I love her, no matter what.

With a start she remembered the rice. Back in Taiwan people had automatic rice cookers, where you just filled the pot and switched it on. She'd been in Europe and on boats for a long time now, but she still couldn't get used to the primitive way people cooked. Never mind body-hygiene and the barbarian habit of walking with shoes into the apartment and into the cabins of boats.

The rice stuck to the bottom of the pot and had turned brown. At least Klaus will be happy, she thought. Klaus preferred the brown sticky stuff to the fragrant white steaming rice and anyway he ruined almost every dish she made with inordinate amounts of soy sauce and sometimes vinegar and sesame oil as well. And he still loved her. Or at least he lied so convincingly as to make it almost the same thing.

Su-yi put the blue and white checkered tablecloth on the wooden table and took out the chopsticks. Back in the kitchen, she filled each bowl with rice and then topped it with the spicy Gongbao chicken. Her fingers were shaking when she laced one of the portions with the powder Klaus had given her. She mixed it thoroughly with the chicken and took a tiny piece to check on the taste. She couldn't detect anything wrong with it at all. Still, things could go very wrong any moment. Finally she put the bowls on the dining table and called for Klaus and Alberto.

Not much was said during the meal. Everybody seemed absorbed in his own thoughts and concentrating on the food. Klaus got out a carton of red wine and asked if anybody else wanted a glass. Only Alberto was interested. Klaus drank his in one gulp and filled his glass right up again.

"This is pretty hot," Alberto said to no one in particular.

"Yeah," Klaus said, "Szechuan food. Most of that's hot. And Hakka food uses a lot of lard. That's about all I know about Chinese food. Except that I like it a lot."

"Me too," Alberto said. "Though it does taste a little strange."

Klaus tensed involuntarily, but Alberto didn't seem to notice.

"Thai and Vietnamese food is hot, too," Alberto continued. "But in a different way. I used to eat a lot of that stuff when I was a kid. We had a cook and she could make the most amazing things out of green papayas and mangoes mixed with spicy peppers. Delicious."

Alberto finished the whole bowl and had another glass of wine. Klaus was still taking his time and Su-yi hardly ate at all.

"Lost your appetite? Take it easy guys, in a week or so this will all be over and we'll each go our own and separate ways. Too bad, that, by the way." Alberto continued into the silence.

"There's still a hurricane out there," Klaus said. "And we're still carrying God knows how much coke. You have hijacked my boat and are threatening us with a gun. All that hardly improves my appetite."

"Ah, well," Alberto said, "Just trying to be friendly, that's all. You always got to make the best out of any situation."

"Fuck that shit," Klaus said, filling yet another glass with wine. He left the food on the table, took the glass and went out.

He looked at the sea, but he couldn't see much. It was past time for a star-fix, as the horizon wasn't visible anymore. Didn't need a star-fix to know that he was in the wrong place. How long would it take for the pills to take effect? He had to stay alone out here, or he would give everything away. He was too keyed up. Klaus sat down in the cockpit and put his feet next to the traveler. He liked to sit with his back against the main sheet, but then he would have to look into the cabin and anyway, there was too much movement to make it comfortable.

Suddenly he heard the dolphins again. He went to the bow and looked in the water. They were playing the same game they were playing the last time. As if they wanted to tell him to turn to port and make for shore. To be a dolphin, Klaus thought. Free to swim wherever they wanted. No, not really, he thought. They have to follow the fish and they get caught in nets and killed by angry and greedy fishermen. Why else were there so few left?

Klaus looked at the dolphins sadly. He was getting tired, too. What if Su-yi had given him Alberto's bowl by mistake? Almost a funny thought. Maybe he was just being exhausted and getting paranoid. Or tired and sad. Whatever. Klaus went back to the stern and sat down once more. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alberto go to his cabin. Su-yi came out to him and said, "I'll look around here for a while. Okay?"

"I'll clean up the dishes," Klaus said.

Teufelchen was very interested in licking the dishes, but for once Klaus chased him away. When he pumped some salt water into the kitchen sink, he heard Alberto in his cabin. It sounded as if he were retching. Strange, Klaus thought.

He added some Teepol to the water, strong industrial detergent, and cleaned everything methodically. Suddenly Alberto's door opened.

He stared at Klaus with hostility. "What the fuck was in the food? I'm puking my guts out."

"Maybe you are not used to spicy food," Klaus answered calmly, while placing the dishes in a bowl. He took the handkerchief from the grille above the stove.

"Spicy food, my ass," Alberto said. "You laced the food with something. Are you trying to kill me?" To add some force to his question, he took the .38 and put it in plain sight.

"Don't be ridiculous," Klaus said, while wiping the dishes dry.

"The only ones being ridiculous here is the two of you," Alberto said before another spasm shook him. He threw up some more straight into the head in his cabin, while pointing the gun at Klaus.

"We didn't do anything, you fucking maniac," Klaus said. He had to get away from Alberto. Fast. With that revolver, one involuntary strong squeeze on the trigger would be the end of him. And Alberto might really loose it if he realized what was happening to him. Klaus retreated up the companionway towards the middle of the boat.

The gun was still pointing out the door and a little while later Alberto came out of his cabin into the kitchen. "You little fuck," he said. "I tell you one thing and I won't say that again. You try one more little trick on me and you're gonna have it. First your little chick here and then you. Is that clear?"

