Meandering thru the Virgin Islands. Captain Ted always took on a local lad in the crew who knew the many islands by their mountain silouette against the sky as there were no charts available. One afternoon we heard on the ship's radio that a charter sloop had gone aground nearby. It was manned by four experienced charter boat sailors who somehow let their dinghy go adrift and made the mistake of chasing it into shallow water and their bottom got caught. When we saw them they were at about a sixty degree angle. There were no tugboats in that part of the world - the TIKI was the biggest thing in the neighborhood. By now there was a Coast Guard helicopter overhead and Captain Ted asked their permission to permit his boat to attempt to pull the sloop off the beach. With permission granted he sent our crew and dinghy over to the stranded boat with a line which the sailors tied around their mast. Ted ordered us down below and took a strain on the tow line - the first time it parted with a snap and we were glad we were under cover. A second try was successful and we pulled the shaken sailors along side and we could see their bent rudder which would not sit well with the charter boat owner. But they were safely afloat minus their dinghy and after a sip of scotch to calm the nerves they thanked us and were on their way. All this with a flotilla of spectator boats observing this act. As they used to say "Just an average day in the West Indies."
tjs
(To be continued)
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