Our Weekend Sail - Part 2

On to Part 2 of this weekend... At the yacht club we got the keys to the "restrooms" for our showers. By this time it was dark out. They were in a separate building behind the restaurant, so we followed the path back there. Scott & Dave unlocked theirs and went inside to shower. Barbara & I had to walk a little further (in the dark) to our door. We unlocked it and felt for the light switch... but nothing happened. It seems we had no light on our side of this building. We were able to see just slightly because of the light spilling in from the men's room side... the tops of the walls were open. But we were having a hard time finding the shower stall, as there were a number of doors scattered throughout. All of a sudden, we heard someone shout (on our side of the building)... "occupied"! Oh my gosh! There was a man in there showering! So we retreated to outside to wait for him to come out. Now while we're standing there we all of a sudden started getting bitten by mosquitoes... relentlessly! Barbara had a few of those packets with OFF towelettes, so she starts scrambling frantically to get one open... with tremendous difficulty! (Probably because we were panicking!) By this time, we're both "dancing" and trying to avoid all the bites! She finally got one open & we got some relief. The mystery man finally came out & we were able to have our turn at the shower in the dark!

Afterward, we sat down for drinks while we waited to see what the rest of the group were going to do. Just in front of us, the restaurant had a small shark pool (containing nurse sharks and I believe one ray). There was a floating platform sitting in the middle of the pool with a table and 4 chairs. To get to the platform, you had to step over an extremely large chain bordering the pool, onto a few rocks which were stacked precariously across to a small patch of dirt. On this patch of dirt was one of those grass thatched umbrellas... short enough that you had to duck under it.

(The roof edge of it was only about 5-6 feet from the ground.) From this patch of dirt then, there was maybe a 10" board that stretched across to the floating platform. Got the picture?

Now imagine our amazement when we watched as an older gentleman... dressed smartly in white shirt, white pants, and white shoes... began crossing over the big chain heading toward the floating platform! (I turned my head and said, "I can't watch this!") The waiter was there to help him (and his younger girlfriend) get across to the table. But of course, when he stepped on the rock, it wobbled and he fell up to his knees in the shark pool! But they continued on! So the waiter (and our "hero" friend Dave) proceeded to guide him across the patch of dirt to the skinny board and finally got him "parked" at the table! By this time, we decided to stay for dinner... and the "show"!

A bit later, Dave noticed the gentleman got up & started back... but the waiter wasn't around to help. So Dave jumped the chain and worked his way across to help... joined by the waiter, who then took the lead. They held the guy's hand as he gingerly shimmied across the board to the dirt. Still holding his hands, they continued to guide him toward the rocks... but no one was watching the height of the thatching... he got poked in the eye! When the man finally reached the safety of solid ground, he motioned to our friend that he wanted to buy him a drink as thanks. (He was French and didn't speak any English.) So we hung out at our table while Dave reaped his reward!

We didn't catch up with the other boaters... they decided to stay on board this evening. So we rode the dinghy back after dinner. (Getting soaked with saltwater again on the way! So much for the nice shower!) Tomorrow, we plan to sail to Tobago Cays to swim with the turtles!