Funny Characters

"Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open." - Elmer G. Letterman

By Craig Boyer

Traveling by boat for a year opens the door to witness a great number of characters, good and bad.  We traveled over 8000 miles at an average speed of 6 knots.  This leisurely pace allowed us to observe and sometimes meet some unusual people along the way.  We didn't always have a camera handy but when we did, we captured the encounter.  Here is a small sampling of the characters we saw and/or met along the way.

Our first stop was in Rhode Island where we met wonderful people and made life long friends.  We loved Rhode Island and quickly understood why it was so popular with the rich and famous, but who knew it was an intergalactic destination.  I was truly star struck when I saw Boba Fett and his buddy vacationing in Newport.  I tried to talk to them, but they scootered off faster than a X-34 Landspeeder.

While in NYC I saw this guy.  Maybe this handsome coif has some cultural significance, but it looked like he was growing a giant ball of yarn on his head.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to meet this chap either to discuss his style as we had hungry kids pulling us down towards the hot dog stand. 

Time square has its share of hustlers.  At least this guy was honest!

The girls spotted this guy hanging out in the park while sharpening his “pet” chicken’s spurs when we were in Spanish Town, BVI.  He has a cool style too, I especially love the white cape.  Later we had to have a talk with the girls about befriending strangers in the park armed with a knife and a killer chicken.

Guys down in the caribbean dig nicknames.  We met quite a few characters with colorful names like
First Blood,  Hash Doctor, Assassin,  Big Pappa and Cobra.  All were way freindlier than their names implied. While in Dominica we met Stuff.  Yes, his name is really Stuff!  Or at least that's what he and everyone else called him.  Stuff was always asking us for money.   Turns out that Stuff is the friendliest homeless drug addict in the world.  He always had a smile even when everyone told him to get lost.  Somewhere along the line we wised up and started giving Stuff money when he provided a service like getting us fruit, which he happily did.  Here, I told him I’d pay him $5.00 EC ($2 USD) if he posed in a picture with me.  I have no idea what he is holding, but he is pretty proud of it.

On the creepier side was Ross.  We should have known he was trouble by the lack of a killer nickname.  He loved to dance with women, especially American women.  We first met Ross at reggae night where he demonstrated his dancing steps with a child's barrette in his beard.  Wendy had to be saved several times from the clutches of Ross.  He was so happy to see us at the Carnival kick off party that he attached himself to our little posse.  It was sort of cool until he started pulling the girls by the arm into the crowd and became a little territorial.  That's when we had to kick Ross off of the fun wagon rather sternly.

 Last but not least, we found Gandhi on his cell phone in St Lucia.

Moving on

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.  

-Henry David Thoreau

We spent two glorious weeks in Dominica exploring all that was humanly possible and soaking up the local hospitality.  We knew it was time to move on when Chris informed us that we had a good weather window to Grenada.  There was no time for lingering and no time for long, sad goodbyes.  Thank goodness, cuz I don't like those kind anyway.  

As cruisers, we make friends instantly with a common bond.  Leaving friends behind in one port is merely a sign of hope that we'll meet again in another.  Saying goodbye to Dominica was only second to the farewells we said when we left home.  It was especially difficult because not only did we make friends with the local adults and kids alike, we felt at home.  Even though we were not locals, we certainly felt welcomed like locals.  When we thought about the potential experiences we would have on this trip, fostering relationships with the locals and becoming intimately familiar was at the top of the list.  What we experienced in Dominica was exactly what we had hoped for and so much more.  Moving on was going to be very difficult.  It was forever.  We knew that we wouldn't see them in the next port and it would be a very long time before we were back for a visit.  It was surreal to actually be leaving such a special island.  As we raised the sails early in the morning with Portsmouth fading into the distance, we felt a sense of loss.  There was an empty feeling in our hearts and a kind of melancholy fog around our boat.  We could only hope that we would encounter such a special island again.  And if we didn't, we would forever be filled with amazing memories that will last a lifetime.

 Erica and I left this message to the PAYS guys the night before we left

Dominica Video

Maggie made a second video with scenes from our long stay in Dominica.  Enjoy!

Opening Day of Carnival

Carnival is a pre-Lenten celebration (46 days before Easter) held in February or March.  However, two weeks before Carnival, Portsmouth held a celebration for the official start of Carnival Season.  After which dozens of Calypso bands compete for the grand finale as well as the National Queen pageants that showcase talent and beauty.  It is undeniably hard to miss the fervour of the people's loyalty to their favorite season!!

As we left our boats in the afternoon to go to the jump up parade, it started to rain.  Once we were on shore, it poured.  As we waited for it to pass, this youngster was having fun with the waterfall cascading from the roof.

Porter and Liv enjoy popcorn and water as we await the start of the parade.

Who needs a marching band when you have an oversized truck, humungous speakers, BOOMING calypso and soca music and a DJ on the roof!?

