Tuesday, December 28, 2010

We are enjoying the facilities, awaiting our friends and getting ourselves together here at Port Louis, Grenada. We have met some lovely people here and have enjoyed visiting in between our chores. However, let me tell you about the serious side of cruising and the truly wonderful, giving people that you meet.

Over the past few days on the radio there has been some concerns about a vessel long overdue from Trinidad. The boat left on the 21st in tandem with another cruiser, and until yesterday, the 27th no one had heard from them. They had the various coast guards out looking for them, to no avail. Early yesterday morning, a local Ham radio operator picked up a transmission from them. They were offshore Grenada, about 27 miles from here to the Northwest. The boat was ok, but the captain had been injured in a fall, and his wife was pretty bruised and battered from big winds and seas. The wind and sea condition was such that they could not make it in without assistance. One cruiser acted as the voice and organized others, and the coast guard to go out, find the boat, take off the injured captain, get him to medical assistance, put two cruiser crew on the boat with the lady, then get the boat taken in tow to the marina here.

Due to the distances involved, this was an all day event, and you could only hear various parts on the radio at different times. We knew that they would be coming in near to sunset here, and so were standing by to assist if we could. They had enough assistance, when they came in, but we stopped by a little later to check in as we had previously met this lovely couple in Trinidad. To my surprise, she remembered us, and we quickly were able to provide some small assistance, with phone calls and organization. After Allen had been taken off the boat, Sheila had no contact with him, so the first order of business was to call the hospital to check on his status. Good news, he was released and on his way to the marina in the ambulance. Jim went to the main gate to wait on him, as he had no idea where his boat was, and I stayed with Sheila and their friend Ray, who had come over to assist. Shortly, we arranged transport for Ray with a local marina, who volunteered to come and collect him and get him back to his boat.

A short while later, Allen arrived, pretty sore and battered, but walking under his own power the long way to the boat. He was obviously in a great deal of pain, and the reunion between these two, married 46 years, was a beautiful thing to see. After helping Allen on the boat, we left them be for a while, then popped back with a small meal of quesadillas & salsa, since they had no energy to cook tonight.

While we had met these lovely folks, only a handful of the others who helped, worried and offered to help had. That is the beauty of the cruising life, it actually doesn't matter if you know the people, you just help. People offered fuel, time, physical assistance, and silent support to these two, each of us knowing it could happen to any one of us...at any time.

This morning we checked in with them and found them to be in good spirits and Allen feeling MUCH improved. Although still slow and in pain, he is moving well, and amazingly only bruised, but did not break anything after his rough tumble. We brought them back to Regenero as their main concern this morning was getting in touch with the children back in the UK. Skype is an amazing thing. For a few pennies a phone call can reunite loved ones in distant places, and in this case completely ease the concern of children, who have not heard from their parents for a week...thru Christmas and Boxing day.

So for us, being able to stand by and offer some small assistance to strangers, who quickly become friends and dear, is a blessing. God smiled down on a little boat in the sea.