Chapter One
I had been divorced from my first wife for about ten years. We were married right out of High School, and had a baby girl that first year. We stayed together for nine years. Nine years of pain and suffering. We shouldn't have gotten married like we did.
I had been young and strong willed. I got my ex pregnant in our senior year, towards the end of the school year. We decided to get married because we were so in love. Looking back on it, it was lust not love. Our 'love' became a very strong dislike, leading to the divorce.
After our divorce, my ex had left the state, taking my daughter with her. I never saw her after that. I tried to keep in contact with Julie, my daughter, but I was sure that my vindictive ex-wife never let her know I had.
My new wife had developed a cancer, and on one dark spring day she passed. Mary had been everything that my ex hadn't been. She had been supportive, loving, and very sexual. Mary was the one constant in my always-changing life and I missed her terribly still, two years later.
I had dated some but I knew that none of the women I took out were 'right' for me. Partly because of my not being completely over Mary, and partly because of my wealth. You see, I had made a goodly amount of money in the dot com eighties and nineties.
I was now retired, at the ripe old age of thirty-eight. I had a nice boat down at the marina where I spent quite a bit of time. It was large enough to require a crew of four, and since I had purchased it I had lived aboard.
My house I had sold, too many reminders of my past life and Mary. The boat had been a suggestion from my grief counselor. He deduced that I had always wanted to have a boat to go out on and just cruise around. He had helped me in a very real and good way to start to rebuild my life after Mary.
I needed to hire a crew, so I advertised around. A placement firm came up with three people, two women and one man. The captain that I chose to hire had all the qualifications and experience I needed. She was a lithe and built blonde lady of about twenty-eight years of age.
The sole male crewmember was my engineer. He had great training as a mechanic on marine vessels and was foot loose and fancy-free.
The third person was a nice lady who was an excellent chef. Her recommendation had come from a gentleman who greatly missed her. I had gotten a good crew so far and was very pleased.
I was on edge, I wanted to get going and travel up to Alaska, through the inside passage and then around the gulf up to Anchorage and spend some time there. My whole crew was looking forward to the trip since none of them had been there before.
About three weeks before we were to pull out, the agency sent over the fourth crew candidate. She was young, being about nineteen years old. She was built like the proverbial brick-shit-house.
Her brunette hair flowed around her as she walked on board to meet me. I was awe struck at her beauty, and poise. I had never seen such an exquisite creature in my life. Her name was given to me as Anne. We shook hands and she proceeded to tell me about herself.
I decided to hire her for the trip as a deck hand/maid, and plans were made to sail one week early. That left us one and a half weeks to get ship shape, and ready to go. Anne turned out to be a very hard working lady. I was surprised since I had thought deep down she would just be eye candy for the dirty old man. (ME)
She was always nearby as I worked. (Yes, I worked with the crew getting ready to go.) My Captain, May, was very surprised at my casual and laid back manner. I guess she had worked for some rich people before and they had been very, well, stern and cold towards the 'hired' help.
I had made my fortune the hard way, by work and yes, quite a bit of luck. But I was a common man. I treated everyone with respect and only expected the same from him or her. It didn't hurt that three-fourths of my crew were good-looking ladies single and fancy free either.
Working around those ladies ended up being harder than I thought it would be. I found myself not thinking of Mary as much any more and thinking of them more and more.
I noticed that Anne seemed to have knowledge of me that nobody else had. What she knew about me and how I didn't know, but I could tell she knew something more than the others. I wasn't too concerned, since I had plenty of experience with gold-diggers and the like. She didn't seem to be like that though.
Out at sea we all became closer. I determined that we would all eat together as much as possible. This was so we could get to know one another as much as we could. Capt May was in charge of the crew, which made it easier for me to relax. Her directions were always fair and intelligent.
We took our time cruising up the coast and as we went past Portland Anne mentioned she had a girlfriend in Seattle that would love to go to Alaska with us. After a bit of talk I decided to let this friend of Anne's sail with us. Anne said that she would work as a maid or whatever. I felt Anne needed some help in that area (mostly so I could see her topside more if the truth be known).
In Seattle we provisioned for the extra person and added a bit extra in case we had guests at some point. Anne's friend showed up and as we first met I found myself struggling to maintain a conversation. Anne's friend was introduced to me as Charlene. She was every bit as goodlooking as Anne, with a certain 'fire' in addition to the beauty.
Where Anne was brunette,Charlene was blonde. Charlene also had rather large breasts and they didn't need support. Her body was very toned with legs that had great definition. I found out that she was a dancer in Seattle. I imagined her on stage as a ballerina or modern dancer. That image didn't fit her build at all though. I didn't ask what kind of dancing she did figuring she would tell me if she felt like it, at a later date.
Charlene was almost bold in her attitude, and it fit her well. Anne seemed to get even more friendly after Charlene came on board. I assumed it was because of her friend being there let her feel more natural or perhaps safer for some reason.
May made a comment that first night about not all the sharks were in the ocean around here, and then laughed as I tried to figure out her meaning. She was joking around, but there was a light seriousness to her words also. We talked for a bit about other things then as I was heading to my cabin Anne caught me and took me aside.
"Would it be alright if Charlene and I just wore our swimsuits tomorrow? I know that they are not proper crew wear but the weather is so nice we would like to work on our tans if possible."
"Uh, well, I don't see a reason why not. I will run it past May first though ok?"
"Oh sure. That might be a good idea since she is the boss. I hope she won't mind."
"I'll put in a good word for the both of you."
I caught May just before she went into her cabin.
"May, what would you think if the crew wore their swimsuits tomorrow to take advantage of the weather and all?"
