Foreword

In this, the second of the “Wanderings and Sojourns” series, the stories, songs and poems are about the Caribbean region, and the folk who sail upon the surrounding seas.  As with the first book there is no chronological sequence to these entries which reflect more the order in which they were remembered rather than the order in which they occurred.  Also similar to the first, no names have been used even though, and perhaps because, all of these stories and the people they contain are real, though some amalgamation and a little tweakage has occurred under the auspices of editorial and raconteurial license.

The more one understands it, the more one recognizes there is nothing, other perhaps than the glorious weather, that is “typical Caribbean”, and even then the weather still has many variants.  In the southernmost reaches hurricanes are extremely rare compared to the north; waterspouts occur more frequently around some islands and not at all around others; more mountainous territories attract significant rainfall during seasons where the same weather systems pass dry over the flatter ones.  So too do the cultures vary island by island with influences from many lands reflected in the many disparate language bases and customs.  The older worlds of Africa, Asia and Europe have all left their mark in creating the cultural kaleidoscope that is the West Indies, where even the patois is never the same from one island to the next. With historical influence from different parts of Africa, India, China, Great Britain, France, Holland, Spain, Denmark, Portugal and many not so well realized origins such as Lebanon, Sweden and Russia, all added to the extant and unique aboriginal populations.  Accordingly heritage has been blended and tradition and culture have been enriched by the melding of each into the other.

Regional musical variances delight the discerning traveller in the same way as the foods, from reggae and roti to soca and soursop, calypso and conch to merengue and mango.  The Caribbean is as diverse as it is inimitable providing so many different destinations rife with opportunities for adventure and enjoyment unrivalled anywhere else with the same surface area on the planet.  And everywhere there is the potential to engage in that most worthy of pastimes: sailing.  Whether as a serious means of getting about, a high paced, highly skilled sport, a tranquil form of relaxation or just as a medium by which to commune with nature, sailing is as ubiquitous throughout the islands as the coconut palm and only serves to add yet another level of eminence to an already prestigious and spectacular region.

This book though is not a travelogue, for there are enough of those around already.  It is rather the reflections of one with the great good fortune to have lived and sailed there a good part of his life, and who would rather be living there still than any of the many other places he has lived before or since.  It is a book of fond memories, wonderful people, nature at its finest, and lessons learned and philosophies earned from experiencing all of the above.  As stated, the stories all happened, though the poetry is, as poetry should be, sometimes fanciful.  But then to those that have had the opportunity to get to know intimately the many facets of the true Caribbean, that is also often how that wonderful region appears to be.