We had an experience today that neither of us will ever forget.
As of late, Trav and I have been trying to do morning workouts on the beach (I know, hard to believe we do anything other than sunbathe lately, but we do). When we finished the workout, we took a swim in the ocean to cool off. There was a Catamaran anchored about 100 meters from us. The man on that boat was out on his deck and when Travis waved at him, he waved back and then jumped in and swam to where we were sitting on the beach. When he got close, Trav complimented his boat and we began making small talk. Not long after, he invited us onto his boat for a drink and to look around. Of course, we obliged.
The boat was breathtakingly beautiful. It was a 2016 44 foot Fontaine Pajot (if that last part doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t worry. It didn’t to me either until Travis just informed me how to spell that). It had 3 full bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a washing machine, a dishwasher, a deck sitting area with curtains… Anyways, it was amazing.
The man brought us some local rum and fancy ice cubes and we began to chat. We learned he was from France and he had been sailing with his wife for years. He has a couple kids and grandkids, retired from his job and is planning on sailing for the rest of his life. He and Travis talked technicalities about boats while I tried to figure out what type of juice was mixed with the rum to make it taste so good.
After a while he showed us around the boat, and then made us some homemade French bread- which is apparently a totally normal thing to have a bread maker on board your boat. It was delicious! He told stories of his time sailing and his experiences with the people and culture here in Grenada.
Finally Trav and I said we needed to get back to do some work on our boat, and it seemed like he didn’t want us to go. He asked if he could take our picture and told us he keeps a book of everyone’s names and emails that he meets. We signed and waved and then swam back to shore. It was a really cool experience.
When we got back to shore we realized we had spent almost 3.5 hours with him! But I could not stop talking or thinking about how kind that man was. He clearly was of a different status than we were, and he never one time talked down to us or acted like he was trying to show off. He was proud of us for our accomplishments, and excited for us to start our journey that he began himself 40 years ago. He seemed like he genuinely enjoyed our company and just wanted to get to know us. This experience made me really excited for us to get out and explore more, so we can meet other interesting individuals with stories all of their own.
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