The Silence of the Sea Read Online Free PDF Page A

daughters were staring at him. He thought he detected a hint of understanding in Bylgja’s eyes, though her glasses were smeary as usual so he couldn’t be sure. She lowered her gaze again and resumed her stone counting. ‘You mean you don’t want to go on the boat, Daddy?’ Arna turned up her nose. ‘I told everyone on Facebook that we’re coming home to Iceland by yacht.’
    As if that alone would be enough to clinch the matter. ‘No, I didn’t really mean it.’ Perhaps he was simply reluctant to meet the captain. Their telephone conversation the previous day had got off to a bad start when Ægir had reacted with consternation to the news that the cost of moving the yacht to Iceland threatened to be much higher than expected. The arrangements were his responsibility. He didn’t want to go back to his boss with the information that they would now have to hire a local to replace the missing crew member, which would work out far more expensive. He had lost his temper when he heard what level of pay the possible replacements were demanding, but the captain had given as good as he got and Ægir had been forced to accept that people were not exactly queuing up to take a short trip north to the arse end of nowhere. At what point in the conversation he had suggested making up the shortfall himself, he couldn’t remember, but he hadn’t expected to be taken literally, despite half hoping he would. However, when the captain heard that Ægir held a Pleasure Craft Competency Certificate he had latched onto the idea and dismissed all the other man’s attempts to retract. He said it made no difference that Ægir had never sailed outside Nauthólsvík bay in Reykjavík; all they needed was to meet the conditions for the minimum safe manning of the ship; the certificate was irrelevant, as was his lack of experience. After all, he wouldn’t be on board in the role of skipper, mate or engineer, if that’s what he thought.
    Back when he was working towards his pleasure craft certificate, Ægir had entertained no thoughts of becoming a substitute crew member on a luxury yacht. He had been motivated by an old dream of saving up for a share in a small sailing boat, but this had had to go on the back burner since his and Lára’s salaries combined were barely enough to make ends meet. The little money they had managed to put aside had been used to pay for his wife and daughters to accompany him to Lisbon for this impromptu winter holiday. There had been no plans for a sea voyage.
    The captain had been rather taken aback when he heard there was a family in tow. But by then Ægir had become fired up by the idea; this might be their only chance to sail the ocean in a luxury yacht, and the voyage would also solve a specific problem that had been troubling him. In his capacity as representative of the new owners, therefore, he had presented the captain with a fait accompli; there was nothing further to discuss.
    In the meantime Ægir had told his manager on the board of the resolution committee that he himself would assist in bringing the vessel home. His boss had been so preoccupied when he gave the green light that he had dismissed the financial implications, being long inured to far higher sums. He made it obvious during their brief phone call that other, more urgent matters awaited his attention. It seemed that the only reason he had agreed to speak to Ægir in the first place was to find out if he had succeeded in registering the yacht in the committee’s name. He had cut Ægir off in mid-sentence, muttering that he would see him when he got back from Spain. In other words, he didn’t even remember which country Ægir had travelled to to collect the yacht, let alone realise that he had agreed to his wife and daughters’ going along for the ride.
    The memory of his boss’s lack of concern over his absence only intensified Ægir’s odd sense of trepidation about the voyage. By rights he should be bursting with anticipation like