Keeping Watch aboard the Omarsea

There was a knock on my cabin door. "Wake up Steve, your on watch" Ben called. "Ah, not again I just got to sleep!" My eyes opened blearily. Tugging on my boots and hat I slipped into my coat and staggered up the companionway into the cockpit. Juli greets me with a hoarse "Good morning" muttering something about Ben already climbing into his bunk as she swings her feet over the hatch boards and vanishes below. Another watch change aboard the S.V. Omarsea has occurred.
 It's 4 AM, fridged cold seeps through my winter cloths. I shiver thinking about my warm bunk twenty feet away. Dad is talking with Juli about ships in the area while he updates our position in the vessel log. She says "Goodnight" with a hug and the lights click off as Dad comes up on deck. I give him a faint grimace.Though, on this dark night he can not see my face. We are sitting together shoulder to shoulder on the starboard side. The motor is running, pushing us along at six knots. Waves higher than my head race under the stern.   We are a 50' surfboard accelerating wildly down the face of the waves.
 A meteor screams downward bursting in a brilliant flash of light before blinking out of existence. The autopilot turns the twin wheels back and forth faithfully keeping us on course.  I make a silent wish that the trip to Ft Myers was over and I was in Florida and not so cold. A wave crashes over the side, spraying me and Dad with warmish salt water. As the water drains away small glowing forms of life flash their bright luminescent signals. Wiping the water from my eyes I gazed astern and beheld a galaxy of stars and glowing nebula trailing in the fiery path of our ships rudder. The beauty does not dim in the chill caused by the wave long left in our wake. Dad and I are laughing about silly stuff. I like to tell him about the Dilbert and Foxtrot comics Grandma sends us in the mail.
 As our two hour watch comes to an end a big wave rolls us onto the Port side and we brace ourselves. Down below there is a crash. I peak down the companionway and groan. The Galley pantry blew open and spilled a couple weeks of food provisions all over the galley floor. We will get it put back together I think to myself as I go below. "Ben, your turn for watch" I call banging on his door. There is a muffled grumpy reply.
Julianna rises very slowly, she takes time to build momentum. I check the navigation computer and make the log entry while Dad talks with Ben about the big ship approaching from our starboard quarter.
Julianna slowly climbs the stairs, sliding open the hatch. As I turn to go to my cabin she cries out "What's that?".  Going back up on deck I see Ben pointing to a glowing green luminescent trail approaching the boat quickly. The strange object plunges under the boat and springs out of the water on the other side. "Dolphin" Juli and Ben cry simultaneously. The trail of the living torpedo quickly fades in our wake. Brilliant stars peek out from the clouds and Venus rises so brightly that she casts a beam of light across the water. We are not far from sunrise now.
With heavy eyelids I grip the handles of the stair carefully making my way down to my cabin. Shrugging off my coat as I pass the settee, I toss my hat on the bunk and kick off my boots on the floor. The blankets swallow me in a warm embrace, and I am dreaming of seeing Grandma as my head hits the pillow.