Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“Mind if I join you?” came a friendly voice. The owner of the voice was a young, blonde
man wearing the same clothing as ourselves. We assumed correctly he worked for the yard
as well.
“The name is Randy; you blokes must be the South African boat-busters I've been hearing
about,” he said with a twinkle in his young eyes.
Gavin introduced us, “Yep, we're the boat-busters; I wonder what else John Anderton will
get us to do?”
“Oh, he's pretty cool to work for; he'll keep you busy; don't you worry about that.” He
grinned, “He is very fair, but he expects a good job; it pays to keep in his good books
though. Hell, I've seen him blow up at a few guys; man, it's not a pretty sight.”
We asked him about the yard and the people, what there was to do around town in the even-
ing, and I asked him about Liz.
“Oh, Liz, hey man, join the queue. I think everyone in this damn boatyard wants to sleep
with her. I think she's got a boyfriend on the mainland; he's been gone a few months; I
don't know if they are still together or what. Yeah, she's pretty cute I reckon.”
“So what does a person do around here at night; are there any bars or restaurants?” Gavin
asked, offering Randy a smoke.
“Well, there's a pretty cool piano bar called La Mariana's over the way there on that other
dock. A lot of the locals go for happy hour, and the food is good though a little pricey. Fri-
day nights they have this blind guy playing piano and singing; he's very good. Also some
people stand up and sing a song, and he accompanies them on piano, kind of like karaoke.”
“Kare-whatee? What about girls in this town?” was Gavin's next and inevitable query.
“I don't know you guys; I'm married, although my wife is back home in Wisconsin. I've
seen some beauts around town; you'll need wheels though,” he said, standing up to go. “I
heard Dirty Dan's Dancing is pretty full of easy women, and it's within walking distance
from here. Later, guys,” he waved.
We were sweating by the time we were back in the sampan, and we were very tired. We
had been at sea for a long time and our muscles had atrophied quite alarmingly. We were
painfully thin and weak from the exertion, but our spirits were high, and we set to work
amongst the rapidly growing pile of broken, wormy wood. By the time four o' clock came,
both Gavin and I could hardly climb out of the boat we were so exhausted. We collected all
the tools and trudged off to the shed and put them back in the big cabinets.
