Reece's Water-Taxi Adventure
Shaya Moya
Don & Susan Smyth
Sun 19 Dec 2010 19:12
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After dropping off Dad, David and Linda at Anse La
Rie I returned to Marrigot Bay with the intention of taking a water taxi back to
meet up with them. The trip back was great fun. I raced atop the waves at high
speeds through the darkness with just a few lights in the distance to navigate
by. After arriving in Marrigot Bay, I quickly tied up the tender to the dingy
dock and started my search for a fearless water taxi driver. I found just the
man. He was a podgy chap, dark as the night with a smile that could light a
stage. Jean was his name.
Jean showed me to his boat and we began to
negotiate the price for this taxi ride into the darkness. At first he wanted
$300 EC (Eastern Caribbean), then $250 EC, then $80 US and finally we both
settled on the price of $100 EC. He'd met his match on the bargaining side of
things! Or at least that's what I thought. We scuttled into his old fishing/taxi
vessel and headed out of the bay, stopping at every other yacht on the way to
ask if they might also want to spend $100 to go to Anse La Rie. A half an hour
later we were finally on our way still just the two of us. This was probably due
to his appalling bargaining skills.
We rushed along Caribbean style, slowing down every
30 seconds to check something or try a new bargaining trick (it never
worked). He asked me over and over if he should wait for me in Anse La Rie and
gave me new hourly rates every time he asked... I said no every time he asked.
Being an intelligent chap I hadn't told him that I had no cash on me and that
Dad was hopefully waiting for me on the dock when we got there. Imagine his
surprise when he said to me 20m off the dock: "Okeey, you pay me nouw an I gonna
drop yu fast!" and I said "No, you have to drop me so I can fetch the money and
come back fast to pay you." I said this hoping Dad had seen us waiting off the
docks and was on his way with the ransom money... He wasn't so I was stuck with
Jean, who was no longer smiling, on his water taxi which was no longer
close to the dock. Eventually we gave up trying to whistle and attract
attention because it wasn't working. Jean then said it was to dangerous now
because the waves were getting bigga. We
started back to Marrigot Bay very quietly.
Whilst returning, not quite as fast as we'd
departed, I continued to explain to Jean that I still had no money on me and
that all his chances of getting paid that night stood waiting for me in Anse La
Rie. At this point the boat slowed right down, I thought " Oh god! crazy
Caribbean," and then remembered the story of the axe murderer on the beach a few
nights before. I turned slowly on my seat as to not have my back to him anymore
and then said :" Hey man, what are you doing? are you crazy?" The sight was
horrific... A half naked podgy Caribbean standing on the seat trying to pee off
his boat, which of course was still moving. It didn't work out and Jean tumbled
in a sort of forward cart-wheel, without hands of course, into the
water.
So here I sat in the dark on an old boat in
the middle of the Caribbean Sea moving away from where the driver of the boat,
who was very angry with me, was swimming with his pants around his ankles hardly
able to stay afloat. What do you do in that situation? Ask for a refund? Take
the boat? Start to bargain and make a new and probably better deal? I chose to
turn the boat around and go back to fetch my, no longer fearless, taxi
driver. Luckily he smiled when I turned the boat around so finding him was
a breeze. I then hauled his now naked podginess back on board and asked if he
was alright. I'm not sure if it was shock, embarrassment, relief or gratitude
for saving his life but Jean was happy to be back on the boat with me. He smiled
all the way back to the bay and even dropped me off where I had my tender tied
up. I told him we could talk the next day about payment and so and he said: " No
worries brudda, we see us tommorra and we ca taalk"
The next day I never saw Jean again and we left
Marrigot Bay... If you think about it, I saved a mans life for $100 EC. Good
Bargaining Jean!
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