Chapter Nine
Mother
The Motor Vessel, Mother Earth was well known in hundreds of ports around the world. Harbor Masters, marine service providers and provision vendors knew her as a reliable source of big money and a no questions asked policy that made her welcome in nearly every nation. She was an impressive, modern vessel that usually was too big to fit into the chic yacht basins and recreational harbor piers where the Arab Princes kept their yachts and the wunderkind from the high tech nations parked their priceless toys of the moment. M.V. ME, as she was often called, stayed off shore at anchor, berthed along with cargo vessels and cruise chips or parked on a mooring buoy intended for vessels awaiting clearance.
To some observers, she looked like a well kept, streamlined version of
