CURRENT LOCATION: Tied to a mooring ball near Cayo Pirata, in Ensenada Honda, Culebra, Puerto Rico

18 18.400' N, 065 17.842' W

Chris and I stood at the ferry dock sipping ice cold beer and looking out over the brilliant blue water stretching all the way to the big island of Puerto Rico. In the final minutes before their departure from Culebra, the conversation turned to 'friendship.' Sheryl and I met Chris & Gretchen about a year ago, just before we moved away from Cary. Although we had only gotten together a couple of times since, we knew that they were people we would enjoy spending time with and that they would appreciate being able to share some of this cruising experience with us.

"It is amazing how quickly we seem to get to know people and determine if we want to spend time with them," I said to Chris. "In fact, even before we went cruising we were always meeting new friends. The ones who remain our good friends are the ones who are willing to let months or even years go by between visits." That pattern of intermittent friendship has certainly been exacerbated in this lifestyle. As the Jimmy Buffett song says, "...in the tropics, they come and they go."

We have truly enjoyed this opportunity to share the 'cruising experience' with our friends. After being chased away from Culebrita by bees, we settled into a few days of rest and relaxation aboard Prudence. We stayed up a little later each night talking and slept in a little longer each morning. After lingering over coffee and breakfast, there may have been a short paddle trip in the kayaks or a walk along sea glass beach but nothing more strenuous transpired. They became hypnotized by the constant gentle swaying motion of the boat and lapsed into a state of relaxation where they didn't even know what day of the week it was. The magic of life on a sailboat had begun to cast its spell.

We capped the cruising experience with a lesson in Mexican Train Dominoes. Although the hour grew late, we pushed on to complete a full game of thirteen hands. Time had already rolled into the wee hours of a Friday morning by the time we folded the domino table down to make a bed for our guests. Less than twelve hours later, they boarded the ferry bound for Fajardo. Once there, they will enjoy a few days at El Conquistador Resort and Spa, a four-star hotel complex. Quite a shift from the rather Spartan accommodations they had grown used to over the last five days. From there they will make a stop in Old San Juan, before returning to the continental United States and their normal working lives. We hope that they enjoy the rest of their vacation as much as we enjoyed having them as guests aboard Prudence. Perhaps we will run into them again, someday, when they decide to take off cruising in their own sailboat. Be it next week or five years from now, I am certain that we will pick up right where we left off. Good friends are like that.