Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and, for a second time, she was halted in her tracks. Her bow dropped down a few feet; we
heard a sickening bang from down below, and her bow flew up like a cork in the water free
from her anchor.
“Yay!” yelled Penny, “We're free!”
“We broke the fuckin' anchor ,you mean!” Gavin yelled in disgust as he hauled in the slack
warp. Sure enough, when he had hauled the anchor over the side, all that was left was the
cross bar and stock minus the flukes. “Oh Christ, our new anchor!” I cried in dismay. We
had hardly used it. What a bloody waste. I realized what an impatient fool I'd been. We
should have remained there for the night and dived it out in the morning light.
I had no time to linger up on the foredeck and charged back to the cockpit and threw her
helm around again, heading for the entrance. This time we motored through with ease, and
seeing Kevin and Elsie, we headed straight towards them. Kevin, Elsie, and Craig were sit-
ting on deck, under their bimini. They had guests. Two little wooden dugout canoes trailed
lazily astern and the four nut-brown occupants, drinks in hand, were chattering away ex-
citedly. I suspect one of them had come to collect his “present.”
Kevin waved as we approached and pointed at a good spot to anchor. Gavin released the
plough anchor, and it disappeared into the blue green water noisily as the chain rattled
over the roller, breaking the late afternoon silence. Sails were stowed or lashed down. I
turned off the engine and its various water inlets, turned off the batteries, and dived into the
cool seawater to wash off the day's sweat. The others did likewise, and we bickered good-
naturedly under the solar shower. Penny and I were still in a spot of afterglow from the
afternoon “siesta,” and she grinned slyly under the warm shower. It was our habit to leave
the large black plastic water container on its side on the deck where it was exposed to the
sun. The solar shower bag was lashed next to it. Thus, were we able to have hot freshwater
sluice-offs after a good washing in the ocean.
After changing into dry clothes, we grabbed a few beers and the chief's kava and rowed
over to Penny's parents' boat.
“Hey you guys, obviously the tide couldn't keep you out!” Kevin grinned, taking the
dinghy painter from his smiling daughter. “Hi baby, had a good trip?” He kissed her fondly,
“We've got royalty on-board,” he said, smiling over at the four men that sat about the spa-
cious cockpit.
We greeted them smiling, and the one who was evidently the chief stood up and bowed his
head in greeting, “Welcome to our island,” he said with a toothy grin and surprisingly good
English. He was a large, well-proportioned man of around fifty. His short, curly, black hair
was fringed in grey, and he had shrewd black eyes. He was dressed in a colorful wrap-