"Absolutely," Klaus said. "Just put that gun away. We haven't done anything. I don't know what's wrong with you."

"You're a bad liar, Klaus. The worst." Alberto walked over to the VHF radio and ripped it out of its bracket. He did it with such force that the wires snapped, but he still had to unscrew the coax cable for the antenna. With the radio under his arm Alberto went back into his cabin and Klaus could hear him locking and barricading the door. Then he heard the hatch locked from the inside. There was no way to get into Alberto's cabin now without breaking the door open. And no way out if Klaus started barricading things against the door and the hatch from the outside.

Klaus went out into the cockpit again. When Su-yi looked at him questioningly, Klaus shook his head. Something hadn't worked. There must have been something in the pills that made people throw up if you took too many of them. That seemed the only rational explanation. At least they couldn't trust them now after Alberto had had almost no time to absorb the stuff. What next? Should they wait until he was asleep and quietly barricade the door? But how, anyway? There wasn't anything they could use that could withhold Alberto's strength. A whisker pole? That should be sturdy enough. But what about the hatch? And he could still shoot around wildly with his gun, once he found out that he was locked in. Maybe not such a great idea after all, Klaus thought.

"What next?" Su-yi asked.

"Good question," Klaus replied. "He thinks we tried to poison him. Maybe we should have. I somehow get the feeling that he wouldn't think twice about really shooting us. He's shot at people before, somewhere in Vietnam or Algeria."

"He left the cocaine where it was?" Su-yi asked. She appeared calm, only her eyes wandering all over the boat, as if to make sure that it was ready for the bad weather that was going to hit them pretty soon. Unless they found a way to run for shelter real quick.

"Drop it overboard? What if he finds out?" Klaus asked.

"It'll be too late by then. And even if the pills didn't knock him out completely, he should still be pretty sleepy, right?"

"I sure hope so," Klaus said. "Okay, let's do it. I can't think of a better idea either. I wish there was a bloody ship passing us by."

Su-yi stepped towards the main hatch.

"Su-yi," Klaus said, "I am really sorry about everything. And I love you. If we make it out of this one, let's try to give things a chance, okay?"

"Whatever you say," Su-yi said and stepped inside.

Klaus looked at the sky. Soon they would have to reef. Or at least change course. If it wasn't too late for that already. He followed Su-yi inside and stepped down the stairs into the galley.

Su-yi had already moved the piece of carpet aside that covered the hatch to the bilge. Klaus tried to lift the rectangular slab of plywood without making a noise, but wasn't entirely successful. The cream colored linoleum was coming loose from the wood because of all the water they had shipped and it snagged on the floor. Klaus stopped. When nothing happened, he lifted it all the way and exposed the clear plastic bags under it. Looks like corn-starch, he thought. Maybe we should just replace it? But that would leave them still facing the hurricane. No, they had to get out of here, otherwise they were finished, no matter what Alberto thought.

He took two of the sacks out and carried them on deck. Su-yi followed with two more. So much betrayal and destruction, all because of this stupid powder, she thought. So much madness and now maybe even death. She saw Klaus throwing his two bags over the side and when she stepped towards the lifelines she heard a movement behind her and she saw Klaus jump forward.

This is it, she thought. She ran towards the sidelines, but her left foot got tangled on one of the sheets on the cockpit floor. At the same time she heard Alberto's .38 go off with a deafening bang. No feeling, though. She squeezed her eyes shut and ground her teeth, hard.

Klaus saw Alberto coming out the cockpit door and aiming the gun first at him and then at Su-yi. Without thinking he jumped for the cockpit locker where he had hidden the catapult. He heard a shot, but had no time for looking at what had happened. He snatched the catapult up, felt the ball in the smooth leather and let fly. At the same time he shouted like an animal, like a rat in a corner, like a giant cat in a trap.

He saw Alberto throwing up his hands, the .38 flying in an arc behind him, then Alberto falling backwards, all as if in slow motion and saw him crumple to the ground. Klaus fitted another ball into the catapult and stretched the rubber to the limit, aiming straight at Alberto's head.

When he could think straight again, he started shaking. He became aware of his arm hurting, and of the taste of blood in his mouth. He let the catapult sink. There was no need anymore. Alberto was lying on his side, clearly out and all he had to do was to tie him up before he came to again.

"Su-yi," he shouted, "You alright?"

"Yes," came the shaky answer.

"We have to tie Alberto up, reckon you could help?"

"Yes," she said.

When Su-yi came over, she looked down at Alberto and said, "He's dead."

"No, he isn't," Klaus said. "I shot him with that catapult I use for getting messages to passing ships." He had a terrible feeling that she might be right and at the same time he was afraid that Alberto might suddenly come around and threaten them again.

"Let's hurry," he said harshly.

"You killed him," Su-yi said, backing away.

"Come on now," Klaus said, getting angry.

He turned Alberto around, fearful that his strong hands would suddenly grab him and strangle him. He knew that he was no match for Alberto, maybe not even now. Alberto now was lying on his back, and Klaus looked at his face. The terrible feeling in him got worse. Alberto's left eye was bleeding. Oh, my God, Klaus thought. Not this. What was worse, was the right eye. It was half open, but there was no iris to be seen, it looked all white. It can't be, Klaus thought. Please, dear God, don't let it be. He felt for Alberto's neck, then took his hand back.

