Ships that pass in the night

We knew they were in the area. For one reason or another we’d missed hooking up with friends from several boats so when I went out on deck with my morning coffee and heard a familiar cheerful “Ahoy, Escape Velocity!” with that distinctive British accent, it was hard to believe our friends from S/V Macushla of Shannon had found us.

They had been all over the Carribean since we’d last seen them and even to a few places that Americans aren’t allowed to go. We originally met them in Charleston at a delightful little cafe in the old section of town and I thought those people are sailors so we sat down and just hit it off. They are Brits like our friend Alan and I liked the no-nonsense way they had setup their boat. It was good to see them again.

Like all cruisers we had all gone our own way after the impromptu get together In Lake Sylvia in Fort Lauderdale. In fact they were in attendance at my wishful “no recurrence” pre-surgery party aboard Escape Velocity in March. Maybe they’re my good luck charms.

We quickly got together and toured Charlotte Amalie in which I would point at an old building and say “I might have played some music there in that building or somewhere around here some forty years ago.” I think they were impressed.

Then Marce would say that her family owned this building and we think that building as well. We went provisioning together at a box store called Cost U Less, where we introduced them to the charms of the dollar safari taxi truck, which is two dollars to “the country.” St. Thominians call anything that labors up over the mountainous switchback roads the country. It was just too hard to explain how to get there on the Safari taxi truck.

We invited them for a soirée aboard Escape Velocity and as they climbed the stairs up to deck level I was able to welcome our first guests aboard the new orange Escape Velocity. Janis at Island Canvas had worked her magic and after many months of planning all of EV’s major canvas is a handsome burnt orange, and the front window covers that were crumbling have been replaced with new see through sun reflecting fabric. We love it and we are more distinctive than ever. After all, yellow boats are a dime a dozen here in the Caribbean.

They left at dawn heading for St Martin, another eastward slog to windward. I don’t know who keeps coming up with these rough eastward passages but we’re about out of eastern Caribean Islands. Weather is supposed to be coming in and we have to wait for some last minute adjustments from Janice so it’s going to be close, but we have a plan. Stay tuned Escapees.