Captain My Captain

St. Maartin. A place that is very near and dear to our hearts due to finding Marionette’s Revenge. 

It’s a beautiful island split in two by both the Netherlaands and France. An island of approximately 45,000 people in just 16 square miles. Quite small, and yet the number of times we have already crossed paths with folks from there is pretty damn astounding.

Last week was no exception. Climbing out of the boat I was greeted with a friendly “CSY!!!!” 

The man who stood in front of me was the perfect love child of ZZ Top and Duck Dynasty. His beard was…fantastic! 

A quick conversation revealed that this bearded fellow aptly named Capt Karl was in fact a delivery captain who had just arrived in a 70+ ft Hatteras. His excitement on seeing Marionette’s Revenge was heart felt. For he too owned a CSY 44. And I’ll be a monkey uncle, guess where it was!?! Yep, St. Maartin. In fact, a few years ago he had given our old girl a looksie but fortunately for us had passed. 

We gave Karl a quick tour and explained the changes and upgrades we had made. He was pretty impressed knowing what her previous condition was. Naturally, we humbly glowed like the summer sun. 

It was nearly time for sunset and the good citizens of Venice were all headed to watch the sunset at the beach. Karl mentioned he was headed that way before dinner. I declined since we were in Venice so naturally pizza was on the agenda. But, what’s a good meal without good company to join us?

Our new friend helped us alleviate a few beers that were taking up space and even suffered through dinner. He hung out for and hour or so and it feels like we became instant friends. Like two kids on a playground attracted to each other, but not in the Michael Jackson kind of way. It also turns out the we are on schedule to meet up in the northern Keys where he has offered up his car to us to re-provision before our trek to the Bahamas! Who makes an offer like that so quickly to a set of strangers? Apparently in this cool new cruising world that we have entered, guys like Capt. Karl does!!!!

I look to pay it forward. Hubby out.