We’ll update the blog when we can. Ciao for now.

When we told some of the Dominicans that we were going to Haiti, they tried to talk us out of it–they don’t even go!! We had become friends with a man named Odalis. He and his friend, Raphael, started a business together, Luperon Harbor Services, and we met them through the Naval Comandancias. Odalis & Raphael helped interpret since they spoke pretty good English. Odalis’ brother runs a taxi (gua gua), so he offered to take us into Haiti, we only had to pay for the taxi & gas, not his time.

We heard from Danita on Tuesday or Wednesday that all was safe, and settled on Friday for our trip. It was a three hour drive to Dajabon, DR. We happened to be going on a Friday, which was market day. Market day is a weekly event where the border between Haiti and DR is opened for a few hours. People from Haiti bring anything they can sell to trade for food, and those who have money, buy food.

Some other cruisers we met in Sapodilla Bay, Turks & Caicos also sailed to Luperon and there were three other boats who were interested in going to market and possibly Haiti, so we talked them into joining us. They were hoping to be able to find some wonderful things at the market (art, perhaps), and they also thought it would be a wonderful experience to see Haiti. We soon learned that it cost $25 to cross the border back and forth ($50 per person), no matter if you were staying weeks or hours. Since it was so expensive, the rest of the group decided to stay in Dajabon and shop at the market while we went over. We wanted to go even though it would cost $250 for our family. We didn’t want to be this close and let money stop us. It was settled that we would all meet at the dinghy dock at 7:30am Friday morning where Odalis would pick us up.

In a van that seats 12, we crammed our party of 14 in with room to spare (based on our previous gua-gua experience, there was still room for at least 6 more)!!

The ride over was long, and it rained a little. Once we arrived in Dajabon the streets were crammed–I mean crammed. There were wheel barrows, peddlers, carts… anything that would hold merchandise was crowding the streets to the point that we couldn’t get the van through without running over people. Finally, a “guide” stepped up and led us to a place right by the government office where we could leave the van safely. Odalis “hired” a boy to watch the van for us. Those not going to Haiti went one way, and our family and Odalis went the other. We agreed that any survivors would meet back at the van at 3:00pm–the border was closing at 4:00pm and we wanted to make sure we got out before it was too late! We said our “hope we see you later”s and headed our separate ways.

John had called Danita while Odalis was trying to park to let her know we were at the border so she could meet us. With Odalis close by, we headed into another world. Kimi was scared, but I told her to just hold my hand and stay as close to Odalis as possible and we would be fine. Odalis would make sure of it-I am convinced that God sent him to help us! The customs officials and the UN guards (armed and everywhere-from Uruguay?) were anxious for us to stop and “chat”, but Danita and Karris walked up at just the right time. Danita was amazing and handled them all, and we didn’t have to pay a dime–since it was market day. Once we started walking away from the border, Odalis offered to go back and find the others; since we didn’t have to pay entrance fees, we knew they would want to join us. Odalis took down Danita’s cell phone number, and we headed to the orphanage while he set off in the madness to find the others. This was very brave, finding them would be like finding a needle in a haystack–except that gringos stick out pretty easily, and we were the only gringos crazy enough to be there.

The walk to the orphanage was an experience all by itself. We could see the building from the border bridge, but the sights between us and the building were overwhelming. There was incredible multitudes and organized chaos (from market days). We saw vendors selling everything imaginable–and some things quite unimaginable. There were animal heads laying out on display: donkey heads, pig heads, cow heads (skinny cows), and all freshly beheaded (trying to give you a visual image-sorry)… ewww! Ladies were making fried plantains and selling them. There were people selling charcoal–not the nice neat briquets you buy in the store, but the burned up wood ash they use for fuel/cooking. There are no paved roads, and it was incredibly hot and dusty, and filthy dirty.

