After the joy of attending Ron and Nancy’s wedding, Carl
received an e-mail from his brother Kurt in New York that his father had died.
He was 92 and lived a full life, but 8 years ago he suffered a stroke and his
health started to decline. We were expecting him to die for a while, but when
it finally happens it is still a big shock. Being the season in St. Thomas we
could not get a slip for the boat for a week, so we anchored in Brewers Bay.
Unfortunately bad weather came in and a couple boats drug their anchors. So
with more bad weather forecast Leslie said she would stay with the boat while I
flew up for the funeral.
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| Some of the family gets together |
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| We gather at Dad's house |
Carl’s brother Bret, from Florida, arrived in New York
with his wife, Val, and daughter Daryl, as well as Alan, his brother from
Australia, all within an hour of Carl so they went together to Kurt’s house.
The next day Carl and Val left the others to prepare
pictures for the viewing while they went to the airport and picked up Carl’s
sons Eric and Aron, who also arrived within an hour of each other.
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| Aron, Daryl, and Eric greet people |
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| We lay Dad to rest |
Funerals are never fun, but it was good to get so much of
the family together. Everyone did well, but it was tough to hold together when
they played taps at the grave site.
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| We gather at the fireplace |
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| We burn Dad's vest |
Everyone was on short visits, except Alan, so the next
day we made a final fire and cooked some chicken as a tribute to Dad in the
fireplace he built so long ago and had cooked so many meals over the decades.
At the end of the night we burned the fur vest he had worn for many years as he
worked drawing houses in his basement office.
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| Leslie was busy making cushions |
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| New sunshades on the stern |
When Carl returned he didn’t recognize the boat as,
unbeknown to him, Leslie had made cock pit cushions and sun shades!
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| We gaze at our objective, The Cliff |
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| We start the climb |
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| The climb is tough |
Our friends Alex and Vince were to soon leave on a new
adventure so Carl took them on a hike up to the cliffs with another friend Bruce.
It was something they had always wanted to do for the time they had been here.
It was harder than normal as Carl took a “short cut” through the jungle and
briers, but the view was terrific!
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Some ones washed out shanty on
the way up |
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| We made it to the top! |
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| What a view! |
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We all made it down again
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| Nancy and Gordon on Ron's last show |
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| Ron plays his last set on the island |
Our other friends Ron and Nancy also decided to leave for
a new adventure so we went to watch Ron give his last show and later met them
for their last meal on the island.
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| Nancy and Ron's last night on the island |
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| We glue in the track for another sun shade |
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| The new sunshade is up |
Back at Brewers Bay, projects continued with Leslie
making another sun shade and Carl and our friend Denis, off Beagle Knot, taking
apart the windless to repair it. They didn’t get to replace the parts they
wanted to, but it still works better now. Carl also reinforced the cockpit
hatch covers.
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| Reinforcing the propane locker hatch |
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| Port cockpit hatch is reinforced |
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| Working on the wench |
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friends party with us before the last sunshade is up for
our anniversary |
However, we still
had good times. We invited a number of our cruising friends aboard for drinks
and hors d’ovuers to help celebrate our anniversary.
A week later we got a visit from two baby and two adult
porpoise, and Carl jumped in to swim with them.
Leslie continues
with her chiropractor appointments to get her leg in shape and when she
finishes we will be off to other destinations.
