Boy on a Boat on the River

Reading Challenge 2017: book about travel. One For the Gods, by Gordon Merrick, is the second of a trilogy involving Peter Martin and Charlie Mills. Starting on the island of Saint Tropez, Charlie and Peter travel in a sailboat with the Kingsley's, a couple with issues of their own. I could sense that there would be trouble as Jack Kinglsey and his wife Martha seemed to eager to have the guys sail with them.  I did not trust them. They sail in the Aegean Sea, stopping at various Greek islands, until Charlie has a fit, leaves the boat and buys a house on Hydra Island, which ends their journey. A storm at sea, lusty bandits, a drunk captain, a possibly pregnant wife, friendly islanders, and a self-realization make for an interesting tale. This only makes me want to travel to Greece to visit as well. The second book of the trilogy is a vehicle for the third in that it gives Peter and Charlie a reason to leave America behind and live on the Greek island.

Peter and Charlie are up to their old tricks in that they cheat on each other and make up.  Charlie cheats with Martha as he wants a child.  Then he realizes he is jealous of Peter, which is the reason for him cheating.  Peter is almost raped by a group of thugs on one island, but manages to get away.  He seems so frail, as Charlie is always protecting him, which makes it unbelievable that he could fight off the bandits.  Jack is a drunk and horrible captain of the Cassandra.  He is the catalyst for Charlie stepping up to be the actual captain of the boat.

There are thrilling spots such as the storm and possibility of Charlie wanting to crash the boat and end the journey on some rocks in the ocean, but Peter talks him out of it.  I think Charlie is bipolar, which causes him to buy the dilapidated house on Hydra Island, as well as sleep with Martha and constantly act out sexually with others than Peter. 

I have never been sailing but spent many summers in my youth on the family pontoon in the Mississippi River.  I learned how to drive the boat, dock and moor it, as well as pull it out of the river.  We even weathered a storm one summer while beached on an island in the mighty Mississippi.  I had brought my current boyfriends with me on two occasions.  Both Jeff and Kevin had been on boats, so they enjoyed it.  I am no longer in contact with either of them, who are both married with children. I would go to college, which ended my excursions on the pontoon, never allowing me to have a party barge scenario. My most vivid memory was when my little sister stepped on a fish fish, which punctured her foot, and had to be taken to the emergency room.  I miss the days of getting tan, swimming in the river, playing in the mud from the bottom of the river, and riding the waves produced by the barges that traveled up and down the Mississippi.  Learning to swim in a river is much different than swimming lessons in a public pool.  You had to swim in a current, could not open your eyes under water, and avoid the fish that swarmed in the muddy river.  

I have only swam in the Mediterranean once, and that was the summer of 1982 in Monte Carlo.  I was fascinated by the salty water and the swimmers who would strip down to rinse the salt off right on the beach.  Being a very modest boy, I would never have considered doing that myself, even though it was a cultural norm.  If I only knew then what I know now.