They are able to.

John and Kira rode out the rest of the spring thaw, still working on their home. The water level rose by quite a lot as the snow thawed, by several feet. Thankfully their house and the rest of their compound had been built well above the water line, and the boat house rose with the water.

When summertime came, they packed up their boat, and sailed down the coast of Norway to Denmark and then the Netherlands, before sailing across to England. They stopped briefly in London, and then sailed up the coast, taking it easy.

They packed some currency and items of value to trade on the trip, wanting to be prepared for anything.

Their boat no longer looked anything like the old one, it didn’t have any tracking equipment on it that was easy to find. And it had been a year, they were now less worried about Amber catching up to them.

After London they stopped in Edinburgh, then Aberdeen. And then finally made it to Wick, the port town where they had met Ralph.

Kira had been teaching her dad how to handle the boat, but she took it in to a public dock out of the way, and they waited for the sun to go down after securing their boat.

Under of darkness they checked in to the local inn, thankfully getting a room that had a line of sight on Ralph’s shop.

The next morning they had a nice breakfast and headed over to Ralph’s shop. The weather was not good, a cold drizzling rain, but that was a good thing. They were able to put on some heavy rain gear that would conceal them.

When they got to the gate, they were surprised that Ralph met them. They expected him to be off at the farm or busy, but his people had recognized the boat. They had put a lot of work into it.

“Well the Eternal looks like shite, doesn’t she?” Ralph said sarcastically before Kira almost tackled him with a powerful hug. “Jesus woman you are a strong one.”

John walked up and shook the older sailor’s hand, “hello again Ralph, how are you?”

“Better now,” the older man replied, sounding happy to see them. “I was worried about you kids. I guess you got set up ok in Norway?”

“Yep,” Kira said happily, still hugging the older man. “Out place is in good shape, we have about everything we need.”

She finally let go and looked up at Ralph, he was the best friend they had at this point. He kissed her on the forehead and pulled them into his yard, shutting the gate behind them.

John had just started asking if anyone had come looking for them, when he saw their boat in Ralph’s dry dock. He spun and looked at where he had left it, seeing it gone. Then have the old sailor an odd look.

“The lads pulled her in last night, no need leaving her out in a public dock. That is a beast of a boat, I don’t even want other people so much as looking her way.” Ralph said, answering the question which had not been asked.

“And no, nobody has been this far looking for you. I know people on the Aberdeen docks, and they haven’t seen anyone either. If they are looking for you, they haven’t made it up here.”

Kira noticed that their stores were out of the boat, and there was a hoist removing the engine. “Why are you pulling our engine? It is still in great shape isn’t it? We have barely used it…”

“That fine lady isn’t in good nick at all. The hull needs a new coating and paint job, a coupe of the carbon fiber struts are bent or broken, the engine sounds fooking terrible,” Ralph said, seeming to genuinely care about the boat. “And what they fook happened to the appliances? To the solar array??

“Our home needed the solar power and the appliances, we are not on a power grid,” John answered. “It freezes hard there, we had to borrow a few things.”

Ralph put his arm over John’s shoulder, and recoiled just a bit. Fuck this kid was well built, it was like he had put his arm over a wall.

“You still need to change the oil lad,” the old sailor answered, patting his hand on the hull. “When you head back out we will send you out with the right oil, filters, plugs, all of it. With you needing to be able to move fast, you need this beautiful lady here to start fast and be able to sail faster, and survive a good flogging at sea.”

They spent the next day in the yard with Ralph, and then rode up with him to see the farm. He had made it into a very nice place, and they spent a couple of weeks there with Ralph.

They relaxed and enjoyed the countryside and the much warmer weather. It was much needed for father and daughter.

They dressed in normal clothing which showed off John’s more powerful build, and also could not hide Kira‘s striking physical beauty. Ralph had never seen anything like it.

He saw her naked from time to time, as Kira enjoyed swimming naked in a small lake on the property, and as she was far from shy. She was comfortable in her skin, and had been for longer than Ralph had been alive.

Her body was unbelievable. He had never seen tits like that or an ass like that. John was a very lucky young man indeed.

It was a relaxing and enjoyable time for them, and both of them got to know Ralph well. They trusted him, still with nothing dishonest in his energy, he seemed perfectly trustworthy.

John could see that Ralph was attracted sexually to Kira, and he also could see that he could trust Ralph not to ever try to hurt her, to do anything against her will.

They needed the rest after a hard winter. They had brought along Kira‘s pumping gear, and they kept feeding. They enjoyed how it felt, and knew it kept them safer.