Clothing Optional

Now that we have some friends here in the Caribbean, we have encountered a hazard.  One of the most serious kind.

While living on a boat, just the two of us alone, with neighbours at least 50 metres away, it is easy to let your guard down.  Privacy is assumed.  Perhaps we  have spent too long in the French islands, perhaps the countless French charter yachts with 6 guests all stark naked has reduced our sense of decency.  But we are not always...how to put it nicely...fully clothed.

In this heat, clothing is restrictive.  Everything clings, particularly after a dip in the salt water.  My sensibilities have been reduced to the point that I find it normal to polish the deck in my bikini, or hang my washing in just an oversized t-shirt.

The problem comes when Gary and I are spending siesta in the afternoon playing scrabble down below, out of the sun.  "Was that a knock?" I will ask Gary.  "No, it was nothing" he will tell me.  Then it will come again knock knock knock followed by a "Hello, Hello?" from our guests who are attempting to peer into the boat.  Gary and I jump to attention, scrambling to fit through the door into our cabin, to the safety of a closed door and clothing.  We pull on anything in sight as fast as possible, banging elbows and scraping knees.  We hurtle up the companion way to greet our guests who have just stopped by for an impromptu hello, our t-shirts usually inside out.  Sometimes we are too slow in changing and must endure the embarrassment of saying "we must have been out" when the guests later enquire about our whereabouts on said afternoon when our dinghy was still tied to the stern.

We are beginning to come up with action plans, placing covering garments within arms reach and deciding who will dash to the cabin first to prevent battles at the doorway.

My only remaining concern regards how we will manage with Gary's parents aboard when they visit in October.  But I note, Nigel, this passage does not in anyway contradict the "No Speedo" boat rule, and I swear that I was truthful when I said that Speedos have been banned in the Caribbean, it's just against the law.