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Published: January 25th 2010
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AT LAST A DAY WHEN I CAN DO SOMETHING I'M GOOD AT.
05:35- I couldn't sleep thinking about the alarm going off in 5 minutes. 06:00-unlock the shop and recieve last minute instructions from Alan. The main thing is come home with the same number you left with. Good advise to be heeded. 06:30-the crew is all aboard and the final count of guests to expect is 43. Colin starts to dingy the guest aboard-first trip-15, second trip-19, third trip-5. The phone they've given me rings and Alethia tells me that one couple is going to join us outside the harbour coming over from St Vincent,that one couple failed to show up, and that we are to bring one passenger up from the Cays to Bequia. that makes the count 41 going down and 42 coming home-so much for coming home with the same number we left with.
07:07-We weigh anchor and slip out of Admiralty Bay under a cloudless sky. Onboard is a multi-national crowd with represetitives from: USA, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Sweeden, Switzerland, and New Zealand. Captain Lewis takes us a stone's throw away from the shore at moonhole and the cameras and question come out.
I do my best tour guide impersonation as I give some of the history of how Moonhole was started. We clear the island and its time to hoist canvas.
Not wanting to be seen as a whimp, I grab the rope with Job, who must be at least 70 and start to pull. Hoisting the mainsail is quite a chore because you're not only raising the weight of the canvas, but also the beam that holds the top of the canvas. Picture raising a large flag with a telephone pole jutting horizontally from the flagpole. The sail in only half way up and I am seriously winded. 70-year-old Job is still hoisting away--Can I refill anyone's drink or bring you another creasant? Sailing is hard work and the crew has my highest respect. I spend the remainder of the day trying to recover from the smackdown that Job has handed me in the sail-raising. I'd like to see him try to serve lunch and drinks to 42 guests from 9 different countries-what I lack in strength, I make up in charm.
Three hours and a gallon and a half of rum punch later we arrive in the Tobago
Cays. This is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places on the planet--The post-card-perfect, palm-lined, deserted beach. Colin takes a dingy load to the reef for snorkeling and Seckey starts shuttling guests over to the beach. Seckey has a Tobago Cays local water taxi. We've hired him to help us ferry the guests from the boat to the beach to the reef and back to the boat. He's a really likable guy and very good with the guests. Colin stays with the group snorkeling and I stay with the group on the beach.
13:00 and everyone's back on the boat, but me. As I try to lift the ice chest out of Seckey's boat onto the Friendship Rose a wave pitches us and the ice chest and I head for Seckey's railing. The ice chest survives, but I go head first over the rail and right into the water. Does anyone need their glass refilled?
42 plates of ginger chickenand rice, and fried plantains, and 10 bottles of wine later-I've nearly dried out and regained my composure. On the sail down I manage to garner some fans at I take a dozen pictuies of guests behind the
wheel steering the ship and now they all want to see if I'm OK. The guests get a good laugh at my expense and I remind them that "What happens in the Tobago Cays-Stays in the Tobago Cays".
At first the sail home looks like everyone's ready for a good post-lunch nap, but once the rum punch starts making the rounds everyone wakes up and starts talking with each other and having a really good time. I spend the next couple of hours straight pouring rum punch, rum-less punch, diet coke, diet-less coke, coffey, tea, orange juice, pineapple juice, ginger ale, and more rum punch. We near the end of our cruise and I begin to think I've done a good job, when guests ask if I will pose for a picture with them.
Back in the harbour and the mooring lines set. The guests make their way down the ladder to the dingy and wave back to the captain and crew as Colin and I shuttle them back to the dock. It's been a spectacular day of fun and sun-for the guests and for me, but just another day at work for the captain and crew.
Another perfect day in Bequia,
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Karla
non-member comment
David - Again I'm so jealous. My only hope now is that you will return ready to start planning a trip, with you as guide, so that the rest of us can enjoy you island!