Suddenly he felt himself cramp up and he didn't even have time to make it all the way to the side of the boat. He vomited on the deck. He held on to one of the stanchions and vomited again. He wiped his mouth with his hand and swallowed something sour. He almost vomited again, but all that happened was a dry heave. He looked back at Alberto. No movement, no nothing.

Su-yi is right, he thought. The ball must have flown straight into Alberto's eye, a fluke shot. Klaus hadn't even had time to aim properly at all, he'd just shot as quickly as he could when he had seen that Alberto was trying to kill Su-yi. He had never even thought. Just a white flash, a blinding rage, a terrible destructive force unleashed, not caring about its own safety or anything. Klaus sat on the deck, dazed. No tears, no fear, no thoughts except for an irrational one that said 'What now?' over and over again.

After what seemed like hours, he finally got up. Su-yi was still standing by the main hatch. She looked at him with an expression of horror on her face. Her mouth opened, then shut again. She said, "You killed him."

Klaus lost his temper. "He was shooting at you, for fuck's sake! He was trying to kill you, if you please fucking remember! Should I just let him go ahead and murder the both of us; stand by idly because of higher moral standards? Fuck, man!" Klaus had a hollow feeling in his stomach.

"I'm sorry," Su-yi sobbed, "It's just, I mean, he's dead! Oh my God, we have murdered him!" She was crying loud now, a sound Klaus had never heard before, not even on TV. In a way it was even more terrible than the dead Alberto lying in the cockpit. It was, as if something in Su-yi was broken, something that could never be fixed again.

Klaus went over to her and wanted to take her in his arms, but Su-yi shrank away from him. He couldn't think. And he had to. Stupidly he went to the place where Su-yi had dropped the packs of cocaine. He threw them overboard without another glance. Then he went down below to get the remaining bags and throw them overboard as well.

His eyes avoided Alberto on the floor. He noticed that it had started raining slightly and when he looked at the water, he saw plenty of whitecaps all around him. Time to reef, he thought. He pulled on the reefing line, but it wouldn't budge. Too much pressure.

"Su-yi? You think you're up to take the wheel while I handle the sails?" he shouted against the wind. Su-yi nodded and began to uncouple the auto-pilot. She fell off a little and Klaus eased the sheet until the sail started banging. He pulled on the reefing line again. Still no go. Oh no, Klaus thought. Not now. He took the line on the small halyard winch and carefully put the pressure on. It tightened more and more, until Klaus saw the forestay bending at an angle where the drum of the roller reefing was.

Oh, sweet Jesus, Klaus thought. To Su-yi he said, "I gotta go on the foredeck and have a look at the roller reefing. It's jammed solid."

"What, now?" Su-yi asked him.

"Any better ideas?" Klaus asked.

He loosened the reefing line and went forward crouched low. When he pointed towards port, Su-yi fell off a little more and the sail flapped even more then before, while the sheet whipped through the air like a leash. Klaus turned the drum with two hands and it barely moved. He couldn't see any jammed lines either. Something else was wrong. He sighted up the forestay and thought of the roller bearing up there near the mast. If that one was jammed, then he had to take the sail down all the way instead of rolling it up. He would never get the sail down once it was partially furled. But he couldn't very well sail without a jib at all. The staysail was ineffective and it wasn't enough forward for proper sail trim. Klaus knew that he had to make a decision right now. He didn't need any weather service or even another look at the barometer to figure that the weather was going to turn real bad very soon. He didn't even know if they had enough time to run for it now.

With all his strength he turned the drum once more and he could feel that it moved easier now. He gave it another turn and then one more. He pulled on the reefing line and though the drum turned, it didn't turn very easily. It would have to do, though.

He made his way to the back, all the time keeping the reefing line tight, so that it couldn't snag or tangle somewhere else. Su-yi switched on the auto pilot once more and Klaus went to look at Alberto. His muscles tensed up, but he didn't have the urge to vomit this time. He noticed that Alberto was all soaked and that he himself was totally wet as well. Alberto's black hair lay wet and matted around his head like a dark halo and the blood that had seeped out of his eye had been washed away by the rain. There was no doubt that he was dead, though. The good eye was rapidly clouding over and Klaus thought that it would be best to do something about Alberto, but at the same time he felt reluctant, as if waiting would miraculously bring him back to life. Still that feeling in his stomach, not pain, just as if he'd been hit there with a fist a while ago. Only that it stayed like that and showed no signs of going away.

Finally Klaus turned away from Alberto and went inside. Su-yi was sitting at the table, staring ahead. Klaus considered briefly to go over to her and try to comfort her, but then he decided that it probably wasn't the right time. Maybe it would never be the right time. Not for something like this. He pulled down the chart table and looked at the map. It would be a close call, but he thought they had a chance of reaching the Orinoco and the mangroves, before the full force of the storm hit them. If nothing else went wrong.

Klaus went outside again and altered the course to run straight towards the land. The current would make sure that they were actually sailing diagonally towards the river. He looked at Alberto once more. It was strange, he thought. He didn't seem to feel anything. Alberto had been his good friend and comrade, at least he had thought so, and now here he was. He felt no sadness, no remorse, nothing at all and he was a bit frightened by it. What is happening, Klaus thought. He went inside to talk to Su-yi.

"I think it is best if we gave Alberto a sea burial right now," he said. "There is absolutely nothing we can do for him any more."

"If you say so," Su-yi said tonelessly. She remained where she was.

"Let's get it over with," Klaus said.

