Our first day after arriving we spent holed up on our boat eating, drinking, and soaking in our own arrival euphoria. The second day we checked in and explored the town. On our THIRD day, the fun began as we were able to welcome two of our buddy boats who we travelled across the Pacific with. Chara arrived first, and Tim and Alex were in the dinghy ready to assist them with their stern anchor, if needed. But Chara eyed their spot, steered to the back of the anchorage, turned around, dropped the stern anchor, pulled forward, dropped the bow anchor, pulled back, and they totally nailed it. It was a beautiful thing to watch. We had picked up extra baguettes that morning, so even though they weren’t needed to assist with anchoring, Tim and Alex got to be the bread delivery men. The Chara crew were anxious to get to shore, so we offered to give them a ride in our dinghy whenever they were ready (since ours was already in the water and the outboard was already on). They made an appointment with Sandra (the agent that assisted us with check-in) and they were just going to relax until then.
Next to arrive was Lady Carolina, not much after Chara. Their entrance lacked the professionalism of Chara’s spot-on anchoring, but it made up for it in, let’s just say, flare. As I did with Chara, I was taking pictures of them on their approach outside the harbor with the telephoto lens. At some point I get a reasonably clear glimpse into the cockpit, and I have to look away. Then I’m not sure of exactly what I saw, so I have to look again. This time, I’m sure. If you’ve seen the movie Borat, you will know what I’m talking about. Steve is wearing a bright yellow contraption. Picture a banana hammock with suspenders. And later I would learn it also sported a G-string. “Oh my god!” I yell across to Chara, “What is Steve WEARING!?!”
Steve proudly displayed his mankini to the anchorage as poor Kyle ducked at the stern in sheer embarrassment. And in typical Lady Carolina style, they had to circle the anchorage 2 or 3 times to pick their spot, then once they picked their spot and dropped, they decided that wasn’t good and moved. In the final anchoring spot, they enlisted Tim’s help in the dingy, so he got a front row show for the mankini. I do think at one point Steve did put shorts on, because there’s a fair amount of bending and lifting involved in anchoring a boat, so he was perhaps putting all of us out of our misery while making himself a bit more comfortable. Of course, through all this the time for Chara’s appointment came and went and they had to drop their own dinghy to get to shore anyway. Then we had an all-day happy hour on Exodus, complete with baguettes “four ways.” We had a good time catching up and chatting about our passages.
But no, the mankini adventures did not end that day. Our other buddy boat, True Blue V, arrived two days later, and since they had missed the original show, Steve was planning to make up for it. I had made some allusion to “Steve’s arrival attire” on one of our radio nets, so Craig and Leann knew that something might be up. As soon as they were heading past the breakwater, Steve donned his mankini and raced out in the dinghy, driving it while standing, as if he were driving a chariot. They almost died! The best part was that there was a tour boat of what sounded like teenage girls leaving the harbor at just the same time, and Steve faced them and gestured with arms high in the air, and whole harbor erupted in screams and squeals.
Once True Blue V got anchored, we had another lovely day of eating, drinking, and catching up. We were lucky on Exodus. We got to relive the arrival Euphoria several times, in addition to our own.
Gresham Family Exodus 