We heard something you rarely hear and never want to. The other day while sitting at anchor: "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday"! We turned up the VHF to listen. Over on the island of Jost Van Dyke, the surf was hitting over 8 ft where the reef was near the surface on the edge of Sandy Spit. A group of people in a Sunsail charter boat, misjudged the depth, and didn't read their charts and were literally picked up by a wave and deposited on top of the reef with the 8 ft waves washing over the boat. All the nearby Boaters came to the rescue (we were too far away) and they pulled the sailboat onto its side and dragged it off the reef. Surprisingly, the engine started the hull was not cracked, and they motored away. We love Happy Endings! A few days later we were anchored in Benures Bay, at Norman Island an we met a lovely young couple, Petter from Sweden, Rosanna from Britain with their 3 yr old son Teddy, aboard their 42 ft Juneau, "Lolo". They had sold everything they had back home and were taking a 2-3 yr sailing odyssey and hunt for a new home in Southern waters. They had been standing on Sandy Spit when the above mentioned sailboat was deposited on the reef in front of them and they were one of the dinghy's to the rescue, so we got the story first-hand.
We lent them a DVD (the 1st movie they'd seen in over a year), and after a great visit wished them well on their sailing quest and home search. Teddy was adorable, very smart and already developing his sailing skills. His first observation was to point to our boat and say "that's your boat, Why do you have 2 masts?"
Fair Winds to Petter, Rosanna and Teddy ... may we meet again in some beautiful bay!
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