This one’s for you,
Debbie Liu!
 |
|
I was sailing east on 26 North, then
south on 65 west,
Taking a delivery to the islands I like best... |
 |
Thus
begins a tune and a tale of love in the middle of the ocean.
The song is upbeat West Indian in the old scratch band
calypso style. The year is 1978...
I was
young, adventurous and armed with a new captain’s license
when I scored my first paid yacht delivery. The boat was
bound for the Virgin Islands charter trade, and so was I -
the beginning of my years as a Caribbean charter & delivery
skipper. I was well prepared for the offshore passage, and
equally unprepared for what the ocean held in store for me
on that serendipitous voyage.
With a
crew of two I set sail from Fort Lauderdale and followed the
classic delivery skippers’ route; across the Gulf Stream,
through the Bahamas via Tongue of the Ocean, and then due
east into the Atlantic, keeping to the Horse Latitudes north
of the trade winds to avoid fighting those relentless
easterlies. And avoid them we did, motoring for days in
light airs and calms, burning up nearly all our fuel
reserves to reach the 65th meridian where we would at last
turn south to pick up the trade winds on the beam. After
that we wouldn’t need fuel, having earned with our easting a
final, sweet reach south to the islands.
We
were nearing longitude 65° West, 800 nautical miles east of
Miami in a flat calm when we
spotted another sailboat, the first we’d seen in a week. She
was several miles ahead, seemingly hove-to under a flat-sheeted
mainsail. As the song recounts,
Well, I picked up the VHF and I called on Channel 16,
You there off our starboard bow, this is the yacht,
"Tortola Queen.”
How are you and where you from…
The
skipper answered, saying they were a 57-foot Swan out of
Annapolis, bound for the BVI. They had stopped for a swim in
the flat sea and invited us to come by for a cold beer.
Having no refrigeration aboard our bareboat and it being a
hot, windless day, we were glad to accept the friendly
offer. We caught up to them and laid to half a boat length
off, close enough for them to toss over several ice cold
cans of Heineken. Oh, nirvana on the high seas!
But as
I was about to discover, that wasn’t the only gift that
sweet Swan had in store for me.
Half a
dozen men were crowded around the cockpit when we arrived.
Up on the foredeck sitting all alone was a woman. Not just
any woman, but a beautiful young Eurasian woman, and as I
stood gaping at her I could’ve sworn she smiled at me.
All at once and just ahead in the middle of the sea
I saw a girl on another boat and she was smiling back at
me.
Fair
complexion, almond eyes, auburn hair tinged gold by the sun…
Friends, it was love at first sight!
And I found love in the middle of the ocean
Filled my body with emotion
As the two boats passed
I found love in the middle of the ocean
And I got a funny notion
That this one is gonna' last.
But
surely, I thought, she must be with one of the men aboard
that boat.
Both
vessels resumed motoring, heading south to find the trade
winds. The big Swan soon vanished over the horizon ahead of
us, taking the mysterious lady with it. We found our wind,
relished a few days of perfect sailing and before we knew or
wished it, made landfall in the British Virgin Islands. The
song laments,
Funny how these things occur
For three more days I thought of her
As I sailed into Jost Van Dyke
With her nowhere in sight…
I
brought the boat around to the charter company in Road Town,
Tortola and there in a marina slip sat the Swan. My delivery
completed, I stopped by to say hello and thank them again
for the beers, and (oh, by the way) inquire about their
beautiful shipmate. It turned out none of those guys that
we’d seen aboard were hooked up with her. She was the
owner’s hired boat-sitter, nothing more, and when he decided
to bring the boat to the Virgins she had agreed to come
along with it. The owner and all his buddies were now flying
home to wives and work, leaving lovely Debbie Liu to
care-take the boat. At the moment, they said, she was
“ashore somewhere.” Hmmm, it seemed like a good time for me
to go ashore, too.
Then it was in old Road Town
I finally tracked that woman down
And held her in my arms all through the niiiiight!
YES!
Find her I did, and the very next day I wrote the song,
played it for her, and won the fair lady’s heart as surely
as she had won mine. And we lived happily ever after for
many years, at first moving aboard a retired St. John’s
ferry turned houseboat in Compass Point, St. Thomas.
Whenever I was off skippering charter boats Debbie worked as
a waitress at an upscale restaurant in the marina. In
between we explored the islands and each other, and sailed
many offshore deliveries together. Later we lived for a
while on a deserted tropical island, and eventually ran a
big charter sailboat as captain and mate. We were young and
in love and life was grand, and hardly a day went by that we
didn’t thank Mother Ocean for bringing us together.
Well, now we sail
in company, my new first mate and I
Sailing for Antigua from Tortola, BVI
Making love every night and sailing everyday
Making me so happy when she turns to me and says
I found love in
the middle of the ocean
Filled my body with emotion
As the two boats passed
I found love in the middle of the ocean
And I got a funny notion
That this one is gonna' last
Filled my body with emotion
As the two boats passed
And I got a funny notion
That this one is gonna' last.
 |
To hear the song,
“Love in the Middle of the Ocean,”
click here.
For the complete lyrics, click here.
~ End ~
 |
