Chapter 51

The sail to Barbuda had gone just as planned and in the afternoon Michael and the boys were drift diving over the coral while I remained in the dinghy keeping it above them as the current swept us along.

"Bom dia moça bonita." That didn't sound like a parrot…?

"Be still, my beating heart."
OMG did I just say that aloud?

There was another large yacht in the bay doing the same as us and while I relaxed under an umbrella the second yacht's dinghy had quietly drifted right up to mine so the first I was aware of Armando was his stunningly handsome face leaning under my shade. Armando was Brazillian and didn't speak English while I was Welsh and didn't feel able to speak in any language while looking at him. That didn't seem to be a problem for Armando so maybe it is true that men don't listen to women, or maybe he wanted me for just one thing… My umbella!

With the dinghies together it was natural that the divers started chatting as they surfaced with one thing leading to another and the inevitable 'Your place or mine?' for sundowners. WorthIt II was chosen on the basis that while Armando's was longer ours had greater width giving us 'deck appeal'.

"WorthIt. WorthIt. WorthIt, this is WorthIt tender." I called with the handheld VHF radio to Tracy back aboard. "Just a warning for Sheila that there will be an additional 8 guests for sundowners so she might need a second packet of potato chips."

We had an hour once back on WorthIt to prepare for guests, most of which time in my case was spent in fresh water washing the scuba equipment once Bruce had shown me how to do the regulators. Scuba diving seemed a lot of fuss when it came to equipment but the divers were so excited afterwards about what they had seen I later put down in my notebook ⑤ learn to scuba dive.

Sheila with no real notice had whipped together magnificent nibbles to have with the drinks and I began to suspect that she lived in a constant state of readiness in case the queen dropped by. They were needed as the drinks flowed very freely and I found myself getting giggly on wine which I rarely drank back home. The boys, Daniel and Jacob made themselves the centre of attention as they tried to appeal to a girl of about 22 - I could have told them they had no chance but thought it better that they do that than notice the 15 year old younger girl who was all too dangerously taken with them.

It was seeing the 15 year old that made me rein-in my own behaviour by acting as an embarrassing mirror to my reaction in Armando's presence. Looking at Tracy and Bruce they were only taking the smallest of sips from their wine despite the reputation of drunken sailors. The good fairy on my right shoulder told me to pull myself together and shape up but her left shoulder sister was all for making a party of it and to spend time with Armando… - it was the last thought that gave the good fairy the upper hand this time as she pointed out I wasn't yet equipped physically or emotionally to deal with the Armandos of this world!

An hour after the guests arrived they were on their way back to their own vessel for dinner and I was washing up. Unlike our group none of the visitors were paid crew but guests of a film producer who owned the yacht - as an introduction to the lifestyles of the rich and famous this wasn't too hard to bear but it did seem full of contradictions and a cruel part of me had wanted to shout out 'Do you realise I could buy all of you combined several times over!'

After all those nibbles I didn't make much in the way of inroads into the Texas chili Sheila served for dinner and was in my bunk by 21:00 wondering how I'd cope, living with wonderful food cooked by others constantly within arms reach. It might be ok for those that grow up that way but I could see myself swinging between obesity and anorexia.

06:00 and I'm securing the anchor for the sail back to Antigua which is a lot bouncier than the outward bound leg the day before. I say sail but Tracy kept the engines going the whole 4 hours it took for the 25nm trip, explaining that the Swan, Blue Horizon, I'd sailed to Bilbao would have made the this little upwind leg faster and more comfortably than this much bigger catamaran but what was more important than sailing aesthetics for this leg was having enough time in Antigua for Tracy to clear customs and immigration, for me to get scuba dive-bottles refilled and for the Worths to have their tour of the island all before we set sail once more for St Barts at 18:00.

That night as I filled in the log to mark the start of 19th December it struck me that the log and schedule was now the centre of our lives as much as any factory worker clocking on and off but now I was the 'shift foreman', or more appropriately 'watch leader' from 22:00 to 02:00 on Tuesday 19th and my number two was Michael Worth!

It was my first chance to really talk with the owner and an eye opener. Rather than the oil wells in the back yard or hundreds of square miles of cattle ranch that I'd imagined, he had a trucking company and wasn't even that rich with the banks owning the trucks and WorthIt II. He planned to arrange two holidays a year aboard WorthIt at the beginning and end of charter seasons that he hoped would enable her to pay her own way.

"Business is fickle. We try to enjoy what we can while we can but really Sam and I believe the business will have succeeded if our children get can go out into the world healthy and well educated."

Michael then went and made us hot drinks being careful to only use the red light before rejoining me on deck to combine watch-keeping with star gazing.

"Wow!" he said looking up to take in the full sweep of the milky way above. "30 years ago I started at the boys' age as a truck driver in Benbrook, Texas, sometimes stopping at night to see the stars when out in the desert. That was never this clear though. Who'd've believed I'd get to be this lucky?"