Wednesday, November 3, 2010

A private moment shared with a perfect stranger...


Our updates are very boring sometimes……I have been doing a lot more on FaceBook because it seems to be easier to do…….easy from my Blackberry and I can do quick and easy stuff including pictures even without an internet connection….which I have had very little time to do, plus its slow and the signal has been weak these past few days. Barry has been able to get online to teach but its slow going.

Sometimes tho, something so funny and wonderful albeit a bit off color, happens and I have to share.

Yesterday afternoon when we pulled into the Wahoo River for our evening anchoring, there were two fishing boats tied stern to bow with Crown Royal in front and William Patrick snuggled up behind it, tied to its stern.
Its hard to see it in the picture but there are two boats inline.

We anchored what we thought was going to be a safe distance and courteous, leaving room for other boats coming in to anchor here later in the day/evening. If you have never anchored out like this, let me explain a little….especially when there is a tide like along the coast here , when the tide comes in and out, your boat will swing around with the tide. You have to plan ahead for it, but usually all the boats swing at the same rate at the same time so no one hits as long as the rule of thumb for length of anchor chain to let out is followed.

So we get settled and enjoy the evening and watch another sailboat and a motor yacht come in and anchor with us. About 6:30pm the tide begins its 2 a day dance and we begin to swing around. Well…..evidently the two fishing boats were not tied snugly at all, but with about 30ft of a line connecting them, so that second fishing boat, the William Patrick was a hell of a lot closer to us than was comfortable but still safe.
Or so Captain Barry kept telling me.
Then it dawned on us that the two might not swing around at the same time as we do at tide change close to midnight and as you can see from the pictures they have the outriggers with nets hanging off 25-30 feet out to the sides. I had thoughts of their nets in our rigging and horrible sounds in the middle of the night. We set our alarm to get up just before the tide changed and sort of slept a few hours. We could hear their music and even hear them talking so well that we could tell two were from Jamaica mon. Also I learned a dozen new new rap songs. Oh joy, but it did make me giggle…..laying there in bed listening to Jamaican patois and rap music all the while Barry is reassuring me that we are not too close!

When we got up at midnight, sure enough the William Patrick was very close and we had started to swing and in the dark it was hard to see if they had……so we started the engine and put her in reverse at idle and swung back away for about 15 minutes till the WP started her swing, then the Crown Royal in front of her began hers and we shut the engine off and let Ever After go ahead and swing back around too before the boats BEHIND us did their thing! Dressage….Paux de deaux on the water I guess. We went below and slept (sort of) till dawn and sure enough everyone had swung back around ok. …….now the funny part. Segue to this morning…… Im sleepy and maybe a teensy bit grouchy (in a Nice Way) from lack of slumber and acquiescing to the Captain about how we handled the situation……..so I see the fishing boat guys (how could I MISS them) stirring about and one of them comes to his stern and shouts (why is he shouting? He is so close) but their music is so loud he HAS to shout to hear himself…….about how they are going to have to back up and “will der be nuff room…mon?”

Barry was below and I suggested (I was Nice) he come up and converse with this fella since he IS the captain etc………they talked it over and nothing was decided so I suggested (I was Nice again)
that they use the VHF to communicate and I was sort of ignored……then Barry did try to hail them on the VHF but again their music was so loud they could not hear him. He went below and I got on and tried to hail both boats by name but the music…….anyway the guy came back along the side of the boat towards the stern again and ended up sitting down facing me. Music blaring, just sitting there. So I start waving the microphone of the VHF out the side cockpit window so he can see I want him to go to his VHF and talk to me. He just sits there looking my direction but not giving any indication he sees me but I KNOW he can.
Im baffled for a few minutes until I see him stir around a little doing something fidgety , then hike his pants back up, zip buckle and belt. DING DONG Sami…….poor guy was trying to take his morning constitutional and here is this woman waving the VHF microphone at him like I have something to say!
I lost it right there and fell out on the cockpit floor laughing. Barry thought I was having an episode…….it took me a while to explain……and right about then the captain of the WP came to the back of the boat and said no worries, he has two engines and can spin her out with no problems or us having to move.

The look that one guy gave me as they cruised past us was priceless.

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