HOW DO WE GET OFF THIS DAMN ISLAND (Part II)

The day dawns. The first full day of Grandma and Grandpa's Caribbean vacation is set to kick off. If you have never seen a Caribbean sunrise, stop reading this second, go and grab your bucket list and write it down....RIGHT NOW! If you have seen one, you've experienced colors they don't even have names for. It is truly stunning...and I woke up to that every day. :)

It's nice and early, the day is bright, lovely and 84 degrees...like every day in the Virgin Islands (Except for one awesome Christmas which is totally a tale for another day!). Grandma is up and looking suspiciously at my Father, wondering if he actually knew what he was doing. Which, to be honest, was a very fair question. We wrangled Granddad up on deck, crutches and all, and created a nice, comfy nest for him. Oh, haven't I told you yet? Granddad had recently undergone surgery and had a completely fused ankle. That's right, a lifelong blue collar cattleman was on a boat in the Atlantic with crutches. Good times. :)

Everything is tied down, including Granddad, and we cast off on our adventure. We of course have the engine running and mosey our way from the docks in front of the giant, salmon pink hotel, and passed the four massive, docked cruise ships with varying levels of sun burnt faces peering down at us. Just beyond the cruise ship dock is the mouth of the harbor and open water...OH HAPPY DAY...for about twenty two and a half minutes.

As was the Richards family custom Dad was at the helm barking orders and making vague pirate references (Aaarrrgh me matey!), Mom and I were running like crazy trying to follow the barking orders and ignore the pirate references, and my baby sister, 5 at the time, was happily entertaining our Grandparents by being cute as a bug.

We arrived at the mouth of the harbor and the real fun began...time to raise sail baby! Let me pause here for a second and wax poetic about the incredible art and experience that is sailing. I tell you folks, there is absolutely nothing in this world of ours like it. The sails slowly rise as you strain, pulling as hard as you can to reach full sail. They luff loudly until taut, finally filled with wind. You tie it down on whichever appropriate cleat, the engine is cut, and the glorious begins to happen. The sound, sluicing through the waves, water bouncing off the hull as you race forward, picking up speed as the sails fill, is like no other. As you gain momentum your wake correspondingly gains in size. It is absolutely spiritual!

Ok, back to the story. We had just left the harbor, cut the engine, and got the mainsail and jib up. It was actually quite windy, blowing a good 20 plus knots, and choppy to boot (choppy, for you landlubbers out there, equals "somewhat rough seas"). For me, especially back then, these were ideal, no...completely awesome sailing conditions! I was having a blast!!! However, for the uninitiated, especially someone stuck to one place with a fused ankle, it was absolutely terrifying. We bounced through this for about 15-20 minutes, me yelling joyously and Grandma and Grandpa just yelling, until they finally convinced my Dad that maybe today wasn't ideal for them to experience sailing for the first time. Dad told Mom and I to get ready to drop sail, well barked at us to get ready to drop sail, and turned the key to start the engine.

Nothing. So, he turned the key again to start the engine. Still nothing. To add to this joyous turn of events we were being pushed by wind and wave towards shore....towards a rather rocky part of shore. That's right, on my Grandparents first visit to the islands we were threatening to wreck them on the rocks. :)

Will the engine start? Are they doomed to wreck the vessel and sink? Will my Father ever stop growling like a pirate? Tune in soon for part III! :)

Notes for Part !!!:

Sailed into that little island, turned into the wind, dropped the anchor. Found out engine was out of fuel because fuel guage was broken. Dad went in with Granddad, left him at the restaurant, brought back diesel, primed the engine, got back to dock.