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Carl Swedborg, skipper of the fishing trawler Molly Bender, rapped the baroarded it stoically for a moment, then walked over to the chart table and picked up a cup of coffee Histhe river ahead, he sipped at the coffee and gazed at the ice that was building on the deck He hated hts The dampness seeped into his seventy-year-old bones and tortured his joints He should have retired a decade past, but with his wife gone and his children scattered around the country, Swedborg could not bear to sit around an e as he could find a berth as skipper he would stay on water until they buried him in it
"At least visibility is a quarter of a mile," he said absently
"I've seen worse, y-haired Irish irant who stood at the hel in"
"Agreed," said Swedborg dryly He shivered and buttoned the top button of his ed Point channel buoy"
"Don't you fret, Skipper Me faithful Belfast nose can sniff channel markers like a bloodhound, it can"
Donegal's blarney seldo The skipper's lips involuntarily curled upward and he spoke in a stern tone that was patently fake "I prefer you use your eyes"
The Molly Bender swung around Ragged Point and continued her course downriver, passing an occasional lighted channel buoy that caht beside a rain-soaked boulevard intersection The shore lights glowed dully through the thickening sleet
"Soal
Swedborg picked up a pair of binoculars and looked beyond the bows "The lead ship carries three white lights That uish her outline Must be a long tow, though I hts on the last vessel in line about three hundred yards astern the tug"
"We're on a collision course, Skipper Her hts are in line with our bow"
"What is the bastard doing on our side of the river?" Swedborg wondered out loud "Doesn't the da each other should keep to their starboard side of the channel? He's hogging our lane"
"We can al "Better we alert him and pass starboard to starboard"
"All right, Donegal Swing to port and give two blasts of the whistle to signal our intentions"
There was no answering blast The strange tug's lights, it see far ht to expect, far es in tow He was horrified as he watched the other vessel turn toward the Molly Bender's altered course
"Give the fool four short whistle blasts!" Swedborg shouted