Chapter 48

Being between two yachts moving up and down; apart and together, with the ocean's swell was scary as hell but holding the baby with one hand I floundered back to grasp the stern of the dinghy which allowed me to swing the child up and into the frantic mother's hands. Seconds later my father's strong arm did the same for me…

As though it had never happened we continued as planned and once mother and baby were safe on WorthIt the Frenchman re-boarded his yacht to begin the process of transferring as much as possible to the safety of WorthIt, even at the last moment the unused life-raft

From first radio contact to the yacht disappearing beneath the surface was less than 2 hours and maybe ridiculously I felt like turning to imagined judges as in a gymnastics competition where they hold up cards with points - 'Efficiency' 9; 'Elegance' 4…

I was given special dispensation to have a shower - it still being only noon and my watch. The prospect of a shower was so welcoming that I neglected to lock both doors to the shower that was shared between my cabin and the Frenchwoman's, Claire. She just stood there dumbstruck staring at my breasts and 'dangly bits' until I gently pushed her out and re-closed the door!

There is no etiquette for dealing with that situation so once I was dressed and back on watch we did what civilised people do and ignored it. Tracy couldn't however ignore that she had a big decision to make and changed course to Port-Louis, Guadeloupe where Claude, Claire and baby Emily had been heading to meet family members. Although the Caribbean islands are somewhat vague in my mind I learnt that Guadeloupe, Martinique and some smaller islands are as much part of France as The Channel Islands are to Britain but not quite as much as Hawaii is to the Americans.

Tracy's plan was to try to get to Port-Louis early next morning, drop off the French and continue immediately to Antigua which was less than 40 nm miles to the NW. With cooperation from French officials we might yet lose only a few hours to the diversion.

Emily was a big hit with everyone on board; even to my surprise Tracy who despite being Iron Woman when sailing was soon a mushy puddle of hormones under Emily's gaze. With my full-frontal exposure to Claire in mind, although tempted I avoided the baby show going back on deck to finish my watch. There was nothing in sight but then there hadn't been for several days which highlighted how lucky our new passengers had been to get picked up.

At 14:00 on the radio Tracy called the Guadeloupe Maritime Control on 2182 kHz getting through despite being at maximum range and explained the situation and our plan. They were more than happy to help as she gave details of our passengers' names, passport numbers, possessions, details of their yacht, position it sank, position of the container they hit. Having agreed we would monitor 2182 kHz on SSB and Channel 16 on the VHF radios it was planned that we would anchor off Port-Louis and expect to be joined by a local vessel at 08:00.

That afternoon I only napped for an hour or so before joining Sheila to help prepare a casserole of egg noodles with chicken, ham and Swiss cheese for dinner. That was soon in the oven so I couldn't avoid Claire and Emily who had also napped before joining us to chat.

Fortunately in better English than Claude's, she described meeting Claude in Bordeaux only18 months before - she paused for a moment to drop Emily into my arms - Claude was so romantic having sailed single-handed from Guadeloupe to France but he had to return to Guadeloupe soon after finding out that Claire was pregnant. Naturally she thought she was being abandoned but true to his word the next June he sailed back into Bordeaux and they married on the eve of Emily's birth. When the yacht sank they had been on their way to the new home Claude had waiting for them in Guadeloupe…

By the time the story was finished Emily was back asleep with her head and hand on her new favourite cushion of my left breast; Sheila was blowing her nose into a fistful of tissues from the sheer romance of it all and the rest of the crew were demanding their dinner.

It was the perfect end to a wonderful voyage as we sailed under tropical skies through the night rounding the northern tip of Guadeloupe to anchor just off Port-Louis at 08:00 as two motor launches came out to meet us, one going to each side of WorthIt. We had put out fenders and just finished helping them to secure their lines when 8 arms went down, 4 on each boat, to rise again each with an automatic rifle pointed straight at us!

"Raise your hands and don't argue!" bellowed Tracy.

The officer who seemed to be in charge boarded WorthIt with 2 more men wearing holstered pistols. "Which of these men is Claude Durand?" he demanded of Tracy. Claude's hands were promptly cuffed behind his back once Tracy identified him.

"You mentioned a life-raft among his possessions - where is it?"

Again Tracy made the identification and this time a knife was unpocketed and used to cut through the tape sealing the two halves of the life-raft case together. I quite expected the halves to explode apart as the raft inside inflated but instead the official prised them apart to expose clear sealed plastic bags… Sheila gasped…

"Truffles!"