Su-yi got up and followed him outside. The sky had become even more gray, with dark clouds moving across the sky at great speed.

No word was spoken, while Klaus and Su-yi worked to get Alberto out of the cockpit and onto the deck. "Are you at least going to say a prayer or something?" Su-yi asked him when they put Alberto down next to the lifelines.

"No. Alberto hated the church and Christians and all that stuff. Hated all religion and superstition, in fact. I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Well, then," Su-yi said.

Klaus couldn't bring himself to roll Alberto over board. The finality of the act frightened him more then anything that had gone before. Finally, almost against his own will, he muttered, "May God have mercy on your soul." He strained against Alberto and pushed him over the side.

Alberto fell into the water head first, with the arms sideways and Klaus looked whether he would reappear after a while, but the water was too turbulent. Alberto was gone. Su-yi went down below while Klaus kept looking behind DOUBLE TROUBLE for a long time. He still didn't feel anything at all. He felt like being in a dream, or watching a movie and he was reminded of the time when his grandfather had died. He hadn’t cried, just stood there with a feeling of inevitability. Maybe he would feel something later, or maybe he was just a freak.

He looked around and noticed that amongst the whitecaps were several rollers. So far none of them had hit the boat, but if one of them did, something could easily break. Better to steer in a way that the waves would hit them from behind, not directly, but at an angle. Even better to steer by hand and only react to the waves when they were actually there to threaten the boat. But he had to talk to Su-yi first.

When he came into the cabin, Su-yi was sitting again at the main table, staring into space. She had her head propped up on her hands, her elbows resting on the table. When Klaus called out her name, she turned towards him.

"We've got to decide on watches now, because it is better if one of us steers. Waves are getting too big. You think you'll be able to sleep now or you prefer to steer?" Klaus asked.

"Sleep? You're out of your mind. You just killed somebody and you talk of sleeping. If we make it to the next harbor - mark my if - we'll end up in jail, you know that? If it weren't so ugly I could almost laugh. Running from jail for working without a work-permit to jail for murder." Su-yi went back to staring.

"What are you talking about? Guy is trying to shoot you and you expect me to do nothing? Alberto had a gun in his hand for Christ's sake. And he's used it, too. I had no intention of killing him in the first place." Klaus said angrily.

"If you had no intention, how could it happen, then? How come you had a loaded catapult handy and killed him with a single shot? And how are you going to explain that to the police, huh?" Su-yi retorted.

"I only wanted it there to pass messages to a ship, should one cross our path. But when I saw him trying to kill you... I don't exactly know what happened then. It all went so fast. There wasn't time," Klaus protested.

"You killed him alright, though," Su-yi said with finality.

"Better him than you," Klaus said and went back outside.

Su-yi's head was in a swirl. Why couldn't Klaus just stun him, she thought. So that we could tie him up and get the hell out of here. Better him than me? Well, I guess so, she thought. She got up and went outside. "I better take the wheel for a while," she said to Klaus.

He left without a word. Once she had the wheel, she realized how bad the weather had become. The wind had begun to flatten the wave crests and white spray was flying across the surface like in a snowstorm. Su-yi looked back and what she saw there was almost more than she could handle.

The wave following them was enormous. It looked to be as high as the mast, but Su-yi knew that it couldn't be. There weren't any 35 foot waves around here. Su-yi held onto the wheel as tight as she could and braced her legs. But nothing happened. Instead of crashing onto the boat and filling up the cockpit, the wave simply lifted them up, higher and higher, and ever higher, until she could see the ocean all around her again, and then the wave was through and DOUBLE TROUBLE began sinking down all the way and Su-yi could see another wall of water just behind her. But these waves weren't rollers. They were just breaking a little bit at the crest. What was she to do when a real big wave, breaking all the way, came down upon them? And this was only the beginning of the bad weather.

Suddenly Su-yi knew that they were not going to make it this time. Nobody and no boat could make it through weather that bad and the coast was simply to far away. It didn't really matter what they did now, because their fate was already decided. She looked forward and at the compass, stared at the white markings on the black ball swimming in its fluid. It swung back and forth, but she managed to hold the swinging to a minimum. Sometimes she could see a vibration shaking the whole compass. Yes, Su-yi thought, there must be something like a sixth sense after all. I should have listened to it. It told me that our luck had run out and now we are all going to die. First Alberto and now us. Too bad. Too bad for Klaus, too.

Klaus was just going into his cabin, when the boat accelerated. He held on to the door frame and listened to an ominous roar outside. The next instant he was thrown back to the stairs and heard a loud crash and the sound of wood splintering. And that awful sound Teufelchen made when he was really afraid. Or hurt. When he stood up again, he saw that the fridge was askew and moving back and forth like a heavy pendulum, threatening to topple over all the way. It was a gas-operated fridge, too.

He raced up the steps and outside. He saw that Su-yi was still standing at the wheel, and she seemed to be totally wet. He opened the gas locker and turned off the gas. Better have some spoiled food than a gas leak.

"Fridge came off the wall. Fiberglass must have flexed when the wave hit us and the wood couldn't take it. What happened up here?" Klaus asked Su-yi.

"I'm sorry," Su-yi said, "I didn't see the wave coming. It won't happen again."

"You want me to steer and you take a break?" Klaus asked her.

"I'll be alright. Do you think we'll really make it?" she asked anxiously.

