St Lucia daze

(Photo taken that very morning!)

Daze is right.

After three weeks of incredible pressure and little sleep, I was suddenly loose in the Caribbean, Captain Ron Land; voodoo, hoodoo and all of that chit!

I checked into the office and they required (and kept!) the receipt for checking out of Spain! I have no idea why, but that was what happened.

Cleared customs and walked back to the 'Beest. The Crew and myself began the big clean up where we scrubbed every surface. Dis----gusting!

Richard and Chris packed up their belongings and almost ran me over trying to get away from us and get to the hotel. The plan was for one more visit the next day to settle up for expenses, so we made a date for 1000 the next day.

Ok, that's all over with. The Spousal Unit and myself went in search of a super amrket for fresh foods. This meant going to the bus stop and waiting for the "Caribbean" style bus. There was a cow tied to the pole whose main function was to keep foliage down.

Chickens (Cluck Cluck) ride in the bus, in cages. In fact, Free Range chickens pretty much are on the hoof all over the island!

We get to the market, buy some overpriced foods and head back. We stop by the boat to unload before we decide to do some sight seeing.

That's code word for "Let's find that great Pub, Club 'A' and sample the fine foods and liquid refreshments".

We visited a boat we knew from London on the way. Dragged the couple along, and made them join us.

The tab came to about 75 bucks for our first evening out, we ate decent food and I drank entirely too many "Piton's". But we were back onboard the 'Beest by 2100 and slept the sleep of the just. We were safely inport and life was indeed good.

I woke up with a decent little 'gover at sunup, and I made my way to the showers for a nice bit of unlimited running water. While walking with my head down, watching my steps, I heard an English accent say the following;
(Note: I am wearing a "Wildebeest" t-shirt)

"Wildebeest... Wildebeest???? WILDEBEEST!, Darryl????"

Normally, I take a moment or two to recall a name. This time, my beer soaked brain cells clicked and I merely glanced up and said, "Uh, hi Graham."

Graham was a acquaintance from the Little Ship Club in London, we had spoken a number of times in the past year.

He was totally buzzed at seeing us in St Lucia. On the dock at 0800.

"Oh, it is so goood to see you!. Come along with me to my boat, there is someone there we can surprise..."

I shuffled along behind him as we made our way to his sailboat. I stepped onboard and a very familiar head popped up in response to the uninvited boarder.




"Dahdddyll!" It was Roger, My brother from another mother, the guy who keeps popping up every where!

Totally jazzed, since no one knew where we were or if we had stayed in Europe. We dragged Roger and Graham back to the Wildebeest, where Roger stepped onboard uninvited, and as the Spousal Unit came up to challenge the boarder, she too squealed with joy at finding our friends!

Chris and Richard came by and we joked about having an Official "Little Ship Club"
meeting in the tropics! What fun. We had a bottle of Mumm's to celebrate the big reunion, we broke out the chips, dips and olives and had a grand impromptu dock party, all at 1100.

Too much fun!

.


I had the CD "Kaya" playing, this song is etched in my memory of that day;



We made a date to meet for dinner and this photo is evidence;

Lf to Rt: Graham, DC, Spousal Unit, Roger and guests...

I could get used to this life!