Grandfather II - 9. Chapter 9

Where I docked Grandfather II, there was a beach not far. The boys wanted to go there, so I packed them a lunch and told Akela to be careful. I then went to a local winery to check out their blends. I had called them before leaving the East coast to see if they could blend a white and red wine. They called back and said they made several blends for me to try when I visited.

I spent the morning there, I tasted the blends and the individuals that made up the blends. I left an order for 100 cases of the blend I liked. They agreed to label it Billy’s Cellar and of course the name of their winery, in small print with their address.

It was about 2 in the afternoon when I headed back to the Godfather. I saw the boys on the deck watching me, Moe was with them. I waved, they waved back. As I boarded Grandfather. “Moe, let’s pull anchor and head south.” I watched as he headed up to the bridge. The boys scattered, then I saw them in their sarongs, Akela had one for me.

While they watched one of the DVD’s, I made hotel reservations at Wilson Creek Manor for three days. We were going to visit the Frangipani Winery. I offered Moe and Cap to join us, but they decided to stay with the boat.

I called a car service to have a car pick us up at 8 in the morning from the Marina to drive us to the Wilson Creek Manor. With that completed, I called the winery. “Hello, Don?”

“Just a moment?” I waited a few minutes.

“Hello”

“Hello JoAnn, this is Billy Smithton. I called to let you know I’ll be in town tomorrow....Yes, we’ll be staying at the Wilson Creek Manor.”

“Excellent, you must plan on having dinner with us.”

“Will talk about that. I’ll be bringing some guests with me.”
“That won’t be a problem. Don will insist on you and your guest joining us.”

“I’ll call as soon as check in at the Manor.” Saying goodbye, I smiled. I wonder what she is going to say when she sees the boys.

I had marked the map for the Marina that was close to the winery I wanted to visit. I had made all of the arrangements, notified the Winery, reservations at the Manor and arrangements for a car to drive us to the Manor. With Cap and Moe, I had no worries about Grandfather II.

For dinner that night, we all went to a local restaurant. I think Moe must have checked out the town. He led us to this small restaurant that served Mexican food. I wasn’t sure the boys could handle the spicy food. As it turned out, they liked the food and I did notice it was spicy, but not as bad as I had in Mexico. The ice cream for dessert made the boys smile. They ate their cones as we walked back to the Grandfather II.

I woke the boys at 7 in the morning. “We're going to a very special winery owned by friends of mine. The car will be here at 8, so hurry and get dressed, then we'll have breakfast.”

I started to fix breakfast at 7, the boys showed up at 7:20 and a half hour later, they were finished and ready to go. The night before, I had packed a suitcase with clothes for three days. Taking the suitcase up on deck, the boys were waiting, drinking a glass of juice. I told Moe where I had prepared food for him and Captain. “I’ll see you in four days.”

The trip to Wilson Creek Manor would take about 3 hours. By the time we check in, it’ll be close to lunch time. I knew the boys would be hungry.

We arrived just a little past eleven thirty in the morning. I called the winery, and again JoAnn insisted we meet for lunch. She said she would send the car over for me and my guests. I told the boys we would be going to the winery for lunch. They just smiled. They have been to a winery with me when we first arrived, so they knew what to expect.

We had lunch on the patio, that was after JoAnn and Don got over the fact I had 4 boys of which one called me dad. In the course of our lunch, I explained how all four boys ended up with me. We didn’t tell them about Kana’s experiences, that was private. Jo Ann laughed when Akela told her about how Malo became my son.

“I guess Billy, you need to be sure you read what you sign.”

“Yes, but I’m glad I didn’t know. Not sure what I would’ve done, Malo is a joy to be around and I’m glad he’s my son.” Akela patted me on my back but Malo’s smile said it all for me. I would have adopted all of these boys, if I could. But it really doesn’t matter, in my eyes and heart, they are all my sons.

After lunch, we had a quick tour of the winery. Don had one of his men, take the boys into the field showing them the vines, how they took care of them, he even let them taste some of the grapes on the vines.

JoAnn and Don wanted us to stay for dinner, but it would be too late for the boys. They ate in the evening, six-thirty to be exact. We had lunch at noon, it was too long of a wait for them. I agreed to be back tomorrow to start the tastings.

Arriving back at the Manor, the boys wanted to go swimming, for a little while they said. I was okay with that, only I didn’t pack their swim suit. At first they said they would go swimming without a swim suit, that meant naked. “Billy, that’s the way we swim on the Island.”

I took them to the gift shop and bought them swim suits. I wanted them to buy speedo’s, but no way, they would be too tight. We ended up buying swimming trunks that looked like their boxer underwear. “Billy, we could have worn our boxers.”

They could have until they got wet and slid off. These swimming trunks had a string to keep them up. I was afraid to tell Akela that, he would have insisted to wear their boxers knowing they would slip off. There was no modesty with these boys.

I sat at the pool watching them. They were like fish. I guess living on an island you learned how to swim before you learn how to walk. They were having fun, they’d look at me, I’d smiled and waved.

