Chris & Tyler came to visit

Be Jealous. That's right, the vacation you've all been thinking about taking, you know, the one where you check your bank statement and amazingly realize there's enough to purchase plane tickets that take you two thousand miles away and 50 years into the past, the one where you can discover the awesomeness that is Dominica. That one. Two more of our friends have braved the horror of flying in a prop plane to a third world country and island hopped down to our little slice of paradise. This is their story (and remember to picture yourself in these photos as motivation to start planning your trip).

Meet Chris, Justin's friend from high school, sophomore year roommate, and master of nuclear engineering.

And Tyler, Justin's friend from A&M, next door neighbor for two years, and studier of law.

Let the fun begin!

Our first adventure took us to nearby coconut beach where we trusted Justin with our lives (hey, pretty soon hundreds of people will be able to say this!) and embarked on a sailing adventure. The weather was clear with a nice breeze, perfect for sailing!

As Justin was the only one of us to have sailed before, he manned the rudder and we zipped off to secret beach. The white sand of secret beach is such a refreshing change from the normal hot black sand that is typical of Dominica.

I managed to get a great shot of secret beach from the sailboat as we approached. When I've been before we paddled over in kayaks, and stayed close to shore. One cool thing about secret beach (besides the cool cave) is that it is only accessible by water. You can see the thin little strip of white sand in the photo.

After a relaxing afternoon of splashing around in the water, we headed back.

Tyler, Justin, and Chris on the sailboat!

The ride home was eventful to say the least. On our way out, Shorty, the guy who rents the sailboat, reminded us that to get back to coconut beach, we needed to sail north and cut back at an angle. Ok, no problem we told him. So we caught the breeze in the sail and headed north ish, but also a little east. We didn't go far before the wind changed (at least we're going to go ahead and blame it on the wind) and we were at a standstill. Justin tried several things with the sail and the rudder and finally Chris manned up and jumped in.

He only lasted five minutes.

Things were getting pretty tense.

Two fishermen in a small motorboat approached us and tried to offer advice on how to pull the sail a certain way but we had no idea what they were saying or how to do it so we thanked them and the sped off. At this point I wasn't really all that worried. The beach was still in view and I figured we still had several hours before the sun set, and surely Shorty would want his money enough to come get us if it came down to it. Surely.

But after what seemed like an eternity, a small gust of wave came and carried us about 10 yards. Progress! Hey, at least I still had a positive attitude. Too bad it didn't get us anywhere.

In the end, the two fishermen took pity on us (at least they weren't laughing in our faces) and came back to rescue us. They pulled out the thinnest piece of string I've ever seen and tied it to the mast.

Can you see that tiny yellow line? I'm pretty sure it was fishing line. And I'm pretty sure it saved the day. And our lives.
We made it back to shore, slightly west of coconut beach and Shorty came out to meet us (and make us feel bad for not being good sailors). Then he hopped on the sailboat and expertly maneuvered the craft out and around right back to where we started. I told Shorty he should give Justin lessons. Shorty laughed.

All is well that ends well, right?