YANNIS (Cretan Saga Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

cast off and stood with his face held up to the breeze. Annita smiled to herself. Wait until they turned the headland, then her landlubber cousin would know what sailing was all about. Annita went and stood by his side. He smiled at her shyly.
    ‘Do you often come out with your father?’
    ‘I’m not very interested in fishing.’
    As they rounded the headland the boat pitched and tossed violently for a few moments. Yannis slid into a sitting position, his face white. Annita laughed at his discomfort. She was still standing, moving with the motion of the boat.
    ‘This is nothing,’ she said. ‘Today it’s calm, you should be out here in a storm.’
    The colour returned to Yannis’s face as the boat ceased its erratic movement and continued to glide smoothly through the water. ‘I’ll get used to it,’ he said, confidently. ‘I’m going to help your father at the weekends.’
    Yiorgo showed Yannis how to drop and secure the net, and they trawled gently for an hour. Yannis was enjoying himself. If this was fishing it was not as bad as he had thought. True, there was nothing to do whilst waiting to haul in the net, but the sun was pleasant and he could always bring a book with him and read.
    At a signal from Yiorgo the children began to heave the net up. The boat rocked violently as the catch came aboard. Once again Yannis turned white and clutched at a rope to steady himself. His fear was overcome by his fascination with the gleaming, silver fish, wriggling and gasping as they struggled in the mesh. The children turned their attention to sorting them into boxes, keeping two large lobsters to one side as Yiorgo directed.
    They rounded the headland again, but this time Yannis was prepared for the motion.
    ‘Move with it,’ Annita advised him. ‘Don’t try to sit still.’
    He tried to carry out her instructions and found it helped. His stomach did not jump up to the back of his throat each time the boat pitched.
    ‘Haul in the sail, Yannis,’ directed Yiorgo.
    Yannis loosened the ropes and before he realised what was happening he was completely covered in the coarse cloth. Annita and Andreas were helpless with laughter as he fought his way out and their father was grinning.
    ‘You’ll have to do better than that. Suppose we hit a squall one day and you ended up in a heap on the deck? That wouldn’t be much help to me. Let me show you the right way to do it.’ Deftly Yiorgo raised the sail again, and then showed the boy which ropes to slacken off first. Yannis tried again and was more successful on his second attempt.
    ‘I’m better at harnessing a donkey,’ he declared ruefully.
    Yiorgo ruffled his hair. ‘You’ll soon learn. Help me pull on this rope; then I’ll pass the boxes out to you. Come on; get those lobsters to your mother, Annita. We’ll come back later and see to the nets.’
    Elena had spent the morning sitting at her embroidery which she packed away carefully as they arrived, then took the lobsters into the kitchen. The children soon heard them squealing as their shells shrunk and they sniffed the air hungrily.
    ‘They won’t be ready until supper,’ announced Elena. ‘Have your lunch now and think of the treat in store for you later.’
    Yannis yawned hugely. ‘It must be the sea air,’ he apologised.
    ‘You could sleep for a while this afternoon, Yannis.’
    ‘No he can’t.’ Yiorgo contradicted his wife. ‘The nets have to be hung out to dry and I expect they’ll need mending. He can sleep tonight.’ Yiorgo sounded quite grim as he spoke. ‘Fishermen don’t rest until everything is in readiness for the next trip. If you leave it you’ll forget it, and that can be dangerous if you get caught out at sea in bad weather.’
    Yannis could see the sense of Yiorgo’s argument and forced thoughts of sleep from his mind. The afternoon passed in the sunshine, Yannis holding the net up a few feet from the hole Yiorgo was mending. ‘Try your hand now.’ Yiorgo handed the shuttle