Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
As for the fan belt, I thought, that was going to be a joke! But I had to try at least. I went in
to a general wheeler-dealer and half-heartedly waved the old fan belt in front of the pretty,
little thing behind the counter. “Si si, I teenk I get sumsing like dat.” And she leaned around
a wooden staircase behind her and pulled one dusty, little fan belt off a rusty nail. I offered
mine up for size skeptically and was stunned to find it was a perfect match. I grabbed her
by her sexy, brown shoulders and planted a lingering kiss on her full and surprised lips.
Well, I wanted to, but instead I just beamed and thanked her warmly.
“You and your brudder at disco, sí?” she asked.
“Yes, we were, were you?”
“Sí, señor, I sees those bad boys dey fighting weet you; dey allus make trouble dose guys.
Ees good you fight dem, ees good!” she praised.
Gavin walked in just then and said he was unable to find any bread but found packets of
flour and a case of beers.
“Ah, your brudda, same like you ho, so same!” The sweet girl was amazed at our likeness;
we smiled sheepishly back at her.
“You look for bread, sí?”
“Yes, we are sailing far away tomorrow and are very short of food,” I told her.
“What it ees that you need?”
“Any fresh vegetables and fruit and bread and canned meat would be great; we can't find
anything here,” Gavin told her solemnly.
“You come tomorrow early morning; I see what I find for you, sí?”
We thanked her for her kindness and returned to the boat. “She was pretty damn cute; pity
we are leaving so soon,” Gavin lamented.
“I know, but the hurricane season is upon us; we just have to make a move,” I said.
I was sitting at the stern of the dinghy, and Gavin was rowing energetically back to Déjà vu.
I noticed for the thousandth time how the boat had a slight list to port. It was very slight,
but it was there. Probably the two batteries and the propane tank I thought. It could also be
that the mast was slightly out of plumb; yes, I must remember to check that someday.
We unloaded the dinghy and stowed below the meager provisions we had bought. Surpris-
ingly, we had found a good supply of our favorite milk powder and plenty of dried corn
and were able to fill up our containers with paraffin. We also found a good quantity of hard
cabin crackers, the old stand by for when bread was unavailable and also great for queasy