"If it stays like this we should be alright. I'm afraid it won't, though. Pressure is still falling. And the Orinoco is a long way off. But don't worry, I'll get this bugger over there," Klaus said it with more confidence than he felt. He was afraid that it showed.

"We are not going to make it, are we, Klaus?" Su-yi asked.

"Sure we gonna make it. We've just got to do what we can, is all."

"I want to take back what I said to you," Su-yi said. "I have been really nasty lately and I want to say that I'm sorry."

"That's okay, don't worry about it. Sure you don't want me to spell you?" Klaus asked again. He didn't show it but as far as he was concerned, he'd just glimpsed the first glimmer of hope on his personal bleak horizon. He had to pull them through now that it looked as if the two of them had a chance to be together again. He simply had to, no matter what. He put out a hand to stroke her wet hair and he was relieved when she didn't pull back or turn away. "Wanna try something I once read about in a book?" he asked.

"What's that?" Su-yi said.

"About the waves. You got to learn how to feel them. They've got a rhythm that we can pick up somehow, though I can't explain exactly how that works. You've got to picture them in your mind and feel them lifting you up and roll under the boat and get yourself synchronized with them. Kind of like your T'ai Chi Chuan stuff. You've got to feel them in your belly, deep down and you've got to let yourself react to them without thinking about them. Then you can anticipate. You'll be ready when the next big roller comes and without even thinking about it you'll do exactly the right thing."

"You really think that's going to work?" Su-yi asked Klaus.

"Let's try it together for a while," Klaus said. "You shut your eyes and follow your feeling and I keep my eyes open to keep a lookout. And before I forget; keep the wind blowing towards the back of your right ear, that way you can steer with only an occasional look at the compass."

Su-yi shut her eyes and felt the wind behind her ear. That part was fairly easy. It was very tempting to open the eyes to check at the compass, though. As for the waves, she couldn't feel anything right now. She felt being lifted and let down again, but she couldn't really picture the waves in her mind, much less feel them deep inside her belly. Once in a while she felt Klaus's hand correcting her steering a bit as he kept on a running commentary about the sea around them. She noticed that he was correcting less and less and also that he was becoming quieter all the time. It was almost as if she was daydreaming, but in her daydream it was sunny weather, with lots of wind and the waves were just as big. A very big white seagull was accompanying them off the port hull and hanging back a little. He had a yellow beak and a big black beak. She could see a big wave breaking to starboard with the spray flying about like so many diamonds. Her eyes were still closed. She turned the wheel to port to offer less resistance to a wave just coming up behind them, and as soon as the wave had rolled away ahead of them, she turned the wheel back to starboard to the optimal course.

"You are doing that beautifully," she heard Klaus say, "You must have a natural talent for this stuff."

"It's strange," she replied with her eyes still closed. "But it seems to work. I am just afraid to open my eyes now to check the compass, because it might shatter it all."

"It'll come back," Klaus said confidently. "The more often you do it, the easier it will get. At least that's what they said in the book. It must be that subliminal perception thing at maximum capacity."

"Subliminal what?" Su-yi asked.

"Never mind, just one more thing I read about," Klaus said, "You'll be okay for a while or you want me to spell you now?"

"How about I get us something to eat? Just a few crackers or something?" Su-yi asked him.

"Good idea. I'll steer for a while then," Klaus replied taking the wheel from her hands. When he brushed her hands, they felt cold and at the same time electrically charged. He grabbed one of her hands and pressed it against his warm neck. Then he kissed it and released her. Su-yi reached out with one hand which she briefly rested on his shoulder.

When Klaus was alone, he looked all around him. The waves seemed to have gotten smaller rather than bigger, but the wind had apparently increased. It was white everywhere and he wouldn't have been surprised to see an albatross fly by, although he knew very well that they didn't live anywhere near here. As soon as Su-yi came out here again, he would furl the sails so that he would just maintain steerage way. Perhaps he didn't even need the sails at all, he thought.

He couldn't get his mind off Alberto. Maybe he had only tried a warning shot? No, he had aimed at Su-yi, that was for sure. If she hadn't tripped he would have killed her. What if they hadn't begun to throw the cocaine overboard? Or if they'd tried something else?

Klaus got jerked out of his thinking by a resounding crash. He hadn't paid attention to the sea. And when he looked at the compass, he noticed that he hadn't paid attention to that either, but had allowed the backing wind to change his course. And that the wind had changed direction to the left could only mean one thing. The eye of the storm was off somewhere to starboard, moving north or northwest. That was the good news. They would not get sucked further into the storm, which would have happened if they were to the other side of it. It was only a small relief, though. With this wind, they would not be able to make for the Orinoco, but would be forced to steer closer to the land and to the shallows. And once the eye had passed them altogether, they wind would blow from the other direction, throwing up seas that would run counter to the ones it had created when they were on the other side of the storm.

Klaus's mind raced. How fast was the storm moving? Perhaps more than ten knots. Simply no way to outrun it under these conditions. Keeping the course he held now and sailing towards land would lead to inevitable disaster and the loss of the boat in the surf along the open coast. At least it wasn't even close to hurricane strength. Tropical storm, tropical depression, whatever, but it wasn't a hurricane. Yet. There seemed only one way to deal with the storm. Slow down. Slow down as much as possible, take the battering and hope that the boat wouldn't break apart. And pray that the storm would pass quickly. If it didn't they would still be thrown onto the coast. They could not avoid drifting altogether, no matter what they did.

