We had an interesting last night with Walter from "Madness". After a nice tour around the island of Montserrat, Walter came over for a haircut, a quick comparison of weather findings and a BBC documentary we promised to share. After arriving, he decided he had forgotten a few things so he dashed off to his boat. Off he went in his dinghy and was back in a flash. As he tried to step off his dinghy onto our platform, he miscalculated with the huge surge rolling under us and took a header into the
water. On his way to the soft water, he hit his ribs on the hard step of the boat leaving him unable to swim or get aboard. Laurie helped him up and rinsed him off after surrendering his wet clothes. He stayed for the evening but it was obvious he was in some pain. This morning, after Laurie checked on him, we had to say our goodbyes. He is heading north to Antigua and we had to head south to Guadeloupe. The sad and scary part of all of this is that his company is gone and he is single handing.
It's a good lesson to all of us about staying careful ALL the time since we have to depend on ourselves to get around on our boats! We checked with Walter often throughout the day on the ham radio and he reported that he was able to get someone from a barge to come help him get the anchor up (he doesn't have a electric windlass like us) and the last time we spoke he was only 2 hours from Angtigua and doing well. Dropping the anchor isn't nearly as difficult as getting it up!! We'll talk to him
again this evening to check on him once more.
If anyone is interested in flying south to sail with Walter over the next few weeks, let us know and we'll pass along any offers that come.
We'll be leaving here in the morning for the southern part of Guadeloupe and will decide about going the entire route to Pointe a Pitre later on in the day.
Until then, stay warm everyone!
Dawn