The conditions are as horrendous as you’ve seen and heard. There were lots of naked children running around (this freaked Kimi out more than anything). Women carried enormous loads of goods on top of their heads. Hopefully, the pictures we have will help see how immense the loads were. Men were shoving carts full of stuff through the crowds. Motoconchos (motorcycle taxis) were whizzing by stirring up dust. Huge trucks with beds piled full of merchandise just purchased in Dajabon, had people piled on top of that, dangling precariously! Right near the river (Massacre River) was an enormous pile of garbage, basically a land fill. There were a few women washing laundry in the river, but mostly people were occupied with the market. Many beggars asked us for money, and even more vendors tried to get us to buy their wares. The men would grab your arm and try to get you to come buy from them.

Once we made it to the gate of Danita’s Children, we walked inside to paradise. It was like walking into a whole other world. It was recess time and the school children were playing on the magnificent playground equipment, which was more impressive than any park I’ve been to. The buildings were beautiful, the grounds were clean and free of trash (unlike the rest of the town), there was a huge tree in the middle. Some of the children immediately ran up to us, and Danita introduced them. The children that she has adopted understand and speak English, but the others do not. We said, “Bon Jour” in our Texas accented French. They smiled and hugged us. They were all so polite and courteous. It was very impressive. Those that spoke English said “hello” and “welcome”.

Danita and Karris took us to the older boys’ dorm, which is also where they live. The building was beautiful. What these women have managed to do is remarkable!!! Karris took us on a tour of the school, the church, the cafeteria, the future site of the clinic, the other dorms, and the village, while Danita waited for Odalis to call and say he had found the others. Danita was to meet him at the border to get the others in.

We had toured everything and were back at the orphanage. They had planned to feed us and Odalis lunch, but had not expected the others to be able to come. However, they quickly accommodated all of us! It was one of the best meals we had eaten in a foreign country–and they even had ice (a rarity for cruisers)! The other half of our group was almost not allowed to cross over, but Danita promised them they were only staying for lunch, then would leave.

We were able to watch the children come in for their lunch. They sat quietly (unlike noisy American school cafeterias), and orderly while waiting to be led in a couple of songs, then a prayer over the meal. Everything was in French creole, but we recognized the tunes. Words nor pictures would ever be able to convey to you what an awesome thing that was. These kids (except for Danita’s orphans) live in extreme poverty-most of their families have one meal every 3rd day, there is a 95% unemployment rate, the land has been deforested and stripped of any natural resources, they live in shacks along dirt roads filled with trash and feces (didn’t want to know if it was animal or human). We walked through their village and saw it for ourselves. Little children with bellies distended from starvation and/or worms. For these school children to have one meal a day was a huge blessing, and on top of that they are being educated and given hope–for free! This place Danita has made with God’s help, really is bringing hope to Haiti. It’s nothing short of a miracle.

Back to our meal. Odalis had arrived with the others after an hour of searching! (He’s a great guy). He had found them near a park. They were finished shopping (had all they could stand) and were trying to figure out what they were going to do for the rest of the day until we came back, when Odalis found them. Yippee! We all had a great time of fellowship over delicious food. The friends that were with us were from three different boats, two from England, and another U.S. family of 5. They were all extremely impressed with what Danita had accomplished.

The living conditions in Ouanaminthe are terrible, contrasted with Danita’s world where they lived very much like we do on our boat. All of us cruisers could relate to life with generators, conserving water & power, shopping for food in foreign places… it was all very similar except the orphanage had WAY more space and much nicer restrooms!

After lunch, we took the others on a tour of the school and village. Some of the teachers led their class in welcoming songs for us–again, very touching and moving. We got to meet Danita’s oldest, Roberson (I hope I got his name right), who is 16, and several of the other older kids. We also got to meet Lubenson, whose story is nothing but a miracle! (You can go to www.danitaschildren.org to read all about the orphanage and read Lubenson’s story). He was napping while the other kids were at school-he’s just 2 or 3. Karris also took us to the hospital where a woman was giving birth in the other room—Karris said that all they have is a rusted gurney with a steel bowl at the end!!! It was all open air, no a/c. If it had power, it had to be by generator because I don’t think any of the town has any public electricity.