Su-yi came out and handed a mug to Klaus. When she looked at his face she noticed immediately that something had changed.

"What is it, Klaus," she asked in a scared whisper.

"We can't run for the mangroves anymore. In fact, we can't run anywhere anymore. If you steer, I'll get the sails down. We've got to heave to; it's our only chance."

"Can't we just turn back?"

"No. We can't make it against the seas. Believe me, we are stuck here, for good or for bad." Klaus said as he went to furl all sails.

Su-yi took the wheel. When Klaus looked at her she looked so small and fragile, he could almost kick himself. What a damn fool had he been to take her with him out here. When he had the sails down he thought of deploying the parachute sea-anchor. It wouldn't be enough. He got out some very heavy warps that were used by the big fishing ships and tied some tires onto the end. DOUBLE TROUBLE was under bare poles now, still making more than seven knots. In the wrong direction.

Klaus went forward on his hands and knees, holding onto fittings with his right hand, while dragging the warps forward with the other. He tied them to the cleats, and when he had made sure that the sea-anchor as well as the warps were securely fastened, he threw first the sea-anchor and then the warps overboard. Then he made his way back to the relative safety of the cockpit as fast as he could. He could feel a jerk and the deck slid under him. He lost his footing. DOUBLE TROUBLE lurched sideways and a wave slammed into the starboard hull. The whole boat tilted at an angle and Klaus slid towards the lifelines. His hands grappled frantically on the anti-skid, but they couldn't find anything to hold on to.

The lifeline stopped his slide briefly and then the shackle broke. Klaus's head slammed into a stanchion and he thought, that's it. She's capsizing and I'm overboard. He clung to the stanchion and the boat lurched sideways, down the wave. But it didn't go over and he didn't fall into the sea. The bows pointed towards the wind and the waves, and Klaus made it back to the cockpit, shaking all over.

As soon as he was there, Su-yi ran towards him, sobbing. She didn't say anything, just held him tight and cried.

"It's okay, now. It's over. There's nothing more we can do now." Klaus said soothingly.

"I thought she would turn over," Su-yi sobbed. "And I saw you sliding towards the water."

"It was just bad luck. Must have been one big wave hitting us broadside, while we were coming around. There's nothing we can do anymore. Let's get back inside," Klaus said, "We better check on Teufelchen and whether anything got seriously damaged. And check the bilges for water."

Inside it looked real bad. Books and tapes were all over the place, and the floor was soaking wet. Teufelchen was nowhere to be seen. Klaus picked up the dividers, rulers, and pencils to plot the position on the chart. It was only approximate as he hadn't had the chance to get a proper fix for some time. And when he had a closer look at the chart, his heart sank. Shallow water seemed to stretch out forever into the open sea. And if there was shallow water there would be real big waves. Reefs and rocks were a certainty. He wouldn't even be able to see them in the dark. And if he saw them, he couldn't get away from them.

Klaus became very quiet. The chances of getting out of this one were practically zero. Normally, if you hit a reef like this, it would mean that you lost your boat and your possessions, but usually you would survive. But with the waves the way they were, nobody could hope to survive. If they hit a reef in these conditions, they were dead.

Su-yi was still picking up things and stowing them away. What could he say to her? How could he explain that they had gone too far this time? That their luck had truly run out just as she had feared? That there was really absolutely nothing they could do now?

He felt her coming up beside him, looking at the chart. When he didn't say anything, she put a hand on his shoulder. He couldn't tell her.

"That bad?" she asked him.

"It doesn't look too good," he croaked.

"You always find something," she said. "You'll find a way now." She seemed totally calm and confident. How could he explain that nobody, no matter how good a sailor he was could do anything at all now. A good sailor wouldn't have gone out. He would have done whatever he had to do, but he would not put have his boat and the life of the crew in this position. Which proved without a doubt that he was not a good sailor.

Su-yi sat down beside him and grabbed his head with both hands. She turned it all the way towards her, so that Klaus had no choice but to look her in the eyes. "Klaus Matthiessen," she said. "I may be stupid, but I am not altogether blind. I know you are out here, because you wanted to help me out. And I know that I blamed you as you are now blaming yourself. It doesn't matter. We will do the best we can and we will try our hardest to prove fate wrong. And when we have made it, when all of this is behind us, we will see what can be done."

"Okay," Klaus said. "I guess it doesn't make much sense, but one of us should keep a lookout for reefs or breakers. I have to go forward after a while to check if the lines are chafing."

"I am wide awake and you look as if you could use some rest. I'll wake you up when I get too tired or when I see something strange, alright?"

After Klaus had gone to bed in his soggy sleeping-bag without even swearing once, Su-yi took a look at the map. Their dead reckoning position was already in the shallows which extended far out into the sea.

So, that's why he is so gloomy, she thought. For some strange reason she didn't understand herself, she wasn't. Maybe it had just been too much. She did not feel pessimistic or optimistic. Just that there was absolutely nothing she could do. It had all happened too fast. And Alberto? She put Alberto out of her mind. It was simply too much, she couldn't deal with it all at the same time. She'd be dead if she hadn't slipped. And she'd still be dead if Klaus hadn't shot Alberto. And she might die yet, if the storm didn't abate soon.

