The next morning, I thought it best to allow the ladies, once finished with breakfast, a little time to enjoy the beautiful morning. The wind had come up in the night, so my First Mate had spread all canvas, and "Sailing Master" was flying before the wind. Jenny was working some of the controls on the sheets, and learning proper control of the rudder while sail-powered. Although she wore only deck shoes, a hat, and sunblock, it was obvious I had chosen well to add her as a temporary Third Mate under instruction. I borrowed her for just a few minutes, as it was time for exercise.

We all started laps around the deck, just to loosen up. Plain running was awfully nice to observe in this case, as all our fair crewladies were blessed, figure-wise. None-the-less, I wished to make it a little more sporting.

"Ladies, over here, please. Since we're running today, I want to make the run more exciting. The first to finish the race is done for today. No chores! The LAST one to finish the race gets to spend several hours in an appointment with me, a feather, and a belt. Special prizes for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place.

"Now for the exciting part. The race will be 8 times around the deck, and I'll be handicapping the race a little. On the scale, ladies, one at a time!" Each got on the scale, and a couple had put on a little weight over the holidays.

"Each will have a weight carrier placed between your ankles. The one closest to her ideal weight will only have a handicap of 5 pounds. It will progress by five pounds, lowest to highest. However, I will be 'encouraging' a little faster running in reverse order. The one closest to their ideal weight will be encouraged the most. And here's the whip I'll be using to encourage with. Just a plain old buggy whip.

"Help each other with the weight carriers and the weights, then get to the head of the stairs, and I'll get you started." (And no, naughty readers, I am not going to expose or hint at the order of the individuals. All ladies are beautiful: some are just more beautiful than others. So don't ask and I won't have to cuss you out.) "Ready, set, go!"

"Well-done, ladies! A five-way tie, in spite of several pretty sore backs and fannies. Next race will have only four participants, as it requires teams of two. Jenny, you're out of this one so you can continue your sailor lessons.

"Two teams. WB and BabySub, Bisarah and yellowrose. This will be a wheelbarrow race with a twist. The front person's legs will be tied to the back person's arms, so if you fall down, it'll be a little hard to get back up. Oh, I forgot; there'll be thumbtacks here and there, so you want to be real careful as you run and where you fall, and the person in front will be blindfolded, so communications will be important.

"Get into position, and I'll get things fastened up, and the tacks spread out. Ready, set, go!" The ladies took off pretty fast, which will be a mistake. They'll find out at the first turn. Aha! One down, one swings wide to avoid them, and runs straight through the tacks. Now they're down too, pulling out tacks. Since the driver's hands are bound to the feet of their front, who is blindfolded, pulling out those tacks can be really hard. Guiding to a tack on the other person turned out to create some really wicked contortions. And some couldn't be reached at all.

The eighth lap showed how tired the four were getting, so I decided to end the race a couple laps early. WB and BabySub crossed the finish line first. I untied the teams, and all four got to clear the tacks from the deck. I didn't let the losers use their hands or feet, though. I gave them each a bra to wear, and they had to use those. No longer was the race 'pointless'.

About an hour later the track was clear, and the losers had VERY sensitive breasts. Ah, well. It was getting to lunchtime, so yellowrose and WB went down to prepare some cold sandwiches and soda. BabySub and bisarah had the priviledge of being my furniture for lunch, and I soon had them bound in position. With the ladies all busy, I dashed to the head to have a refreshing shower. I'd just finished and slipped into a 'lava-lava', which is the Tahitian form of lower garment now adapted by lots of islanders. A single piece of cloth, wound around, usually in bright color patterns.

After all had had lunch, I decided to take the afternoon watch and told Nick to let 4 of the ladies relax as they wished, but they needed to have at least an hour of sleep. And of course he could invite/order one to his bunk. He did.

WB and I wandered up onto the deck and unlocked the controls, hoist anchor, and raised sail. We were less than 50 miles from out first destination, and I planned to cover that by nightfall. A tropical storm was coming, and I wished to be in a wind-protected harbor by the time it hit. Point "b" had such a natural harbor inside some high ridges; perfect protection.

I had looked forward to spending some quality time with WB. She sit on my lap while I put up sail and got us underweigh, behaving until I got the autopilot programmed and operating. Then I got to pay a little attention to my little Loonie Tune lady (WB. Warner Brothers? Home of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig? If you're not native to the US, you may not have seen them. If you ARE native to the US and don't know them, you grew up under a rock somewhere. Culturally deprived.)

We both had the chance to explore and play with this and that; shortly we were both ready for more. More was very nice, all three times.

Supper was brought on deck, and I let WB get me a plate of it and feed me while I was still nominally on watch. After the meal, Nick relieved me. This would be a short leg on today's reach, as we were only about an hour from the harbor, and less than two from sunset. I decided the sunset would go on even if I didn't watch it, and went to my cabin to sleep. I was awoken three times that night, first by bisarah, next by BabySub, and finally by Jenny. It was a very pleasant day.