Stories Of Negril and the Westend

[Pushin 50]

While in Port Antonio, we met a man from Miami who was staying on a medium sized ocean going sailing ship. He said he was stuck in Jamaica and was not sure when he would be leaving. He had been hired as a deck hand by the boat owner, along with a captain for the ship. The ship's owner and wife had just retired. They wanted to travel throughout the caribbean, island hopping the rest of their days. He had captained the ship himself on weekend jaunts to the Bahamas and back, and off the eastern coast of Florida. But he also knew his limits and wanted a veteran captain to teach him about the tricky parts he would travel. They decided to do a trip to Jamaica as the first run. They ran into trouble between Cuba and Haiti. The sea was extremely rough, though they made it through OK. The owner was so shook up by the experience, he flew home to Miami afraid to sail again. He instructed the captain to bring the ship home to Miami. Before they could shove off, the captain got a call from home that his wife was ill and in the hospital. He took a flight home the next day, never to return. That left the deck hand with the ship. The owner paid him to take care of the ship until he could send another captain down to bring it home. That had been three months ago. So the deck hand had sailed the ship around the island a couple of times. Once because of weather, once out of boredom.