Calm (a new post from George Byers)

The bay was glassy calm. Slight swells from nowhere in particular imparted a little motion to the deck, but the sails flopped flaccidly only in response to the lazy rolling. The ice melting in the cooler made no sound. Somewhere below, a fly was buzzing.

The helmsman worked the wheel this way and that, attempting to keep the boat on course. But without headway, there was no response from the rudder, only the faint clanking of the chain and sprocket mechanism that converts rotation of the wheel to tension in cables that pass through sheaves around the axis of the rudderpost. A complex series of mechanical contrivances to have so little effect today. The vessel drifted aimlessly and eventually someone said, "You're off course!"

The helmsman replied testily that the boat wouldn't answer her helm. And what damned difference did it make anyway since it was obvious we weren't going anywhere?

"Well if we get a little puff you'd want to be pointed the right way," offered the critic.

The man at the wheel gave a sulky sigh.

The midday sun beat down on the deck and coachroof.

I cleated off the mainsheet, which was an empty and futile gesture anyway. Wordlessly I went below to get a drink. The navigator, a big and normally cheerful fellow, sat on the quarterberth, sweat rolling down his face and neck and into the soaked folds of his t- shirt. Every so often he would snatch at the pesky fly. His glass in his other hand was empty.

Looking into the cooler I saw a few lite beers floating in slush. I groped around and found a vestige of ice to suck on. The sun overhead was brutal, but the cabin in its stillness was ovenlike. The navigator seemed lost in his own thought, or lack of, so I returned to the cockpit. The foredeck crew, normally robust with exertion and urgency, continued their idle barbs at the frustrated steersman.

"Well, one of you smartasses can steer the summbitch if you're so damned skilled!" blurted the butt of their heckling, who straightway let go of the wheel and headed down the companionway from which I had just emerged. On its own suddenly, the wheel spun for about an eighth of a turn and came to rest. Nothing else changed.

No one came to the wheel. It made no difference anyway. I could hear a slamming door down below as the disgruntled crewman apparently sought the solitude of the vee- berth. I quietly wondered how many minutes would elapse before he fled that solar crock- pot.

Off in the distance a slight kitten's paw of breeze darkened the water for a moment and vanished as quickly. Once again the bay was glassy calm.

-G Byers