This was a new experience, and it deserves a special
section of its own. The girls secretly packed extra
Christmas decorations for the boat. On Christmas eve,
they went to work hanging snowflakes and tinsel all over the
boat. Plans were in place to spray frost on the windows,
but we felt that it would confuse the Boat Boys and elected
not to. Tinsel was placed on the forward lifelines,
green on starboard, red on port, of course.
Question: How do you know the
diesel is running?
Answer: The Christmas light are on
I placed Christmas lights inside the main saloon and in the
cockpit. I brought down a 400W inverter which would have
worked great except that my battery was shot and would not
hold a charge. We would get one or two minutes of
terrific colorful light before the inverter cut out.
Starting the diesel was the only solution to providing
continuous light, however that heavily interfered with the
Christmas music we had going on the stereo. You can’t
win them all.
Everybody brought a Christmas Stocking and placed it on the
seat in the dining area. Somehow, those stockings were
filled in the morning. I did not hear Santa land on the
deck or muscle his way down the overhead hatch. On
Christmas Day, the stocking-stuffers provided plenty of
entertainment for all.
For me living in Canada,
Christmas is always associated with snow and cold
weather. It was very unusual listening to “It's
Going to be a White Christmas”, “Let
it snow, let it snow, let it snow”,
and “Jack
Frost” doing whatever, when the temperature outside was
89 degrees! A white Christmas, no way.
Every time I travel to this
part of the world, something magical happens. Every time.
While it is true that I
personally enjoyed the old and the new experiences, the real
pleasure for me was witnessing the four “Pledge”
Suspects become transformed into Island Girls, right before
my eyes. None had ever been there before, and none had
ever experienced the charter boat method of transport. I am not sure what
they were expecting, other than sun, sand, surf, and sail. What each of them came away with
was something substantially more real and more valuable - a
personal interaction with a magical place, the people, and their
culture.
Each day, their eyes lit up when they discovered
some new subtlety of the place. Whether it be the sincere
hospitality of Robert Righteous, the people of Mayreau, the charm of Mr. Plat,
his beach barbecues, the awesome natural beauty of the
Tobago Cays, or the tranquility of Salt Whistle Bay. I would grin in secret when
I overheard one of them start speaking of a recent
experience, as if it had been a routine part of their daily
lives. I knew they really appreciated every aspect of
it.
They were now full-fledged Suspects.
They had become One of
Us, and that for me was the greatest reward.
