At sea again!
walter@comcast
based activities.
Dana and I are visiting our cruising friends Dawn and Lauri Corbett on
Cat Tails in the St Vincent Grenadines. Cat Tails is a Fountaine Pajot
35 catamaran (it is obligatory to have a feline reference in your name
if you have a cat; one of my favorites is Feline Good. I don't know
who enforces this rule, but they must be strict for there are very few
who dare to violate the rule)
The flight down was somewhat less dramatic than our last passage,
there were no mutineys on USAIR flight 1969, no aviary pirates, no
flare sightings. In fact, we were bumped to first class, and spent the
time doing Sudoku puzzles and napping.
There was some intrigue to keep us occupied, we were smuggling in a
whole beef tenderloin in the middle of our luggage. Good beef is very
hard to find down here, even the French offer a poor substitute. Dana
and I rehearsed our lines; she packed that bag, and I filled out the
customs forms not knowing that she had included the illicit beef...
When it came to be our time in the breech, the customs officer had
just opened and searched the baggage of the person ahead of us and it
was looking dangerous. As we put our bags up on the counter, I started
acting like I did not want him to search the very large kiteboard bag
(marked pro golf, so the airlines won't charge board fees). The bag
was our saving grace, it was large and strange enough that it
distracted him from the contraband, and he insisted on searching it
instead of discovering the bovine infraction right under his nose.
In truth, we would not have felt bad at all if he had confiscated it,
as we suspected strongly that it would have introduced the locals to a
very good quality of beef at one of their cookouts, and they might
open their borders to USDA Filet Mignon.
The flight from San Juan to St Vincent was more interesting, flying
over the Spanish, US and Brititsh Virgins, then Saba, Statia, St
Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat. As we flew over each, I was pasted to the
window, remebering passages and tours associated with each spot. Then
it was on to Terra Incognita - Guadeloupe, the Saints, Dominica,
Martinique, St Lucia, and into St Vincents,our destination.
When we got to the docks via cab, we could see Cat tails right there
at a mooring, and right next to it, Unabated, the sister ship to
Madness belonging to Alan, who crewed with me to Bermuda. We are
crising together now in Bequia, watching Sven and Nadia (our names,
not theirs) do our vicarous morning workouts for us. On to the Tobago
Cays for Kiting toay.
More later. Feel free to reply, we have better conectivity. Feel free
to unsubscribe, but this trip will be over in 9 days, so you may
choose to just suffer through.
ttyl