Day 7 Mon. 2-22
Woke up before dawn. (We got plenty of sleep the night before after the ganja tea experience at bloody bay. Sheesh! Slept through the sunset and the whole evening!) What a quiet, peaceful time on the beach! The only living soul we saw on the beach from our room at Charela Inn was the night security man and an occasional cat slinking through the shrubbery. Kind of nice to just sit back, with a cup of coffee (laced with Baileys) and watch the beach wake up. The sea was so calm when the sun came up it looked like a mirror stretching to the horizon. The sounds of the tree frogs are slowly replaced by the singing of the birds. The fishermen in their dugout canoes are paddling out to the reef and an occasional walker or jogger passes by. Then the fruit and oj vendors start to pass by, followed by other vendors on their way to set up their beach stands.
Hung out on the beach most of the morning and then wandered over to White Sands where Fatfish (aka Jeff) and Carol were staying. We went next door to Nirvana to see if Lonnie was around and check out the property. WOW! What a cool place! Lonnie gave us the grand tour and was very helpful with any questions we had about the property and Negril. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and the cabins and villas are something to see. Lonnie and her husband Stanley, started building Nirvana in 1983 and just kept adding cottages and villas ever since. Definitely want to stay there sometime! While we were sitting under the shelter in the middle of the grounds Dr. Kamayani walked through and Lonnie introduced us. A very interesting lady. She has an organization to help the children of Negril and also is a practicing chiropractor. She was carrying a little fold-up table and was off to give someone a massage.
Spent the rest of the day on the beach. Charela has Sunfish, a Catamaran, Sailboards and Sea Kayaks for its guests. I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of sailing on the ocean. However, I have no real sailing skills whatsoever! But it didn’t look so hard to sail. I’d been watching boats for the last two days and I thought I could handle it. WRONG!! Everything went fine until I was about 30 feet from shore. Then the boat just stopped and wouldn’t go anywhere. Fatfish and Ray from next door at White Sands were takin’ a dip when they saw me in the stalled sailboat. "How come you’re not moving?” “I’m just waitin’ for a puff” was my answer. I’ve heard sailors talk about puffs of wind so I thought that would sound like I knew what I was doing. NOT!! All in all I think I dumped the Sunfish 4 times. Once while trying to light a cigarette, twice on the ropes around the swimming area and the last when I was almost back to shore. I was just sure everyone on shore had a good laugh while this fiasco unfolded in front of them! The last time the boat flipped over I couldn’t get it righted. Had to have Cedric swim out and help me back to shore. How embarrassing! However, no one on the beach seemed to be looking at me when I finally made it back to shore. They were all just staring out at the ocean with wry little smiles on their faces. Fatfish, Carol and Kay watched the whole thing. When we walked over to White Sands Fatfish wanted to know what it was that I stuck in my mouth just as the boat went over for the third time. (It was a $500J bill that was floating in the bottom of the boat from the time I dumped it while trying to light a cigarette.) I didn’t loose my Red Stripe hat and sunglasses so that was a small victory. Cigarettes and lighter were never seen again. Guess I’ll just stick to sunset cruises for my sailboating.
