The Definition of Surreal
Quest
Jack and Hannah Ormerod and Lucia, Delphine & Fin
Tue 31 Jan 2017 18:16
Our new crew member Alicia reports that surreal is waking up and coming outside to find two-foot remoras eating scraps of bread off the back of Quest. These are funny guys. As their mouths gape open, the suction pads on their backs glisten like solar panels. Me? Surreal is listening to a family of four; Dad, Mum, two kids younger than ours, tell us on Sunday how they abandoned their sailboat 550 nautical miles East of Martinique on the 21st of December last year. 53 foot sailboat; a Hanse called Dove II lost its rudder. The family spent three days trying to jury rig an alternative. Broadsiding into 6 metre waves, a ripped main sail and a genoa wrapped around the propellor, they started taking on water. Game over. It was one of those conversations where you become skin-sensitive of your questions but you can't help asking them anyway. ‘Do you know where she is?’ No. She should drift this way as everything does with these trade winds but whether she hits a Caribbean island or slips through a gap in between, it’s a wait for the call. If the call comes. Someone could claim her in the oldest sea rule going. Salvage rights. Or she’s not there at all anymore. ‘Will your insurance cover you?’ ‘Nope. Doesn’t cover this situation.' Oh ****... The strangest thing was how happy this family looked. The happy-to-be-alive syndrome? On a stretch of soft Prickly Pear Island sand, tanned and sitting against their new dinghy, they informed us that the dinghy is the only thing they currently own. ‘We catch lifts now,’ they said and pointed at a guy further down the beach who Fin happened to be sniffing. He was playing with a small drone. ‘That’s Royce from New Zealand. We’re hitchhiking on his boat. Obviously we weren’t planning our trip this way but it’s strange. It’s turning into a whole new adventure.’ Love from Quest and her crew xx          |