Will and I had an interesting day. We rowed into town today cuz our dinghy motor blew up yesterday and we can't fix it (yet). I figure it won't hurt Will to get a little rowing in either. So until we get the needed parts we are going to do the dinghy thing "the old fashioned way"!

The wind was up to about 20-25k and town was downwind. We got into town OK and I did some shopping at the chandlery, then we went to the market where the vendors are selling meats, fish, and produce. We picked up a bunch of fruits and vegetables (our diet is probably 60-70% produce) and headed home. We got back to the dinghy and had to row back to the boat. It was blowing about 25k with waves at or slightly under 1m.

We started out of the marina and headed across a small channel to get in the lee of a dredging operation for some protection against wind and waves. We hadn't even hit the big stuff yet when the guy on the dredge barge looked at us and made a motion with his hand. I nodded, and before I knew it he dropped what he was doing and got in his dinghy and towed us to our boat!! His hat blew off during the tow (it was blowing that hard) and I managed to save it for him.

He didn't speak English and my Italian is limited to 'ciao', 'graci' and 'bon journo'. So after a chain of "graci's", he was off with a wave and headed back to dredge. We prayed for him and his family this evening.

He reminded me of the man in Cadiz when we first made landfall in Spain. Nick, Will and I were loaded down with about 150# of groceries and the bus had stopped working. We asked this man for a lift and he graciously took us to our boat. These random acts of kindness are so uplifting!! I live for this stuff. I just wish/hope I am giving more than taking. If we all are net givers then this life becomes so much richer. I have discovered that really happy/successful people understand this principle while white (and black and yellow) trailer trash try to shortcut life with the "me first" attitude and in the process miss the real beauty of living here on Earth -- our fellow man (and woman).

And thank God he was even there! If he doesn't give us a tow we would either still be out there rowing or would have had to turn back into town and wait for one of the other yachties to give us a tow out to our boat.

So we learned a lesson -- we can't row in a 25k head wind!! We saw another dinghy coming back later in the afternoon with 3 people aboard. They were all drenched! Salt water showers! Yum.