V Is For V-Berth | Nancy Drew Investigates {A To Z Challenge}

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we'll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with "A is for Anchor" and ending with "Z is for Zodiac." Each post is an installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates the Case of the Missing Anchor" - so you may want to read the posts from the beginning, in order to follow along with the story (click here for the first post and here for an index of all the posts). At the end of each post, you'll also find some random thoughts on the day's particular topic. So, if Nancy isn't your thing, feel free to skip the story and go straight to the end.  

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When we last left you, Ned had left his watch at the dock when he heard a girl scream on the beach. When he went to help her, she told him that she had sprained her ankle, but what she was really doing was distracting Ned so that Party Palace could make a getaway. One problem - Nancy was on board!

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When Nancy heard the two men speaking on deck, she quickly looked for a place to hide. She opened the door to the v-berth and ducked inside. As she closed the door, she looked around in astonishment at all of the nautical equipment and goods stowed on the v-shaped berth. She saw a Rocna anchor, winch handles, bolts of Sunbrella fabric, an outboard motor, chart plotters and a windlass, among other things.

Now, if only she could find the list that she heard Captain Gus talking about. It supposedly had details of all of the items they had stolen and how much they had sold them for. Between the list and all of the equipment stored in the v-berth, there should be no problem putting Captain Gus and his gang away for a long time.

Suddenly, Nancy heard the noise of the engine starting up and the two men shouting at each other.

“Quick, let’s get out of here,” one of the men said. “Nellie is distracting that chump standing at the end of the dock so that we can make a clean getaway.”

“No problem, Pete. Let me just get the bow and stern lines and we’ll be good to go,” said the other man.

“Hurry it up, Donny,” said Pete with an irritated tone to his voice.

Nancy suddenly remembered where she had heard that voice before. Donny was the suspicious man on the white catamaran who had pushed Nancy to the ground in the boatyard, tried to ram her boat and another boat, as well as stranded two people on the beach when he stole their dinghy. She knew it – the white catamaran, Party Time, was in cahoots with the boat she was on, Party Palace!

Nancy felt the boat pull away from the dock and head out into the bay. She wondered where they were headed. Were they going to rendezvous with Captain Gus somewhere?

As the boat motored along, Nancy moved some of the boat equipment aside and sat down on the v-berth to think about what she should do next. While she was mulling over her options, the boat slowed down and she heard the two men talking to each other.

“This looks like a good place to drop the anchor,” Pete said. “Why don’t you head up to the bow and get it ready.”

Nancy heard footsteps along the deck, a creaking noise as the anchor locker opened, followed by a splash as the anchor and chain were dropped into the water.

“All set, Pete,” said Donny. “Party Time isn’t anchored too far away. I figure we’ll have to do a few trips in the dinghy to get all of the stuff moved over there.”

Nancy froze as she realized that they were going to be coming into the v-berth to get all of the stolen items which were stacked up in there. There wasn’t really any place to hide in the v-berth. Should she climb out of the hatch onto the deck, dive off the boat and swim to shore?

Tune in on Wednesday for the next installment of Nancy Drew Investigates – W is for Watch.

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See the pointy area? That's the v-berth on our old boat. It was too small for both Scott and me to sleep comfortably in, so he slept on the settee, while I shared the v-berth with the laundry and other bits and bobs. I bet you're loving the retro plaid cushion covers.

There are so many sailing words that don't make any sense at all and bear no resemblance to what they're describing, but v-berth is one of the exceptions. It's a berth (or a bed) in the shape of a V. So simple that even I understand it.

A lot of people happily use their v-berth as their main sleeping area, but, when we were shopping for our current boat, I had my heart set on a center cockpit and a spacious aft (rear) cabin. I love the fact that we don't feel the waves as much when sleeping in our aft cabin at anchor (of course our Moody 346 is a far heavier boat than our old Raven 26, which probably has something to do with it). But, what I love even more is how much easier it is to get in and out of bed and the small sitting area that the space affords. (You can see pictures of our boat here.)

The downside of our aft cabin is that you have to practically crawl through a low passageway between the galley and the engine room and go through a door better suited to a hobbit than a full-sized human. However, once you get inside, it's so cozy that you never want to leave. (You can read more about our ridiculously small doors here.) I think our aft cabin is my favorite room in our floating home.

What about you - what's your favorite room in your house (or boat or RV) and why?

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