Su-yi thought of her mother and of her aunt. Even of her father. She had no particularly fond feelings for him, but she wanted very much to tell him what she thought about his relation to his family and especially her mother. She wanted to tell her mother that she loved her, although her mother could never understand how she could stand up to her father and defy him. Mama always thought that

Su-yi didn't show the proper respect for her parents. And she wanted to see her aunt that had always supported her and influenced her more than anybody else.

Su-yi looked around, but she couldn't make out anything in the swirling blackness. She held on to a shroud, one of the stainless steel wires which held up the mast on the side. It cut into her soaked hands and she shivered. The shroud was vibrating and the whole boat was shuddering each time a wave hit them. The wind generator swung crazily from side to side, the six blades cutting through the air with a hiss that could be heard above the general din of the storm.

How on earth was she going to see breakers or a reef in all of this? It was completely impossible. The chaos around her was so complete, she probably wouldn't have noticed the land if it were only five miles away. And Su-yi knew from the chart that they were drifting right in the extended shallows. She should have stayed in Kourou. Nothing there could have been as terrible and hopeless as this, nothing as dangerous.

After a long time of shivering and looking around her, Su-yi noticed that the blackness around her seemed to lose its intensity. She thought that she might imagine it, but it looked as if the storm weakened as well. She went down below and looked at the barometer. It had gone up 1 mb and Klaus had told her that as far as the wind was concerned the worst was probably behind them. But there would be a cross sea, which was even more dangerous than the wind. She'd heard Klaus talk about it before and she wondered if it wasn't maybe time to do something about it. She went down below to wake up Klaus.

Soggy newspapers were spread all over the floor. The idea was to mop up any stray water that came down below, only by now they were so wet that they were nothing but a nuisance. Klaus came out of his fitful sleep with a start.

"What?" he said, tense.

"Barometer has gone up, wind seems to go down, and we can see something for a change," Su-yi said.

"Right. We should start moving," Klaus said while getting out of the sleeping bag.

When he was on deck, he looked in all directions, but he couldn't see anything but water and gray skies all around him. The sea seemed as monstrous as before and Klaus couldn't bring himself to haul in the lines and set sail yet. Better give it another hour and eat something first.

Su-yi took his place in the sleeping bag, and although she was tired, cold and exhausted, she had a hard time falling asleep. Klaus got himself some bread and cold meat from the not-so-cold fridge, then sat in the cockpit surveying the scene.

There was a cross sea, but it wasn't as murderous as he had feared. Perhaps because there was land to the west, or perhaps because it hadn't yet had time to build itself up. Klaus felt tension drain out of him and he knew that he had to force himself to stay alert. This wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot.

After he had finished his simple breakfast, Klaus hauled in the ropes and the sea anchor with the help of his winch and then unfurled the genoa just a little bit. DOUBLE TROUBLE swung around rapidly and when it was on a tack away from land again, Klaus unfurled a bit of the mainsail as well. As soon as she was making way, the sound of the wind in the rigging changed. The boat was moving towards the open Atlantic at almost ten knots and although the sea was high it took the waves easily. But Klaus knew that the danger lay in the sea. If he got hit by two waves on top of each other and at the same time the wind pushing into his sails, he might capsize. With these steep waves there might not be enough buoyancy on the leeward hull and they might reach the critical angle - the point of no return.

And yet - to drift closer to the coast was even more dangerous, because of the shoals. He had to steer and pay attention to the waves, that was the only way. Thoughts flew through his head like clouds driven by a storm. Of what would happen after the storm. He would sell the boat. Sailing around the world was all fine and beautiful, but it had gotten too much. It was supposed to be an adventure, yes, but it was not supposed to be endless work, misery, danger and the fear of death. It was not supposed to tear people apart, but instead it should bring them together. Maybe they had just been in too much of a hurry? Maybe they should have spent more times in quiet anchorages or harbors, enjoy themselves more in the strange countries they were visiting.

Up to now the most they had seen of all the countries were the hardware shops and ship's chandlers. Maybe they could just take a break, perhaps in Trinidad, a real holiday for a change and simply forget about the boat. And then, after they were both sufficiently rested and in good spirits, they could go about selling the boat. Or whatever they had decided by then.

Klaus had been steering for hours and his shoulders had started to hurt pretty bad, when Su-yi came back into the cockpit. She was followed by Teufelchen. She looked tired, with black rings under her eyes, but she walked towards Klaus and started to massage his shoulders without saying a word.

"How did you know?" Klaus asked.

"I can see," Su-yi said.

"Looks like the worst is over for now," Klaus said, "although the sea is still dangerous. There were a few times when I thought she would go over."

"Yes, I got really scared a few times, too. I was thrown against the hull and it took so long for her to rock back, I thought we would go over for sure," Su-yi said.

"God, I'll never do something this stupid again," Klaus said with feeling.

"I should hope not," Su-yi retorted, but she smiled when she said it.

They were quiet for a while, looking at Teufelchen, who walked carefully all over the cockpit smelling at everything. He seemed particularly interested in the teak grille. Perhaps there was something under it that smelled good to a cat, Klaus thought.

He got out his fishing lines, now that the weather was on the mend. Perhaps they were still a bit fast for trawling, but it wouldn't matter anyway. It was time to put all the madness behind, to absorb it if it wasn't possible to forget and get back on track. Not that he wouldn't be troubled for a long time to come, but Klaus thought that he had to make a start right here and right now.

