We pulled into Negril about 11:00am a little earlier than planned but we knew our friends would be up and ready for a visit. Penny, Scott and Freddie were staying at Y Worry Cottage https://web.facebook.com/Y-Worry-Cot...7077713592311/ just across Breadnut Lane from Primrose Inn were I spent the first week of my stay.
We had not met Scott before but we all knew Penny and Freddie from a few years back. We toured the cottage taking a closer look at the three freshly painted bedrooms, the kitchen, bathroom and large front room. There was a beautiful outdoor shower that Marshall really liked remarking that he could sure use something like this out on the farm. I had to remind him that we didn’t have pipe water so it would be difficult to use a rain catchment in that way. The house and landscaping were immaculate and I made a plan to stay here towards the end of my stay.
Freddie, who is a Rastafarian, had a special treat for us as we don’t eat meat in Accompong Town. He cooked a delectable feast of kingfish steaks, earth vegetables and rice and peas. Afterwards, we spent the rest of the afternoon on the verandah catching up on what had been happening in our lives when a powerful wind and rainstorm blew through cutting the current for much of the afternoon.
Around 6:00pm the current came back so Peckish Marshall and I headed down to 3-Dives to catch Rob and Lisa doing the web cast. Penny, Scott and Freddie had some other plans but would meet us later for the show.
When we got to 3-Dives, Mystic Bowie and the 3-Dives Band were getting set up and doing some sound checking. I looked around for Rob and Lisa but figured the web cast was probably cancelled due to the earlier power outage. I had been so busy working on the house that, although Mystic Bowie had been in Accompong while I was there, this was the first time this visit we talked. Mystic pointed at the stage and said that the drummer said he knew me. When I looked up, I saw a very old and dear friend, Clarkie, whom I knew from the old Yacht Club days. In fact, around 1991 I was in Negril for the final week of a three month stay, when I was almost completely broke. Clarkie and I, along with two Rasta breddren, bought two pounds of rice and fished everyday for our meals. Clarkie had a lady friend who stayed at the Yacht Club who worked at night and she let me sleep in her bed while she worked. Somehow I managed to spend that week on the $75 US dollars I had at the beginning and still had enough to by a pound of Blue Mountain to take home. Clarkie is truly a special friend and I was so happy to reconnect with him again.
There were only a few dozen people there and most were eating so we decided to grab a table closest to the stage and have a cold Red Stripe while we watched people coming in to the show. I particularly love to look at tourists and wonder where they are from and try to determine if they are recent or long time travelers. I even try to see if I know them possibly just through the board and try to guess what their board names might be like if their nose was running maybe they would be a “booger”!