In the village, most of the families that were not at market were hanging out outside their homes. Some of them knew Karris because their children go to school there, others gazed at us as we gazed at them. Once we said, “bon jour”, they almost always replied in kind with a wide smile. Mothers were doing laundry in a bucket with soap (much the same way cruisers living on boats do–except those of us spoiled with a washing machine-grin). A few little boys followed us around as they played chase with us and each other, they were very giggly and cute. One boy about Kimi’s age was taking a bucket bath in the road with his little brother and he saw us and hid behind his porch rail. He was the only one we saw that seemed the least bit embarrassed. All of the females wear dresses, it’s a cultural, traditional, as well as practical thing (cooler). I was in blue jeans and felt a little awkward. We met a little boy who was playing (naked) with his little piglets in the mud.

All of the children we saw smiled hugely when we talked to them or waved. They seem happy; you start to see the hopelessness in the older children and adults. That’s what breaks your heart. One mother offered Karris her child; in America, it would have been laughed off as a joke, but Karris said she was probably not joking.

We saw a group of young people hanging out at a house; they didn’t seem too happy we were there, until our friend from Kalida spoke french to them. Even though they speak a creole french, it was enough to break down their defenses, and they seemed to welcome us then.

Basically, there is no hope for Haiti—except for God and the people He is using to bring them His hope. Rationally, intellectually, reasonably, politically, agriculturally—there is no hope for Haiti. But God sees hope there, and we could see God’s hope through the work that Danita is doing, along with the other missionaries God has sent there. 500 children have a meal every day and are getting an education for free, all because God loves them! What a contrast to our life of extreme excess in America.

Time was ticking, and we needed to head back to the border before they locked the gates. Danita had to leave after lunch to go to Santo Domingo for some security dogs, so Karris walked us across the border in two separate groups so as not to draw too much attention. Back at the van, Odalis had us scrape up some pesos for the boy that guarded the van for us.

Getting out was a little easier, since the border was closing soon the traffic had thinned out a little. The van is not air conditioned, so we all had the windows opened and every time we were stopped by traffic (which was a lot) vendors were shoving items in for us to buy (rum, bras, panties, shoes, purses…), or beggars were asking for pesos. We shut the windows and laughed as Odalis shooed them off by telling the rum pushers that we didn’t drink-we were Christians. Kind hearted Odalis gave a guy some money after he listened to his sad tale (did I say what a nice man he is?)

The trip back was more exciting than the trip there because of all the military checkpoints we had to stop at. There were military police armed with M16′s every few miles. They were checking for Haitian smugglers and wanted to know if we had been to Haiti. “Of course we hadn’t–we were just a bunch of Americans going to check out the market,” was our driver’s wise response! We passed through a street in the DR that had burned limbs and logs in the way-remnants from the previous day’s riot over the government seizing private property for some gov. project. We also had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. We started to get worried when Odalis pulled out the cell phone vs. digging for the spare. He was calling his brother to find out if there was a spare–there was, so all the guys pitched in to help change it while us girls stood back and made up jokes about how many gringos it takes to change a gua gua tire. We stopped at several gommas (we called them gomer’s) to see about getting the tire fixed, no luck. Oh well. By the time we got back to Luperon, it was dark. Good thing we made it back safe because the gua-gua didn’t have any head lights. Actually, I take it back, there was a fog light in front that still worked.

We concluded the day with a yummy meal at Capt. Steve’s.

That, in a nutshell, was our trip to Haiti. Although we were well prepared for what to expect, it was still shocking to see it for real. It was a life changing experience that we are still trying to process. Our perspectives are different; things that seemed important before, are suddenly totally meaningless.

Next stop, Puerto Rico (we’re here, but I can’t post about everything at once…so pretend we’re not here yet and I will post about this place at a later date.) Adios amigos!

