Circling Back

Several years ago I was hanging out in a bar in Tortola when the bar tender suggested a bar game (no, not that game…) “If I choose any two people in this room,” he said, “I can guarantee you’ll know someone in common.”

So he chose me and another fellow, a guy who said he came from the Isle of Wight. I only know one person from the Isle of Wight, I said, Andy Copeland, a fellow cruiser and friend. Turns out the guy had dated Andy’s daughter. And not long ago he said spent a Thanksgiving with Andy and his family.

 The La Cruz anchorage

The sailing community, like any specialized community, is a small one. But the way it circles back on itself, over and over, never ceases to amaze me. We have an old marina neighbour who blogs as Boatbaby and through her we heard about Behan on a boat called Totem. There are kids on a boat called Totem that’s sailing in Mexico, I told Maia one day, as we made our way down the coast and she was moaning with loneliness. We may not meet them, exactly, but on their blog they mention lots of other kids are cruising in Mexico. So you will meet cruising kids when we get south, I told her, you won’t be alone forever.

 Maia and the girls from Totem and a friend from Stepping Stone

When we arrived in La Cruz, Totem was far south. But Behan sent me a note letting me know which boats had kids and Maia met several and was thrilled. Then one morning on the net we heard Totem had arrived in the bay, but had guests aboard. We didn’t want to disrupt their visit, so left searching them out for another day. But later that afternoon we saw someone we recognized roaming the dock—a sailor called Jim Jessie.

Last time we went cruising we were fortunate enough to meet Jim and Diana Jessie. Diana was a writer I admired and her generous help (over Sunday Gin Fizzes) got me started on my own writing path. I was excited to see them again and thank Diana, so I plotted with Evan about how to hunt them down and say hello.

 Cocktails on Totem with Jim and Diana Jessie

Then I popped into Behan’s blog, and I learned who Totem’s guests were: Jim and Diana Jessie.