Alright, (while I can’t confidently speak to the inner-workings of tequila-making), I’m sure it isn’t actually “brewed,” but I needed it to work with my theme. Just let me run with this.
June 5, 2015:
We have always found it funny (startling, actually) how really small the “cruising community” is. You will meet a gal in a little marina on the other side of the world who knows the guy who is fixing up a boat in the slip next to you back in your home port. I’m not kidding. It’s global but, in a sense, it is so small. And, the way you meet people and make those connections tends to be such good fodder for my favorite thing in all of cruising — STORIES. Let me ask you, how many times have you met a new cruiser in port or out in an anchorage because you needed to borrow something? Perhaps you ran out of duct tape (blasphemy!), or you can’t find your little keyring thing of allen wrenches, or you need to bum some of that all-purpose wonder stuff, anti-corrosion spray, to knock a rusty bolt off. It happens all the time, and cruisers are some of the most generous folks when it comes to lending out their useful boat stuff. Case in point here, and a good story to go with it. This occurred sometime in June of 2014 when Phillip and I had just returned from our Cruise to the Keys. We met a fantastic cruising couple at one of our local anchorages because we needed to bum something and when they came back through our cruising grounds the next year, they cashed in on the favor in a most interesting way with something borrowed, something brewed. (And, I can’t really say why I started this blog on such a sing-song note. Perhaps I was inspired by the soon-to-be-released book Suess so long ago wrote. Either way, I think I’ll have some fun with words today, and present a rhythmic blog upon which I hope you dote.) Here’s how it played out:
On the hook one morning, the Captain and I found ourselves in quite the pickle. It seems we’d brought a hose for our dinghy pump that was far too fickle. Without the proper inflating dinghy nub, our dinghy was a sinking tub, and bound to our boat we would be as sad as a cell that is sickle.
The Captain refused to sit stranded on our boat on his rump, so he set off on the SUP to request from our anchor neighbors a loaner pump. He stumbled upon a couple, the dame quite supple, on an exquisite Dufour who countered the Captain’s request with an offer for trade in sum lump.
The ladies on the Dufour, were digging the Cap’n and his board and believed, in exchange for loaning their pump, a free stand-up paddle lesson was in store. The Captain happily agreed, considering a lesson an easy deed, to allow us mobility for all the fun dinghy outings the weekend could afford.
Later in the day, when the Dufour crew got back out, they stopped by our boat to bring us a brew that was quite stout, as the Dufour dame, it seemed, like Patron with coffee teamed, the taste of which we would love she did not doubt.
In all, we spent a grand day with the couple “next door,” their spirit and spunk quite fitting for a Dufour. We were thrilled to learn, they would soon return as they sailed from Mandeville to our area every year for a month or three or four.
True to their word, the Dufour couple sailed back our way this past May and tried to coordinate another rendezvous at Ft. McRee. Sadly, with schedules jam-packed, the cards against us were stacked, and it appeared we were only going to pass them briefly in the ICW one particular day.
The Dufour dame it seemed believed that was close enough indeed. She decided to cash in the long-owed dinghy pump favor, with a liquor she could savor, and she enlisted the Captain and I to bring her a bottle of which she was in dire need.
Wanting to repay the fine couple for rescuing us so long ago, we set off that day, our boat loaded with her precious cargo. Near the North Cut, I spotted the Dufour crew, toting another couple, too, awaiting our arrival in colorful hats and attire reminiscent of Key Largo.
They rafted up quick as we motored along and worked quickly to accomplish the exchange. Captain Dufour graciously paid us extra for the cost of the liquor, while a smile, a chuckle and a “keep the change.” The dame, alone, was quick to satisfy her thirst for Patron, and she immediately grasped the bottle and tipped it up the minute it was within range.
(Love it Cara!)
Once the exchange was made, we bid the DuFour crew adieu, and they dinghied back to their anchorage their spirits anew with fresh “brew.” Having fulfilled our pact, our boat borrowing karma well intact, the Captain and I continued along content, knowing we would likely find ourselves someday in need of a boat-to-boat alcohol delivery, too.
Love the poetry! Looking forward to some limericks and an occasional haiku in future posts!
Thanks Jim! Can’t believe you didn’t mention glitter this time. Ha! (‘Tween you, me and (well I guess anyone who reads these comments), I’ve got videos coming … lookout! This Dike’s going viral! : )
Bravo, bravo, well played my dear, for when sweet verse doth strike my ear my heart does leap and find good cheer. But not the stuff of Shakespeare no, that really rather bores me, and Shelley and Keats, just makes me weeps and does nothing much for me. But this here, this is the stuff, it’s real, it’s harsh and cheap and rough. It show’s the author’s mettle, to not on simple prose to settle but to create a verse for good or worse, in telling of a tale, and like the wind if the words are right, it fills your biggest sails. Now, I had thought to myself with sigh, a few of your installments to let go by without answering a scribble, and let you rest as you may have guessed from my incessant and mundane drivel. But then my muse you did so choose to put your blog in rhyme and put my resistance to the test, which was beyond sublime. Flush of face my heart did race to answer you the same. So, kudos to you for your metered verse, not too bad, I have seen worse, but you’ve got some pretty good game.
So now a new challenge I do lay down, for which you must be even more witty, it is to rhyme in metered time, and sing it as a ditty. If you really want a quest to rise to the challenge of the test then write what the Hawaiians call a mele, and by all means quite right it seems to play it on your ukelele. This will match your skills to salts and tars who sailed in days of yore who could not write to record their lives’ abundantly full score, but in bold song a drunken throng would recount their tales of seafaring lore.
Now just to share, though you may not care, and your point was already well taken, but it is my nature to give succor to slights where I see others make ’em. Now as you state you used a theme and it’s tough enough to do so, but as you knew you do not brew the beverage called Tequila. Now your theme was true and would still work to play off the wedding tradition, to have stuck with blue instead of brew and I’ll explain my sound position. It would help you to know the plant they grow to make this potent drink. Also to point out the actual case that alcohol as such is distilled, and yes while beer is brewed my dear it’s because the ingredients are heated, mixed and swilled. While on the other hand ’tis true that from the plant Agave BLUE, Tequila is distilled. Hence now you can see that it would have worked to keep the natural sense, but live and learn, and I realize I should just keep my own 2 cents. And on future occasion when the opportunity arises, I could keep my words under my hat, but then I think that’s not my style, and where’s the fun in that.
Goodness me, I must confess, I did not choose my rhyme the best. For who’da knew that blue would do, and I mean the drink and not the hue. Fine words my friend. I’m glad I could inspire a trend. For now I sit and ponder deep, without a clever rhythm or rhyme, whatever shall I write this time?