When we are cruising we often encounter other cruisers that
we’ve met before, usually in the same season when we are all doing more or less
the same routes. There are however, some completely unexpected encounters that
make you reckon ‘wow, it’s a small world’. This season so far we have had 3 of
these encounters. It is always very special to find people you’ve met in
another time in another world.
Our first surprise came one day when we were walking the
docks at Port Mosselle marina back from the regular visit to the doctor treating
Oscar’s spider bite. Docked a couple of berths away from Zenitude was Akka, with
our German friends Andrea and Andreas. What a wonderful surprise! We initially met
them in San Blass, Panama in 2010 when we were all sailing around these
wonderful islands of the Kuna Yala Indians. We were together again in Shelter Bay Marina while getting ready for the crossing of the Pacific Ocean, sharing all
the hectic times to get ready for transiting the canal. We crossed the Pacific that same year, but we
were always a bit ahead of Akka and even when we kept in touch for a while by
email we never met again until now.
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| Akka at Port Mosselle (behind little Emma) |
The second encounter was even more surprising as it happened
in a more secluded place. We were arriving to the Aore Resort in Luganville to
pick up one of their moorings. The Aore Resort has 4 moorings for visiting
yachts, only 2 were taken and as we approached to grab a free one we couldn’t
believe Sea Fury was just there. The special thing about Sea Fury with Roger on
board is that we met for the first time somewhere in the big Pacific Ocean in
2010, 1500 miles away from any land on our second week sailing from Galapagos
to Marquesas. It was then so unreal to see a white sail in the horizon as it
was unreal to find her again 3 years later in a Luganville mooring. Check our
website Home page to see the picture that Roger took of Zenitude back then and the
page “Galapagos to Marquesas” for more pictures and the complete story. Here is a picture of Sea Fury now:
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| Sea Fury at the Aore Resort moorings |
What can we say of the third encounter? We are moored at
Port Vila and behind us there is a Swiss flagged boat, Miami. The day before
leaving we go ashore, introduce ourselves to George and Ute from Miami and join
them for happy hour drinks. George is unbelievable with languages, he speaks German
and English as well as perfect Spanish, perfect Portuguese, Italian and we don’t
know what else. Ute somehow follows the conversation in any of these languages.
He has lived in Rio during same years we
lived there. They crossed the Pacific 2 years ahead of us. The amazing part of
the story comes next day when we dinghy our way to Miami to say good bye to
George and Ute. George has recalled back from his memory that we actually met
in Bundaberg 3 years ago at a Melbourne Cup lunch in Bundaberg, recalling that
Oscar had picked up the winning horse becoming very popular among the cruisers that
followed his lead.
It is indeed a big ocean, but still, it’s a small world!
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| Zenitude sailing somewhere in the big ocean |
G.
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