GULLIVERS TRAVELS

A compass to guide you...the stars in the sky...the great bear pointing north and the cool sea breeze!!!

Gullivers travels by Jonathan Swift!!!

People remember Capt Jack Sparrow but whatever happened to the original??
We were brought up on Robinson Crusoe...and his ship wreck...The Kon Tiki voyage...the crossing of the pacific on a raft...and these tales i guess have lasted in our memories gradually fading as we are ourselves...being replaced by the newer versions...Pirates of the Carribean,not that i havent watched the series with the same fervour!!!!

I remember one of my travels to this little volcanic island in the Carribean...a part of the Netherland Antilles!!!
ST EUSTATIUS!!!

An island with a population of 800 ppl when i visited it in 2002 and a sikh family running the only general store,living upto the tradition of being enterprising,it was a quiet paradise!!!!

I still remember we had sailed from the English channel during the winter season when the atlantic is at its roughest best but our ship being one of the largest to cross the atlantic and still so small in front of natures fury and after 9 days of sailing the INAGO arrived at its destination in the evening....and what a sight awaited us..frozen in my memory forever!!!
From a distance we could see the sillhouette of the volcano and the sun setting behind it,a reddish sky and the clear blue sea where you could see 300 feet down,the winds blowing at 40 knotts and the waves rolling the ship like a large cradle with its little babies onboard!!!
As we let go anchor the first thought in my mind was to swim ashore to this little quiet paradise island and follow suit the sikh mans example...open a grocery store...competition amongst brothers was not a fair idea!!!
the only thing the whole bay was full of was sailing boats and tiny speed boats as the seaway was the only highway to this paradise.
We finally manoeuvered and after anchoring I rushed to the mate to get his permission to go ashore...n granted it was!!!!
we lowered our little dinghy and the lucky seven along with the capt and the mates wife ventured ashore!!!!!
N what an experience....
Our first stop,call it patriotism,was the general store...where we picked up our cases of beer and having downed them we decided to roam the streets of Statia!!!
Our first stop was the fort on the sea front with its canons still intact pointing out to sea as if warning Jack Sparrow and its team to be careful.
On speaking withy the locals we got to know that this little paradise used to be a haven for the pirates of yore and the population were descendants of the lot that used to come here to hide frm the patrol ships....my mind immediately wandered of to THE BLACK PEARL and its crew stopping here and dividing its wealth...the women n dancing and then a thought struck me and left me dumbfound...was Senor Gags Pauls ancestors a aprt of the notorious pirates???
A SIKH PIRATE OF THE CARRIBEAN???
Made me rather proud!!!!
Dilly Dallying and with a stomach full of beer and some of the most amazing sea food we decided to divide.
The less adventurous lot thought it a good time to head back to the safety of the INAGO whilst three of us daring youngsters decided to check out the night life of this pirates haven!!!!
what happened next is beyond belief and i guess you would just have to read further in my next blog to find out...
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE...but then in my case i guess i have never been brave!!!!!