never a dull moment

What a day. All the kid boats are congregating in an anchorage called Blue Lagoon. It's a wonderful spot surrounded by reef and small islands. A large white sandy beach covers the end of one island, making a perfect place for picnics and parties. Seven boat kids have October birthdays, so three big bashes are happening. Half of us arrived on Friday and had a nice afternoon at the beach. Then on Saturday morning a group of six charter boats arrived to have lunch. Being the rookie sailors that they are, they came right into the middle of us and started dropping anchors. All the cruisers are nicely spaced, with enough room to swing in any direction. Two boats tried to anchor in the triangle between Calliope, us and Ocean Breezes. There wasn't room for even one boat, so we hollered to the second one that there wasn't enough room. He moved off behind us far enough, but when Lisa on OB asked the first guy what was up, he said they only planned to stay a few hours and thought it would be fine. Another one anchored just 50 feet on the other side of us. I gave them a direct stare and they hung around to make sure all seemed well before heading to shore. While they were at lunch, the tide changed and the current picked up enough to pull the lighter boats around in several different directions. Normally, all the boats face (hang) the same direction into the wind. With light wind and a strong current, chaos can happen. Sure enough, the boat next to Ocean Breezes hit them. Pete saw Chris straddling the two boats, while Lisa went for the fenders. Almost immediately, four other cruisers showed up in dinghies and pushed the charter boat away. The people did return, but only after Evan had boarded the boat, started the engine and pulled in a bunch of anchor chain. We could only imagine the mess if the second boat had been in the mix. Boats cannot be parallel parked like cars, there are no white lines on the ocean. Calliope almost got hit on the other side, and we got very close to our neighbor. Thankfully no damage was done to any cruisers, but the charter boat got a good scratch from Chris' dinghy. We all breathed a sigh of relief when they finished lunch and left. Charters are not allowed to stay the night here because of the difficult conditions. It makes it less crowded for experienced cruisers. -Kellie

If that wasn't enough excitement for one day, how about a forest fire to fight in the evening? The cruising kids had spent most of the afternoon building a fort up in the woods. In an effort to show off, some local kids put a match to it and burned it down. Several adults had gone up to check it out and thought the local kids had it under control. Hours later we were having dinner around a beach fire when 10 year old Marco came running up and said the fire had restarted and was spreading into the woods. Lisa from Ocean Breezes and I followed them up the hill... when we got there it was huge and spreading fast - probably 50-70ft long x 20ft wide, running uphill and downwind. Fortunately, I'd brought a shovel to the beach and had it along. Lisa went back to get help and I set to work scraping away the 3" of dry pine needles covering the ground to make a fire break across the uphill/downwind end. Soon the other cruisers arrived and we all toiled for hours completing the fire break around the perimeter and making sure we had it contained.

It was interesting to observe the different reactions and actions of various people. We'd all somewhat ignored the kids during the day when they said their fort was on fire - a few minutes then would have been time well spent! During the big blaze, someone had gone to get help from the locals who's kids had started the fire. The husband was rude and said it wasn't his concern (the kids' mom did come and help, tho). The local kids showed up and were genuinely trying to help, but their methods were actually making things worse - whacking with palm fronds and spreading embers and burning sticks outside the fire break. Some of the cruisers went back to their boats to get fire extinguishers, then again for buckets to carry sea water. In hindsight, they would have been much more effective clearing the fire line and pulling brush and potential fuel out of the way. The fire extinguishers might put out a small wastebasket ablaze, but were totally ineffective against a thousand square feet of burning trees and brush. The water was good, but it was a really difficult and slow job to haul it up the hill (several hundred yards). I should have spent more time directing people who weren't sure what to do. Shoes sure would have been nice, and more shovels... or a helicopter with a big water bucket. -Pete

On a more positive note, Pete's hand seems to be healing nicely with no sign of infection despite the firefighting. He did relinquish the shovel to other guys and didn't over do it, for which I was very glad. Now if I can keep him out of the water for another few days at least, hopefully we'll be home free.

Hope all is well and maybe not so exciting at home. -Kellie