He had just finished to pay out the lines, when he got a bite on the port line. With a jump he released the sheets and when he saw the fish jumping out of the water he saw that it was the long hoped for Dorado. It looked beautiful with its blue and yellow, the perfectly streamlined body and the domed head. Klaus felt almost sorry to have hooked it, but if he didn't pay attention it wouldn't stay hooked much longer. Dorados could fight and it was not unheard of that they jumped out of the water and flung the lure out of their mouths with a mighty jerk as soon as the line was allowed to go slack.

Klaus didn't let the line go slack. He kept it tight at all times and hauled it in when he could. When the fish tried to break away Klaus let it out again a little, while wishing for proper fishing tackle. He had only his heavy working-gloves, but no reel or rod of any kind. And the only gaff he had was a homemade contraption made of a big steel-hook tied securely to a broomstick.

After he had fought with the fish for an abominably long time, he gaffed him and hauled him aboard. The Dorado changed colors almost immediately, turning silver all over his long body and again Klaus felt a fleeting regret for killing such a beautiful creature.

He butchered the fish and put the head in the big pressure cooker half filled with a mix of fresh and sea-water. The big head was going to provide food for Teufelchen for days to come. After he had cooked it for a while, Su-yi took the big pot off the fire and idly picked a little piece of the white meat to taste it. She took another little piece with her chopsticks and walked over to Klaus. At first Klaus didn't pay attention to what he chewed, but then his eyes widened in wonder.

"Right," Su-yi said and put the whole head on a big oval white china dish in between them on the table. Both of them nibbled at the tiny but delicious pieces, once a while giving a little piece to Teufelchen, who was getting seriously upset as he saw his food disappearing into the mouths of Klaus and Su-yi.

"You know, before I met you, I was actually afraid of men," Su-yi said.

"Afraid?" Klaus asked, "It sure didn't look that way. What do you mean?"

"I wasn't afraid that they would attack me or anything, I was afraid to get married to one," Su-yi said. "Or maybe I wasn't afraid of that so much, but thought I might end up like my mother, you know."

Klaus just nodded at her, waiting for her to continue.

"As long as I was in control, I mean not emotionally entangled, everything was no problem. Until you, it has always been that way and I had no intention of changing that. But then you were up in the mast and I realized that things had changed without my noticing it."

"That's why you were so cool all of a sudden," Klaus exclaimed, amazed.

"And I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong."

"It scared me. Now, I'd say you have done things right, but then I wasn't concerned so much with you but with me. How could I suddenly change and fall in love? That was not what I'd had in mind, see? I didn't like it one bit."

Again Klaus thought it would be more prudent to just nod his head and listen to what Su-yi was going to say.

"And in Belem and later Kourou I was more confused than anything else," Su-yi continued.

"Do you believe me now that I had nothing at all with that woman," Klaus asked, "You know, I really didn't, I swear."

"I give you the benefit of the doubt," Su-yi said, and Klaus couldn't figure out whether she was smiling or being serious. He looked at the foredeck and his heart gave a sudden lurch as he saw Teufelchen jumping around on the slippery deck, probably hunting for flying fish or tiny squid washed onto the deck.

"Teufelchen!" he screamed, "Come back here, now!"

Teufelchen looked up, but then went back playing. "Damn that cat," Klaus muttered, "One day he's gonna fall overboard for sure."

"He isn't doing anything different from us," Su-yi said.

"What are we doing?" Klaus said.

"We'll go to Trinidad. We'll have us a nice vacation. We'll take long walks in the jungle, go swimming and snorkeling. We'll eat a lot of fish and other seafood. We'll make love and we'll think about the future. And above all, we don't allow anything or anybody to make our decisions for us. Sound good?" Su-yi asked.

"Sounds like paradise," Klaus said.

"Wasn't that where we were headed?" asked Su-yi.

Glossary of terms:

backing wind - wind shifting to the left

beam - width of boat

companionway - steps down into the interior of the boat

CQR - plough-share anchor made of cast iron

crosstree - spreads out shrouds at top of mast to reduce tension

Danforth - folding anchor

dinghy - tender, little boat to go ashore with in an anchorage

doldrums - the intertropical convergence zone or equatorial trough is an area of extremely unpleasant weather situated roughly near the equator and between the two tradewind belts

fall off - to let the wind come into the sails more from behind

furl - roll up the sail

galley - kitchen

genoa - extra big foresail

halyards - ropes for hoisting sails

head - toilet

hull - the "body" of the boat

jib - foresail

latitude - degrees north or south

longitude - degrees east or west

main - mainsail

Norseman terminal - terminates steel wires like shrouds and stays

on a reach - wind comes from the side

on the wind - against the wind

osmosis - fiberglass being dissolved by water, causing damage

pantry - larder

RDF - radio direction finder

reef - make the sail smaller, e.g. by furling

reef - obstruction near the surface of the water

rig - mast, wires holding it up, sails, ropes needed to control them

running before the wind, on a broad reach - wind from behind

veering wind - wind shifting to the right

sextant - instrument to measure angles for navigation

sheets - ropes for controlling sails

shroud - wire holding up mast at the sides

stanchions - metal rod holding up the lifelines all around the boat

storm jib - extra small foresail

tradewinds - winds that blow year round either from the NE or the SE, depending on which hemisphere they are on

trysail - extra small mainsail, storm mainsail

Dorado or Mahi Mahi - colorful and fast fish with a dome-shaped head that preys on smaller fish, very beautiful to look at and even more delicious to eat

Taipei, Taiwan - Friday, 26 February 1999