Tight Ship

   Yesterday we were visited by two people in Maho Bay. They dinghied up to our sailboat because they have our sister-boat, another 41ft Morgan. As they stood in their dinghy, holding our rail, chatting away about our likes and dislikes of our boats, and our future travel plans, they watched with huge eyes as people started appearing in our cockpit. One after another they feel every area of deck space and these guests watched in disbelief. WE HAVE GUESTS ABOARD! LOTS OF THEM! Right now we look like one of those clown cars, everyone shoved in, and as they start pouring out it is pretty freaking unbelievable how many are in there. We don’t feel like sardines, but to the outsider we may look that way.

   We have not had much visit this year, until the month of May. Apparently the month of May is the optimal time to visit our boat. We got back from India to having Eben’s parents, Tom and Diana-Marie onboard. They had also been joined by their Jamaican foster son, Kemar. We showed them some of the sights and then returned them to St Thomas for their flight out. 5 days later Eben’s brother Jair arrived from New Zealand, with his wife Mel and their two kids. And then two days later Eben’s sister Jaala and her bf Jordan, joined the madness. We have all of them here until the 15th, then the family of 4 leave, and two new friends join us and our other two existing guests. Then the first two leave 5 days later, and our other guests leave 5 days after that. And finally a request has just been put in for another visitor to arrive on the same day as our last guests’ departure day! Holy! What is with the month of MAY!!! 

   I am so thankful that our 6 guests are all family and wicked fun to hang out with, because if we were to be this jammed in with complete strangers, or boring people, this trip would feel extremely long. I have to say that the sleeping arrangements are interested, with kids swapping spots for sleepovers and adults trying to maintain some sort of space and privacy, but when 3 of your guests are sleeping on the drop-down salon table there is only so much privacy one can get. Provisioning, cooking, and cleaning were all things that had to be adapted, and that I had to loosen the reigns on a bit or my stress levels would have sky-rocketed. But by day 3 I think I got the hang of it and really started to enjoy this family vacation a whole lot more.

   We do have one sibling, Cyra, and her husband Sebastian and their new baby boy Elias that are missing out on this family affair, and we are all sad about that. And although I think we could have managed to shove them in here somewhere I may have lost my marbles in the process. 

It may be time for us to buy a catamaran for the next Stolz convention!!