Sailing by Sandra Swanberg

Sailing

…

Takes me awayTo where I've always heard it could be Just a dream and the wind to carry me And soon I will be free

-Christopher Cross

Dear friends,

Several years ago I took a Caribbean cruise where the shore excursion

—

okay

it wasn’t ashore per say,

was so incredible I just had to share it with you. I was traveling with my good friend Lore and myparents. One of our stops was the island of St. Lucia. Both Lore and I had been there before so wepondered a bit as to what excursion to take. We decided something with a boat was in order and sawan excursion that included sailing on a pirate ship and snorkeling. How could we turn this down?The brochure listed the cruise as a

‘

Pirate Sail

’

and

I thought for sure we’d be on this junky

look-a-likepirate ship with the crew in less than impressing Halloween costumes. But the half day trip includedsun, fun, free booze, and sailing. Just as our cruise ship weighed anchor in St. Lucia we turned in ourrequest thinking we might be too late to sign up but giving it a shot. No problem from the excursionoffice and we each had a ticket. Since our ship was too big to dock at the pier we weighed anchor offshore and took a tender to the pier. Once we set foot on dry land we waited for our ship to come in(grin). As we did we passed the time by getting to know the other people on the excursion. Somewere from Canada and New York, escaping the cold winter snow storms that were pummeling thenorth east. A few were from parts of the South, and oddly enough many were from Texas. Go figure.As we were chatting and passing the time something caught my attention. Out of the corner of myeye I saw it. There on the horizon was a vessel sailing towards us. Our glorious day of fun hadarrived and she was no junky pirate ship but something straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean

…

Sailing by Sandra Swanberg

I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to capture this photo.This is the Brig Unicorn used in Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl. I could just about here themusic from the movie as she sailed towards us. And Jack Sparrow was perhaps standing proud on top the mainmast.