#3 The Quay

#3

Molly had been booked up for sailing lessons during most of the summer. Tourist and vacationers came to Kilmore Quay to get away from the city and spend time at the beach and relax. The Quay was a sleepy little place that lacked the hurry and rush of the bigger cities and many of the cottages were rented up full every summer. Some visitors just sat by the water and enjoyed the view, some took boat trips out to the Saltee Islands to view the many species of birds, some came for fishing trips, and some just sat outside enjoying the atmosphere that Kilmore Quay had to offer. Come dinner time the local restaurants would be packed serving the day's catch, as fresh as it could be. The area had tons to offer with sailing lessons and diving among the choices.

Molly set her lessons mostly as weekly rates where she would take someone out for three hours of training and experience four days a week on Monday through Thursday. On the weekends, she would take people out for the three days and they would have more of a feel for sailing than actually be able to sail. This meant for the most part Molly didn't have any days off. With this kind of schedule she could do two lessons a day during the week, and two a day on weekends. She always explained to her students that one week of lessons would not qualify them for the open sea, but they would be able to sail around a harbour. Safety was always her first concern.

With the two three hour sessions, Molly was able to keep the Sail Shop open when she was not out training. Since the town was so small, all she did was leave a note on the shop door that she was out training and when she would be back. This had worked for many years as she never had any complaints.

When she arrived back from a morning training session at noon with a student on this particular Friday afternoon she found a disgruntled customer sitting outside the Sail Shop.

“Where have you been? I've been waiting for hours.” the disgruntled man complained.

Molly immediately became defensive as she hated this impulsive tone. “Did you see the note on the door? Do you have an appointment for a lesson? Do you need something for your boat?”

Molly was organized enough to know that she had not scheduled a lesson for that afternoon and was puzzled with this man's attitude.

“No, I don't have a lesson, but there should be someone here to help. I did see the note, but it made no sense. You don't close up just because you're out sailing!” he retorted.

“So what is it you want?” Molly was trying to stay calm.

“Sailing lessons, I need sailing lessons and I need them right away. I hear you are the best around, so I came here,” he explained.

At this point Molly was annoyed at his demands and general attitude. Obviously this city dweller had no manners and had come to expect that he would get everything he wanted when he demanded it. This would not happen with Molly.

“Look, you do realize this is the busy summer season and I'm booked full through the middle of September. You can always try the Wexford Yacht Club up the coast some. I'm sure they have some openings this summer. Although they are a bit more pricey.” Molly was trying to extricate this person from her shop. She really didn't want to have anything to do with him.

“No, no, I heard you are the best. I need to learn this weekend. Don't you have an opening?” Now it seemed like he was pleading.

Molly knew she had this afternoon open, but was hesitant to offer it to this stranger. He was so annoying with his attitude and demanding tone, too.

“Okay, first let's chat a bit about this big rush to learn to sail. You don't seem like the seafaring type to me. And not the usual vacationer just wanting to learn something new. What's the big rush?” Molly was trying to get to the heart of this.

The man looked down to the ground as if it could talk for him. “It's my boss. I'm up for a promotion and he's taking me sailing next week. I guess I alluded to him that I knew how to sail and since he's an expert he thought it would be a great way to see if we would work well together. But I've never been sailing a day in my life. The most I've done is taken the ferry across to Holyhead, and there's no sails on a ferry. He just sprung this on me yesterday, so I'm desperate to learn and quickly.”

Molly understood the implication of this man's situation. Many a hire or promotion could be conducted outside of an office. It could have been in a pub, fancy restaurant, or in this case, out on the open sea. She actually felt sorry for this man. He put himself in a tenuous position and now he was trying to fix it fast.

“I can't train you to be an expert sailor in one weekend,” she explained. “But I might be able to give you enough knowledge to pass yourself off as having some sailing experience.”

“Anything would be helpful at this point. He just needs to know that I know how to sail,” the man explained. “I'm not really going to be asking him to let me sail his yacht.”

“Knowing that he has a yacht is good. You could always tell him that all your sailing has been done in a sloop. There's a big difference in the two. Besides he'll have all kinds of technology gadgets to help with the sailing. Most importantly a GPS and a radio.” Molly was trying to help with this information.

“Alright,” Molly sighed as she said this, “I have an opening this afternoon for a weekend training. We can start in an hour, and if you can remember the names of all the important parts of the boat, you might just have him fooled. I'll be taking you out on a sloop, so you know what I'm talking about. Will that work for you?”

Suddenly the man's tone changed to excited, “That would be wonderful! So we start in an hour?”

“Yes, you'll have just enough time for some light lunch. Don't eat too much in case you get seasick,” Molly chuckled. “Oh, and we need to settle payment.”

“It's okay, I'll pay extra if need be just for you taking me this weekend. I don't care how much it costs if this helps me get the promotion,” the man was almost dancing in his excitement at this point.

Molly explained that the standard rate for a weekend training was two hundred euros, and the man agreed and made his payment before heading off for lunch agreeing to meet back at the Sail Shop in an hour.