Continued From Page 3
by Crazy Horse
Photos by Crazy Horse & Layla
The last full day of the infamous Tahiti Run was supposed to be where we all just lazed around the grass huts. But no, not Bandit, the big bastard just can’t keep still. He had brought this nasty long knife from Cali and he wasbound and determined to do something with it. So he sent Layla out withinstructions to find wood worthy of boat building or don’t come back. She made the biggest sad eyes she could, and let me tell you, she can make sad eyes that melt the heart of most any man. But not Bandit. He don’t give in.Not even when she wanted a Margarita at the end of the previous evening. ” I guess I’m not getting a Margarita,” the great granddaughter of Popeye pouted as she walked down the dock to our huts. Bandit did his best John Wayneimitation and kept on walkin’.
Me? I’m married to a guy who would have bought her 10 Margaritas. So I was goofin off, sleeping and swimming and doing whatever I wanted to. Then the phone rang. ” Hey you!” Came the gruff voice of reality over the phone. “Get off your duff and get over here. We need some expert help on something.Bring that bike-building hubby too. There’s serious stuff going on.”We hustled over to Hut #116. Layla met us at the door and led us to theporch where Bandit was sitting in a chair surrounded by wood shavings,holding an amazingly well carved outrigger canoe model.
” The natives said we were fools to try it, they said no one has ever built one!!” I didn’t bother to tell him that most folks were too busy napping or eating or drinking Mai Tais, to do anything industrious. ” We had to do it just to prove them wrong!!!!” He thundered.
The challenge, build a boat using only found materials and tools that we had packed in our bags which consisted of a knife, needles, thread, pen, fingernail polish, scissors, and several bottles of white wine.Layla had found 4 pieces of wood and a bit of cloth. She used her sewing kit to fashion lines to hold the mast and boom in place. We then used needles to rig it together.
She had even found a Roger Rabbit figure in the parking lot of the store. Roger would captain the boat.
Now it needed a gel coat to keep it sea worthy. I was sent home to Hut #109 to paint a purple gel coat followed by a set of flames that ran the 16″ length of the boat. Big Charlie the main man at Sofitel’s Ia Ora Resort let us borrow his son’s fishing pole as a safety line.
Bandit launched the boat and off it went. It was doing great, then disaster struck. The wind had caught the sail and the mast had not held up the wet sail. We pulled it back in and worked on the problem over a bottle of white wine. The mast was reattached and corks from the wine bottles were attached to the outrigger to aid in buoyancy. Layla snidely reminded Bandit that she had recommended the corks be used before. He did not seem amused.Bandit now launched the boat and it looked to be very successful.
Out over the water it went into the sunset as we watched through binoculars. Then suddenly, it disappeared! The current downstream of the huts is very strong, so strong you can just about swim in place. Bandit and I jumped into the water and swam off to save Roger. We were both frantically searching when Layla hollered that she had pulled the boat to safety with the fishing line.Some floating seaweed had caught it and dragged it down.Now Bandit and I had to make the swim back to the huts. As darkness closed in, I finally climbed out of the water to a waiting bottle of chilled champagne. The first episode of Monster Marina had drawn to a close. We were happy, life was good, and Bandit was even willing to buy Layla a Margarita.
Join us for our next installment of Monster Marina. Anyone can participate!Just come along on our next Tahiti trip in Nov.Unlike the big TV show, there were no fancy toolboxes full of tools given out, nor were fits thrown, the only reward was sitting on the porch of a grass hut watching the thunderstorms play out over the water and knowing that someplace there was a world full of noise, CNN, alarm clocks, traffic jams and road rage. And that was 4200 miles away from here. Not a hell of alot mattered to us other than watching the storms and polishing off anotherbottle of wine.
Thanks,
JoAnn
Crazy Horse Painting
