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Bad News
When I next returned to visit my
friends, Hillary and Neil, I made the comment that I had sold Dart, and
would be heading up to the US in a few weeks. They were excited about the
news, and asked who had bought her, as they had news for me too. When I
told them Tristan had bought her it became deadly quiet in the boat. Neil
looked at Hillary, and I knew instantly that something was very wrong.
After a few moments of confused
silence Hillary looked at me and told me that they had also sold their
boat to Tristan Jones. They had, like me, decided to make one more trip
down through the Grenadines before turning it over to Tristan. While they
were off doing their final cruise Tristan had discovered my boat, about
the same size, but vastly superior for his purposes. Dart was a
multi-keeled boat. She had three keels, a main ballasted center keel, and
two bilge keels. The combination of the three keels and the rudder support
allowed Dart to take to the bottom during low tide in an upright stable
position. It also reduced the draft of the boat to only a little over two
feet. For sailing in the West Indies, and especially to haul it to Lake
Titicaca in the Andes, Dart was a far superior hull design.
The question now was what was going
on with their boat sale as there was no doubt that Tristan was taking over
Dart. The local banker was holding money that Tristan had put down on
their boat, as well as money that he had put down on Dart. The immediate
question to be answered was if their money was still there.
Hillary and Neil went to the bank
and when they returned I instantly knew that all was not well. Tristan had
told the banker that Neil and Hillary had elected to cancel the agreement
and had sailed out of Bequia. The sailing part was, of course, true. They
were just going on their last cruise. They had also booked their air
passage out of St. Vincent back to England, and the tickets were not
refundable. They had made other arrangements in England as well. With
their boat missing from the bay the banker thought that Tristan was
telling the truth and returned his money which he then used to put down on
my boat.
I immediately decided that I would
cancel my deal with Tristan in order to force him to go back to the
original arrangement, but Hillary and Neil would have no part of it, and
insisted that I complete my deal. I felt horrible over the situation, and
all the joy I felt in having everything come to a smooth close was gone. I
was filled with anger towards Tristan.
The situation was now most
unpleasant since I now shared Banjo and Dart with Tristan. We would spend
the evenings together either on the 36 foot Banjo, or on little Dart. We
ate dinner on Banjo every night together since it had so much room to
relax in. Banjo was sort of a "fill in boat" that Tristan had
picked up after the sale of Barbara, while he planned the Titicaca trip. I
was never quite clear where he had acquired Banjo, but she was a superb
all wood ketch, and seemed huge to me after living on Sea Dart. Conditions
were going to be much different between us after this.
We discussed the various options
available to us, including legal action, but decided that any such action
would be very costly, and in the laid back island society would take
longer than the time available. Besides, Tristan would simply hoist anchor
on Banjo and sail away to regroup elsewhere. There was nothing more that
we could do other than harass the banker, and Hillary and Neil had already
vented their frustrations on him. He knew he had really made a blunder.
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Copyright © 2001
- 2003
by Donald R. Swartz
All rights reserved.
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