Volume: 3
The students aboard Osprey.
The other four students were far more representative of The School's clientele. They were two married couples, friends, in their sixties, who lived in Florida. The women were less than agreeable, not so much to each other, but to the entire world. Both were overweight and brought their belongings in suitcases, including sizable makeup kits. I wondered what could be in there since so much of it was already on their faces. Their style was more suited for cruise ships. Their husbands, tiny by comparison, were quiet and submissive without a smidgeon of incentive to learn.
Close to the end of our circumnavigation, I learned from Max, who, for the purposes of this trip I called, in my head only, Min, that he and his big, bossy wife, Bea, (B is for Bitch) both held Coast Guard Master licenses and planned to buy a boat similar to Osprey for cruising the world. They had taken a previous trip with The School around Cape Horn. Close to the middle of our circumnavigation, I noticed from the engine logs that it was time to change the oil. I asked if either Min or the other husband, Gerry -- I mentally called him Atric -- if they'd like to help. Neither had done that before and both passed on the opportunity. Fair enough, I hadn't changed the oil in anything when The School hired me five years before. Then there was Atric's wife, Wendy ("Witch"), who rarely spoke over the megaphone of Bitch, dutifully did most of the cleaning below and contributed nothing to the boat handling. Atric and Witch both held Master licenses, too.