FIREBIRD - Bob Holt

FIREBIRD, is the story of three people whose lives were turned upside down in separate incidents and years later, meet on a Caribbean island to restore an abandoned sailing ketch. The 84ft yacht, Firebird, was built by an industrialist who dreamed to sail the world. The day he christened his new yacht, he died of a heart attack.

In Texas, Sam Berrenger, returned home from work to find his young wife had run away with her lover and died in a car wreck. And in Boston, Anna Neeson’s husband, a navy pilot, was killed in an accident just before their son’s birth. For the next twenty years, Sam, Firebird, Anna and her son, Ian, drift anchorless through life until fate brings them together.

Sam, jobless and homeless in Puerto Rico, decides to jumpstart his life by buying and restoring an old sailboat to go into the charter business. The yacht's sad appearance reflects Sam's own condition. After moving to a nearby island to work on her, he hires a college boy to help, and the boy’s young widowed mother, soon joins them. Sam finds the boat and these new people in his life a daunting responsibility. The last twenty years, he has been free to move on from any job, any town, - any woman, whenever he wanted.

As the weeks pass, Sam learns their efforts are being monitored from a mysterious villa on a hill, overlooking the island's harbor. With few resources, he and his crew struggle to overcome the obstacles while finishing enough restoration to enter an approaching Charter Boat Show. He hopes the show will provide bookings for the coming season, but progress is erratic as old worn-out motors, pumps, and other parts continue to fail.

With each layer of grime stripped away, Firebird's sad history is uncovered, (i.e. previous owners with unrequited dreams.) At the same time, Sam chips at the defensive wall he built around himself. As the days pass, all three recognize the healing in their lives. Sam sees in Anna, the mate he lost, and in Ian, the son he always wanted. Anna, too, accepts Sam as someone to love her and a partner. And Ian finds in Sam the father he never knew.  

Just before the Charter Show, thugs from the villa overpower them and hijack Firebird. They need a boat to move illegal contraband stored in the villa away from suspicious federal agents. The first night at sea, Sam and Ian overpower their kidnappers and rescue Anna. The ring selling nuclear triggers to third world despots, is exposed, and Sam realizes Firebird had a destiny greater than anyone dreamed for her, and she has given them all a new life and new hope.