Now to tell you about Luperon. The landscape here is beautiful… it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in real life. John said he had read that the movie Jurassic Park was filmed here, so that will help you visualize it. It has both the highest and lowest points in the Carribean. There are mountains all around and there are palm trees growing on the mountains. It’s just beautiful. The other equally beautiful part of the Dominican Republic are the people. They are, on the whole, very attractive people. To top it off, they are some of the most hospitable, friendly, welcoming people. As a cruiser, sometimes you get the feeling that the locals are busy calculating the profit they will make from you as they are saying hello. Not that you aren’t welcomed… but more for your money than your company. Here, that is not the case at all. The people of Luperon seek you out and make you feel like they are interested in you as a person, not as a profit. Many cruisers come in here thinking they will stay a couple of weeks, and are still here months, and sometimes years later because the people are so wonderful. Many of them have learned English very well and they are not the least bit offended that you don’t speak good Spanish. On the contrary, they are delighted that you make the attempt. They seem to be very happy people that love their country. It’s a pleasure to be among them.

We arrived on Friday morning which was just in time to participate in the weekly Saturday (Sabado) softball game. Baseball is huge here… Sammy Sosa, …..other baseball players I don’t know. Anyway, every week the cruisers play against the locals in an informal game: Los Gringos vs Los Dominicanas. Guess who wins? Travis and John played, me and Kimi and Garrett watched. It was a close game, 24 to 3. To even things up a little, the Dominicanas agreed to swap one player for one player for a second game.

Even with a Dominicana on our side, we lost the second time as well 22 to 1. Oh, and the rules are: no strike outs for the cruisers! Afterwards, one of the other cruisers gave Garrett a hard time for not playing, so I think he will participate this coming Sat. Oh, after the game we got to see a political candidate promotion parade! They were waving PLD (Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana) flags, and Garrett got one as a souvenir.

We ventured out from the quaint little town of Luperon to Santiago. Our friends on Kalida did the trip and told us we have to experience the bus ride (vs. renting a car), so we decided to go for it. So here is a brief, but informative account of our outing.

First, we walked down the main drag to where the taxis and gua guas are. Gua guas are minivan taxis-no a/c and very worn/well used vehicle. In America, it would hold 11 people (12, absolute max-including driver). Here, they hold at least 20. No joke! We counted 19 at one time on the one we were on–even the locals laugh about it. The next experience; the driving. The drivers are very alert and well trained, impressive even. In America, we would have died! Apparantly, if you want to go faster than what is in front of you, you lay on the horn until they move. If they scoot over a sliver, that’s enough room to pass. If there is a car coming the other way? No matter–suck in, everyone will fit! The reason I said “than what is in front of you” is because it could be anything from a motoconcho or a farm truck or a donkey & rider or a person walking. If you don’t move over? Get within two inches of them, all the while honking. (The brakes work very well). Oh, and the roads are also shared with stray goats, cattle, horses, donkeys that might be wandering around. That was the first leg of our journey.

The gua gua took us as far as Imbert (a town), where there is a bus station (big gua guas with A/C). We purchased tickets to take us on to Santiago. The bus station is like a cinema ticket window without the rest of the builiding–it’s just a ticket window. No restrooms, no benches (although there were a few outdoor chairs). There was a large shade tree, though. We waited for the bus. As we waited, a man was sitting on a ledge and spotted us as Americans. He had lived in Alaska as a young boy and wanted to talk English with us. That is how we found out why he left Alaska. He was deported. Why? He committed a felon. He just went crazy–that’s all!!! Obviously, he was a few fries short of a happy meal. John handled him very well while I held on to Kimi and John, and the boys and I exchanged eyebrow raises.

