Dinner on Jargo

Friday January 10, 2014

I have to admit it, we (or at least me) kind of have a crush on the crew of Jargo. We haven’t met any new faces in a long time, probably since we got to Guatemala in June, and the fact that these two are young and fun, and the fact that we all clicked right away, well I’m kind of in a swooning phase. Not only was I excited to see them again, but I also wanted to show them off to all my other friends. Which while we sit here in Isla Mujeres, is Luki and Elmari. Or maybe I was just excited to show off Luki and Elmari to Lee and Amanda? They’re all such awesome people, I guess it kind of goes both ways.

We have gotten a little bit of disappointing news in the past few days that both of these boats will quickly on their way out of Isla, with Jargo heading south to Belize and then Guatemala, and Skebenga moving over to Cuba before landing in Florida to get the process started on selling their boat. We were quickly about to lose both crews and end up all alone. Although we still had standing dinner plans with Lee and Amanda, we did want to get both groups together at least once and planned a little cocktail party on Serendipity in the late afternoon. Can you believe that in all the time we’ve known Luki and Elmari, the only time they’ve ever set foot on our boat was the first day we met back in Jamaica, and they never made it further than the cockpit? I mean, it’s easy to see why we always hung out on Skebenga, their boat is gorgeous, but we couldn’t let them leave for good without getting one tour of the ‘Dip.

Matt and I spent the day tackling some of the cleaning projects that usually get pushed aside past the every day maintenance, such as Cloroxing the ceiling and making it shine, and then made a run out to the grocery store to stock up on supplies, also dropping off a six pack of beer to Alex and thanking him for the drinks he got us our other night out. Back on Serendipity, we had just enough time to pull in all the cushions that had been airing out outside (yeah, we’re going to have to get those steam cleaned in Florida, our previous cleaning job was a total fail), and for me to finish my bruschetta before our guests arrived, surprisingly within about sixty seconds of each other.

While giving the tour, Elmari was very impressed for the layout and the use of space in this 34 ft layout. I love hearing the phrase “It looks so much bigger down here than you’d imagine” and “This is plenty of space for two people to live in”. It just helps me confirm to Matt that we do not need an extra ten feet unless we’re planning on starting a family while cruising, and neither a bigger boat or a kid is in the budget right now. Just after the tour, the sexes split up with the guys hanging out in the cockpit, and us girls enjoying the comforts of the salon. It was fun to have Amanda and Elmari talk about places they’ve both cruised, Elmari having lived in and obviously cruised South Africa, and Amanda having joined Lee on a leg of his circumnavigation down there. All of us were shocked when the clock was already striking eight, finally breaking up the group so we could all start our dinners.

Luki and Elmari headed back to Skebenga while Matt and I trailed behind Lee and Amanda to have dinner on Jargo. We settled into this beamy boat, and while Amanda started on our pasta dish for the night, we listed to more stories about how the two of them met on the French island of Reunion where Amanda was working as a teacher and Lee was passing through on Jargo. We also gave them pointers on where to stay in the Rio Dulce, basically forcing them to agree to a slip at Tortugal where Jargo will be holed up for nine months while they go back to the States to top off the cruising kitty. Lee told us about how this is now his third time in Isla Mujeres, and how this place can really suck one in, keeping you here for weeks when you only planned on staying a few days. Tell us about it, our stop was originally supposed to be about 7-10 days and now we’ve already been here two and a half weeks.

We enjoyed a great dinner of wheat pasta and meat sauce, and now Matt is obsessed with trying to find wheat pasta in one of the markets around here. I had brought over some after dinner entertainment, a DVD to watch, since I had not been able to shut up about a show called Three Sheets when we were having our bar crawl the other night, telling them about this comedian that visited countries all over the world and partook in their local drinking traditions. We positioned ourselves along one of the settes while the movie played on Lee’s laptop on the table, and I have to say, it wasn’t as good as I remember it being the last time I watched it a few years ago. A little bit of a letdown there. Luckily, I had also packed the first season of Modern Family, since that show had come up in discussion also, with neither Lee or Amanda having ever seen it before. Thank you to Modern Family for saving the day. I think we may have just hooked another couple on it, and I’m pretty sure Matt and I are ready to go back and watch it from the beginning again.

Tomorrow will be a leisurely lunch with Lee and Amanda before they head out for Belize on Sunday.  It really sucks that we’re going to have to say goodbye to them so soon after meeting.  I would say that’s a good thing because I probably would have turned stalker on them, but they’d probably turn around and do that right back to us.  Which is exactly why I love these two.

Don’t worry Georgie, all these people aren’t moving aboard and taking up your precious space.