"Intuition Stories"

More stories from the captain's locker ....."Kona's Stripper Skipper





Her First Words


As so many times in the past, awaiting my charter guests’ arrivals I would watch from the decks as the cars slowly passed by in the parking lot, trying to guess which one fit the description of the folks I would be spending the day with. A few minutes before nine o’clock a small compact car stopped in front of my sail charter sign, a very large woman and a very young girl wearing diapers made their way down the ramp. This was not at all what I thought was the normal profile for a sailing charter on a small boat. My definition of normal has broadened greatly over the years, this may become apparent over time to those who read some of my sail charter adventures.

As the two walked down the lava docks toward “Intuition”, the woman asked if I was captain Jeff. I said “yes, good morning, how are the two of you doing today"? The woman responded "great", as the young girl in diapers didn’t say anything, she looked pensively at all the boats, avoiding eye contact with me and clinging to her Mom’s hand.


As with all the guests I described how to swing a leg over the bow pulpit and step on the deck of the forepeak. I realized this might not be the easiest gymnastic for a large woman, she refused my offered hand as help and gingerly stepped aboard with ease, much to my surprise. She grabbed her daughter and hefted her over onboard and we were ready to begin our day.
I went over the safety briefing for our small daysail journey and as usual asked what they would like to do, sail, snorkel, whale watch, etc. The woman said she just wanted to go out on the ocean to introduce her daughter to sailing. I asked how old her little girl was, she answered by saying that her little girl was, "a special girl". I said aren't they all? It seemed the little girl was fairly apprehensive, not such an unusual response for a young child. I asked whether or not her daughter was talking yet and was told that she was not because of her unusual circumstances when she was younger. Again I asked how old she was, I was stunned, or more accurately, shocked when the mom said she was seven years old! Her mom went on to tell a story that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

It seems that the little seven year old girl in diapers that didn't speak was victim to a rare and extreme form of child abuse. Her parents, (the woman with her turned out not to be the blood mother), kept her locked up in a closet soon after birth. She was fed chocolate bars and coke once in awhile, never spoken to, never touched, washed or cared for during the first five years of her life! I did not know what to say at that point, it was the most horrific state of human tragedy I'd ever come upon. The woman explained that she was a child protective services worker in a midwest state, that she had responded to a complaint and had discovered the little girl in her closet/prison. She went through all the legal motions, arrests, hearings, placing the small girl in protective custody, etc. The blood parents were convicted, leaving the young child in the State's hands. The case worker then applied and succeeded in adopting this poor little girl. They had been together for about a year at the time they came out to sail with me on "Intuition" that day.

I decided I was going to do all I could to make this day a wonderful, joyful and fun time for this little girl and her new mommy. As I set the sails I had the mom steer as her little girl watched on with curiousity. As I returned to the tiller and shut the outboard motor off, the magical "quiet" set in. This was always the beginning of the true sailing adventure. I asked the little girl if she wanted to steer the boat, as I motioned with my hand how moving the tiller turned the boat. With some coaching I was able to take her hand, placing it on the tiller and moved it back and forth to show how the boat responded. At first it was not registering what was going on with all this, however, soon the little girl began to move her hand back and forth with mine. She was seeing now that her hand was dictating our course, a smile was beginning to form on her small face, a smile that grew as the day went on. Within a few minutes I removed my hand from the wooden tiller leaving the vessel to be steered by our new young captain. The young girl's mom and me were really enjoying this, the feeling is hard to describe. It soon became apparent that the little girl was enjoying being in control, in charge of her direction, and the course of our vessel all at the same time. The transformation was exciting. Things were stirring in her little mind, confidence grew, apprehension slowly waned, we were sailing on a course that was hard to imagine. I asked the little captain if she wanted me to steer again, it was obvious that she was fine with doing what she was doing when her small hand clutched the tiller, no way was she giving this up.

So our day went, one small discovery at a time, our course was straight and the direction that things were taking was perfect, nothing could be better. We had some sandwiches for lunch. Our captain was steering with one hand and eating her sandwich with the other, just like a pro. We had a comfortable 10 knot breeze and calm seas, normal for Kona. We headed north along the coast past a favorite surf spot called "Pine Trees" by the locals, actually Mangroves and Ironwood trees, no one quite knows how that all got started. The Keahole Airport was a couple of miles past that, a few commuter jets land and take off every hour or so, along with the small general aviation planes doing "crash and goes" or "touch and goes" as the flight instructors call the landing and takeoff maneuvers students practice prior to passing their final FAA flight tests.

Then something happened that BLEW US AWAY! Our young sailor looked up pointing and said, "plane, plane". Crying, her mom soon explained that was the first time, first words ever spoken in this young girl’s life. We both pointed and said plane, plane, yes, yes. What a momentous feeling, a very exciting time in one's life, no matter. So what do we do now, with no more planes in sight? We look around, there is so much out there, within minutes more words flow, "boat, boat", then in a short time the real clincher, "mommy", this sent us all over the top. Life seems to be unfolding before our eyes, one life that almost wasn't, in particular. Sailing along, talking, smiling and causing goose bumps, our little sailor takes her mommy and me for a sail that none of us will ever forget.

As I look back upon that day many things come to mind, how unfortunate some innocent souls' lives can be, how fortunate it is that there are people that care enough to change the course of a childs life, how fortunate yours and mine is to be able to enjoy this gift of life that we share. Have a great life.