I have spoken about a lot of people but some important characters have yet to appear. The first is Jeff and his wife Debbie.
This picture is taken in Lighthouse bar, which is over on the other side of the river from Lagos in the Marina. There are about 10 bars there. I check all of them out at the start of the trip but usually settle into Lighthouse as they consistently have entertaining young female employees. It is a rare night when I don’t come to lighthouse about 9pm for a couple beers.
But I diverge. My first trip to Lighthouse I met 2 young Brazilians, Isabela and Patrica. More on them later. A night later a coed group of sailors were sitting just a table away from the bar where I sit and I was able to catch the gist of the conversation. One man was asking the others, one at a time. about their background and motivation for sailing. It seemed a strange group and dynamic but I was able to talk to a couple of them who were smoking outside as I left to return to Baffi. Seems the man leading the interrogation was the instructor and the group of maybe 10! were part of a course to get a master’s license. He seems to say it was a 3 month course! The license would allow them to serve as captain for large yachts moving around the world.
But I diverge. The next night, Saturday, I got talking to the man next to me, Jeff. He had a 50ft catamaran in the marina. He had just returned from trying to cross the Atlantic back to Delaware. On board were a captain, a crew, himself and a friend. About 100 miles out, one of the hulls buckled. There was no water incursion but the decision was made to turn around and get it fixed. Now Jeff was stuck on the boat, meeting with insurance people and scheduling a slot in the ship repair lot at Portimao. All the slips were booked for months, people getting their yachts ready for the summer season. Jeff was living on the boat and coming to Lighthouse most nights.
Jeff and I talked a couple nights. He said that I was the only other person he had seen who brought a book to the bar which is something he had been known to do. He lives in Canada. He has another boat, a large motor boat and last year he and Debbie took it across the great lakes and down the Mississippi to New Orleans and then around Florida and up the East coast. Good enough story and accomplishment so far but then the coup de grâce. Instead of coming around and down the St Lawrence as I had heard of others doing, he and Debbie did the Erie canal!! All the way from Albany to lake Erie.
There was talk that wife Debbie would come to Lagos. She had swarn off Atlantic crossings, no internet she said, so she was not on board for the buckling. The idea was to berth the boat in Delaware for at least a year. Turns out the boat had actually just been bought from the person who owned Lighthouse before the present owner, Peter. Jeff had some good stories. His favorite was from New Orleans. Seems he wondered a little way from Bourbon Street and was met by a Very Tall black man who suggested he return to the tourist area. He also talked about being in Portimao with some friends and a local took them out to a dancing bar. After midnight, groups of Brazilian women just kept coming in. Jeff had to go home, being an old man like me, but his friends reported that the women just kept coming until at least 4am. Sounds like a fish tale to me.
I have to throw in some visual to break up this monolog. This is the working side of the Marina next to Lighthouse,
And Jeff’s Cat at the guest dock.
Jeff and Debbie were nice enough to do the “talk to the men and see the woman” at Boco do Rio. They went on Saturday so the men were not there but they came to Baffi that night and reported. I don’t have a picture of Mark. He had been hanging out at Baffi for a couple nights. 50ish. Beautiful perfectly combed hair. Looking for an inexpensive place to retire, I have forgotten from what.. I think he was also looking in Southest Asia also. Mark struck me as someone who was a little too self absorbed, but aren’t we all? Maybe just not as good at covering it up? Anyway, he was a great wing man. I have no complaints. Several situations where we worked a group together and he entertained Debbbie at Baffi. Dibbie roller her eyes as Jeff retold one of his favorite stories and then , when he and I were talking, I told him that someone had told me about the Portomao Brazillian bar where the woman kept coming until 4am and he was slow to figure out that it was him! Maybe a little too much to drink on my part.
Dibbie runs an air conditioning business back in Canada. While she is not part of the original equipment in US Navy ships, she claims to be in 90% of them. Jeff had a great gig putting small air units in the biggest earth movers. These goliathons are billed out and valued by the hour, but if they are turned off, the meter is not running. So, Jeff puts an air unit in the cab so the driver can turn off the machine and still sit in comfort. Saves big bucks.
Ok, time to reintroduce Isabela.
And what is Isabela’s claim to fame? She waits tables at Lighthouse. I think Patrica (sorry, no picture) was down last summer and convinced Isabela to join her. First night in Lighthouse I am reading Heart of Darkness and Isabela says she has it in English and wants to read it to improve her English. She and Patrica are Brazilian. Her other claim to fame is that she was married for 4 years and one day the husband just sat down with her, took off his ring and said goodbye. Isabela had not been to Baffi and said she would show up Thursday night? I told Ester, who rooms with Patrica, that Isabela was coming and Ester all but said “in your dreams”. Isabela did show up but in terrible shape. Restaurant Staff Drama! She was sure she had lost her job with Peter at Lighthouse. Seems she had been dating a man who worked in the kitchen. Would not date the cook, so he fired Isabela’s interest and Isabela told him she was going to turn him into the food police for unsanitary practices and the chef told Peter and Isabela disappeared from the shift list. She was in the process of frantically trying to get Peter to pick up his phone. Baffi was packed so it took extra effort on the part of Ester and Val to get food for Isabela. She actually was pretty good in that she knew that she had to give up fighting and “become an angel”. Next day she was back waiting tables but I am afraid she was not completely back in Peter’s graces. And last but not least, if you look closely at the picture, you might notice that she asked for a tourists hat and got it.