Chapter 58

Aarón joked in Spanish with the gathering I'm guessing, not speaking the language I couldn't be sure, and they in acceptance cleared a space for him at our table while I passed back the guitar I'd borrowed.

"I hope you don't mind but I told them that you, my niece, are not very good on the guitar as being so beautiful you don't have to be a good player."

"My friends understand English and that while your vision is good you are going deaf, grandfather."

A few giggles and the sound of what I hoped was translation of my reply was whispered among the our gathering but Aarón was blushing instead of laughing… With one word 'grandfather' I'd as much as said he was too old at 40(?) to be considered as a possible father to my children but then he had tried to take over my little party so tit-for-tat? The gathered local gang soon worked out that Aarón considered himself my protector which seemed to take the shine off my exotic allure as far as they were concerned so they said their goodbyes and headed toward the town centre in search of new diversions.

"Sorry if I embarrassed you with the grandfather dig Aarón, but what on earth brings you to this speck in the ocean other than the obvious jumbo jet?"

"It's not so small really and I was born here. I did grow up in Spain though so although I still come to visit my family on the island when I can I usually think of myself as Spanish. What about you?"

"A mixture of reasons. I'm crewing a yacht on its way to the Bahamas; my grandmother on my father's side is marrying at Puerto Plata on New Year's Eve, and my late grandfather on my mother's side was from here so we really we might really be related. What is your surname as my grandfather was Joseph…

"Martinez!" we both said at the same time.

That was the moment my wandering crew-mates descended on the cafe, each full of their own news of things they had seen so I made the introductions and let them relax before bringing the conversation back to Aarón and I. Martinez was a common name and beside Granddad Joe's assumed first name of Joseph the only other thing I knew was that he had been in the British Army. I did add that my mother, who was arriving on Friday, would know more but Aarón, with his team of online researchers, saw no problem in tracking down any connection.

Michael and Tracy had put together a plan for a last scuba dive of their holiday next day off a nearby islet but Aarón had to decline the invitation to join our outing instead promising to meet us as we arrived in Luperon. He did however stay with us to promenade as the wind eased and the sun lowered, walking out and back along the striking local Bridge to Nowhere and while doing so it seemed natural to link my arm through his much as Sam did with Michael.

By the time the sun had set, which it does quickly in the tropics, Aarón had steered us back to the dinghy and I was thinking he really would make a good uncle - or maybe I was just that I was missing my family. I kissed him on the cheek like a good niece as he bid his farewells and drove off.

Throughout the day squally showers had come through so we didn't risk a wet dinghy ride by hanging about ashore and by 21:00 we were fed watered and watching Captain Ron while arguing if the main film would be Notting Hill or The Matrix. It seems some disagreements are inevitable even on a luxury yacht in the Caribbean!

Two hours later Julia Roberts was smiling, Hugh Grant was looking pleased with himself and Elvis Costello was singing She because Michael on board had made the inevitable choice to keep Sam sweet!

Next morning the wind was down but still from the north so we moved to the south side of Cayo Leventado about 3 miles away to go snorkelling and scuba diving. Watching other people playing in the beautifully clear water was incredibly frustrating while I couldn't wear a swimming costume so I stopped on WorthIt cleaning up while Tracy did dinghy duty and got a dive herself.

The first I was aware anything was wrong was on hearing a piercing whistle. Going on deck I could see the dinghy full of people drifting out to sea. Bruce, recognisable in his red t-shirt had the cover off the outboard engine and someone was swimming between the dinghy and WorthIt.

With no other boats around there was no option but to start WorthIt's engines, raise the anchor and pick them up. Fortunately by the time the anchor broke free of the bottom the swimmer, Tracy it turned out, was climbing the stern steps and with her steering it was a simple matter to recapture the errant dinghy with its anxious passengers. This time there had been no real threat because we were in a large bay so the dinghy would drift at most 20 miles before reaching a shore but it could have been very different.

It was when we noticed the wind had veered to to northeast that the lost dinghy anchor had a likely explanation. The frayed and broken anchor line had probably having been wrapped around something sharp as the dinghy swung to the new wind direction. Still we were on the move so now was as good a time as any to sail on the 130 nm to Luperon.

Every passage has its own distinct nature and this was my first experience of a sailing just off a coast for a long way. Tracy warned us about local fishing boats but it was their nets and pots that proved the real problem. While it was still light we kept a keen lookout as we moved around the shallow coast of the peninsula that had sheltered us but come sunset we moved a good 5 miles off the coast. On a moonless night the lights of each town showed clearly as a sort of dome but in the water we would have run into any ship without a light let alone a tiny fishing-net bouy before we saw it,

Through the night we sailed at about 7 knots prepared at any moment to be stopped by a line around a propellor or rudder but Tracy's caution paid off so it wasn't until 09:00 next morning when finally closing the coast to enter Luperon that we found ourselves going nowhere and Bruce was dispatched over the side in scuba gear to free us. He would have cut the line if he had to but it was some poor fisherman's livelihood that would be lost and fortunately with me pushing down on the rope with a boat hook from above and Bruce wiggling it from below we freed the rudder and made it safely into Luperon Yacht Club marina to mark the end of my first trans-ocean voyage.