A story about love

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many Guest Blog Spots for the Lovesail Blog.  This week we have truly romantic tale “Love in the Middle of the Ocean” about a serendipitous voyage from one of our Lovesail members Tor:

I was sailing east on 26 North, then south on 65 west, Taking a delivery to the islands I like best…

A tale of love in the middle of the ocean

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!

The girl in the middle of the sea

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.

© 2011 Tor Pinney – All Rights Reserved

The article, song and lyrics were written by Tor Pinney, and along with the images, have been reproduced here by his kind permission.  If you would like to read more articles and tips by Tor or find out about his book “Ready for Sea” then visit his webpage Tor Pinney’s Homeport

Here is the song written by Tor and the lyrics are here

If you have any stories about sailing, dating, love or the sea and would like to guest on our blog then please email us through our Lovesail website for more details.  Contact details at the bottom of the Lovesail home page.