Good and Better: Part I

This episode of “Good and Better” begins with bad. Dan and I learned life without ipod was just not as good. When something valuable gets stolen, the first thing you want to do is wrap up in that comfort blanket of familiar music. Cozy up with sentiment and forget all that pain inside. However, when the thing stolen is that blanket you are left solely with the sour notes of your sadness. So we decided, despite our desire to keep moving and a looming weather report threatening the largest swells (non-hurricane) in the Caribbean history, we would ferry back to Puerto Rico and buy an ipod.

We got the pod, found a good deal on a kayak (which we also justified as necessity considering our decaying dinghy state) and headed back to catch the evening ferry back to Culebra. This is where the “bad” begins. As we got off the ferry we noticed we were on unfamiliar ground. After a short round of questioning, the detective duo confirmed they had in fact gotten on the wrong ferry to the wrong island.

The island of Vieques is supposed to be lovely. I’m sure it is. Unfortunately, it’s hard to fully appreciate it when you’re not supposed to be there, it’s 10:00 at night and you’ve no place to lay your head. But within 30 minutes bad became good. Dan and I started walking towards the town. We passed a couple restaurants, then a couple of ladies. “Is this a hotel?” I ask. “Are you looking for a place to stay… because I have an apartment you can use for the night.” Uhm, ok.

Ok indeed! Not only did we have a 2-room apartment fitted with fresh sheets and towels, the generous woman and sister also brought us down four cold cans of beer, a jug of orange juice and some fruit for the morning. It was getting late and we did have a 5:00 am ferry for Puerto Rico to catch, but we did take a few moments to stretch out. Move from couch to couch in a house five times the square footage of the boat we were supposed to be on that very moment.

After a warm shower (a true sailor’s delight) and little cuddle time with my new iblanky, I moved from the living room to MY bedroom. I sunk like a rock into the soft bed and swam in pleasant dreams all night. The next day after our fresh fruit and OJ, we walked back to the ferry, checked in with the supervisor, who granted us the sympathy and tickets to return to Puerto Rico.

By late afternoon we were back in Culebra, preparing the boat for tomorrow’s sail to St. Thomas. The weather report gave us plenty of time to sail and stop before the seas were scheduled to swell. They were right. The seas were smooth and shortly after the winds rose, our sails lowered and we anchored in St. Thomas.

Our fortunes were good again. But this is when good gets better…