On to the buses. There are two types of buses, those that are express buses and go straight to Santiago without stopping, and the other buses that stop anytime there is someone on the roadside waving pesos, or riding the bus and wanting to get off. The guy shuffling people on and off buses was very nice and helped us get on the right express bus. We had to wait for several buses to be able to all fit on the same bus. We only had to wait 15-30 minutes. We all got on the same bus, but were not able to sit together. It’s about an hour ride from Luperon to Imbert, and another hour from Imbert to Santiago. Once we arrived in Santiago, John had to figure out where to get off. I know a bus ride doesn’t sound like a big deal, but none of our kids have ever ridden public transportation (plane, train, automobile) where they had to make sure they got off/on at the right spot, sit with complete strangers… Not only was it their first bus ride (non-school field trip ride/church camp ride) but it was in a foreign country with a foreign language. This was wayyyy outside my comfort zone!!!

We made it to downtown and happened upon a large department store. We needed to buy Kimi some pantelones (pants & shorts). She had outgrown all that she brought. The salesperson was very helpful, and we found several things that Kimi se gusta (she likes). We wandered around downtown till we found Calle del sol (that’s a street name). We had hoped to visit a canvas shop that sells Sunbrella for $10 US/yard, but they were closed. We ate lunch at McDonald’s!! We found a large supermercado (grocery store) and checked out the prices for a return provisioning trip. We were all tired of walking (more tired of wearing shoes, though), so we decided to try to get back to the bus station and call it a day. It is also muy caliente (very hot) in the city. Santiago is in a valley, and since it is a city, there is a lot of concrete and buildings with little wind. It’s hot.

The bus ride back seemed much easier, probably because we knew what to expect. We did have to switch buses at some point, which was a little confusing, but we managed. We met a young man from Imbert at the bus station who spoke English. He helped us get on the right express bus. He sat next to Travis, and Kimi and I were across the aisle. He was very interested in who we were and what we were doing, and we found out who he was and where he was from, where he learned English… This made the trip go very fast. He was a very nice young man. The scenery on the way was beautiful; the bus driver was the most aggressive of them all! Once we arrived at Imbert, the same people shuffler remembered us and directed us to the gua guas to get back to Luperon. We found the same driver! Our family took up a whole bench in the van (the benches that seat 3). This is a minivan; a Diahatsu; a family car—not a commercial minibus. On this trip we saw another cruiser couple. We also met a man from Luperon who was commuting back from work. His brother is a baseball player in Oklahoma or Texas. He couldn’t remember which, he just knew they practiced in Oklahoma. We recruited him to play for the Gringos at our Saturday softball game!!!

That was our trip in a nutshell. A very exciting time. Although there were moments when I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack, I am really glad we did it. It was an experience I’ll never forget. We also learned why it’s best to rent a car that comes with a driver. (Can you say, “liability”?!). Hasta luego!

We left Palacios on Jan 10th, 2008 and headed for the Dry Tortugas. We had just had a weak front come through the day before so had a fair northerly breeze. I had to run into Port Lavaca at noon to pick up a part for the watermaker that I had ordered so we cast off mooring lines at about 1410. After a very pleasant sail down the bay against a moderate flood tide, we departed the Matagorda Sea Bouy at 1830 and were on our way.

As soon as the sun went down the wind started coming up. We went ahead and reefed the main right away and continued on a port tack through the night in about 20 – 25kts of wind. The wind continued to veer to the east and we tacked in the morning (1-12-08) to an ESE wind thinking to continue our easting. Unfortunately after about 2 hours on starboard tack the wind backed to the ENE again and then died. So we motored about 4 hours Saturday evening in no wind.

Sunday morning (1-13-08) the real fun began. This was the follow-on cold front that we were expecting to give us some favorable wind for a day or so along with some rough weather and then blow on through. The day started with NW 10kts just after midnight and was blowing 30 kts by noon. By 1800 it had come around to the NE and was blowing 25kts. The autopilot took a vacation this day so we hand steered throughout. Monday (1-14-08) we had 25 – 30kts from the NNE to ENE all day. We blew out a seam in the main sail between the first and second reef points so had to put in a reef to the second reef point to continue to fly the main. Seas were 15 ft+ by the end of the day. While furling the genoa at some point  in higher winds, the torque from the roller furler ripped a small section of the sail down around the tack. No more genoa for this trip. Tuesday (1-15-08) wind remaining NE moderated briefly just after midnight to about 20 kts then continued to rise to 25 – 30kts gradually throughout the day. We got the autopilot working again in the morning, Hallelujah! It is worth noting that every evening from Sunday to Tuesday we could see lightning in the SE from this front that was supposed to have blown on through. Apparently what happened was that it stalled out in  line east to west about 100 miles south of us and we were stuck north of it in the wonderful NE’ly winds.

