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| A tourist town, Victoria has no shortage of street musicians vying for change. You've got to be creative to stand apart. |
The girls have been writing up a storm: letters and postcards to friends and family. They love receiving responses, but there is another motivation: “Does this count for school, Dad?”
“You bet,” and off I went to the Black Ball ferry terminal, hoping to find a courier willing to drop off our U.S.-stamped mail in Port Angeles, WA. When none of the passengers I queried last time were willing to take our mail, the ship’s purser, Pat, saved the day.This time I’d only stepped through the door when I caught sight of Pat at the other side of the terminal, his arm outstretched to receive our mail.
“Hey, thank you, my daughter sure appreciates this.”“It’s not a problem, your daughter is a friend of Zada.”
I was dumbfounded, trying to think of a response. Eleanor does indeed have a boat friend she met in Mexico named Zada, aboard Eyoni. But he couldn’t mean…Pat continued, “I thumbed through the mail last time, noticed a letter to Zada Smith, there can’t be that many Zada Smiths—her grandpa works on this ferry.”
“No way. Are we talking about the same Zada? She’s a little girl, lives on a boat in Mexico? That’s where we met her, before we sailed up here.”I headed back to Del Viento to share this story with Windy, amazed once again how small the cruising/boating community is (in this case, including ferry boats).
***Outside the marina showers, there is a boaters’ book exchange. I’m always looking for interesting reads for myself and the girls. Inside one children’s book I noticed an inscription: “Amy Boren.”
Wow, I know that name! Amy is a kid on Third Day, she and her family spent four years in Mexico. And here was her cast-off book, having journeyed all the way up the coast, from one kid boat to another. So incongruous to see it here!
“You’re not going to believe this.” I held up the book so Windy could see. “I found this in the book exchange. Guess where it’s from!”“That’s Amy Boren’s book, we picked it up in La Paz. Eleanor just finished it, why are you bringing it back aboard?”
--MR |
| I've removed just about every peripheral from our engine. This is the bottom of the heat exchanger. This freeze plug looks bad and may be weeping, or maybe this is muck and moisture from the raw water hose that's been pressed up against it for thirty years, chaffing with the vibration. There is a gouge on the hose, but not obviously punctured. The inside of the exchanger is filled with gunk. |
I got a good chuckle out of that one... And it's oh so true about it being a small boat world.
ReplyDeleteI love small world boating stories. We've had heaps through the years but one of my favs was in a yachtie bar on Tortolla many years ago. The bar tender had a game where he would randomly choose two people and within a few moments they could alays come up with someone they knew well in common. I thought it was dumb luck until he chose me and another guy. The other guy said he was from the Isle of Wight. I only knew one person from the Isle of Wight at that time, Andy Copeland (he and his wife Liza are old cruising friends). It turned out that the guy knew Andy and had even dated his daughter:) Pretty sure the game won't work in every bar--but in a sailor's bar the game went 5 for 5--in a time well before we all got linked through blogs and email;)
ReplyDeleteI love this post! I can visualize it to a tee! We Rec'd an anonymous, mystery letter yesterday. The boys are thinking Eleanor! Would she prefer email response or reading the actual mail electronically via Florida? Miss you lots. We have had quite an eventful January- I will email in the next couple of days. Love to all of you from all of us! Oh! And Eleanor, email me your blog address again baby cakes! Love you, auntie banana
ReplyDeleteREALLY THANKS FOR SUCH A POST!!!! ITS REALLY NICE TO BE LIKE HAVE!!!!
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