LOST

I always feel that these “adventure “ Norm and I go on are intended to teach, or reteach, life lessons. The lesson for the day  is “Be helpful.”

I promised to tell the story of our Maiden voyage into Bocas with Cricket. Somehow, after the fact, it seems less dramatic than it did when it was happening, but here’s the story:

 

The little boat still wasn’t running quite like she should and wouldn’t get up on plane. We didn’t trust her enough to do more than motor around the little bay below, but, it was time for the checkup on the new engine and we hoped, Ray, the mechanic, could shed some light as to why she seemed so under-powered.

 

 Christmas Eve and we had an early morning appointment for Crickett so we got up and  checked the weather reports. They all showed “possibly scattered showers, but no significant winds expected for the day.”  A good day to boat into Bocas!  But of course the “scattered rain showers” began shortly after we departed and lasted the entire hour ride into town. We arrived in Bocas dripping wet, but we were grateful  there was hardly any wind out there in the open sea.

 

We expected Crickett would only be with the mechanic an hour or two, so we met Samantha, a former house sitter at Cerro Velero, for coffee, then did a bit of shopping including buying our new “Christmas hammock. ”

 Then checked back in with Ray.  We hoped to head home before early afternoon as that is when the wind begins to blow around here. But, it was not going well.  The gizmo Ray needed to adjust wasn’t co-operating and he was not a happy camper. 

 

So, next we   dawdled over lunch at a lovely café overlooking the water, and  walked about town some more, but Crickett still wasn’t ready when we returned to the boathouse.

We wandered some more and Norm made friends with the local diesel delivery guy at the town’s power plant. They “talked” diesel engines with me translating which is really a joke if you know how little Spanish I can actually speak.

 

Finally, around 3Pm, just as another “occasional shower” was starting up (not that it mattered because once you’re dripping wet you actually can’t get any wetter) and with Ray telling us Crickett wasn’t going to get any more power because the engine is simply too small for the boat, we collected Crickett and headed back to the house. The wind became to gust up a bit, but still not too ominously. However the fog was rolling in. It was very difficult to see the landmarks we needed to know when to take the cut into the mangroves to get back into the Bay of Dolphins. One mangrove looked just like another!   (Sorry no photos here as we were too busy just trying to get home!)

Soon we realized we really had no idea where to turn. At the same time noticed we were boating in only a couple feet of water!  Yikes! Norm quickly killed the engine, and as I shouted “Bring ‘er up, Bring ‘er up, Bring ‘er up!”  We hit the reef underneath. Double YIKES for both the motor and the reef!  Luckily we had one oar in the boat, so Norm was able to shove us off and paddle backwards toward deeper water.  Remember that the fog is getting thicker and, oh did I mention that it’s raining hard now? 

We evaluated our situation and decided to swallow pride and ask for help rather than possibly get into an even more serious situation. We called our angel neighbors, Mary & Carl who jumped into their boat and came flying to the rescue!  Mary instructed us to go out farther as it would make it easier for them to see us than if we stayed  close to shore. ( Which is a bit scary when you consider the rain, the fog and the little engine that really has no business being out in the open water? Triple YIKES! ) Mary confessed later that due to the fog they  had trouble finding us, but find us they did they did, and were we ever happy to see them speeding up in the distance!

We followed them home, exhausted from the ordeal, but grateful to have such wonderful folks living next door who have more than gone out of their way to welcome us here in Dolphin Bay.  We were never in any actual danger, however, it would have been pitch dark in one more hour…….. And  this story would very well have had a very different ending.

 

Just another day in paradise!  LOL

 

Norm & Nancy