And so dawned Wednesday (1-16-08). We knew that there was another front (ugh!) coming through in the next 24 hours so we were doing our best to make some eastward progress. The wind was dead out of the east at 25kts and we were fairly close hauled when the staysail blew a couple of seams. So we dropped it on deck and began motorsailing under double reefed main which is about all we had to fly. (the storm jib we have is a wonderful sail, unfortunately I neglected to check to see if the hanks were operable before leaving Palacios…they weren’t so we couldn’t use the sail) By 0800 the wind was beginning to veer to the south (still 25kts) ahead of the approaching front. So we gladly pointed the nose straight at the Tortugas and plodded along under our reduced sail with the motor turning 1500rpm making up for the sail we couldn’t fly. At noon our position was N24-46.83 W086-59.0. The wind had come all the way around to the S and was increasing. We were still heading E and started seeing about 35 kts and took blue water over the bow a couple of times and I decided it was time to turn down wind. So we killed the engine and turned north and ran before some huge seas (definitely some 20+ footers in there) under double reefed main. We made 9.5 kts going like this for probably 6 to 8 hours. By Thursday morning the front had blown through and we had rapidly moderating NE’ly winds. By noon it was light and variable winds with mountainous seas. We found that sometime during this last blow we had blown out a short section of another seam in the main this time above the second reef. So now we had no sails to fly. so we fired up the iron wind and headed toward Dry Tortugas. The winds stayed very low and the waves gradually decreased until we arrived and dropped anchor at 1500 on 1-18-08.

Whew! We made it!

Well there are the facts, I’ll provide more commentary including lessons learned in my next post.

and heading out into the ocean, and then keep going. I’m so glad my kids are experiencing what it took me so long to. How wonderful!

It was probably around 4:00 or 5:00pm when Garrett saw a fin sticking up. He said, “Is that a—-yep, it’s a shark!” (duh da, duh da, duh da). I can now check that off the list of things I wanted to see (now I need to find a whale). The shark was about the size of a dolphin and he was just hanging out on top of the water…looking all shark-like mean. He must have been sleeping or something because when our boat got close to him he jerked away and swam off all in a huff.

We watched the sun fall off the edge of the earth, then come back up on the other side.

The night sky at sea is like nothing I’ve ever seen! We could see the Milky Way so clearly; and Orion’s belt; and the dog star. It was amazing. We lost count of all the shooting stars (meteors) we saw! We even saw a satellite floating around up there. How cool is that?

When you are out on the water in a small boat, you realize how much of the earth is ocean, and how little is land. There is so much life out there, probably more than on land, and yet until you’re out in the middle of it, you don’t really think of the impact it has on the rest of the world. I’m not sure I really know how to express it, and I’m sure that what God is showing me is what He brought me out here to see, but I realized how small my thinking had been. God is huge, and brilliant, and genius, and creative. Life is so busy that it’s hard to make yourself stop and contemplate the impact all of God’s creations have on each other. For instance, have you ever stared at a jelly fish or cabbage head? What was He thinking when he made that thing? It has this strange helmet-like head with a body that “inhales” and “exhales”; then these strange stringy tenacles–some straight like thread and some are ruffled like ribbon. How bizarre! And the water’s color. It goes from a gray green turquoise-y color to indigo blue almost instantly. How does He do that?