They had been in the water for what seemed a long time. It wasn’t dinner time, so I left them, went and got a newspaper, came back and started to read the paper. I was so involved in the stock market news that I didn’t realize the time until Malo came and said they were hungry.

“Let’s go back to our room, you all can take a shower to get rid of the chlorine smell. Then we'll go and get some dinner.”

The bathroom at the Manor was unusually large. The boys had to try out the hot tub, then the rain shower. What normally would take 25 minutes to take a shower, took us almost an hour. “And before you say it Akela, I am not going to put a hot tub on the boat.” He laughed.

We had dinner at the Manor. When we were seated and had our menu, the boys seemed a little confused. There were no hotdogs or hamburgers on the menu. So I decided to order for them. We had shrimp cocktail to start, that they knew and liked. For their main course I ordered the stuff chicken breast that came with a baked potato and a medley of vegetables. Desert was apple pie with ice cream.

As the food was brought out, the boys would inhale the aroma and smile. The food did smell good. As we ate, Akela looked at me, I knew what he was thinking. “The next time we go shopping, I’ll buy some shrimp.” He just smiled.

With dinner over, we took a walk around the grounds. I told the boys we needed to let our food settle. Turning in for the night I wonder how the boys were going to sleep. My room had two large beds, and I was hoping that they would share one bed and I would have the other to myself. Didn’t happen, Malo and Kana took one bed and Akela shared my bed. When I woke up in the morning, all three boys were in my bed. Ever since the first time Akela woke up with me and I realized we were both naked, I now sleep in my underwear.

We had breakfast at the Manor, then headed to the Winery. Don sent the car, which I appreciated. One of the men, took the boys on a tour of the Winery, I went and started to taste the wines. This winery produced several wine varieties.

Over the next three days, I must have tasted every combination of wines, that they produced. Some that I wanted to taste resulted in them blending some of the wines they produced. Now wine tasting isn’t like drinking coffee, you tasted a wine, made your notes, then you need to refresh your mouth. You must remove the taste of the previous wine.

In the three days, I sampled 5 wines which I thought would sell well. I bought 100 cases of a Sangiovese that I could sell for 65 dollars per bottle. It's an unusual Sauvignon grape that Don has been able to grow that reminds me of the wine I had in Italy. In addition, I bought 50 cases of a 2014 vintage and 50 cases of a 2016 vintage of this grape. The 2014 would sell at 250 dollars per bottle and the 2016 would sell at 150 dollars per bottle. Don would bottles these wines and ship them to my Cellars. In addition to these wines I bought 50 cases of a Cabernet Franc, 50 cases of Petit Serah, 50 cases of Petit Verdot and 50 cases of Grenache Reserve, All of these wines I had bought before from Don and JoAnn. With this order, Don will hire a truck to deliver them to my Cellar.

The evening before we were to leave, we had dinner on the patio of Don and JoAnn’s home. The. boys told them about the islands, and a few tales on how they ended up with me. I just sat back and listened. “Any time you would like to visit the Islands, let me know. I’ll pick you up with Grandfather II and you can accompany us.”

The next morning while we were waiting for breakfast, I called Captain and told him we would be on our way back as soon as we finished breakfast and checked out.

Arriving back on Grandfather II, the boys cornered Moe and started to tell him all about their experiences at the winery. I had one bottle of Don’s private stock, it was a Cabernet, which I told Moe we would share at dinner.

We headed south, my next stop would be in Chile, South America. When we were in California, I picked up some books for the boys. I wasn’t sure if they could read of not, but I could read to them and doing that they might learn to read in English. We had Disney DVD’s to watch, as well. I wasn’t in a hurry, so we took our time. What I didn’t count on was Moe telling them about Mexico.

We had just finished dinner, when Moe began to tell them about the various tourist attraction in Mexico. You knew what the outcome of that conversation would be.

“Captain, I marked the map, as to where I wanted to dock.” He knew that I wasn’t in a hurry, so he would plot the course and speed. With all of the walking they did, I kept my eye on Kana.

We stopped at a Marina close to Mexico City. I didn’t have a problem with that, I could top off my tanks.

Pulling into the marina, the boys noticed a large boat about two slots to our left. “Billy, what kind of boat is that? They have those poles sticking up and something hanging on them.”

Looking where Akela was pointing, “That’s a fishing boat and what you see hanging on those poles are nets. When they are fishing, they drop those nets in the ocean. Why don’t you walk over there and see the name of the boat. It’ll be painted on the side.” I watched as he and Liko walked toward the boat.

“Moe, since you introduced the boys to these stories, how about you going with them while I attend to getting Grandfather supplied. Take Captain with you.” I gave Moe money to buy lunch. “ Give each boy a few dollars for souvenirs. Just remember you need to convert that to pesos.”

As I was going to pay my docking fee, arrange for fuel, water and emptying the waste tank, I saw Akela and Liko coming back. “Did you find out the name?”

“There was a name printed on the side of the boat, the Peter Charles. I saw a group of people getting into a bus.”

“Moe is going to go with you. As soon as you are ready, go and see him.” Captain had decided to stay.