"Woods, Stuart - White Cargo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Woods Stuart)

Printed in Canada.

UNV 10 9 8

This book is for Pins Carr who made it necessary for me to learn to fly.

Wendell Catledge sat up and squinted at the smudge on the horizon. It
should not have been a surprise, he thought, but it was. The boat slid
smoothly along in the light wind, and even the slight movement made it
hard to focus on the shape, but it wasn't a ship or an oil rig, and in
the early morning light, it seemed to be pink. He pulled at his beard
and ran a hand through his hair, which was a good six months overdue for
cutting. Hell, it just might be, it just might be what he guessed it
was.

He glanced at the sails, left the autopilot in charge, and climbed down
the companionway ladder to the navigation station. As he slid into the
chart table seat he allowed himself yet another look at his instrument
array. It was all there--full Brookes & Gatehouse electronics, VHF and
SSB radios, loran, Satnav, Weatherfax, a compact personal computer, and
his own brainchild and namesake, the Cat One printer. That little
machine had brought him all this-the yacht, the gear, and the time to
sail. Cat had waked up one morning and realized that, after nearly
thirty years in electronics, he was an overnight success. He gave the
printer a fatherly pat and turned to his chart of the southern
Caribbean.

He pushed a button on the loran and got a readout of longitude and
latitude, then plotted the coordinates on his chart and confirmed his
suspicion. They were south of their course from Antigua to Panama and
the Canal, and the smudge on the horizon wasn't all that far off the
rhumb line. A tiny thrill ran through him. This is what it's all about,
he thought, that little thrill of discovery, pushing back the
boundaries, punching through the envelope. He laughed aloud to himself,
then he banged his flat palm onto the chart table.

"All hands on deck!" he shouted, grabbing the binoculars and starting
for the companionway ladder.

"All hands on deck!" he yelled again, pausing in the hatchway, "Come on,
everybody, shake it!" There was a rustling noise from me after cabin and
a loud thump from the forepeak. He raised the glasses and focused on the
distant, pink smudge.

It was. It was, indeed.

Katie was the first into the cockpit, rubbing her eyes.

Jinx was a step or two behind, having paused long enough to find a life