I was very proud of myself because I learned how to use the GPS and radar, which I had to know to stand my watches. There are lots of oil rigs out there, and ships. It’s really, really dark so you have to make sure you’re not going to crash into them. Very exciting. When we came into Galveston, we anchored in the bay where there is a lot of ship traffic. It was a rough night. Then we moved over here to Offats the next day. John let me steer the whole way. I had to maneuver through two bridges with tug and barge traffic coming and going and making currents. I did it, and kept us in the channel! Wahoo!

Once we got into Galveston we were able to tune in a few TV stations (something we hadn’t had since we moved on board). We couldn’t find much fit to watch. The clearest station we got was airing “Dancing with the Stars”. Watching that after being offshore puts it all into perspective!

We are anchored in Offats Bayou in Galveston right now. It’s a great place to be. We can motor the dinghy to lots of things within walking distance. We are planning a “field trip” to Moody Gardens this weekend. All the shopping we need is just footsteps away. The Colonel (a big mock stern wheeler) is passing us by. It has 3 decks and lots of lights.

We were outbound in Offatts Bayou channel approaching the intercoastal. All we had to do was “keep it between the markers” how hard can it be? The chart shows a “Y” at the junction. If you are going east you can go up one side (we came in that way previously), if you are going west you can go up the other side. Well, at least you would think so. Since we were headed west, when we got to the “Y”, I turned left (to port for you purists). We were going along at about 7.5 knots when all of a sudden the boat kind of rose up and came to an abrupt halt. My first thought was, “Oh no, I cut the corner too tight.” But as I looked behind us, I could see that we were still inside the channel markers. In any case, we were hard aground. I tried backing off with the engine to no avail. We tried using the sails to heel the boat over. Nothing doing. Cannibal’s wide keel was designed to keep her upright in the event she dries out, and it was keeping us upright just as it should.

So we gathered round and said a prayer. And then looked around to see if there were any boats in the neighborhood that might be able to assist us. In just a minute or two, a small tug came our way. He had been working over by the construction site at the new causeway. It seemed like the perfect boat to help us since it was going to pass right by. So I gave him a call on the radio. After informing us that we should use the eastern side of the “Y” since the western side was shoaled up (thanks for the newsflash!), he said that he couldn’t help, what with liability and all. But he noted that his foreman would be on the next tug coming our way and maybe he might have sufficient authority to go ahead and give us a hand. So we watched as he steamed by about 30′ away, heading toward Offatts Bayou. A few minutes later here came another small tug just like the first one. I gave him a call on the radio and asked if he was the foreman and again requested assistance. This time I even mentioned that if he could even just haul our anchor over to the east about 100′ or so we might be able to drag ourselves off, hence no liability for him (we could have done this ourselves if our dinghy outboard had been working. But he said he’d have to go in and check with the office, so he steamed on by about 30′ from us going merrily on his way toward Offatts Bayou.

Now if you are familiar with Luke 11:30-37 you know what happens next. Right after I got finished talking to the second tug, I got a call from another tug. He was heading west like us and was running “light boat” meaning he didn’t have any barges. He asked how far off the ICW we were and I told him we were just at the point of the Offatt’s Bayou “Y”. So he said he’d take a look at it when he got through the causeway and would give us a hand if he could. So we waited about 10 minutes or so and here came this nice big Samaritan tug; the “Del Wilkins” was her name. The captain took a look and said he thought he could help us out. So he eased up against the edge of the channel where we were and got within about 10 feet or so. We threw him a line and made it fast to our bow cleat and he very gently pulled our bow around toward deeper water and then slid us off the shoal, easy as you please.

I was so thankful that I could have kissed that guy. I asked if there was anything I could do for him and he said nothing was necessary and that he had just been fishing with his kids the weekend before and had run out of gas, so he knew exactly how we felt. There are some really great folks out there and God uses them every day.

So there you have it. But as with all things boat related, there is more to the story. Tune in next time for “The Saga of the Centerboard”

PS: We have some new pictures posted on our gallery pages.