1. "AVANTI"
“AVANTI”
The yacht, “Avanti”, on which I, Mia, was born, despite its Italian name, was registered as British, my parents however were not British, mom was Ukrainian while my father was French, however none of that is too relevant as they were both only in my life up until I was 1 year old. Before I go into details about their demise let me first explain how I came to be.
My father, Jules, the debonair Frenchman, inherited money from his father’s will, instead of reinvesting it into the company his father founded and which he also inherited, he allowed the company to collapse and he splurged his inheritance on a yacht, he equipped it for a planned four year round-the-world voyage, hired a crew of his drinking buddies and they advertised for “young females to join in a once in a life time adventure, all expenses paid”, out of the many that applied two French, and one Ukrainian women who was holidaying in France, signed up. After a year of preparation and working together, one month before setting off, Amelie, one of the French girls was having doubts about seeing herself servicing the crew of six men and, on having a fallout with Ben, one of the male crew members who felt she should be “doing it for/with” him, she ‘resigned’. Anna, the Ukrainian hastily persuaded her younger sister Sofia, my mother, to join up.
According to my source, sexual favours were always consensual, but there was some pressure, if not for penetrative sex, then for the women to at least “help the men out” presumably with oral or hand jobs. With a crew of 9 there was however not much opportunity for privacy, so hand jobs were often performed while on duty or while facing the railings.
Sofia being the youngest and the prettiest, as well as not having undergone any of the training, was taken by Jules as his “personal” wench. The story goes that I was conceived during a wild storm when all though the boat would be lost, Jules threw all caution to the wind and took Sofia without the customary precautions while the yacht tossed about in the wild sea. The yacht survived and limped to the nearest port with a broken mast and torn sails. Repair and re-provisioning took several months and before they set sail again it was discovered that my birth would have to be factored into the scheduling. The plan was for us to arrive in Rio de Janeiro a month before my due date and to lay up there until after my delivery, however a three-week becalming and my early arrival meant that I was born just 1 day outside of port. We had a couple of months rest in Rio de Janeiro during which Bridgette the other French girl resigned and flew back to France, again it was Ben who had been, as she exclaimed “treating me like his personal bloody whore” which was both figurative and literal as he had demanded and taken her while on her period and then blamed the mess on her. Thomas one of the male crew who fancied Bridgette followed her a week later, his position was made up by Fernando, a young Brazilian who Jules met in his travels through Rio.
Turns out that Fernando was not so much a sailor as a philanderer, and although he did his share on deck he also did some below deck cosying up to my mother, I suspect it was the sight of her with her beasts bared suckling me that turned this young man with an oral complex on. Jules surprisingly didn’t object to the attention Fernando was giving my mother, I suspect he had possibly moved on to my aunt Anna, who I got all this history from, though she did not admit to that part of it, but I could see it in her eyes. The one who was put out was Ben, not that he had ever had any favours from my mother, but it seems that Anna being exclusively with Jules or Fernando, meant that he was left to ‘self-service’ himself.
After a year back on the seas this got too much for him, he had a blowout with Jules while Jules was in the cabin with my mother and shot a flare into the cabin and shut the door. Fortunately I was on deck being washed down by Anna at the time and when Ben arrived on deck still brandishing the flair pistol he was summarily dispatched overboard, initially a line and lifebuoy were then thrown to him, however once it was apparent that he had set fire to the cabin with Jules and Sofia inside, the line was cut and he was left to drift out of sight.
The yacht limped to the nearest port, which was in Britain, a report was made to the police, the yacht was impounded. While the remaining male crew flew back to their respective home countries, Anna stayed with me in Britain, Jules had a cousin in London who kindly took us in for a year until Jules’ estate was finalised. Jules' estate was distributed between his distant relatives, the cousin who had so kindly supported Anna and me wasn’t amoung the beneficiaries and suddenly the wife’s attitude changed, and we were booted out. This was too much for Anna who had been worn down with many anxieties, including her guilt over having persuaded Sofia to join the adventure, and she collapsed with heart failure, she was rushed to hospital, and I was taken into Social Welfare care.
