{"id":3176,"date":"2014-02-26T16:08:43","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T20:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tusentakk2.com\/wordpress\/?p=3176"},"modified":"2014-02-26T16:08:43","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T20:08:43","slug":"retrospective-tribute-hunter-devi-2007-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tusentakk2.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/retrospective-tribute-hunter-devi-2007-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Retrospective Tribute; Hunter & Devi — 2007-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have made many good friends while cruising the Caribbean.\u00a0\u00a0 Very good friends.\u00a0 Friends for life.\u00a0 Of those friends, with no couple have we spent so much time and had so many different experiences as with Devi & Hunter Sharp (Arctic Tern<\/em>).\u00a0 Alas, they will soon take their boat back to the States, where they will sell her and move into a house on land.\u00a0 On land!<\/p>\n

One of my earliest pictures of the couple was taken at a Parang concert in Trinidad.\u00a0 Devi impulsively decided to enter into a maraca contest that was held during a break in the performance, and was getting a quick lesson from the professionals.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t win the contest, but she endeared herself to all in attendance.\u00a0 A few months later the <\/span>Terns<\/em> and others were in Trinidad\u2019s carnival parade Jouvert (also known as \u201cdirty mas\u201d) with us, chipping down the streets in the middle of the night.\u00a0 Devi \u201cpanced\u201d me at one point and left smeared-paint hand marks on the buns of my undershorts.\u00a0 Ann Vanderhoof (<\/span>Receta<\/em>) later discovered hand marks on the breast areas of her blouse.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Terns <\/em>went to Venezuela with us in 2008.\u00a0 We went to Angel Falls together, and to Merida, where we all took a two-week Spanish immersion course, followed by five days of hiking in the Andes.\u00a0\u00a0 When the <\/span>Terns<\/em> and the <\/span>Takks<\/em> returned to Trinidad, we joined <\/span>Receta<\/em> and <\/span>Asseance<\/em> and went down the east coast of Venezuela to travel up the Macareo River in the Orinoco Delta.\u00a0 Surely our enjoyment of the fauna there was enhanced by Devi\u2019s expertise at bird identification.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have been on enumerable hikes with the <\/span>Terns<\/em> on almost every eastern Caribbean island.\u00a0 During extended stays in Grenada, Hunter and I explored almost daily local trails in the southwestern corner of the island, but along with others we have also done some really major hikes, including ascending Petit Piton in St. Lucia, Mt. Catherine in Grenada, Boiling Lake and Mt. Diablo in Dominica, the eastern shore of Barbuda, the ridges of St. Martin and various heights overlooking Falmouth Harbour in Antigua.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hunter has helped me with bunches of projects, including repairing the water maker, installing flopper-stopper poles, repairing a crack in our dinghy bottom and adjusting the valves in our generator. \u00a0He has patiently and tirelessly given Barb and I swimming lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barb and Devi have traded recipes and clothes and phone calls and emails and confidences and accounts of triumphs and disappointments and worries.\u00a0 Devi provided the long-johns that became the \u201csocks\u201d for the fenders that we use to protect the boat when the dinghy is half-raised at night.\u00a0 I provided the photographs used to illustrate Devi\u2019s series of articles on sea birds that were published in <\/span>All At Sea<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

We learned to play Bridge together on our month-long traverse through the Venezuelan outer islands on our way to Bonaire.\u00a0 We have played countless games of Spades and Hearts and Quiddler and Mexican Train.\u00a0 We have watched many a movie on the screen of <\/span>Tusen Takk II<\/em>.\u00a0 We have had some memorable feasts, including those with our Grenadian fisherman-friends Dwight and Stevie in Hog Island, Grenada.<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been a great run.\u00a0 We are going to miss them terribly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is just a small sample of the many photos that have been taken during our times together:<\/p>\n\n\t\t