He nodded.

‘This the girlfriend?’

Another nod.

I nudged the old picture. ‘What about this?’

He peered at it. ‘No idea.’ He flipped it over as I had already done, but there was no writing on the back. I made a stack of the pictures with the one of Ray on top.

‘Big lad’, I said.

‘Six two. No way he could’ve been mine-we used to make a joke of it. Chris’s a bit smaller.’

Six foot two, I thought, nineteen years of age and a boat worker-that meant ropes, oars and muscles. I hoped my usual verbal persuasive methods would be adequate for the task. I didn’t fancy trying to make him do anything he didn’t want to. Guthrie checked his course; I separated out the old photograph and the one of Ray at the wheel.

‘Can I hang on to these?’

‘Sure. Here we go, got to check this.’

He flicked the wheel, cut the motor and brought the yacht close up to a buoy that looked like a giant, floating truck wheel. A flipped switch sent the anchor rattling down through the clear, green water. Guthrie went to the stem, hauled in the dinghy, slipped down into it and skipped across to the mooring buoy with a few easy strokes. I felt useless, so I went back to the cabin and replaced the three photos. When I got back on deck I watched Guthrie circumnavigating the buoy, pulling and testing ropes, car tyre buffers and metal stanchions. When he was satisfied, he rowed back.

After a few more similar stops, Guthrie anchored in deep water and pulled two cans of light beer out of a cooler in the saloon. He had a plastic-wrapped package of sandwiches in there, too. We ate and drank under the awning.

‘Brought you out here because I wanted you to see what kind of a boy Ray is. You think I’m pretty good in a boat?’

I was chewing; I nodded.

‘He’s better. Faster and sharper, and he sticks at it. One time we got a mooring rope wrapped around the propeller shaft, just before we tied up. Getting on for winter it was, dark, cold. Ray stayed in the water, down under there, for as long as it took to work the rope free. Could have cut it but he wouldn’t. Bit of a perfectionist, likes to do things right. You don’t see that all that often.’