Close encounter - part I

“Wake up, It’s getting late.”

In a matter of seconds, he jumps out of bed and in the blink of an eye his Uncle is no longer inside his room. Still feeling all his muscles tense by the inactivity of a not-so-long slumber, he is finally out of bed. By the table, a single white plate waits on the table. There’s no time to sit down, he can faintly hear his Uncle’s runts while placing the gear inside the boat.

Blinded by light, he rushes towards the boat and gives the final push to put the outboard engine in position. Not being fully awake, he pushes way to hard and the engine almost flips on the stern of the boat.

“HEYY, WATCH OUT! Don’t push it too hard!

His Uncle lands inside the boat with the engine on his lap. “HELP ME OUT!

They both manage to place the engine and secure the clam screws to the stern. “Did you eat something?”

“No, I saw the plate on the table, I heard you moving the engine and came to help."

“Get inside, grab the plate, you’ll eat it here.”

The boy runs as fast as he can to accomplish his new task. While closing the door, he can hear the engine revs as his Uncle warms up the cold engine. A faint cloud of blue smoke lingers on the water surface. The Smell of burning gasoline and 2 stroke oil hits his nostrils. Everything is set, the fishing trip is about to begin.

A still as glass water is all he could see. From the bow of the boat, a chill morning breeze overpower his senses. The fishing site is not that far from shore, dead ahead he can see the silhouette of the islands that embrace the waters of the bay. Sitting with his plate on his lap, guards the content of his breakfast with utter care. He doesn’t want to spill again the scramble eggs all over his Uncle’s boat, it happened once, he’s not taking any chances this time.

As the revs on the propeller slow down, he knows they must be near. Puts the plate on the starboard side and marvels at the sight of the clear water beneath the boat. A vivid blue and green water awaits, it’s so clear, so fresh… “Uncle Sandro, look, a giant Parrot fish, so many fish, WOW!”

Sandro gives Alejandro a gentle smirk and with determination commands...

“Get the bow anchor ready Alejandro.”

The boy moves quick to take all the anchor line out of the stowage space. He puts his white little feet on each side of the bow and gains the proper balance while standing still with the anchor in the anchor as support.

“On your call Uncle.”

A few wanders to get the boat into position and here it comes.

“Throw anchor.”

As the boy releases the heavy for his skinny arms worn-out anchor, the line attached to it starts to runs fast from the port side of the deck. He watches the grey-colored devise reaches the bed of the sea and pulls to see if its secure at the bottom.

Giving the line a few hard pulls announces:

“Safe to turn the engine off.”

His Uncle pushes the red bottom and kills the noisy 40 hp 2 stroke engine. The only sound they could hear was the squawks of the seagulls resting by the rocks in the nearby shore. Alejandro rushes out to sit by his Uncle’s side and with a smile adds:

“What are you taking? Arbalette or the 75?”

Sandro looks around and with determination points with his left index finger at the 110mm stealthy black speargun. The boy quickly lose focus and follows with his gaze a meandering seagull that fly carefree up in the sky. He loves the calmness of an early morning fishing trip, he cherishes the quietness, the bond. As usual, long weekends at Sandro’s are always synonym of quality time near water...

To be continued.