Ross!  Our friend Ross found us in the crowd and pulled Erica and I into the parade.  He even gave us our own costumes:  Erica is sporting a hockey helmet and I am adorned with a wet t-shirt.  Lucky us!!

Sensay costumes made of frayed rope, leaves or various other materials.  It is always accompanied by a mask and often horns.  Do you recognize this mask?  It was the one being painted when we visited the CALLS school.

Another Sensay costume

School children dancing in the parade

Liv, with a birds eye view of the massive street JUMP UP - everyone joins in and follows the truck-o-music through town.

Bob and Christine try to say something among the chaos

Swimming in a sea of dancing locals

Ahhh, we made it to the end

Fun Days and General Goodness

View of Portsmouth Harbor

Bob's birthday party aboard s/v Virginia Dare

Happy Birthday Bob

Like the t-shirt?  That was our birthday present to Bob.  Allow me to tell the tale:  The afternoon before Bob's birthday bash, we realized we hadn't purchased a gift.  Oh no, what should we do?   We didn't have time to go shopping for heavens sake and there wasn't a mall down the street.  The girls immediately got busy making cards while Craig quite literally Googles "birthday gifts for Bob".  HA, low and behold, the very first search result was a t-shirt that read "Bob Rules".  How perfect is that?  Bob does rule....he is the coolest guy we know.  But how are we going to order a shirt in the middle of the Caribbean and have it delivered the next day???  Sooooo, being resourceful, Craig got one of his (used) t-shirts and the girls wrote "Bob Rules" in sharpie.  The End.

The moon sets on Portsmouth Harbor

This is where the boats are built, one at a time, by hand, by this one guy, for the PAYS boat boys.  We took the kids to see Seabirds new boat being built.  

The finished product

Enjoying homemade passion fruit, strawberry and mango popsicles from the market (25 cents each)

Playing at the beach

Chris' speared lion fish!  Ooohh baby

We were all inspired by the local fruits and vegetables that we held a Caribbean potluck feast aboard Anything Goes

Erica steeped the Sorrel flowers to make a sweetened sorrel beverage served with spices over ice

We had green bananas boiled with cinnamon leaves, ginger and bay leaves (all from the local land), mashed local sweet potatoes with ginger and garlic, jerk chicken, grilled plantains, salad and mini clams the kids collected from the beach!!  Mmmmm good!

The boys hanging out on the paddle board after a swim

The entrance to Fort Shirley

Beautiful mango tree inside Fort Shirley

Canons with a view of the harbor

Our boat boy, Martin, takes us to Secret Beach with his family on a lazy Sunday afternoon

What does this rock look like to you?  A horse drinking water perhaps?  Yep.  There was a cave located where the horses front leg would be.  We all followed Martin to the cave across the rocks in our bare feet.  Martin pointed to a small hole down close to the water and said 'there it is'.  What?  We go through there?  It didn't look like anyone could fit.  Right away, Chris, Bryson, Maggie, Porter and Olivia were out!  No way.  Kate and Reese tried it but the waves were big and scary, so they turned around.  I wasn't sure either, so I decided to wait and see.  The only brave souls were Craig and Erica.  I went back to the beach and waited for them to swim around to the other side.  Once they returned safely, Craig took me through the cave.  I felt a little more than nervous to crouch down into a small space literally big enough for my body to lie down.  There was equal space above and below the water line.  I floated and used my hands to pull me through, all the while with a flashlight and my mask on so I could see any lurking creatures that might lay ahead of me.  We saw 2 lobsters and then all of a sudden the space became cavernous and opened up where we could stand up.  Above our head the ceiling was rolling and crawling with hundreds of bats squeaking.  I took a very quick glance and then told Craig I was ready to leave.  On the other side was an opening to the bay.  We did a slight belly flop and swam as fast as we could over the coral and rocks being careful not to scrape bottom.  And that was that.  I can now say that I did it!  Would I do it again, probably not.

Kids busy building a sand castle

All About Chocolate....the name of the lesson I prepared for all the kids.  From tree to chocolate bar.  We had a cacao (Kah-Cow) pod picked right from the cocoa (Koh-Koh) tree.  Reese and Kate are drawing what it looks like before we slice it open.

Working hard at finding the places on the map where cocoa trees are grown around the world

The inside of the cacao pod.  There are roughly 30 beans inside surrounded by a pulp that has a slightly sweet tart lemony flavor.

We ended the lesson with a chocolate tasting - unsweetened all the way to milk chocolate.  

Cocktail party on Patronus!

I 'heart' you

Da Boys - Eddison, Bob, Craig and Ken G.

And then, these sweet (PAYS) boys made us breakfast and delivered it!  Salt fish, roasted breadfruit, salad, fresh squeezed guava juice and chocolate tea.  Now that's a breakfast for champions.

Starving kids, ready to dig in

Olivia learning to sail on her own

Rainbow in the clouds as the sun rises on Portsmouth Harbor