SWEE’PEA!
Here we were… sailing along in the Bay of Kastela, Croatia, about two miles out of the charter base during a fun flotilla week, when one of the crew members asked us to do a man overboard drill.
There are, of course, several ways to recover a person overboard and, as the waters were pretty calm and the wind around 10 knots, we decided on the figure eight method.
After I had explained the procedure and assigned the duties to be assumed by each crew member, a fender, which we named Bob, went overboard. We immediately started the drill and we quickly recovered Bob. Crew was happy, skipper was happy and everything was just textbook perfect.
We resumed our normal sailing until, a few minutes later, I saw something floating about 50 meters from the boat. A small doll bobbing face down. I yelled “Man overboard” and told the crew we were going to rescue the doll.
This time we made a perfect Quick Stop recovery and soon the doll was on board. Double whammy as it was a plastic doll. Plastic removal and doll recovery at the same time.
The doll was a little boy in blue pajama pants and with an orange shirt and it was pretty grimy from having spent a few days in the water. We cleaned him up, baptized him Swee’Pea after Popeye’s son and adopted him as our official Med Sailing Adventures mascot. He now accompanies us on all our flotillas and, although somewhere in Croatia a little girl cried for having lost her doll, Swee’Pea has become the consummate world traveler and sailor.
He is adored by our crew members, especially the women who dote over him, but raising this kid is quite a challenge as he has been known to experiment with underage drinking…
Nonetheless, Swee’Pea is just an adorable part of our flotilla crews. He accompanies on shore tours and we never have a lack of volunteers willing to carry him.
You too can share Swee’Pea’s adventures by joining one of our Med Sailing Adventure flotillas. Check us out a www.medsailingadventures.com or contact us at sailing@medsailingadventures.com.
Fair Winds,
Capt. Jean & “Admiral” Mila
